In which this was good and I’m mad

On By Luther M. SilerIn Reading, ReviewsLeave a comment

I read the first He Who Fights With Monsters book back in May, and I didn’t like it very much. It was far from the worst thing I’d ever read– hell, it wasn’t even the worst thing I read in May— but the main character was more or less unbearable and the writing wasn’t very good. Travis Deverell had the affliction so annoyingly common to the recent burst of indie writers who have gotten their big series trad-pubbed: he had a terrible habit of using words that were close, but not quite, the word he wanted. Mark Twain would have had a field day. I three-starred it, my usual signal for “I finished this book, and that’s really all I have to say about it,” and then …

… ordered the sequel? Because I’m a fucking moron, apparently.

Well, I just finished the God damned thing, and it’s better than the first book to such an extent that I almost want to go back and read the hardcover of the first book– I’m wondering if there was another editing pass between the original epub versions (which is what I read, since it was free) and the new hardcover rereleases. The improvement in the writing is that stark. There’s still the occasional clunky sentence, but I got sent into editor mode within the first couple of pages of the first book and never got out of it, and it never happened in this one– and I also never got the “that’s not the word you wanted” feeling after it was nearly omnipresent in the first book.

(An example of the “that’s not the word you wanted” phenomenon would be if I had used “omniscient” in that last sentence, if you’re wondering what I’m talking about.)

Shit, Jason is even bearable in this one, showing … actual growth as a person, I think? I normally like snarky MCs, but there was something about this guy that just got under my skin, and if you read negative reviews of this series the most common criticism is that the person doing the review couldn’t stand Jason. He’s got a self-awareness about him in this book that simply wasn’t there in the first one, and while I can still see someone being annoyed by him it feels a little less reasonable.

There are thirteen of these fucking things, people. I’m two books away from the end of Wheel of Time and I have the Goddamn Realm of the Underlings to read next year. I want to reread Throne of Glass. I don’t need another maxi-series! No! Bad authors!

Fuuuuuuuuuck.

I found another Metroidvania

On By Luther M. SilerIn video gamesLeave a comment

I haven’t finished it yet, but unless it completely falls apart on me you can expect a positive review of Well Dweller in a few days. Today marks the midpoint of my fall break; I have done precisely two things: 1) read books, and 2) played this game. I did manage to finish the book I was talking about yesterday, and don’t really have much to say about it, but at least I got through it.

Played anything fun lately? I’m about to dive back into this one.

It’s okay when I do it

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy, ReadingLeave a comment

I’ve been reading a lot of Sarah J. Maas lately– ACOTAR 6 comes out in a few days, and in the last month or so I’ve reread the first four books; I’ll finish A Court of Silver Flames next week sometime, then go into the new book, then in between ACOTAR 6 and 7 I’ll reread the Crescent City books. The Throne of Glass series is actually my favorite of her work, but it’s not as tied into the rest of them, so rereading that will have to wait until next year.

I don’t argue with people about books very often– it just doesn’t come up, to be honest– but I especially don’t argue with people about SJM. She has a couple of little quirks about her writing that drive some people up a wall, and while I don’t share them, I get it, more or less. The biggest one is her insistence on using “male” and “female” to refer to her fae and angelic characters and never, ever “man” or “woman.” Men and women are human. It’s a hard line. I noticed a moment in ACOWAF a couple of days ago where a character actually uses the wrong word, and she immediately corrects herself.

The other one is her use of “mate.” The mating bond in ACOTAR isn’t entirely voluntary and tends to make its own decisions, for lack of a better word– simply making eye contact with the person who is supposed to be your mate can trigger it, and once it snaps into place, it can be ignored, at some cost, but it can’t be reversed. The fun bit, also explored in ACOWAF, is that sometimes the mating bond makes shitty decisions? The main male (sigh) character’s parents were mated and weren’t good for each other at all.

You’re gonna see the word “mate” a lot in ACOTAR. A lot a lot. And if it gets on your nerves, you’re not gonna have a good time with the series.

