Brandon Sanderson
This trilogy includes The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages. Since I basically read them straight through, I will just give you one review of the entire trilogy. The basic premise for this world is that there is a battle between good and evil (duh!), here named Ruin and Preservation. Certain humans have been granted allomantic powers. That is, power to ingest and burn metals, giving them special abilities. For example, burning iron allows you to pull on metals from a distance. Burning its alloy steel allows you to push on metals. There are 16 allomantic metal/alloy combinations and a rare few people are "Mistborn", with the ability to burn all metals. Others are just "Mistings" and can only burn one. In this world, Vin is a young street thief who gets caught up with a set of high level thieves with a plan to overthrough the Lord Ruler, who has ruled the empire for 1000 years. She (of course) discovers that she is mistborn, and develops her talents as the true heroine of the trilogy. We have battles, creatures, mysteries, political intrigue, rebellion, heroism, and the occasional twist or two in how we should think about the world. This is an extremely well written fantasy series that takes full advantage of the created world. For 4/5 of the series, I was enthralled, entertained and often surprised. I suppose one shouldn't bash an ending unless one has a better idea (which I don't) but the ending left me disappointed. It seemed to easy. In fact, reminded me of the ending of The Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman, which I also loved, but left me flat. In this case, it looks like Sanderson has some follow-on trilogies to extend the world he has created. Curious about whether it helps or hurts...
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Sunday, October 18, 2015
Friday, October 2, 2015
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Written a letter to his 16 year old son, Coates explores what it means to grow up and live as a black man in America. He is unapologetic in his identification and descriptions of a systematic racism that exists, and seemingly will continue to exist forever, in this country. His arguments stem from the foundation of this country on slave labor, and the deep capitalist identity that this country has owned. One cannot have a capitalist identity (where capital is god) without recognizing that the first infusion of capital has human. Coates primary language of this capital is Body. He is eloquent in his description of the role of the physical body in the identity of blacks. Admittedly, he recognizes that he does not have a faith system that allows him to spiritualize anything. So when a black person is killed, his body is taken from him, and that is all. For Coates, there is no higher meaning than body.
Contrast this focus on the biology with an NPR piece I heard on the radio about "Gender Fluidity". Here we were introduced to people who argued that their gender could change day-to-day. That is, they were not gendered male, but with a female body. Instead, regardless of the biology of their body, they could wake up one day male and the next female. This completely disregards the biology of the body and pushes the source of gender identity somewhere else.
Is body everything... or is body nothing...
Definitely read this book, and then go talk to someone about it. Regardless of your place on the body/spirit spectrum, Coates presents an important perspective on race history and identity in this country. As he states, just as a male will never truly have an idea of what it means to be female, to live in and protect a female body, I will never truly have an idea of what it means to live in an protect a black body. I can read, discuss, be sympathetic, but am always at least one step removed from the body.
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Written a letter to his 16 year old son, Coates explores what it means to grow up and live as a black man in America. He is unapologetic in his identification and descriptions of a systematic racism that exists, and seemingly will continue to exist forever, in this country. His arguments stem from the foundation of this country on slave labor, and the deep capitalist identity that this country has owned. One cannot have a capitalist identity (where capital is god) without recognizing that the first infusion of capital has human. Coates primary language of this capital is Body. He is eloquent in his description of the role of the physical body in the identity of blacks. Admittedly, he recognizes that he does not have a faith system that allows him to spiritualize anything. So when a black person is killed, his body is taken from him, and that is all. For Coates, there is no higher meaning than body.
Contrast this focus on the biology with an NPR piece I heard on the radio about "Gender Fluidity". Here we were introduced to people who argued that their gender could change day-to-day. That is, they were not gendered male, but with a female body. Instead, regardless of the biology of their body, they could wake up one day male and the next female. This completely disregards the biology of the body and pushes the source of gender identity somewhere else.
Is body everything... or is body nothing...
Definitely read this book, and then go talk to someone about it. Regardless of your place on the body/spirit spectrum, Coates presents an important perspective on race history and identity in this country. As he states, just as a male will never truly have an idea of what it means to be female, to live in and protect a female body, I will never truly have an idea of what it means to live in an protect a black body. I can read, discuss, be sympathetic, but am always at least one step removed from the body.
Read
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