#stephen r donaldson
Text
Some of these battered paperbacks have been with me for years; I love them for their stories, but also for the connection back to a younger me!
#my reading life#peter s beagle#tessa dare#stephen r donaldson#star trek#christopher pike#the last unicorn#the last vampire
71 notes
·
View notes
Text
DAUGHTER OF REGALS (1983) Acrylic on Illustration Board - 31" x 21"
Caught in profile, a young woman pauses before turning into a hallway, setting hands on rough stone as she glances back, a suggestion of castle intrigue. Her eyes are deep brown and her hair falls straight, raven black. Her plain white dress is torn, exposing bare skin all the way down her side and back. The hall she approaches ends with a stunning stained glass window. At the center of the design, a red dragon clutches a yellow orb; its wings and tail are furled so it takes the shape of a heart. The rest of the pattern is filled with panels of Celtic knotwork.
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
"The purpose of life—if it may be said to have purpose—is not ease. It is to choose, and to act upon the choice. In that task, we are not measured by outcomes. We are measured only by daring and effort and resolve." -Stephen R. Donaldson, The Last Dark
1 note
·
View note
Text
Beowulf – “Heroes Under Heaven"
* * *
"Alone in the history of the "epic," Beowulf takes place in the "real," tangible, recognizable world. Not in Heaven, Albion, or Middle Earth. That, in fact, is part of the point of Beowulf. Its author[s] want us to see its setting and characters and situations as real, as actually happening. And yet the magic is there - in Gendel, in Beowulf himself - in the capacity to find a redeeming reply to a superhuman evil, a transcendent answer to the void.
-Stephen R. Donaldson :: Epic Fantasy and the Modern World
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
vote YES if you have finished the entire book.
vote NO if you have not finished the entire book.
(faq · submit a book)
#fantasy#books#The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant#Lord Foul's Bane#Stephen R. Donaldson#poll#result: no#l: English
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
You Should Read (Part 4)
You Should Read Number 4
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever: Lord Foul’s Bane: Chapters 19-25
Josh: This is a continuation of a running commentary about one of my favorite series with my lovely wife, Renee. She writes over on her WordPress [You’re here!] and you should check it out!
Renee: Let’s start with a recurring theme: it is possible to preserve the gifts of the Land…
View On WordPress
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
Winding Up the Week #330
An end of week recap
“Any belief that puts itself beyond doubt nurtures its own collapse.”
– Stephen R. Donaldson (born 13th May 1947)
Thank you for your patience during my two-week WUTW hiatus. I had a wonderful holiday in Sorrento, the ‘town of lemons’ (hence today’s main picture).
During my stay, I explored the ancient city of Pompeii, trekked to the top of Mount Vesuvius (well, I walked the…
View On WordPress
#Book Reviews#Books#Cat Books#Cat Literature#Reading#Reading the Meow#Stephen R. Donaldson#Torquato Tasso
0 notes
Text
The Consequence of No Consequences: Mushoku Tensei and excusing sexual violence
Content warning: discussions of sexual assault, sexual abuse, and pedophilia
Spoilers for Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 1 and 2
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson, a novel series published from 1977 to 2013, is one of my favorite works of fantasy ever. It’s also infamous for having one of the most loathsome protagonists in modern fiction. The titular character, a misanthropic shut-in who gets transported to another world, sexually assaults a teenage girl in the story’s opening act. It’s a truly horrific moment, and while Covenant never does anything nearly that monstrous again, the weight of his sin hangs over his neck for the rest of the series.
I bring this all up to say that I see the value in stories where the protagonist is a horrible person. Handled well, a story with a main character like this can explore ideas and comment on parts of the human condition that more aspirational protagonists can’t. But there’s an important factor to that equation: consequences.
I don’t mean a moralistic “this character did a bad thing and should be punished by the author for it” mindset. I mean that when a character does something extreme, for good or ill, it should leave an impact on those caught in its wake. Thomas Covenant assaulting a teenager, for example, has far-reaching effects on her, on her family, and on himself, aftershocks that would naturally stem from such a terrible act. Any story that wants to explore this darker side of humanity must be willing to explore how doing horrible things affects the world and people around you, or it risks trivializing the true horrors of the darkness it depicts.
Mushoku Tensei, funnily enough, starts from much the same place as Thomas Covenant. A misanthropic shut-in transported to another world, Rudeus “Rudy” Greyrat is a pedophile given a chance to live a better life and repair his toxic patterns. Mushoku Tensei purports to be a story of redemption, exploring how even the most reprehensible person imaginable can grow into a respectable human being. But it undercuts Rudeus’ growth by constantly shielding him from the consequences of his actions even in his new life, twisting its world and characters however it wants to justify and excuse the horrible things he does.
Read it at Anime Feminist!
18 notes
·
View notes
Text
I saw a smug progressive retweet I can't find now that was something like this
>'Don't shove your politics into your reviews. Just review the books. "I will," Russ said, "when authors keep politics out of their books."
Class, note the implication that progressive reviewers are just seeing the politics that are already there, and never, ever misinterpret a non-political work through the lens of modern left-wing politics.
Anyone who retweets something like that is precisely the sort of progressive I stay away from, because they refuse to admit their side is ever wrong, and can't even understand the criticisms leveled at them.
PS: Turns out this quote refers to a feminist named Joanna Russ, specifically concerning her reviews of Stephen R. Donaldson's Lord Foul's Bane (1977) and Joy Chant's The Grey Mane of Morning (1977), according to Wikiwand.
Ironically, Wikiwand cites this as evidence she was a logical person, when it sounds exactly like a modern smug twitter progressive.
