/lit/ - Literature

finally finished Bakker's Second Apocalypse books. All in all I thought they were really good, the ideas were a bit stronger than the characters themselves, though I loved Achamian and admittedly liked Kellhus a lot. If you want some dark fantasy with muh-philosophy, check em out.

damn I'm loving Bakker, almost done with The Aspect Emperor series. yeah yeah rape monsters yeah yeah mary sue protagonist yeah yeah muh philosophy but this shit is great.

I can't finish this Bakker shit guys, I'm sorry. I'm a quarter way through The White-Luck Warrior and there is just no light at the end of this tunnel. Yeah yeah, no light cus it's grimdark, mirite?

I've been reading The Second Apocolypse for the last two or three fucking months. Onto non-fiction for a while. Take care /sffg/, I'll see ya when I pick up some Greg Egan or PKD or something shit. No fantasy for me for a while.

What was the No-God? Some metaphysical Platonic Form of hate/anger/rape/torture? Good one, Bakker. And I bet Kellhus loses in the end anyway, cus grimdark. And I must be thick as a rock, but other than the Oh-hey-humans-aren't-free-we're-bound-by-genes-and-culture-and-social-shit was there more philosophy 101 that I was missing from these books?

How does the Aspect Emperor series compare to the Prince of Nothing series? I'm just finishing book 1 of the AE series and fuckin' hell it was a slog. I felt the same way with book one of PoN. Bakker takes his time to set things up.

first for Bakker. Prince of Nothing & Aspect Emperor books.

Finally got my copies of the Aspect-Emperor books. Folks seem to be torn on The Unholy Consult. Looking forward to it reading everything, the first trilogy really really grew on me.

>26

>The Thousandfold Thought - R Scott Bakker
TRUTH SHINES!

>The Warrior-Prophet - R Scott Bakker
THE HOLY WAR MARCHES!

>The Darkness That Comes Before - R Scott Bakker
What is this bullshit? Some philosofag who was really into the Crusaders decided to write a book. Something something determinism something something sex monsters.

>Blindsight - Peter Watts
consciousness, sci-fi, aliens, fucking vampires..zzz

>Hideous Gnosis - various authors
academics of the continental/culture studies circle masturbating over black metal. lame ass read, put a bad taste in my mouth towards New School, etc. folks.

fuckin hell I finished the Prince of Nothing trilogy last night. The first book was a MAJOR slog but by the end the characters, settings and themes really grew on me. Looking forward to the Aspect-Emperor trilogy. Questions/discussion follows:

What's Bakker getting at with these books? I know he's a big /lit/tard, having ABD'd in analytic philosophy or somethin.
Is the big theme the fact that we (humans/man) are not free but instead driven by our desires/genes/customs/the atoms that make us up? Am I supposed to read this book as materialistic (and probably nihilistic)?

Obviously Kellhus is privy to all this knowledge, so I'm not sure what he represents. Seems like he's the guy that DID finish his dissertation in philosophy and has all the answers. Cnair is "woke". The Consult/Inchoroi are just another extension of humanity (except they are REALLY driven by sex..hints to Freud?)

What did you guys get out of it? How does the Aspect-Emperor series of books compare?

>>10638881
Currently on book two, The Warrior-Prophet. I thought I was going to *really* like it, but honestly, it's alright. I'm just not emotionally invested and don't give much of a fuck about the characters save Akka. Otherwise I kinda give a shit on what Kellhus ends up doing . I do not plan on reading the trilogy after PoN.

Bakker's biggest problem for me is that he's just got too much shit crammed into the books, namely characters and places. I guess he's going for something big and grand here, but as I stated about, I could care less about 99% of the characters.

>>10607437
Man, I find the villains in this book to be terrible. Evil for evil's sake. And the whole sexual angle is bush league. I hate what he's doing with sex in his books, though admittedly it ties into the theme that we as individuals are pretty much not in control / not free.

re: Bakker's shithead characters, I'm assuming his point is that's how people are in real life - self-centered, greedy, bound by their upbringing/genes/culture/thefuckinatomsintheirbody. Perhaps Bakker's believes the actual world is grimdark. The big contrast to this is maybe Achamain, the tortured soul who's at least trying to make the world a better place. Same with Cnauir, who isn't necessarily bound completely by his upbringing (shit, or is he?). I'm not sure where to place Kellhus. He's kind of a fuck, that's for sure, and views humans as both predictable and disposable. He's like the dude who read wayyyyy too much utilitarian philosophy, made it in politics, and thought it was okay to drop the bomb on all those people. Or something.