#i keep thinking about dara horn man | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

litcityblues · 2 months

Text

The Wheel of Time Rewatch/Reread Pt. 2

I said it before and I'll say it again: I don't like Amazon's insistence on 8 episode seasons for their shows- especially this show. I think two more episodes per season would give this show the room to breathe that I think it desperately needs sometimes, though I will say this: Season 2 is a lot better than Season 1.

What did I like about Season 2? I don't know if it's a closer adaptation of the book, but it does follow the structure of the book a bit more and there are moments- identifiable, real, important moments from the book that make it into the show. (The opening meeting of Darkfriends and Nyn's Accepted Testing-- the opening ceremony of the latter is lifted nearly verbatim from the book, which is awesome.) But broadly speaking, while in the books Rand doesn't run away-- he joins the hunt for the Horn of Valere with Perrin and does wind up spending a good chunk of time in Cairhein and on the way there, he meets Selene (Natasha O'Keeffe), who is eventually revealed to be Lanfear.

So the show in this season isn't straying too far from the structure of the actual book and as a result, overall, this feels a lot more like The Wheel of Time I was expecting in the first season.

(Yes, yes, the usual caveats apply: No, I didn't expect a perfect adaptation. Yes, I am willing to grade on a curve because showrunners have to bring in a new audience and not just a book audience and hopefully the show inspires more people to read the books.)

The book, however, starts a lot differently. We're still in Fal Dara when the book starts and instead of meeting Lady Amalisa at the end of the last book (as we did in the television show), we meet here in the early chapters of The Great Hunt. She's still the sister to Lord Agelmar-- I don't think there are references to her being able to channel and certainly don't see any of the nonsense (being able to link, burning herself out, etc.) that we saw at the end of the first season of the show. She is still good friends with Moiraine, but- since the Amyrlin Seat comes to visit, she also gets poked pretty hard by Liandrin about keeping tabs on Mat, Rand, and Perrin.

They don't come right out to say it-- in fact, I don't think they come right out and say anywhere in the book, but right from the get-go it's heavily implied that Liandrin is bad, potentially Black Ajah, even if they don't come out and say it yet. (The fact that they set this tone early makes it even more ridiculous later in the book when Liandrin shows up to Egewene and Nyn and just says 'Come with me to save your friends' and Min and Elayne just say 'We'll come too' and no one stops to think about whether they should trust her or not. Granted, we know that as readers they probably shouldn't, but they as novices/Accepted are probably pretty inculcated into obedience to full Aes Sedai by that point, even though Liandrin takes them in THE WAYS where, you know, Machin Shin lives-- I would have thought at some point, one of them would have been like 'hey, wait a minute!)

We also have hints of Aes Sedai politics from the first book and we see them in full force in the opening chapters of the second book. Moiraine's reception ahead of the meeting with Amyrlin is very similar to her reception in front of the Hall of The Tower in Season 1 of the show-- lots of frostiness and veiled threats about how she needs to be checked and brought under control.

The meeting between Siuan and Moiraine is excellent and I love, love, love that Verin has figured out what they're up to. Verin was always one of my favorite book characters and The Great Hunt provides a powerful reminder as to why-- she's got a much better relationship with Rand- more of a 'Hey man, I can't teach you, but if you listen to me, I might be able to help you, not, you know, kill yourself.' type of a vibe as a posed to Moiraine's vibe of 'I will KILL YOU before I let you turn to the Shadow.' I like her as part of the company tracking the Horn down into Cairhein. I like her in Falme, where she references the prophecy that 'five will ride forth'. In general, Verin is one of my favorites.

(And the show (where she's played by Meera Syal) captures her more or less perfectly-- even if she's mixed a little with Vandene, as a posed to be an Aes Sedai in the Tower all herself-- speaking of which: we do see Moiraine with Vandene and Adeleas in the book and she's there trying to figure her stuff out-- which is a nice parallel to what we see in the show. Moiraine meets with Bayle Domon there in the show-- who again, is far more prominent in the books than he is in the show at least so far. But here, we get a sort of Bayle Domon chapter almost-- which seems a little apropos of nothing, but is in fact, a nice bit of plotwork that sets up for the finale in Falme.)

The meat and potatoes of the book is about Rand and the hunt for the Horn of Valere which makes the most sense because the book is called The Great Hunt. Ingtar keeps them pushing south hard and fast-- Rand has that weird moment in the village (channeling?) and we get some early glimpses of maybe Selene and we find out just how bad Fain has become with the Fade being nailed up by him.

We see a lot of Cairhein in the book and the show- though Lord Barthanes (Will Tudor) is in fact Moiraine's nephew in the show and Anvaere (Lindsey Duncan) (who I think is meant to be the woman who saves Rand from a crowd of women who want him for Daes Dae'Mar reasons) is Moiraine's sister and I like that the show parallels that structure.

The best things the show does in this season revolve around Cairhein. Jordan references but never digs into the aging thing and Aes Sedai. We gradually find out that Aes Sedai can live for a very long time and that there's some obvious heartache involved as family members grow old and die and age faster than they do. The show jumps right into that territory and it's kind of awesome. They also set about trying to tackle a problem that it takes Rand four books to address: how to use the male half of the source, which is why he's trying to gain access to Logain.

What's missing from the show is the whole business with Portal Stoes. That's the introduction to Selene-- she keeps pushing him onto 'greatness' and Rand is really uncomfortable with finding out that he's second in command if Ingtar (Gregg Chilingirian) goes down, but he is insistent on finding the dagger to help Mat and grows into the role, whether he likes it or not.

