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Unsong is so goddamn dense with religion/Kabbalah/programming jokes early on, it's great. I just started it recently but it's pretty refreshing after me mostly having gone through all the gloom of wildbow's stuff.quote:A spark appeared on Uriel’s finger, and in lines of fire he traced a diagram into the sky in front of him. i'm dead
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Sep 9, 2017 04:29
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I have just finished Unsong and definitely recommend it like the OP. Anyone who wants a plot that actually progresses is going to be sad because the initial assumed story (Aaron's adventures in Name-wielding) are actually just one of four or so subplots going on at different times. But it's mostly pretty good (except when a minor number of times it (possibly ironically, possibly not) namedrops LessWrongers) , it tells a fully self-contained story, and it's complete. And it's 783ish pages long in PDF form and is mostly upbeat, so you can recommend it to someone who wants to try this web-serial thing out instead of the gigantic slog that is Worm. bewilderment fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Sep 13, 2017 |
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Sep 13, 2017 03:09
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Tom Clancy is Dead posted:It's definitely not ironically. I bounced off it real fast when it became apparent it was self insert fantasy for Scott Alexander, and he spent the whole time making it clear how much more clever he is than anyone (both as the writer and the character) and how institutions of any kind, corporate or government, only get in the way of his cleverness. Maybe it gets better later, but I couldn't get past the start. I don't know a whole lot about him other than reading his RationalWiki page but from what I can see, despite leaning libertarian himself fairly openly, I couldn't really draw an inherently anti-organisational view from the book itself. Possibly even the opposite. I think the initial story does set it up that way and can easily draw those kinds of parallels at first. Our protagonist Aaron, unjustly stuck in humble beginnings despite his brilliance, uncovers a secret that will let him fight back against the Man and eventually become "Emperor of the World" [sic]. The story swerves away from that pretty quickly as soon as that plan starts moving into motion though, and Aaron from that point on is frequently the least competent person in the room and even in the one memorable situation where he pulls a heroic "i am so smart" move the only thing he accomplishes is distracting the bad guy for the one second it takes to let the more heroic character win. Aaron is also described as annoying or insufferable in some way by pretty much every character he meets, including his 'love'. That said, the 'omniscient narrator' voice is actually still done from Aaron's voice, and that is still full of "i am so smart to see these kabbalistic connections" which can definitely be interpreted to be Scott Alexander wanking over the same. I feel like that's justified well enough both in and out of story as just being totally made up, but I can see where the vibe comes from.
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Sep 13, 2017 04:18
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Absum posted:Mostly unrelated but maybe not entirely, can anyone recommend me something fluffy. I don't even know what people are gonna come up with (if anything) but I feel like trying to read whatever you think fits. Unsong is pretty fluffy in parts, but it's also quite self-consciously wanky. As in, several chapters are closer to a mix of history lesson and essay by the viewpoint character, and those very same essays are commented on by other characters as being an unprintable pretentious wankfest. It should also be pointed out that you shouldn't be going in with the expectation of a linear plot that moves along briskly - after the first couple of chapters, it sort of jumps around in time to explain how the world got to be the way it is, before it all comes together in the finale.
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Oct 25, 2017 03:39
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