this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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Yeah they were like these spring traps didn't make much sense but it was an original idea I never saw. I think that book was just very easy to read/well written along with having somewhat decent power system. But characters and world building weren't that amazing I agree.
For me I read them for the world building, I used to read them for the power fantasy but after your 3rd immortal god slayer infinite power overlord you get tired of it. I like when the world is very complex and the characters and their motives are interesting and smart. Then it just feels like a puzzle the author has to solve while making sure everything makes sense and isn't contrived. I like when the MC in RI was stuck, none of his plans could progress so he was like I'm just going to shake the table and hope some new paths open up. I also don't mind build armies / countries and go to war like in WOC reminds me of the expanse.
Lord of Mysteries was more guy in pre industrial/steam punk? world with esoteric monsters trying to figure out his environment. It basically is a detective novel for the first third or more.
I remember when they were asking for donations for translation of coiling dragon while I was a broke highschool/uni student. After I graduated I was like well I was willing to donate to help translation because it felt like a team effort but now it just feels like a commercial product with people running pateron pages where they don't disclose how much they make. Now I have absolutely no interest, maybe I would if they sold non kindle versions.
The only Korean shows I've watched was All of Us Are Dead and Hellbound
I don't remember spring traps in douluo dalu, mmm. I remember fighting, poison, building weapons and smithing, some spiritual hammer, and tons of superpowers. Maybe I just forgot them.
Agreed 100% on the worldbuilding. My most enjoyable books have enormous very complex worlds. The books I've been trading most recently try to have characters who are distinguishable among themselves. Some of the things I enjoy the most are when the character travels and suddenly everything is new again lmao, but with some stability because, well, they and their plot are still there.
The most recent book I read was like the most complex puzzle like you mention, and the author just kept piling on things and I was like, how are you even gonna untangle this mess lmao, sometimes he just goes and inserts a mood like "well no one even knows what happened but that's okay".
Aahhh so LoTM was that one. I tried to read it but it was so strange at first that I didn't get immersed quick enough for my ADHD to lock in. That's most things tbh. By the time I remember I was doing X, I already forgot what I was doing and I'm doing Y with great passion and I'm like, whelp, this is my life now. But it gets recommended so much that I will probably give it another try later on in life.
I hadn't watched a Korean show in like all my life. And suddenly this year I decided "why not watch one of these?" and I just watched the soapiest romance ever and I actually liked it, so I've now watched over 15 kdramas this year and more to come. It was a surprising development, to say the least. From almost hating it because of prejudice against romance, Korean stuff and things teenage women like, to obsessively binging them with zero period of transition.
"spring traps" aren't the correct definition it's apparently hidden weapons, https://soulland.fandom.com/wiki/Hidden_Weapons
Hah that travel thing reminds me of Warlock of the Magus World the MC gets strong enough to sneak into another "universe" and starts with nothing except a very clear understanding of the rules and is able to twist the world into doing impossible things after a while. All while trying not to attract attention from higher end beings that do not want his kind invading. One of the better novels I finished just in the creativity of the world including a whole esoteric dream world.
Yeah LoTM is very strange doesn't read like a classical xuanhuan novel if it can even be defined as that.
Damn you flipped on the kdrama's, I personally could never get into romance or drama's. Prefer horror and scifi in my television, preferably both at the same time along with lovecraftian elements. But as you can guess I am mostly disappointed, especially stuff that becomes mainstream and popular.
I tried reading Warlock of the Magus World. I love the way people describe his character. Somehow though reading it was much harder. There was something coarse stopping me all the while and ultimately it wasn't giving me the good feel I usually get. I don't know what it was, maybe the different kind of motivation the character has. Which reminds me of RI, similar characters probably.
You know, it is so stupidly strange. As a kid, I was a snob metalhead, doing anything not to be "girly", I dressed black, carried a chain, wanted to be violent, read the "Bible of the Church of Satan" and I was like 10% is weird but the rest is awesome! And then I met the ideas of Stirner and was like "holy shit he's me!". My tastes in music are super aggressive and many claim it's not even music even though it's what I enjoy. And my tastes in literature are similarish to yours. These books have a lot of cool shit but they're pretty much aggression with sugar on top lmao.
So in my teenage ideas of superiority and manlihood I'd insult lgbt people, people who liked romantic stuff, any genre of music that was anything less than rock, and even tho I don't have that perspective anymore, my tastes in music and media have remained rather stable.