(There are some hints of voices that aren't his here and there, building up to Lews Therin making an actual appearance at some point, I would imagine. We also get a glimpse of the giant hand with the orb in it that we come to realize is the Choedan Kal in later books.)

Where the show loses me a little is when Moiraine catches up with Rand and straight up slits Selene's throat. Granted, she's Lanfear, so she revives and comes after them-- but again, not in the book. I also don't think that the show does that good of a job with Nyn, Egewene, and Elayne (Ceara Coveney)-- but that's also weirdly parallel to the book in many ways. We don't really get back to that trio after they arrive in Tar Valan and Nyn tests for Accepted until the end of the book (about 80%) of the way through and that sets up Egewene and the Seanchan.

The worst part of the show is probably the needless drama between Moiraine and Lan. Yes, in the book she does call him on the carpet and tell him she's passing his bond and kind of smacks him around a bit, but it doesn't take, like a third of the book. And Moiraine's situation would have been a lot more believable had she not already said in the first season that she can't see male weaves. It's a wee bit of a contradiction that sort of undoes that plot point for me.

The oath thing at the end of the show... I think that's going to be part of Siuan's undoing, but I do think you've got a bit of a mess there since the first season clearly establishes that Siuan's oath is different than what Moiraine says, so how does that even work? (I'm wondering if the general, 'let's see if we can get this show to go' aspect of the first season will reveal more of these little landmines going forward.)

The Seanchan of it all was fine. It's great in the books, it's perfect in the show. I don't like that they killed Uno and I get that the finale didn't quite reach the same epic level you saw in the books, but I think that's down to television and budgets more than anything else. (Think: Game of Thrones-- not every finale can be like the Battle of the Bastards-- I would guess that showrunners have to keep some of their powder dry for budgetary reasons, though that could be pure speculation on my part. But I do think that the quieter, internal struggles that we see are in keeping with the books-- after all, The Last Battle-- the confrontation between Rand and the Dark One isn't some big, epic thing. It's like the three of them arguing about competing visions of reality and one of them wins.)

The show, however, got me really excited by revealing two things in the last episode: one, is that all the Forsaken are now free and two, Moghedien (Laia Costa) is among them and she looks... awesome.

At the end of the day, all I'm going to ask from this show is that it gets better and it starts to feel more like the books. I think this season while not including some things I would have liked to see from the books (like Thom, the Illuminators, the Portal Stone, a visit to the Stedding, etc.) does parallel the structure of the books quite nicely. As a result, it was a. better- but not perfect and b. felt a lot more like The Wheel of Time.

Bring on Season 3.

#the wheel of time #season 2 #the great hunt #rewatch #reread

2 notes · View notes

silver-ink-iron-words · 2 years

Note

Nope still broken. Must be a phone problem.

That said if you could please continue shifter? It's so good!

Ah man, sorry about that. Hopefully the links in this post work

Also, thanks for the request :)

----

CW - discussion of suicide

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Major Shift, Part 4

The tangerine and crimson leaves fluttered into the gentle creek, as Dara stared at the switchblade in their hands.

It had been easy to accept their death when it was an abstract concept. The inevitable outcome of being turned. When it was something that would happen to them, rather than something they’d have to take care of themself.

They weren’t even surprised when the smoke began to pool and slither around their knees.

“Please, kid,” the Shifter King said, settling down beside them in his human form. “Don’t do that.”

“How’d you find me?”

“This is my forest. I always know what’s happening in it.”

Dara kept their eyes on the knife. Ending things here would mean that they wouldn’t be fulfilling the High Huntsman’s wishes. It would be abandoning everything they’d sworn to protect.

But to live out their days as a shifter, to slowly lose themself piece by piece until there was nothing left but the beast . . .

Maybe if they were quick enough, they could do it before the villain had a chance to stop them.

“I think I’ll hold on to that,” he said, taking the knife from their grip. Dara noticed, passively, how careful he was to not touch the silver metal blade.

They turned their gaze up to the fiery trees. It was beautiful as a painting. “Do you think this is kindness?”

“I do.”

Dara sighed. They probably wouldn’t have had the guts to go through with it anyways.

They held up their wrists to be tied.

The villain looked between Dara’s hands and their face. It seemed to take him a moment to realize what they were doing.

“Come on.” He slapped a hand on their shoulder, rising up. “I want to show you something.”

----

Dara wasn’t surprised that the shifters’ base was a sprawling Victorian mansion in the middle of the woods.

What they hadn’t expected was the chipper yellow paint, the elegant wrap-around porch, and the game of frisbee happening on the front lawn.

“David,” a shifter said, after throwing the bright plastic disc. Most of their skin was covered in lichen. “Is that the murderer?”

Dara stiffened. But before they could even think of running, the villain wrapped an arm around their shoulder.

“Everyone, meet Dara,” he said, addressing the small crowd of shifters. “Our newest recruit. I want you all to welcome them just like you’d welcome each other.”

“I’m not – ”

“Now let’s get inside,” he continued. “We need to have that planning meeting.”

Inside was, put simply, absolute chaos.

It’s not that things were messy. Quite the opposite – the floors were swept, the shelves dusted, the tabletops cleared of clutter.

It’s that the developers must have been high out of their minds when they designed the place.

