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On January 20 2021 07:39 Artisreal wrote:
im watching the man in the high castle these days and it triggers me a lot.
all the nazi symbolism, arm raising and fanatic shouting
N E R V E W R A C K I N G
I've read the book like 2 months ago and started watching the show and... the book had its issues but the show is all over the place? The plot is basically nonsense in both, but the book has a significantly world, despite the fact they are mostly the same lol
Also the symbolism bothers you and not people getting gassed as blackmail and getting refused burial afterwards? Get your head on straight m80
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I mean, you wanna talk about it or no?
I have like 300 highlights in the book (more than one per page), all with comments. My viewing of the show stalled in season two coz they jump the shark pretty hardcore.
Philip K. Dick apparently wanted to write a sequel, but couldn't because being in the headspace of nazis was too difficult for him, which to me shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what drove the people of the time to do what they did. Thinking they were somehow vastly different to you or me is the first step to repeating their mistakes.
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The symbolism evokes memories of video Material I've seen from the 20s onward and to me is emotionally more disturbing than seeing e.g. a flashback / memory / dream by Frank dining with his family while gas is pouring out the chandelier, or the Japanese fascists murdering people by machine gun - that can be heard time and again in the background of the whole scene.
These are disturbing but affect me less than a whole room shouting Sieg Heil for what feels like minutes.
This blind fanaticism scares the shit out of me.
What kind of annotations did you make throughout the book?
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My perspective on the symbolism and gestures is more of interest than revulsion. They are not inherently bad. Don't feel like thinking about this any more atm though.
I basically do a running commentary on the books I read nowadays. This is partially because I read a lot for the book club and that helps with the discussion but also because I have extremely strong opinions on writing and only through writing my thoughts down can I maintain relative peace of mind if I dislike something. Things I write down include:
-Complaining about using brackets in prose (my number one pet peeve. I am yet to encounter a use of them that could not have been done more gracefully by rewriting the sentence, and in many cases removing the brackets is already an improvement. It's just lazy writing.)
-Speculating about incoming plot points. It's fun to keep track of what I think is coming on the first read.
-Doing psychoanalysis on the author. I nailed the age of the author of Lies of Locke Lamora within a couple of years - his prose seemed really immature.
-Getting mad about word choices. JK Rowling keeps using the word "coolly" in the HP books ("Voldemort said coolly"), which sounds like a derivative of cooing rather than softer version of coldly. I just highlight that and write something sarcastic in the comment
-Fixing pacing. You basically highlight a large section of text and say "just cut this shit out"
-I get extremely baffled by how often writers put things into their books in the wrong order. Basically, they deviate from chronological order and it doesn't work. Like you suddenly realise they have a dry as fuck discussion laying out why someone did what they did, and then have 3 chapters showing their backstory to show that, but doing the discussion after would allow them to write it much more interesting.
-Pointing out Tell then show. Show don't tell is a cornerstone of writing, but really, Showing, telling and showing then telling are all valid. Telling then showing is basically writing a spoiler into your book and is just a bad idea.
-Calling characters rude names while questioning their reactions/choices. Whenever someone acts unconvincingly or doesnt do the obvious thing because plot needs them to, I call it out, and I don't hold back.
-Calling characters assholes. A separate point reserved for when an apparently well liked character acts unpleasantly without justification.
-I get upset a lot at word choices. My flagship example is using serendipitous in a world where Serendip doesn't exist. Yes, I hate fun.
-just reaction stuff. I really is a commentary track sometimes.
-Trying to decipher the themes. They have to be intentional though.
-Rarely I note things I find good. It's a struggle.
As for the Man in High Castle specifically, a lot of the above applies. Unfortunately that book in particular torpedoes any attempt at analysis or critique because the author legitimately used random chance to determine the outcomes of the plot. Which is why in the book Frank Frink ends up arrested, beat up, randomly released and his plotline ends with him just quietly going back to work on his art. It just ends like that.
I do so many comments I got good at typing on the kindle, something I though unimaginable when I first bought it last summer. If a book exceeds 3 notes per page, it's usually a sign im not going to be able to finish it out of frustration.
Can you tell this is basically the only thing I really care about?
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Thank your for the post, that was quite the interesting read.
To answer your last (rethorical) question first: I don't mind. I like reading and hearing things I have little knowledge of - most of times :D
Some types annotations sound like a they are a fun thing to do and might enhance the experience with the book - speculating abou the plot and engaging with characters. Haha, I think I'm gonna try calling out shitty actions in a book and see how that feels.
Others on the other hand seem more like work to me, but to someone interested in the stylistics of writing and how narratives are designed I suppose its different. Which I imagine applies to you. Or psychoanalysis, wouldn't even know how :D
Milking my brain, I can't quite recall, whether I have noticed a character doing something for the sole reason of plot development in a book.
With tell, don't show, do you mean when the author describes the actions of a character and later on it is revealed through the plot as to why it was done? But in a chronological order.
Or along the narrator meme with a simple commentary of what is still going to happen in the plot?
I call myself a lousy writer and am pretty sure I'll never produce something decent - if only for lack of practice and study.
In the end, when reading a book, I try to have fun.
My wife reads Paulo Coelho El Alquimista to me - we don't have a German or Portuguese version and my Spanish might be enough to understand the equivalent of the SUN newspaper, but not a philosophical piece of fiction - and while I really appreciate some themes and thoughts it conveys, I also read a lot of sexism into it. Even though that might just be a part of the time it is set in, I found it took away part of my enjoyment at first. Until I decided not to be bothered by it and take from it everything that helps me cope better with the quotidian challenges.
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![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/IH4ioqC.png)
yay I guess
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Lalalaland34507 Posts
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Congratz! How long did it take you (this time?)?
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Thanks FB
Took like 2 weeks from Divine 4. First time getting this high as Offlane. Been this high as pos 5 and pos 2.
44-16 as dark seer lmao
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Meanwhile the air pollution in Poland is like:
![[image loading]](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/688356270394179600/801769750820683806/EsBzU_jW4AIpA26.png)
Can Germany finally conquer us and make us clean up our mess of a country please
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not as much as Poland, I'm sure
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I'M BACK BABY ✊🏻
I never thought that post would lead to a 2 week ban tbh lol
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Lol welcome back man
I was kinda surprised about that too lol
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you gotta be smart about the way you shitpost in USpol
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On January 22 2021 23:05 Erasme wrote:
you gotta be smart about the way you shitpost in USpol
I was a little surprised you weren't banned or warned for some of the stuff you said against Danglars on the day of the Capitol storming lmao. It got a bit belligerent at times.
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I wanna know what danglars was saying haha
Since the uprising iv been regularly checking far right/qanon forums like the .win boards just to try to understand what theyr thinking. It seems like since the inauguration there's been a schism between people who still believe in the qanon "plan" and an increasing number of people who have given up on the "plan" and are more interested in starting a new party under trump. Since all of these people agree that the elections going forward are going to be rigged and the courts/fbi/doj are tools of the democrats, a lot of them are very demoralized and a fair number of them are still talking about revolution.
Sorry for the long politics post. I really don't know what party leaders thought would happen after they told their supporters that all of the institutions of investigation and justice are rigged against them and the opposing party is hell-bent on destroying the country.
If someone really believes that stuff, why wouldn't they want a revolution?
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EPT