To switch from being all "waaaaar, weeaponnns, aggression is my music!" to watching soapy dramas of pink girls and boys in love. It's hard for me to understand how that happened but here we are.
I think it starts off kinda mid until he moves to like the central area next to his clan and the world opens up a bit more and he has more interesting things cooking. Yeah it's similar to RI, not evil characters but characters that will do evil things if it benefits them. Also the whole there are no eternal enemies just eternal benefits.
Yeah it is true that these books are basically that, though lots of more classic novels have tons of violence. Foundation was one where it was like "violence is the refuge of the incompetent" but then you realize that to avoid all violence you would literally need to have superhuman levels of intelligence and charisma like in the books with psycho history concept. So nowadays I like when there is conflicts/battle/wars since it makes far more sense.
I'm more into Stoicism, derivation of your own ideas from first principles, plato's scholar warrior/athlete. Egoism doesn't really align with my values probably runs more contrary to them then anything. I listen to anything that helps put me in a flow state and that I personally find enjoyable. Metal and rock are a bit too much to play while working/studying I really didn't get into music much as a teenager.
Funny enough my tastes haven't really changed from a teenager more like hyper focused to into particular aspects that I like and things I don't.
Egoism isn't like hedonism for me. Sometimes maybe. It's more of a realization of priorities, when you realize that 99% of what people tell you is important is actually completely irrelevant. Serve God, your country, morality, your family, your property, etc. You end up sacrificing your well-being for others, to externalities and ideas, many of which couldn't even be less important to you, and some of which are actually harmful. Egoism for me was discovering that it was not my parents' first concern to protect me from bullying, because they had their own lives too, and that everyone's important things are what's directly around them, and what's important to me is external to others.
Stoicism is not completely incompatible with egoism. I don't think they can be compared too well because I think they belong in different categories. I myself have taken a lot from stoicism. Egoism is more about prioritizing whatever you truly "want", "like" or "prefer" instead of what you "should" according to any one, thing or idea.
Ironically metal is what I use precisely for that purpose. If I'm too unfocused or anxious, I put on some black metal to calm down. It's like meditation that takes me right back to the basics.
I don't know which foundation you're talking about then. Maybe I just read it differently because I don't remember that. Then again it's been 15ish years since I read it.
Well the reason you care about those thing is because ingroup bias and psychological hard wiring to care about people that share the same genes as you. Also some of that sounds like I don't want to value those things just because it's popular to value those things. Though those things don't have to be and probably aren't independent from externalities of others. Seem to me a major fault with Egoism is thinking that people cannot share externalities. Though I don't really know much about it.
A part of Stoicism is also contributing positivity in some way to society. I'm not really a fan of anarchism as a whole, don't think it really solves anything and tries to state a solution to modern society by reducing it down to a more simplified form with less rules but doesn't prove to me that this leads to a better society/world.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9658-violence-is-the-last-refuge-of-the-incompetent
You almost made me believe that I read that quote from somewhere else 😅
A major part of egoism is actually a union of egoists. It's not like we aren't social beings, or that we are unaffected by others and are unaffected by our effect on others. Regardless of any person's beliefs, humans in general are empathetic and gregarious.
Egoists might align with anarchism but I don't think that most egoists even think much about how to improve "society" itself. To generalize egoists is, in general, a bad idea, though, because it's a very generic concept that can fit into many many thought currents. Regarding society, every hierarchy "claims" you in a way. You belong to a ruler, to your family, to society, to civilization, to humanity, etc., Each of those categories impose certain duties on you.
It's like muslims have women cover themselves. Does belonging to society mean that they should follow these rules? Then there's the "outer society", human civilization, which is idealized here in the west as having something to do with free will and such, but this is a minority thought, and most people don't agree. So which of all the outer societes' rules should they follow? I think most prescriptive philosophical currents claim to be the "one true best way of doing things", and then you have to look at an index of 1397 major currents to find it, and you see the dislike count for the one you like and there's 5.5 billion dislikes for being too *insert pejorative descriptor*.
In the end society as an observable organism is real, but as a collective deserving loyalty, I think that's way more subjective.
Downloading this Foundation 7 book bundle.
Also, my favorite kdrama actress just starred in a new drama that was just released. "See You In My 19th Life". Seems I will have to obsessively binge that too.
U got any recommended readings on stoicism that are from this century? I tried reading Marcus Aurelius. It doesn't really explain the why of anything.