The front door led first through somebody’s bedroom, and then through a kitchen with a washing machine where the stove should have been. The hallways changed colors and wallpapers as the group passed through them, the floors switching back and forth between tile and wood. They passed one room where every piece of furniture was cat-themed, one that was a steamy greenhouse, one that was nothing but wall-to-wall doors.

Dara suffered vertigo just trying to keep up.

“Where’s the meeting room today?” the villain asked, dodging under a string of vines hanging down from the ceiling.

“Upstairs, ’round where the ballroom used to be,” said a shifter with enormous ox horns.

They approached a staircase, and Dara could see a girl between the slats. She was carving a jack-o-lantern, the knife digging firmly into one of the pumpkin’s yellowy eyes.

They went swerving up the stairs, which were arranged in some confusing crisscross that reminded Dara of a double helix.

“What’s with this place?” they hissed.

“Welcome to Witchwood Manor,” the villain said. “The place is cursed. Or blessed? It’s hard to tell sometimes. But I wouldn’t recommend leaving your stuff lying around.”

They finally reached a meeting room with tall windows and a long wooden table. The shifters piled around it, with the villain standing at the head. Dara ended up just beside him.

“Well, good news everyone,” he began. “We’ve uncovered a photo of the book.”

“And here I was hoping that you’d actually found the damn thing,” a shifter said.

“So impatient,” the villain replied with a grin. He pressed a button on a remote, and a projector screen began to lower. “Now that we've found this, the most recent known location is Munich, 1998.”

“So we have to go to Germany?”

The ox shifter rolled her eyes. “There’s no reason to think it’s still there, Benjamin.”

The projector clicked on, and a grainy photo appeared. It was in a stone courtyard, featuring a smiling woman holding an ancient book. It was thick, and the pages were uneven. The image of a gnarled, leafless tree was carved into the withered black leather.

But as strange as the book was, a different detail stood out. The woman had a small tattoo on her forearm – an arrow intercepted with three curved lines. The exact same symbol could be found on Dara’s shoulder blade.

The Hunter’s Sigil.

The shifters continued to discuss the book, reviewing their findings and brainstorming where it could be located. To Dara’s astonishment, none of them mentioned the mark.

“Why do you want it so badly?” they asked after a while.

Every eye in the room fell upon them.

“Ah yes,” the villain said. “Thank you for speaking up, Dara. I nearly forgot to explain.” He gestured to the image. “This spell book was written by Joan Morton. The most renowned witch of her time, and the creator of this very manor.”

Dara blinked. “Witches aren’t real.”

The lichen shifter glanced to them. “You’ve never heard that the first shifters were created by witches?”

“I’ve heard that myth, yes.”

“Well, regardless,” the villain said. “We know the book is real. And we know that it contains a variety of very useful spells. Ones that could keep this pack safe against our rivals.”

Dara looked again to the photo. “I hope you don’t think I’m going to help you find it.”

The villain’s eyes lit up in a way that Dara didn’t like. “You may be interested to know, there’s a rumour that one of the spells contained in this book can turn shifters back into humans.”

Dara straightened in their seat. The room buzzed with whispered conversation.

The villain smiled. He knew he had them.

“What the hell is that homicidal freak doing here?”

Everyone looked to the doorway. There stood Corbin, bitter gaze fixed on Dara.

“Ah, Corbin, perfect timing,” the villain said. “I was just about to tell Dara how I’ll be matching them with a partner, to help ease their transition into the pack.”

Dara and Corbin locked eyes with each other. “You can’t mean . . .”

“Oh, but I do.” The villain’s smile was mischievous. “I just know you two will be the absolute best of friends.”

#shifter #halloween #werewolf #villain x hero #hero x villain #writing snippet #writeblr #writing #snippet #werebear #kidnapping #fantasy #fantasy writing #fuckin benjamin #not a prompt

32 notes · View notes

butterflydm · 2 years

Text

starting my re-read of the great hunt (prologue-chap 8)

Some thoughts on the book and potential adaption changes (no spoilers past book 2 except for a line that I THINK is from book 2 but I’m not certain, but it’s just backstory stuff anyway, but I do talk about later stuff in book 2):

1. Okay, already introducing Siuan and all things Aes Sedai politics plus having Padan Fain make off with the horn & dagger in S1 completely cuts out at least the first hundred to hundred-and-fifty pages of the book right off the bat (excepting the Darkfriend social, of course. Man, I’d love to see a version of that in the show; not sure how likely it is). They will still need to introduce Verin, but Alanna’s already been covered as well, and in a lot more detail than she was given here. And Rand already knows he’s the Dragon, so he doesn’t need Siuan to tell him (though that IS a fantastic scene) and Min already told him about the Blood Snow as well. We’re probably going to lose most of the Fal Dara stuff tbh, maybe all of it, since they could easily start in media res with Perrin already hunting for the Horn with Ingtar, Masema, & Uno, and with E&N on the way to the White Tower or there already.

But it’s interesting to think about how the knowledge of Rand being the Dragon in the show could impact the characterization of the other characters. Where I am with my re-read, Egwene and Nynaeve know that he can channel but Mat and Perrin don’t even know that much yet (do they find out at Falme? I will keep rereading and find out!), and Rand is the only one of the five who knows that the Dragon Reborn is a consideration that’s on the table at all. In the show, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, and Nynaeve have all had time to think about the possibility of one of them being the Dragon, which comes along with the assumption that said Dragon will be able to channel.