Anyway, I read ACOWAF and ACOFAS back to back, and I picked up another book off my Unread Shelf as a sort of palate cleanser before going into the next book. This book has lizard people in it. Lizard people are nearly deaf and psychic, so they communicate via telepathy. Only the book never uses the word “telepathy.” The word the author has chosen– or, at least, the translator, as the book was originally written in Korean and it’s not entirely clear how one translates neologisms from one language to another– is nearm. Nearm is both a verb and a noun; one nearms a nearm. I’m not sure how to pronounce it, as I’m reading the book and not listening to it; the one TikTok video I found discussing the book pronounced it “neerm,” and I can’t shake “knee-arm” out of my head even though “neerm” is probably closer.

Nearm is a dumb word. It might sound less dumb in Korean, maybe; I don’t know a damn thing about Korean. It sounds really dumb in American English. I’m pretty sure it sounds equally dumb in all the other Englishes as well. And any time one of the lizard-people shows up on the page you’re gonna see the word as many times as you might see “said” for any other character. God help you if there are more than one of them and they’re talking– sorry, nearming— at each other.

It’s got me ready to put the book down, and I was really looking forward to this book, and damn, Maas-haters, if I didn’t get it before, I get it now.

WHERE is my STICKER

On By Luther M. SilerIn PoliticsLeave a comment

I can’t post a picture of the sticker I didn’t get, so have a picture of a co-worker’s car and feel free to come up with an explanation. I have none, and I don’t know whose car it is, so I can’t ask.

I voted today, in case that wasn’t already clear, and judging from the size of the crowd at just past noon on a random Thursday a couple of weeks before the election, I feel like turnout even in Indiana is going to be decent. We are having a singularly boring election this year; the most high-profile race is for the Secretary of State, for God’s sake, where polling indicates that Democrat Beau Bayh may actually have a chance– the current Republican SoS pissed off his entire party something fierce in a manner I’m not clear on, and came in third in the primary, with less than ten percent of the vote. The election I’m most concerned about is for my State House representative; I know the guy I voted for, and his opponent is an odious piece of bigoted garbage who sponsored a bunch of anti-trans bills. I’d hit him with my car if I had a chance. Fuck that guy.

There were two proposed Constitutional amendments: Should We Be Able To Lock People Up Without Bail Whenever We Want (no) and Should We Be Able to Use Rural Judges in Cities with Democratic Mayors (also no). My School Board member is up for re-election; he is one of the two current Board members whose picture can be found in dictionaries next to “local crank”; sadly, he is running unopposed. I’d run against him myself were it not for the small detail that I absolutely do not want to be on the School Board. I have been to School Board meetings, and if my life in any way involved having to attend them and having to pay attention and having to be there the entire time, suicide would swiftly follow. I simply cannot.

But yeah. No Senate, no Governor, it’s the midtermiest of midterm races. I suppose the latest Democratic sacrificial victim for IN-02 doesn’t seem entirely incompetent, and if there’s a sufficient nationwide Blue wave she might be swept into office, as my current rep is a replacement-level MAGA NPC who has not distinguished himself in any way while in office, but I’m not holding my breath.

Survived

On By Luther M. SilerIn TeachingLeave a comment

Six whole parent conferences today, and in only one did the parent threaten to put her child in foster care.

I shall now melt into a puddle.

Go ahead, ask her

On By Luther M. SilerIn Teaching2 Comments

I returned to work today, although I was unable to tough it out and go to conferences. It became clear after a couple of class periods that all I was going to be capable of doing was preventing any of them from killing themselves or each other, and a twelve-hour day simply wasn’t happening today. It’s 8:30 PM as I’m writing this, and I feel more fully human than I have in a week, although I still haven’t managed to eat a real meal. Lunch was half a package of saltines, a banana, and a couple of cups of applesauce. Dinner was some mashed potatoes and a couple of pretzel sticks.

I am hoping to eat a salad for lunch tomorrow without paying for it. We shall see.

