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Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.

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reblog if you’ve read fanfictions that are more professional, better written than some actual novels. I’m trying to see something

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IN A DISTANT and second-hand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part . . .

See . . .

"GNU Sir Terry Pratchett" - L-Space Wiki / Ursula K. LeGuin / "Terry Pratchett" - Wikipedia / "GNU" - Urban Dictionary / Going Postal by Terry Pratchett / Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett / Brandon Sanderson / Paul Kidby / The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

#gnu terry pratchett

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In a fantasy world where dragons sit on your shoulders, they also shit down your back.

Or something along those lines.

It's been rattling around my head recently that Discworld is almost anti-whimsy, and I mean that in a good way.

Whimsy, as I define it, is when something magical is put in just to wow the reader. A magic thing that doesn't really effect the story, but its fantastical. Pots cleaning themselves? Moving paintings? A fantastical creature used as set dressing? A spell that does something cool but we'll never hear about it again? What do they mean? Why are they there? Doesn't matter, we're moving on.

But Discworld always applies Logic to these things.

e.g. The old idea of all dwarfs having beards? Ha ha, even the women have beards. How silly.

But that means all dwarfs are men. But there are female dwarfs, right? Are they happy being men? What if you gave one the chance not to be a man? Oh, sure, they'd still have the beard, the helmet, the axe, those are cultural, but what if a dwarf wanted to be a woman? How would other dwarfs react? Would there be biting insults? Snide remarks? Jealousy from other female dwarfs trapped in their society? What if the Low King were a woman? What then?

Pratchett always had this tenacity to follow a whimsical idea until it was ground down in its own grim reality. It's like those old conversations about what would really happen if Superman caught you falling from a high building. You'd smash on his arms because you're still hitting something indestructible at terminal velocity. But the comics would never show that.

Pratchett shows that.

Introduces a werewolf? She has a constant identity crisis and feels like a dog sometimes, between human and wolf, and she's discriminated against in places for being undead. A conman running a bank? Forces everyone to realise how useless gold really is in a scathing indictment of economics. Death becomes Santa? But WHY DOES THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL NEED TO DIE? WHY THE UNFAIRNESS IN THE WORLD? WHY?

What can the harvest hope for, if not the care of the Reaper Man?

It's what sets these stories apart from so many others. Magic is never the solution, reality is usually the solution. And little is introduced without Pratchett delving the idea to its depths, sooner or later.

#gnu terry pratchett #discworld #literary analysis

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'If we are to live,' Rake went on, 'we must take risks. Else our lives become deaths in all but name. There is no struggle too vast, no odds too overwhelming, for even should we fail - should we fall - we will know that we have lived.'

#malazan #malazan book of the fallen #anomander rake #toll the hounds #fantasy #steven erikson #quotes #literature quotes #epic fantasy

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It puzzles me when people cite LOTR as the standard of “simple” or “predictable” or “black and white” fantasy. Because in my copy, the hero fails. Frodo chooses the Ring, and it’s only Gollum’s own desperation for it that inadvertently saves the day. The fate of the world, this whole blood-soaked war, all the millennia-old machinations of elves and gods, comes down to two addicts squabbling over their Precious, and that is precisely and powerfully Tolkien’s point. 

And then the hero goes home, and finds home a smoking desolation, his neighbors turned on one another, that secondary villain no one finished off having destroyed Frodo’s last oasis not even out of evil so much as spite, and then that villain dies pointlessly, and then his killer dies pointlessly. The hero is left not with a cathartic homecoming, the story come full circle in another party; he is left to pick up the pieces of what was and what shall never be again. 

And it’s not enough. The hero cannot heal, and so departs for the fabled western shores in what remains a blunt and bracing metaphor for death (especially given his aged companions). When Sam tells his family, “Well, I’m back” at the very end, it is an earned triumph, but the very fact that someone making it back qualifies as a triumph tells you what kind of story this is: one that is too honest to allow its characters to claim a clean victory over entropy, let alone evil. 

“I can’t recall the taste of food, nor the sound of water, nor the touch of grass. I’m naked in the dark. There’s nothing–no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I can see him with my waking eyes.”

So where’s this silly shallow hippie fever-dream I’ve heard so much about? It sounds like a much lesser story than the one that actually exists.

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Part 5 (will I ever stop? Perhaps not):

"I am a caster of nets.

Tyrants and emperors rise and fall. Civilizations burgeon then die, but there are always casters of nets. And tillers of the soil, and herders in the pastures.

We are where civilization begins, and when it ends, we are there to begin it again."