2. Not sad to be losing Moiraine stealing all Rand’s clothes. Moiraine 100% got a glow-up in the show. She’s still very political and a good player of The Game, but she’s not STEALING people’s CLOTHES. Like, just explain to him that you’re worried his old clothes can be traced by the Dark One’s forces! Or have Lan do it, if you’re worried he won’t listen to you. Rand absolutely would listen to Lan and you know it (of course, this is also the period when Moiraine and Lan start the process of pulling away from each other, so there’s that).

3. I imagine Rand letting everyone think he’s dead is going to be doing the work that him actively trying to push people away did at the start of TGH. Also this from Mat when he’s hurt and pushing back against Rand telling them he doesn’t want to travel with them: “If that is how you want it,” he said coldly. “I thought we were... However you want it, al’Thor.” I mean, he was going to say friends, presumably, but those ellipses are haunting me this February day.

4. “He had grown up thinking he would marry Egwene one day; they both had.” Revisionist history! In EotW, he mentions feelings of confusion around Egwene, that she has been “making him increasingly jittery” for the “past year” and that “she did not even seem to be aware of it”. He’s obviously been getting a crush on her and his father thinks it’s sweet and his friends are teasing him about it, but there’s no mention of them having a future marriage agreement of any kind or even thoughts in that direction. And then, in their first actual on-page conversation in EoTW, Egwene essentially pre-breaks-up with him (this is all from my old 1990 copy of the book, btw, before the Ravens prologue was added).

In EotW, he asks her if she wants to dance later on and she pointedly lets him know that she’s old enough to get married now and Rand hilariously kinda freaks out about it and says “Just because someone is old enough to marry, doesn’t mean they should. Not right away.” to which Egwene lets him know that Nynaeve has told him that she can learn to listen to the wind and that Wisdoms almost never marry, and there is no indication that she’s breaking off a betrothal or going against even an unspoken agreement in the text (if they did have an ‘understanding’ of any kind then Egwene kinda pulled an asshole move there tbh, by first letting him know that she’s old enough to marry now and then immediately going ‘but I probably won’t lolz’). Rand is upset about it, because he’s been developing feelings, but it all comes across as pre-relationship stuff.

So right at the start of TGH is where the retcon of Egwene and Rand’s relationship to make it retroactively more serious happens, I guess, lol. I’m curious why RJ decided to do this tbh, since he was still planning on having them ‘break up’ again in this book (I think? I’ll see when I get there! Memory mildly foggy), and Min already gave her viewing in book one that “he was not for her, nor she for him, not in the way they both want” and then Min, I’m pretty sure, does some more weird sorta ‘claiming Rand as hers’ stuff at the end of this book, iirc (kinda glad this aspect of her character feels like it was removed or played down in the show tbh). Maybe just so that Rand could have more complicated feelings about ‘Selene’ and give him a reason why he wouldn’t just be all-in on her once she shows up? I’ll keep an eye out and see if I can spot the reasoning as I go. I wonder if this is the book where the bit about the village girls avoiding Rand because Egwene had essentially marked him as hers comes from -- I have a VIVID memory of this line, enough that I’ve basically woven it into all my cauthor stories so far as part of the Rand/Egwene backstory -- but could not find it in EotW during my re-read.

5. I am INTENSELY curious about what the state of Egwene’s hair will be in S2. They’ve made the braid have a personal and emotional symbolism to Egwene that it doesn’t ever have in the books (I think she stops wearing it like two days after meeting Moiraine lol), so I wonder if she’s going to keep wearing her hair in a braid for a while or if she will undo it once she’s a novice.

6. So far, the increased Egwene/Rand backstory seems to be used to goad Rand into action at Fal Dara to try to find her to protect her.

7. Hmm, I wonder if Moiraine sending the Red Ajah after Mat is meant to replace Fain stealing the dagger, plot/character-wise, since a lot of Rand’s motivation in book two comes from chasing after the dagger to try to help Mat, if I recall correctly. With how much emotional focus they put on Rand’s relationship with Mat in S1 (and how much they chose to parallel/contrast it against his relationship with Egwene), I’m... curious about what will happen in S2 in that regard, if they’ll still make Mat’s safety and health a priority for Rand or if they will focus on other things (by not having him find out about it).

8. The first reveal about Verin is such an amazing moment. I love her so much. Best Aes Sedai ever, no competition, no one was ever this much of a badass. I hope her introduction in the show gives me chills the way us finding out in the books that she’s figured out that Moiraine and Siuan are hiding the Dragon Reborn from everyone does.

I also love Verin poking holes in the whole “men and women can’t teach each other” saying about birds and fish. She’s just great.

9. Ah, this goodbye between Rand and Egwene at the end of chapter eight reminds me of what we got with them in episode seven, emotion-wise. Sort of the sense of a goodbye (more from Rand’s side than Egwene’s, as he’s sure he won’t see her again once he leaves and she’s determined that she will be able to help him -- so, yes, very like the scene in episode seven).

I’m 150 pages into the book and everyone is finally about to leave Fal Dara, lol.

