[ SECRET POST #3896 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3896 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



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02.
[Me Before You (film/novel)]


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03.
[Star Trek TOS]


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04.
[Persona 5]


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05.
[Andy Brennan and Lucy Moran from Twin Peaks]


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06.
[David Bowie, "The Man Who Fell to Earth"]


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07.
[Broadchurch]













Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 35 secrets from Secret Submission Post #557.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Book club - August discussion post - So You Want to Be a Wizard

[(Anonymous)]

It was a major favourite as a child/teen, so I cannot agree with much of this. I loved the philosophy and approach to magic - the Universe as sentient and the endless battle against entropy moved me deeply, and I think the Oath is a wondrous thing - I can't remember if I ever dared speak it myself. I know I wanted to find my Manual more than I ever wanted my letter to Hogwarts....

Fred is a bit cutesy and the first book is not quite my favourite by itself, but rather as the opening of the original trilogy including Deep and High Wizardry. But I love the system of magic so much, it made me regret not being more into science in school - it feels very logical and creative, like they are code-writing patches into the rules of physics and operating within the logical parameters - ie. you're gonna need oxygen, radation shielding, gravity modifiers.... etc if you're gonna try teleporting to the moon... That stuff really appeals to me.

The "scrappy novices take on Ultimate Evil and win on their very first adventure??" theme is kinda dealt with, there's the idea of a multiverse and Time bending weirdly throughout that allows for thousands of iterations of such confrontations (choice and free will and acceptance of mortality vs the evil corruptor avatar) to be ever-playing out - I mean, Nita and Kit meet the Lone Power itself again several times and he is no less of a threat for all that was genuinely accomplished in their Ordeal. Which really is the universe throwing stuff at your maximum level of competency to deal with, and you are supposed to be the tool for that job, so....

Tom and Carl remain mentors and friends throughout the series, btw, and everything gets more subtle and complex.

Re: Book club - August discussion post - So You Want to Be a Wizard

[diet_poison]

I definitely understand that, and as I said I think if I'd read this book as a kid I would have really liked it and nostalgia would have colored any re-read. It's just hard to get into as an adult, at least from my perspective.

I really like the concept of the magic system here but felt it wasn't expanded on enough to be really interesting to me. That's part of what I meant when I talked about the worldbuilding being fairly lackluster. Most of the specifics, other than the list of items Kit and Nita needed for their major spellworking, were rather vague. Same thing with the multiverse-and-thousands-of-iterations thing - I didn't really pick up on that at all from the first book; it makes a lot of sense to frame it that way but the book didn't really talk about it.

Re: Book club - August discussion post - So You Want to Be a Wizard

[(Anonymous)]

In all honesty I suppose I can't really defend some of those points on the basis of the first book as standalone, because I am a big fan of the ensuing series and that 'verse in general and, as I said, it gets more subtle and terrible and intricate and moving as the characters grow and face other challenges.

That being said I am still behind on the latest books, and oddly reluctant to acquire them and get updates on the characters and the wider world created, because I just had those first three as absolutely beloved and re-re-re-read beaten-up paperbacks as a teen that were pretty formative (you can find scribbles of self-insert fanfic in my old notebooks....); recent installations in the series I do enjoy very very much and appreciate the cleverness but there's certainly less immediate and utter taking-to-heart, as an adult, and the expanded world is not so familar and beloved to me (though arguably the recent books are better and less tropey fantasy/sci-fi for a first-time adult reader at this point).