I had one of the more bizarre conversations/arguments with a student today that I’ve had in a while; I don’t remember exactly what got us on the topic, but two of my fifth hour girls had come back to my desk and the topic of my son came up. One of them appeared completely bewildered by the topic, and even more bewildered by the notion that I might be 50 and have a fifteen-year-old.

“He’s adopted, though, right?”

Uh … no. He’s mine.

“But was he … born?“

I swear that’s what she asked, and that got her a weird look from both of us.

Yes? My son was born. I was there. Watched it happen, at least sort of. They put you behind the curtain when there’s a c-section, but there wasn’t a baby one minute and then there was a huge hole in my wife and a baby, so I kinda made some assumptions? Plus the whole pregnancy thing that ended right away.

“But … you’re gay.”

It is worth making clear here that this child had not one trace of doubt in that statement. None. It was apparently more logical to her that I had somehow conjured my own son than that I was a heterosexual married to a woman.

“I promise you I’m not. Married to a woman and everything.”

“You told us you were gay!”

At this point her friend literally shakes her head as if she can’t quite believe what she’s looking at and is trying to clear the cobwebs. It was kind of hilarious.

“He never said that.”
“I never said that.”

“Yes you did! You’re gay!”

“He has a wife,” the other one hisses at her, clearly mortified.

At this point I produced my phone (did I mention I decided not to order the Duo? I didn’t order a Duo.) and showed her a family picture. I swear she was no more than a moment or two from telling me my son’s graduation picture was AI.

Now, here’s the thing: I am certain a nontrivial portion of my students assume I’m gay. The room isn’t exactly full of pride flags, nothing like it was at my previous school, but they’re there, and they all know I run the school’s LGBTQ club, and I come down hard on homophobia in my room. And, and this is my fault, and I should probably fix it, there aren’t any family photos prominently displayed anywhere, so a casual observer of my room couldn’t be faulted for jumping to a conclusion. I make it real clear to the Gem Club kids that I’m cishet because I don’t want them feeling like I’ve misrepresented myself, but I genuinely don’t care what the rest of them think– and I think the fact that I don’t make a big deal out of it when kids do ask if I’m gay doesn’t help. I’ve never had a kid ask with any sort of hateful or disgusted feelings attached to the question, and a lot of the time they’ll apologize beforehand. I always tell them the same thing, more or less– yes, I’m straight, but I’m not bothered by the idea that they thought otherwise at first. I will be okay. So will they.

This is, however, the first time that someone has argued with me about it.

Still too early for this

On By Luther M. SilerIn Reading1 Comment

Health update: I did not go to work or to PTCs tonight, and I have lost eight and a half pounds since the last time I weighed myself a week ago. A slight positive from this is that I am currently the lightest I have been in the better part of a decade. I really really really need to go to work tomorrow and I’m just not convinced it’s a good idea.

Anyway, you might remember this post from about a month ago, where I’m looking at books or series I’ve abandoned in the past that I feel like deserve a second shot next year. Let’s add three more!

I think I have read Quicksilver and maybe half of the second book, but it was forever ago. Honestly other than these being legendary for being complicated, I don’t remember a damn thing about this book, so it will feel like a first read.

Read the first book! Loved it! It’s phenomenal! Then Ken Liu did not translate the second book, and I think I got maybe a hundred pages into it before setting it down in disgust. But Ken Liu did translate the third book, so it’s probably time to force myself through Book Two so that I can finish the series.

(Fun fact: I asked Ken once why he didn’t translate the second book. His response was a politer version of “How much of my own career do you think I should set aside to translate books other people wrote?” which makes complete and perfect sense.)

I’ve tried to read this fucking thing twice. I think I made it a third of the way through on my second attempt. This will be the last one. If it doesn’t click this time, I give up forever.

Still dying, sorry

On By Luther M. SilerIn life1 Comment

Had easily the worst intestinal distress of my entire life this afternoon, to the point where I was close to summoning an ambulance, something I never thought I’d do for diarrhea. I have been in bed ever since. Parent/Teacher conferences are tomorrow so it would be a really bad day to miss work, but it may have to happen. Sigh. October has been kind of shit so far, no pun intended.