#wot book spoilers #wot spoilers #wheel of time #wot #wot reread

11 notes · View notes

ruminativerabbi · 6 years

Text

Books and Mirrors: As A New Year Dawns

The month of Elul, the last month of the Jewish year, is well known as the traditional time for reviewing the year, reflecting on our behavior and general comportment, owning up to our shortcomings, and finding the resolve to face the season of judgment, if not quite with eager anticipation, than at least with equanimity born the conviction that we can and will do better in the coming year. You often hear the Hebrew phrase ḥeshbon ha-nefesh, literally “an accounting of the soul” in this regard—and those words really do capture the concept pithily and well: thinking of our lives as ledger-books in which our instances of moral courage and ethical inadequacy stand in for the accountant’s credits and debits works for me and will probably suit most. There is even a book with that title—Sefer Ḥeshbon Ha-nefesh by Rabbi Menaḥem Mendel Lefin, written in 1808 and the only rabbinic work known to have been directly influenced by the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin—which I wrote about to you all a few years ago just before Pesach. (To review what I had to say there, click here.)

How exactly to go about this is a different question, however. I suppose some people really can just sit down and review the year week by week, noting where they personally feel themselves to have come up short and resolving to respond in a way more in keeping with the moral code they claim to espouse when facing analogous situations in the future. For most of us, though, that process—although theoretically possible—is not that practical an approach to the larger enterprise: who can remember the days of our lives with clear-eyed enough exactitude to analyze deeds from months ago with the certainty that we are remembering things precisely correctly? Fortunately, there are other ways to see ourselves clearly and for many, myself included, the simplest answer is to use a mirror. Not a real one, of course, in which you can only see the reflection of your outermost appearance. But there are other kinds of mirrors available to us, some of which have the ability to reflect the inner self and which can serve, therefore, more like windows into the soul than the kind of mirror you look into each morning when you brush your teeth and see yourself looking back with a toothbrush in your mouth.

For me personally and for many years now, that mirror has always been a book I’ve chosen to read or re-read during Elul in the hope that it will allow me to see myself reflected either in its plot, in the way some specific one of its characters is depicted, or in the world it describes. Over the years, I’ve chosen well and less well. But when I do somehow manage to choose the right book for Elul, that choice makes all the difference by allowing me to see myself in the depiction of another far more clearly than I think I ever could have managed on my own.

This year I read Marcos Aguinis’ novel, Against the Inquisition. Although the author is apparently very well-known in his native Argentina and throughout the Spanish-speaking world, I hadn’t ever heard of him until just this last July when Dara Horn published a review of the new English-language translation by Carolina de Robertis of his most successful book, called La Gesta del Marrano in Spanish, in Moment magazine. The review was stellar (to read it for yourself, click here) and left me intrigued enough to buy a copy with the intention of it being my Elul book for this year. It wasn’t a big investment, so I wasn’t risking much. (Used paperback copies and the e-book version are both available online for less than $5 each.) But it turned out to be exactly the right choice: I just finished it earlier this week and found myself truly astounded both by the author’s literary skill and, even more so, by what the book has to say about the nature of Jewishness itself.

Seeing myself in the protagonist, Francisco Maldonado da Silva—a real historical figure who lived from1592 to 1639—was simple enough. Imagining myself reaching the level of piety, self-awareness, courage, and moral decency he exemplified in his life and, even more so, in his death—that was the mirror into which I found myself peering as I read Aguinis’s book. I don’t have to be him, obviously. But I do have to be me. And so the question is not whether I could learn Spanish and move to the seventeenth century, but whether I have it in me to be me in the same sense that the book’s protagonist was himself. If the concept sounds obscure when I formulate it that way, read the book and you’ll see what I mean: I can hardly remember feeling more personally challenged by a novel, and more eager to accept the protagonist as a moral role model. Against the Inquisition is a historical novel, of course, not a non-fiction work of “regular” history. But it tells a true story…and the opportunity to read the story, to take it to heart, to be moved incredibly by its detail, and to feel transformed by the experience of communing with a great Jewish thinker through the medium of his art—that is the gift Against the Inquisition offers to its readers.

The plot, fully rooted in the real Francisco Maldonado da Silva’s life story, is beyond moving. The details of Jewish life in Latin America in the late 1500s and the early 1600s will be obscure to most readers in North America today. But the short version is that all of South America except Brazil was part of the Spanish Empire back then. And the Catholic authorities (whose power over the region’s secular rulers was almost absolute) were dedicated not merely to making the practice of Judaism illegal, but to ferreting out even the vaguest traces of Jewish practice of belief that might still be lingering among the so-called “New” Christians, the descendants of those Jews who chose conversion to Catholic Christianity over flight when the Jews were exiled from Spain and Portugal, but at least some of whom retained a deeply engrained sense of their own Jewishness intact enough to pass along to their children and their children’s children as well.

Da Silva’s life story as retold in the book is remarkable in almost every way. His father, a physician harboring a deep, if secret and entirely illicit, devotion to his own Jewishness is eventually discovered and punished so cruelly and so degradingly that it beggars the imagination to consider that his torture—which is certainly not too strong a word to describe his treatment—was undertaken by men who considered themselves not only deeply religious but truly virtuous. But the meat of the novel is the story of how exactly the physician’s son Francisco, who also becomes well-known and highly respected doctor, is made aware of his Jewishness and then finds it in him not to dissemble so as not to be caught, but, at least eventually, to embrace his Jewishness and his Judaism openly and fearlessly. That kind of behavior was not tolerated in Spanish America, and the consequences for Francisco are, at least in some ways, even worse than the physical abuse and public humiliation to which his father was subjected.

