𝖑𝖚𝖐𝖊 𝖇𝖔𝖓𝖉

Headphones ran out of battery at the gym. DISASTER

I like this! Thanks for sharing

As someone married to a German I can actually reassure you that explaining jokes in fact results in a better quality joke

Oh and power saving also implicated

My laptop WiFi has been intermittently slow even when my phone internet seems fast, on same WiFi. Turns out it would occasionally get stuck on 2G, and would throttle based on a regional setting. Forced 5G and installed a regional database and it is now equally fast. Sometimes Linux is not worth it

So the Malazans didn't detonate the intersections in Gardens of the Moon because they realised due to the gas pipelines it would set the whole of Darujhistan on fire. But these guys did it in Tehran anyway

Spent 4 nights away from the kids. First time away from the youngest. Back home today and missed them so much ♥️♥️♥️🥰🥰🥰🤗🤗🤗

Disappointed that my new knee doesn't set off the scanners at the airport

A panorama photo of sunset from above the clouds on the island of Tenerife. The volcano Mt Teide in the distance

Not sure that I thought much of Tenerife but Mt Teide was definitely a high point

Huh. TIL Motorola still make phones

You may recall me saying in my review of Daggerspell, something to the effect of "why isn't this series up there with Hobb and Wurts as a critically acclaimed epic fantasy series". Well it isn't as good but it's good enough I think. But also this is going to be why 😂

All good 😁 I'm pleased that it's not going to come up again in future books so I can just enjoy them 😂😂😂

Thank you for starting this discussion. I'm coming around to your view. Writing can be time fettered and clumsy but writing half a book on this subject in the manner we've discussed can hardly be excused as clumsy. She should have responded and addressed the issue. Given she hasn't I assume ur right

Readers say that this stuff doesn't come up again in the rest of the series. So perhaps she took it on board (criticism of it isn't new or solely modern) and learned to stay away from the subject. Disappointing there is no response though.

I was curious if Kerr addressed this. She is active on social media and has a Patreon on which does quite active, and in which she's discussed things like "why incest?" as recently as yesterday. I've found no evidence of her responding to it.

I guess I don't want to believe it 😭🙈 I chose to read it as clumsy and time-fettered but I have to look at my motives for doing so

Camdel's shame that he enjoyed it on some level isn't clarified. I took to mean enjoyment of the pain from the cutting and the abuse rather than "oh no I enjoyed something homosexual". Kerr in no way makes that clear and shame and disgust at homosexuality is I think a valid reading of the text

Alastyr seems a paedophiles with little preference for gender. Sarcyn bi I suppose. However there is a lot of plot-centric focus on the abuse of men, and disgust is the main reaction towards Camdel, the victim.

I feel like these guys are pretty indiscriminate abusers, paedophiles and rapists. When we first met Sarcyn we learn about Alastyr's abuse of him and his sister, and there is the discussion of his sexual preferences with the woman he sells the drugs to

You've really got me thinking about this. And I have to consider the possibility that I'm defending the books because I like them and don't want them to be tainted. But I trust you'll shoot down any argument I make that is weak

Curious to see what you think about it if you read it!

I want to give her the benefit of the doubt for not seeing ahead 30y for how it would be perceived. Personally I am on the fence, leaning towards giving her the benefit of the doubt. But I'm not surprised you have this response

Okay sure the dark dweomer brotherhood are the only ones in the books engaging with such things. The optics aren't great. But I thought that the abuse perpetuated on men rather than women, which let's face it is the norm, explored themes new to fantasy of that era, ie what it does to men as victims

For them to react progressively would be something I'd expect from a book written 20y later. I hope Kerr is writing realistic characters for her setting in a time before what modern audiences expect. But like I said the jury is out for me

For me the jury is out on this one. There are characters (soldiers in a dark ages world) who reacted with disgust to what they learned. Seemed totally believable to me & completely diminished my opinion of them (Rhodry, who I didn't think much of to begin with)

An overhead shot of a wooden kitchen table with several dishes and bottles of condiments.

Tonight's dinner: Lebanese lamb kofta, Jerusalem salad, grilled halloumi, various pickles and store-bought condiments. Pita bread missed the photo. These koftas are a staple, usually do them on skewers in the oven but today experimenting with the air fryer. I overcooked them a bit but a 1st attempt

~What’s your class?~

There's a line in Sepultura's "Beneath the Remains" that says "die by technology". As a teenager I originally misheard it as "die fucking allergies" and so this time of year this song is always in my head. But seriously, allergies can fucking die

Choosing to interpret the by-election result as sensible folk winning over backwards-looking, reactionist, gullible-tools-of-populists, moronic Reform voters but yikes, Labour aren't going to be happy about it

Ryan Reynolds his name is. I think he's famous for much more recent things but I haven't watched much TV since the 90s haha