The Second Apocalypse
Earwa => General Earwa => Topic started by: mrganondorf on January 02, 2015, 05:14:11 pm
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The editor at Grimdark Magazine has asked me for some input on the questions that will be used in the interview with RSB in the April issue of the magazine. So what are some good questions? I guess you could just ask him on his blog, but maybe he will be more inclined to answer in the interview. idk i have never done this before is it logic or nursing or something i can fry and eat with cheese?
is this a good question (or at least one RSB would be willing to flap his gums at)?:
"What is the relationship between your Blind Brain Theory and your fantasy fiction?"
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Can you post this in the Bakker thread over at ******** as well?
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Done, Nskoghar :).
Also, MG, congratulations on your rising notoriety - I see you got an honourable mention in Grimdark 8)!
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But it is you, mrganondorf, who are the question.
For example, could Bakker compel you to cut your own throat as an emissary to demonstrate your fealty?
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@ Akkeagni - done!
@ Madness - w00t w00t! Squeezing blood from the stone! :)
@ Triskele - there are some things i'd do for a Klondike bar...
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I'm asking nothing...
Like Kellhus marching the Herotic Way to Shimeh, I shall wait and re-organise on the plains and let the consult come to me.
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What is the ninth book of The Sagas?! We only know eight of them. *waves hands frantically*
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What is the dietary of the dunyain?
are the Dunyain cannibals?
Was the unflickering intense illumination in the unmasking room generated from candles as kellhus assumes and from mundane candles as the reader assumes?
At the end of kellhus' training flashback he hears twigs and concludes cause is everywhere but it is diffuse and useless, is kellhus incorrect and/or deceiving himself?
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For MG, not Bakker:
Are these supposed to be questions related to the books, lore/etc., or about other things?
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For MG, not Bakker:
Are these supposed to be questions related to the books, lore/etc., or about other things?
anything! i was hoping to give the editor a list and then i imagine some questions are picked and others are not
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Why not ask if he would be willing to do a book signing and Q&A event of his loyal fans foot his bill..?
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Why not ask if he would be willing to do a book signing and Q&A event of his loyal fans foot his bill..?
"Have you picked a venue and date for Zaudunyanicon?"
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Does a skin spy short circuit the circuit of watcher and watched?
Do Cishaurim use utterals and inutterals?
What is the connection between why an Uroborian circle effectively imprisons sorcerers and the Cishaurim use of snakes?
Who's idea was it to give Esmenet her name, her mother, her father, another, and what was the reasoning?
Is there a character in antiquity named Mimara? If so, who was she?
Does Kellhus ever make an error and then in contemplating the error he refuses to acknowledge he erred, thus making an error into a new, self-flattering narrative in which the original error is now further evidence of his correctness?
Other than the presence or absence of hair follicles, how much do Kellhus and Moenghus look alike?
Why do the Dunyain shave their heads?
Why do the Dunyain maintain the surname Anasurimbor?
If they had not encountered Serwe, would Cnaiur and Kellhus have proceeded further east into the Hethantas, or would their confrontation and battle have occurred that day, as both had anticipated earlier?
Is "the mark" just a shorter way of saying "the mark of the blood of the onta"?
What was the name of the place where Kellhus and Mekeritrig fought?
Where is Siol?
In the following quote is sorcery happening? If so, what sorcery is happening? Is Kellhus incapable of recognizing sorcery at this time?
The walls shivered beneath a fierce succession of gusts, and the flame twirled with abrupt incandescence. The hanging pelts lightly rocked to and fro. Leweth looked about, his brow furrowed, as though he strained to hear someone.
Why did Kellhus encounter no Sranc while traveling from Ishual to Leweth?
In his dunyain training, Kellhus conceives of himself as extinguished, becoming place, in the end of Thousandfold Thought, Kellhus' final on screen POV describes his cant of transposition as "what was soul became place," what is the connection between the nonsorcerous dunyain training and the sorcerous cant of transposition?