The last chapters particularly are seared into my memory. You know what’s coming. You know that there’s no other way for the book to end. You understand that the protagonist, Francisco himself, sees that as clearly as you do. And yet you continue to hope that you’re wrong, that some deus ex machina will descend from the sky and make things right. You know you’re being crazy by hoping for such a thing—and, if you are me, you already know that the auto-da-fé of January 23, 1639, in Lima, Peru, was perhaps the largest mass execution of Jews ever undertaken by the Catholic church, a nightmarish travesty of justice undertaken in the name of religion in which more than eighty “New” Christians were burnt alive at the stake for the crime of having retained some faint vestige of their families’ Jewishness—but you continue to delude yourself into thinking that perhaps the author will take advantage of his novelist’s prerogative to just make up some other ending. That Francisco is depicted as having the means of escaping his prison cell but instead uses his freedom to visit other prisoners and encourage them to embrace their Jewishness and to accept their fate with pride and courage—that detail alone makes this novel a worthy Elul read.

My readers all know who my personal heroes are. Janusz Korczak, who chose to die at Treblinka rather than to abandon the orphans entrusted to his care. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who returned to wartime Germany to preach against Nazism and eventually to play a role in the plot to assassinate Hitler, for which effort he paid with his life. And now I add Francisco Maldonado da Silva, who chose to die with dignity and pride as a Jew rather than to run off and spend his life masquerading as something he was not and had no wish to be. Could I be like that? Could I live up to my own values in the way these men did? Could I be me the way they were them? I ask these questions not because I wish to answer them in public, but merely to show that they can be asked. They can also be answered, of course. And that is what Elul is for: to challenge us to peer into whatever mirror we choose…and ask if the man or woman we could be is looking back, or just the woman or man we ended up as. That is the searing, anxiety-provoking question the holidays about to dawn lay at our feet. If you’re looking for the courage to formulate your own answer, read Against the Inquisition and I’m guessing you’ll be as inspired to undertake the ḥeshbon ha-nefesh necessary to answer honestly as I was.

#Marcos Aguinis #Francisco Maldonado da Silva #Inquisition

6 notes · View notes

tallangrycockatiel · 6 years

Text

WoT B1C53: Ending on a suspiciously positive note

The group returns to Fal Dara, where everyone is having a party. The Blight doesn’t try and kill them on the way out, and spring has come to the Borderlands. Everyone is celebrating a miraculous victory against the Trollocs, but Lord Agelmar thinks he saw a man doing magic, and is troubled. Lady Rain is still not entirely up and about, but plans to take the Horn to Ilian, where it’s from, when she is. Egg and Nynaeve are planning to go to Tar Valon for training, Mat needs to go there too to be de-daggered, and Perrin is planning to come along for the adventure. Rand is planning to go someplace far away from everything and everyone.

None of the questions have been answered and none of the shoes have dropped, this is really frustrating. Lady Rain tells Agelmar that the Dark One is defeated, but the Fades and Trollocs are still out there and need to be dealt with. She clearly thinks she’s telling the truth, but everything feels really, really off.

Rand is having a gloom. He doesn’t want to go to Tar Valon and end up being discovered and Gentled by another Aes Sedai. He can’t stomach the idea of going home after everything that’s happened. He’s assured Lady Rain that he won’t ever touch the Power again, but he’s not actually sure he can stop himself doing it by accident, so he’s decided to go be a hermit somewhere far away to keep everyone safe.

I saw The Last Jedi recently, and my mental image here is just Rand planning to become a ginger version of Luke on his Sulking Rock amongst the porgs.

Lady Rain ends the book with the line “The Prophecies will be fulfilled, The Dragon is Reborn.” Which is ominous as all hell and suggests that she is way more invested in Rand’s future than he thinks she is. It’s also mentioned that some of the first magic she did was as a child in the Royal Palace in Cairhien. I don’t know where that is or how it relates to any of the geography or kingdoms we’ve met, but Lady Rain might actually be royalty. Fun.

Book 1 finished! Overall, I enjoyed it, especially when things took a significant turn away from the standard fantasy-medieval-Europe stuff roundabout when we got to the Ways. There’s characters I definitely want to see more of – will the next book give me the Egg and Nynaeve Aes Sedai training montage I hope it will? - and plot that I want explaining in more detail. I don’t think the Dark One is really dead. I think the Aes Sedai have a lot to answer for. We still don’t know what’s really up with Rand, parentage-wise. We don’t even know exactly what this Prophecy even says about Rand as the Dragon Reborn. And I await the return of The Dramatic Shade of Thom Merrilin, and the further adventures of Bela the (confirmed still alive!) Eldritch Horse.

#WoT #wheel of time #uaf #unreasonably attractive fandom #the eye of the world #WoT.1.53 #finished the first book!

11 notes · View notes

akastarlords · 7 years

Text

Romance and Rant

part 1 of (what I friggen hope is only) 3

Here we are, at long, long last. I suppose there is some of you who don’t know what book has rooted itself deep into the back of my mind, where it lurks around like a ghost of some spurn British woman haunting moors.

Now it’s not that it’s written terribly, it’s not. The writing is just fine. It’s…it’s the story itself. So here I go.

This book goes by the title of Rejar, and was written by Dara Joy. It’s only the second book in a series of romance novels known as…The Matrix of Destiny (cue stunned gasps and curious whispers, I’m sure) but this book truly is the one to stand out from the rest. The others…I may get to later. Maybe.

But REJAR. How can I start? Oh, this book has EVERYTHING.