The Kenyll'Rah demon Lilac, to Trull Sengar

A short series of malazan quotes, part 1:

"The flower defies."

Tiste Andii poem, in its entirety.

#malazan #fantasy #quotes #the malazan book of the fallen #steven erikson #literature #philosophy #malazan book of the fallen #midnight tides #i am a caster of nets is such a raw fucking line #and of course trull sengar my beloved #trull sengar #fantasy fiction #epic fantasy #literature quotes

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Picker could not pull her eyes from the man. He sat hunched over, on a chair that had yet to find a table, still clutching in his hands the small rag of tattered cloth on which something had been written. The alchemist had done all he could to return life to what had been a mostly destroyed, desiccated body, and Baruk's talents had been stretched to their limits - there was no doubt of that.

She knew of him, of course. They all did. They all knew, as well, where he had come from.

He spoke not a word. Had not since the resurrection. No physical flaw kept him from finding his voice, Baruk had insisted.

The Imperial Historian had fallen silent. No-one knew why.

(...)

"Sure," Spindle snapped, "a story to break our hearts all over again! What's the value in that?"

A rough, broken voice replied, "There is value."

Everyone fell silent, turned to Duiker.

The Imperial Historian had looked up, was studying them with dark eyes. "Value. Yes. I think, much value. But not yours, soldiers. Not yet. Too soon for you. Too soon."

"Perhaps," Baruk murmured, "perhaps you are right in that. We ask too much-"

"Of them. Yes." The old man looked down once more at the cloth in his hands.

The silence stretched.

Duiker made no move.

Picker began to turn back to her companions - when the man began speaking. "Very well, permit me, if you will, on this night. To break your hearts once more. This is the story of the Chain of Dogs. Of Coltaine of the Crow Clan, newly come Fist to the 7th Army..."

Memories of Ice, by Steven Erikson (Malazan Book of the Fallen #3)

#malazan #steven erikson #malazan book of the fallen #the malazan book of the fallen #memories of ice #fantasy #fantasy literature #books #fantasy books #epic fantasy #high fantasy #duiker #bridgeburners #chain of dogs #coltaine #book quotes

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Part 4:

"

Open to them your hand to the shore, watch them walk into the sea.

Press upon them all they need, see them yearn for all they want.

Gift to them the calm pool of words, watch them draw the sword.

Bless upon them the satiation of peace, see them starve for war.

Grant them darkness and they will lust for light.

Deliver to them death and hear them beg for life.

Beget life and they will murder your kin.

Be as they are and they see you different.

Show wisdom and you are a fool.

The shore gives way to the sea.

And the sea, my friends,

Does not dream of you.

"

Shake Prayer

A short series of malazan quotes, part 1:

"The flower defies."

Tiste Andii poem, in its entirety.

#malazan #dust of dreams #fantasy #quotes #the malazan book of the fallen #steven erikson #literature #philosophy #poetry #the sea my friends #does not dream of you

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going thru a lot rn. streaks only

#malazan #fantasy #steven erikson #quotes #memories of ice #itkovian #last shield anvil of fener's reve

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Part 3:

Discipline is the greatest weapon against the self-righteous. We must measure the virtue of our own controlled response when answering the atrocities of fanatics. And yet, let it not be claimed, in our own oratory of piety, that we are without our own fanatics; for the self-righteous breed wherever tradition holds, and most often when there exists the perception that tradition is under assault. Fanatics can be created as easily in an environment of moral decay (whether real or imagined) as in an environment of legitimate inequity or under the banner of a common cause.

Discipline is as much facing the enemy within as the enemy before you; for without critical judgment, the weapon you wield delivers- and let us not be coy here- naught but murder.

And its first victim is the moral probity of your cause.

Words to the Adherents

Brukhalian of the Grey Swords, Last Mortal Sword of Fener's Reve

A short series of malazan quotes, part 1:

"The flower defies."

Tiste Andii poem, in its entirety.

#malazan #the bonehunters #fantasy #quotes #the malazan book of the fallen #steven erikson #literature #philosophy #ah to write like this #i will not insult it by calling years of dedicated work a 'gift' #the grey swords #never forget this man's soul was claimed by Hood himself

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———————————-

They reined in among the Rhivi herders. A tall, awkward-looking man who was not Rhivi stood off to one side, watching the bhederin thump their way across the first barge to hoots and whistles from the drivers.

Gruntle dismounted and approached the lone man. ‘Mott Irregulars?’ he asked.

‘High Marshal Sty,’ the man replied with a lopsided, toothy grin. ‘I’m glad you’re here - I can’t understand these little guys at all. I’ve been trying real hard, too. I guess they’re speaking a different language.’