Kellhus also has a thought, "the tree, the heart," during his childhood Dunyain training, does this thought refer to the Circumfix and does this thought violate the principle of before and after?
In the Thousandfold Thought, you write, "And as always, [the Mandate] find nothing." Does that make Achamian a Prince of Nothing?
In the Thousandfold Thought, you write, "Standing before the exultant masses, he grasps the Thousandfold Thought." Does that make Serwe's heart--literally what Kellhus is grasping while standing before the exultant masses--the Thousandfold Thought?
In the Thousandfold Thought, you write, "“I will strip you to your footings,” the Nonman grated. “Though I love, I will upend your soul’s foundation! I will release you from the delusions of this word ‘Man,’ and draw forth the beast—the soulless beast!—that is the howling Truth of all things … You will tell me!”" Mekeritrig here sounds very like a Dunyain, is there a connection between Mekeritrig's threat to use of the sorcerous Cants of Compulsion to discover the Heron Spear and the Dunyain's nonsorcerous means to overcome and master the same delusions and beast to discover the Logos?
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What are your plans for the future after TUC? (more atrocity tales, stand alone novels, next TSA series [trilogy?], stand-alone glossary, Disciple sequel, Neuropath sequel, etc.)
If you can't write full time, what would you be doing for work every day, and how many decades should fans plan to wait between books?
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How do you organize your world-building?
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"Am I going in circles, or dare I hope I am on a spiral?"
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Who were Celmomas' mother and father?
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Who is your daddy and what does he do?
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Who is your daddy and what does he do?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XyfYc0bfB4
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It's naht ah tumor!
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Did achamian and inrau have a sexual relationship?
Did achamian and proyas have a sexual relationship?
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Did achamian and inrau have a sexual relationship?
Did achamian and proyas have a sexual relationship?
I'd actually like some more clarity on this as well.
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I think this may have been inspired my post on one of the Westerosi threads about Akka and Proyas having an inappropriate relationship - sexual or not.
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Its not an uncommon interpretation. A friend of mine asked me this question, and she never was on any forum. My answer, was no, but I can see where you might get that from i guess.
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How does the Swayali sisterhood compare, in terms of size, to the other schools?
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It'd be neat to have the numerical capacity of all the schools in the Great Ordeal stated.
I think Walter, during the First Battle of the Horde, Serwa sends out 200 witches to be on the frontlines with the men of the Middle-North and then keeps 50 of her elite witches in reserve. So the Swayal Sisterhood is ~250 people, which is a massive amount of Gnostic firepower. If during the First Holy War the Scarlet Spires had only 120 sorcerers of rank at their disposal, the Swayal are then much more powerful than any anagogic or even the Mandate school.
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On schools and their numbers:
http://www.second-apocalypse.com/index.php?topic=791.0
This might not be the only topic here that has these numbers and quotes, but its the only one I remember.
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I don't think Achamian touched either Inrau or Proyas (esp. not the later, the King's son is not some random boy you can buttfuck and then forget about). Our perception that this was being insinuated was a residue from the rather shocking bluntness with which the Bardic Priest's rape of Ganrelka (?) was treated in the prologue and was no doubt aided by the rough similarity between the BP and Akka (in that neither is a physical combatant and both make their way in the world through lore of one or another sort).
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No, it's because the appendix said he had a male lover, his disproportionate reaction to inraus death, the disproportionate reaction of house nersei of breaking a centuries long contract with the mandate because of the "official" explanation of a teacher uttering a minor blasphemy (especially when the teachers very existence is 1000 times more blasphemous), and because akkas rivals directly accuse him of it. And given the immensity of their accusation it is fascinating it is the only slight akka suffers in five books that he does not ruminate and brood on for multiple paragraphs, his only thought is basically shock that they knew the best way to wound him.
It is all suspicious at the least.