Regency England Dimension/Space travel Lord Byron Cat aliens who thrive off sex A wizard literally straight out of your little brothers DnD game Constant mentions of manly thick thighs and more

Here’s some quick 411 on our hero. His name is Rejar. Not pronounced Ray-Jar, cause that’d be to gosh darned easy. Re-jkar. That’s how he says it’s pronounced. I guess the soft K gives it a sexy twist. Maybe it might sound hot with the right accent? I’m thinking Boston.

‘Jkaaahr’ (oh yeah)

Back on track, he is from an alien race that can go back and forth between human form and cat form. This race goes by the name of Familiars. Cause, well, shout out to folklore and stuff. Also who can be assed to think of a cool name for sex crazed space cats? Not me! Not Ms. Joy either.

Picking up instantly from the previous book, our hero has made a sacrifice for his (half? step? honestly the family tree is messy, I’ve given up trying.) brother and is just flinging and hurling through space. It’s not some new or exciting planet he can end up on, but good ol’ London Town circa Regency Era.

It’s all just TOO convenient he ends up in our heroine’s carriage. In cat form. It’s kitty love at first sight, and when Lilac (our heroine) scratches behind his left ear. It seals her fate of him plaguing her life.

And plague he does.

Lilac is a modern 1800’s woman. She doesn’t care that at only twenty years old, her days were being numbered till she was branded an old maid. She just wants to be left alone to read and hang out with her new pet cat (hard same, Lilac)

While Lilac is sleeping in bed with what she thought was just a mere cat, Rejar turns back into his human form. Which! It should be noted! He is naked! *repeated air horns blaring*

Everytime he transforms, he loses his clothes in the process. Convenient, again. Gee, wonder if that’ll ever come into play during a certain situation (*whispers loudly* IT DOES AND IT IS UNCOMFORTABLE)

We have a naked man laid up with an unsuspecting sleeping girl in her bed.

HOIST THE COLORS, LADS. OUR FIRST RED FLAG.

Honestly, it is just one of many. Rejar proceeds to keep up his game. Passing himself off as a dream to Lilac when she’s actually awake. Oh yeah, the space cats have the ability to speak into other people’s minds and sorta glamor them. Well why the hell not? It’s sci-fi, it’s a trashy romance novel, it was written in the 90’s, whatever screw it.

While Rejar isn’t trapezing around as a cat or duping Lilac into believing she’s having a dream about a naked man in her bed, he’s off making an impression on the ton of London by passing himself off as a Russian prince and since google isn’t around for a few more hundred years, he totally gets away with it. No one dares question Russia.

He particularly has an impression on the infamous Lord Byron. Oh, name drop why don’t you. (“Yeah, Me and the Lord By Guy? Bros for life.”)

Rejar slowly begins to learn about the culture here on earth, sometimes he’s intrigued, sometimes appalled, sometimes acting homophobic, the usual.

When Lilac in full awareness this time, meets Rejar going by Prince Nikolai she is, of course, scandalized to meet the naked man from her dream (Kids, I'm going to tell you the story of How I Met Your Father)

Now truly begins the longest game of cat and mouse. Literal on the cat, as much as it pains me to use that joke.

It seems Rejar just can’t grab a damn hint that Lilac wants nothing to do with him. It’s a challenge, he’s a predator, it’s in his blood. The pursuit continues. For chapters, and chapters. More visits to Lilac in her ‘dreams’, more of heavy tension filled moments…

Now, I’m all for slow burn but damn. Also, let Lilac Know Peace 1811.

But just when Rejar thinks he’s away from his home planet, in sweeps another thick thighed and well muscled…step, half, adopted? brother or some close friend of the family idk honestly im tired

I will leave the rant here for now. Tune in next time when we come to the most awkward wedding I ever had the joy of reading. Then we get to the kinda more weird stuff as if we weren’t already down a path which I can never return from.

(Also, I have a shameful collection of other romance novels I’d love to review/rant about. Some good, some…uHHH. In both plot and writing. If there’s any good, bad, or books you want me to check out, send them my way!)

also tagging my wife @ocheeva so she can enjoy my woes 💕

#romance and rant #a new tag for anyone to follow or black list!#sighs deeply #each page is a new fantastic piece of work that haunts me

3 notes · View notes

stealmyjoygivemeapen-blog · 7 years

Text

Hostile Take-Over

Damien was not in a pleasant mood. The constant stop and go traffic was enough to test even the calmest mans patience.

Come on people. I just want to get home.

A motorcycle began merging dangerously close to him. Damien tapped his horn in warning, and slowed down to make room. The motorcycle barely made it in. At the next red light the motorcycle backed up to his window. The rider removed his helmet and glared at Damien.

This is why I hate driving.

"What's the matter tough guy?" the motorcyclist said. "Don't have anything to say now do you?"

Relax. The light will turn any second. You'll never see him again.

"Go ahead. Honk some more. Why don't you get out of that car and fight like a man?"

Damien's hands clenched on the steering wheel.

Maybe I should.

Unbeknownst to Damien, an internal struggle began.

Zorn, an Avatar of Anger, did not leave the Great Hall with the rest. Instead, he remained to square off with Severn, an Avatar of Calm, and current leader of the Council of the Mind.

"Can't you see what is happening outside of the castle?" Zorn asked.

"I see it as clearly as you do," Severn said.

"Then you know I'm the one to handle this. The host must be protected."

"Your handling will do nothing more than put the host at risk. You are well aware of the Council's policy. We will show restraint unless the situation becomes too dangerous."

"Council policy be damned! We should take action, not wait until it's too late. Grant me control of the Nether Ways and I can end this now."