Gruntle glanced back at Itkovian, expressionless, then faced the High Marshal once more. ‘So they are. Have you been standing here long?’

‘Since last night. Lots of people have crossed. Lots. I watched them put the barges together. They were fast. The Malazans know wood, all right. Did you know Whiskeyjack was apprenticed as a mason, before he became a soldier?’

‘No, I didn’t. What has that got to do with carpentry, High Marshal?’

‘Nothing. I was just saying.’

‘Are you waiting for the rest of your company?’ Gruntle asked.

‘Not really, though I suppose they’ll show up sooner or later. They’ll come after the bhederin, of course, so they can collect the dung. These little guys do that, too. We’ve had a few fights over that, you know. Tussles. Good-natured, usually. Look at them, what they’re doing - kicking all that dung into a pile and guarding it. If I get any closer, they’ll pull knives.’

‘Well, then I’d suggest you not get any closer, High Marshal.’

Sty grinned again. ‘There’d be no fun, then. I ain’t waiting here for nothing, you know.’

Itkovian dismounted and joined them.

Grunde swung to the herders, spoke in passable Rhivi, ‘Which of you is in charge here?’

A wiry old man looked up, stepped forward. ‘Tell him to go away!’ he snapped, stabbing a finger at High Marshal Sty.

‘Sorry,’ Gruntle replied with a shrug, ‘I can’t order him to do anything, I’m afraid. I’m here for my legion and the Grey Swords. We’d like to cross … before the rest of your herd—’

‘No. Can’t do that. No. You have to wait. Wait. The bhederin don’t like to be split up. They get nervous. Unhappy. We need them calm on the crossing. You see that, don’t you? No, you have to wait.’

‘Well, how long do you think that will take?’

The Rhivi shrugged. ‘It will be done when it is done.’

The second three hundred bhederin rumbled their way up the causeway. The herders moved to meet them.

Gruntle heard a meaty thud, then the Rhivi were all shouting, racing back. The Daru turned in time to see High Marshal Sty, the front of his long shirt pulled up around a hefty pile of dung, run full tilt past, onto the ramp, then thump down the length of the barge.

A single Rhivi herder, who had clearly been left to guard the dung, lay sprawled beside the looted heap, unconscious, the red imprint of a large, bony fist on his jaw.

Gruntle grinned over at the old herder, who was jumping about, spitting with fury.

Itkovian moved up alongside him. ‘Sir, did you see that?’

‘No, alas, just the tail end.’

‘That punch came out of nowhere - I did not even see him step close. The poor Rhivi dropped like a sack of … of—’

‘Dung?’

After a long moment - so long that Gruntle thought it would never come - Itkovian smiled.

——————————-

- Memories of Ice, Malazan Book of the Fallen 3

#malazan #fantasy #steven erikson #humor #dung

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Part 2:

"Oh, we talk of progress, but what we really desire is the perpetuation of the present. With its seemingly endless excesses, its ravenous appetites. Ever the same rules, ever the same game.”

Hull Beddict to Seren Pedac

A short series of malazan quotes, part 1:

"The flower defies."

Tiste Andii poem, in its entirety.

#malazan #fantasy #quotes #the malazan book of the fallen #steven erikson #literature #the parallels between them #philosophy #midnight tides #the lether empire seems a little...familiar #the beddict brothers were cursed with an exceptionally clear gaze #the parallels between them and the paran siblings and the sengar brothers is very blunt #even the three sons of darkness for that matter

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A short series of malazan quotes, part 1:

"The flower defies."

Tiste Andii poem, in its entirety.

#malazan #fantasy #quotes #the malazan book of the fallen #steven erikson #'all things strive' said tak #and this malazan quote is a little more grim version of the same defiant theme #kharkanas #i cant remember if the quote is from 'forge of darkness' or 'fall of light' #tiste andii #literature #philosophy

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"Hood's balls."

Or the full version, for greater effect, "Hood's stony balls on an anvil".

Other notable mentions from the same series:

1. "Errant’s bouncing eyeball"

2. " Beru have mercy" (A sea goddess. She has no mercy.)

3. "Poliel's prissy nipples" (Poliel is the mistress of plague)

the biggest problem with writing fantasy in english is that there's really no alternate universe phrasing that carries the exact tone and context to the reader as "jesus fucking christ"

#malazan #fantasy #profanity

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#literature #quotes #book quotes #roald dahl #matilda

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So much translation discourse just boils down to monolinguals not understanding that "coolness" doesn't translate across languages, and you need to re-add it manually on the other end.

#writing tips #well technically #translating tips