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No, it's because the appendix said he had a male lover,
The appendix was published two books after Inrau and Proyas first come to our attention and was referring to his room mate (Sancla) when Akka was in school. No one who thinks Akka diddled boys formed that suspicion only after finishing TTT.
his disproportionate reaction to inraus death,
You're projecting into the event. Akka loves Inrau because he sees in Inrau the innocence and cleanliness of heart that he knows he has lost:
Inrau . . . For Achamian, to think this name was to know peace for a fleeting instant. He had known so little peace in his life. And now he was forced to throw that peace onto the scales with terror. He must sacrifice Inrau in order to answer these questions.
Inrau had been a coltish adolescent when he’d first come to Achamian, a boy still blinking in the daybreak of manhood. Though there had been nothing extraordinary about his appearance or his intellect, Achamian had immediately recognized something different about him—a memory, perhaps, of the first student he’d loved, Nersei Proyas. But where Proyas had grown proud, overfed on the knowledge that he would someday be King, Inrau had remained . . . Inrau.
Teachers found many self-serving reasons to love their students. More than anything, they loved them simply because they listened. But Achamian had not loved Inrau as a student. Inrau, he’d realized, was good. Not good in the jaded way of the Mandate, who trafficked in the mire as did all other men. No. The good he saw in Inrau had nothing to do with kind acts or praiseworthy purposes; it was something innate. Inrau harboured no secrets, no shadowy need to conceal faults or to write himself large in the estimation of other men. He was open in the way of children and fools, and he possessed the same blessed naïveté, an innocence that smacked of wisdom rather than ignorance.
Innocence. If there was anything Achamian had forgotten, it was innocence.
Remember how much self-loathing he has while he is in Sumna and hears the pilgrims going on about how sorcerors are a cancer? He is more than a bit tempted to agree.
If that's not enough to convince you that this wasn't about Akka having mad lust for boy anus, consider that the self-characterization implied in the above reminiscences, i.e. that Akka is a teacher and sees himself as such above all else, is also exactly how Kellhus reads Akka's character and manipulates him into giving up the Gnosis. There is no trace of Kellhus seeing anything erotic in Akka's relations with himself, Proyas, or anyone but Esmi.
the disproportionate reaction of house nersei of breaking a centuries long contract with the mandate because of the "official" explanation of a teacher uttering a minor blasphemy (especially when the teachers very existence is 1000 times more blasphemous),
That could be a pretext for anything, and is itself disproportionate with the alleged crime. To reiterate, you don't buttfuck the king's son and then just walk away, especially when the King and all of his nobles, including the older brother of the boy you touched (Proyas is the king's second son, and only became heir apparent on his older brother Tirrumas' death in 4100) all have Chorae. We saw clearly that sorcerors could be trapped and tortured Akka when he went to the Sareotic Library, there is no reason to believe he would be any less easy to bring to heel when every caste-noble in Conriya with a Chorae is after him for rape.
It is worth noting that Akka's successor (Charamemas) was a Shrial priest and famed scriptural commentator; that fits neatly with the official stated reason for Akka's dismissal: unorthodoxy.
and because akkas rivals directly accuse him of it.
The most trustworthy of voices? There is no reason to believe that their accusations were chosen for truth, as opposed to usefulness to the accuser. This can be seen even in the real world: want to ruin a teacher, accuse him of pedophilia. Often merely sowing doubt is enough. A man's enemies are not a reliable source for information about his character.
And given the immensity of their accusation it is fascinating it is the only slight akka suffers in five books that he does not ruminate and brood on for multiple paragraphs, his only thought is basically shock that they knew the best way to wound him.
He's shocked that they know what he loves most: teaching. Akka's enemies took the accusation of pederasty as a potent way of slurring his character; Akka took it to heart because his character as a teacher means something deep to him, and he is surprised that they knew this (if they did, to me it looks like they just used whatever slur seemed most dangerous given his situation and accidentally hit a nerve in terms of his real personality).
It is all suspicious at the least.
It is suspicious, and Bakker may intend for us to think it that way, even if he just wants to play a game and Akka isn't really a boy-toucher. But there is nothing approaching a slam-dunk in the text that would prove this. I think Bakker is teasing us.