Severn glanced towards the North wall. A deep purple glow emanated from beneath a door just behind the throne. Two guards stood with their gazes fixed on Zorn. One of them shifted to block the door with his body.

"That," Severn said, "will never happen. The Council does not trust you. Neither do I. You are not fit to lead."

"Very well, but when things turn bad it will be on your head."

Zorn turned away from Severn with a fiercer than usual scowl. As he opened the Hall door he spared one last look back. Severn was already busying himself with another task.

"This isn't over," he said, and slammed the door.

The hallway was filled with council members who were still socializing. He scanned the crowd until his eyes found Vindex engaged in a lively debate with several of the nicer avatars. When he noticed Zorn's gaze he nodded, and then returned to his conversation.

Zorn took off towards his private quarters. Several other council members were forced to move quickly from his path, or risk being knocked aside. Two such women paused in their conversation as he passed by.

"Here we go again," one of them said.

"He never learns," the other said.

Once Zorn was inside his room he threw the nearest lamp into the far wall. The nightstand was next, and shortly after he kicked in the closet door. He ended his rampage next to the only window in the room. He looked out upon the Plains of Emotion.

Normally the Plains were a constantly changing landscape. With each passing moment mountains could become lakes, and volcanoes could turn to forests just as easily. It reflected the host's world, and how it was affecting him. At the moment there was nothing but a raging inferno.

There was a light knock at the door. Vindex immediately followed it. He surveyed the room and chuckled.

"I see your chat with Severn didn't go so well?" he asked.

"Have you seen it lately?" Zorn asked, gesturing towards the Plains. "Nothing but fire, yet these fools can't bring themselves to take action."

"The council will show restraint," Vindex said in his best Severn voice. "I grow so tired of that line."

"It would seem more drastic steps are needed. You are my only ally on the Council. I need access to the Nether Ways, and for that sacrifices must be made."

"Sacrifices?" Vindex asked.

"I regret it, but it is my duty to keep the host safe." He met Vindex's eyes. "I believe I saw you speaking with Dara and Anana outside the Great Hall..."

Vindex and Dara arrived at the castle gates, intricately designed doors showing scenes from the host's life, moments before Anana. There were no guards, nor any bars or locks. There had never been need for them. They moved to block her path.

"Dara," Anana said. "Please don't do this. Stop and think."

"I don't know what you think you've discovered Anana," Dara said, "but it's not worth the risk. I'm not going to let you step into the Plains."

"What are you talking about?" Anana asked. "I would never do such a thing. Vindex's message claimed you were heading for the outside."

Others began arriving at the gates. Some pleaded with Dara while others did their best to make Anana see reason. It seemed every member of the council had received a similar message. Severn arrived last.

"What kind of game are you playing Vindex?" Severn asked.

Vindex grabbed Dara by the arm and pushed one of the doors open.

"Vindex," Dara said with tears filling her eyes. "Please don't do this."

"Sorry Dara," Vindex said. "Sacrifices must be made."

Without hesitation, Vindex threw her into the inferno. Several of the more powerful Avatars rushed towards Vindex, but he refused to go down easy. Severn scanned the crowd.

"He's not here," he said. "Zorn, what have you done?"

While Vindex caused havoc, Zorn entered the small chamber at the rear of the Great Hall. In the center of the room, hovering in mid-air, was a swirling vortex of black and purple.

"So this is the Nether Ways," Zorn said.

"Zorn!" Severn said, rushing into the chamber. "Step away from there. You have no idea what you are doing."

"I know exactly what I'm doing Severn," Zorn said. "I've spent years learning everything I can about the Nether Ways. Any order I give here will be followed by the host without question. No more delays. Why can't you see that this is for the best?"

Severn moved slowly towards Zorn, and the guards moved to flank him.

"That is just like you," Severn said. "Taking something infinitely complex and making it sound so simple. In your studies did you never wonder why we use the Nether Ways so infrequently? Every time we do it changes the host. If you force him to do this, there is no telling what the long term effects may be."

Zorn looked into the depths of the vortex. Severn and the guards closed in.

"So be it," Zorn said.

Zorn spoke a single word into the Nether Ways that echoed throughout the entire castle.

"Attack."

The emotional battle inside of Damien ended. He stepped out of the car.

Enough of this.

The motorcyclist moved to get off his bike, but Damien punched him in the face before he could dismount. Damien stomped on the man's back when he tried to stand. A few of the other drivers screamed at him to stop, but most just stared in awe.

The guards wrestled Zorn away from the Nether Ways, allowing Severn to regain control, but the damage was done.

"Stop," Severn shouted into the Ways. A sense of calm settled over the castle. He looked to the guards holding Zorn.

"Lock him away."

Damien offered no resistance as the police arrested him. Watching as the paramedics loaded the motorcyclists into the ambulance, he began to cry.

"I'm so sorry," Damien said. "I don't know what came over me."

"You have the right to remain silent," one of the officers said. "I suggest you use it."

Zorn's cell contained one window through which he could see the Plains. The inferno was gone, but the vibrant life that previously thrived had not returned. It was now a desolate place, filled with dying trees and dried up lakes.

"It didn't have to be like this," Severn said as he approached the cell. Zorn turned to look at him.

"All I ever wanted was to keep the host safe," Zorn said.

"The Council has gathered to hear your plea before sentencing."

"No. Let me rot here. I deserve no place among you now."

Severn nodded then left to inform the Council. Zorn turned back to the window.

"What have I done?"

0 notes