Like the type of person (re)tweeting it to justify their team's actions.
24 notes
·
View notes
Note
Hmm... top 10 people you want to cancel?
Oh goodness there are so many to choose from, what with "things that aren't obviously wrong or bad but annoy me in some way" and "people I dislike on an ideological or emotional level"
Stephen R. Donaldson
Ayn Rand
Richard Dawkins
Paul Ehrlich
Paul Erdos
Ayn Rand
Peter Singer
The British Empire
Eliezer Yudkowsky
My own bad ideas
204 notes
·
View notes
Note
Hello darling 😘
Here to ask you a few questions from the Writer (& Artist) Ask Game: 18, 24, 25 & 26.
Looking forward to reading you ❤️
Ah thank you so much for this lovely ask @cleverblackcat . I actually had to think about some of these, which was the point of the exercise of course! Hoping to see yours soon too!
18: Describe the setting of one or more of your wips
Oh gosh.. *eyes twitches as I look at my WIP folder* .. For TWC I'm currently working on chapter 2 for "To break the Unbreakable" The setting for this is Catherine/Kitty struggling with her feelings for Mason when they explictely agreed they would keep it purely casual. Then there's Chapter 7 in Gwen's playthrough write-along (which, tbh, is now already 2 books behind and will probably never end). Currently the setting for this is pretty much still the beginning of Book 1 TWC *laughs somewhat nervously*.. so yeah..
The rest is under the cut ^^
24: Do you have/want a career in your medium? If not, what do you do/want to do instead?
Ah, that ship has well and truly sailed. It's definitely a hobby for me, both the writing and my dabbling in digital art on the side. I really want to learn to work with software like CSP and PS, but I don't have the patience and dedication it takes to become an artist. Out of the two, writing has always been my first love, ever since I first started scribbling my little make-believe stories in my notebooks at age 9.
25: What’s your favourite genre to write? Is it also your favourite genre to read?
Fiction, with my favourites being Fantasy in any shape or form, although high-fantasy/medieval fantasy and Urban fantasy are at the top. Gothic/Horror next and SF/Crime after that. Although tbh I enjoy pretty much any well written (fictional) story. Anything that helps me escape reality for a bit. And yes, both for writing and reading.
26: What are your favourite books?
This pretty much changes with the latest book I read, there are so many amazing ficton authors out there. I love epic stories, seeing that there's more than 1 book instantly gives me a sense that a world is worth investing in, that I won't get invested in characters who will just be gone in 400 or so pages. So for that reason:
Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. The first fandom I ever got heavily involved in and my first foray into fan-fic writing.
The Earthsea trilogy by Ursula le Guin
Black Jewels series by Anne Bishop
Any of Robin Hobb's books
A song of Ice and Fire (GoT) . Read this before it became popular and always loved the characters and the world (George R. Martin)
Kingkiller Chronicles (Patrick Rothfuss)
Malazan Book of the Fallen (Steven Erikson)
Any of Terry Pratchett's books.. I mean.. c'me on.
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant/Mordant's need by Stephen Donaldson
It's honestly painful to pick and choose, I also have great admiration for Brandon Sanderson, Neil Gaiman, Joe Abercrombie, Jack Vance, Stephen King, Tanith Lee ... the list goes on and on.
Thank you for letting me think about this, it really was a great exercise.
Tagging @cleverblackcat @serenpedac @glitchthemimic and anyone else that would be so kind to indulge me. Would love to see your responses to these! Please tag me!
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
[KNU WEEK 10 Homework]
Novelist, Stephen R. Donaldson wrote that "futility is the defining characteristic of life." I don't agree with that statement. I don't know that Stephen R. Donaldson even agrees with that statement given that he has authored more than 30 novels. If he truly believed that futility was the defining characteristic of life, why would he have bothered to write anything at all? Books live on beyond the lives of the authors who write them. Is that a futile endeavor? I don't think so.
What would you say is the defining characteristic of your life? Is it courage? Is it love? Is it the pursuit of excellence? Is it bitterness and regret? Is it a search for meaning? Tell me and explain your answer. Why do you believe that it is the defining characteristic of your life?
>>> Well, that's a pretty tough question. To be honest, I also don't know why futility is the defining characteristic of life. I don't understand it either, but there could be something we don't know. Anyway, I think the characteristic that defines my life is love. Probably. Without love, we lose our purpose in life. Loving everything in the world, not just loving someone, can enrich our lives. Wouldn't this be like saying I love my life? I think loving my life is the definition of life.
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
“Service enables service. Hope came from the power and value of what was served, not from the one who served it.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, White Gold Wielder
1 note
·
View note
Text
OCD and Stray Kids
My journey into Stray Kids began with me triggering my OCD to its highest levels yet. Luckily I have never been too extreme, but I do have a tendency to sort and organize things. My vinyl albums and then my CDs were all sorted in alphabetical order by artist, and then in chronologic order. I like to read books in series (Stephen R. Donaldson, Janet Evanovich, Harlan Coben) and watch movies and TV shows in order. That was great during quarantine, as I could binge shows that I hadn't seen before and actually get through multiple seasons.
And then came Stray Kids --
They have massive amounts of content out there. We're talking TONS! And I have been compelled to watch it all in chronological order. It's taken months to get where I am. I never fooled myself into thinking I'd found it all, but just last week I discovered that there are people maintaining databases of SKZ stuff! And here I've been reinventing the wheel. I've got notepads all over the place with birthdates, heights, star signs, release dates, tour dates, MBTI scores, etc.
By the way, does anyone know how tall Seungmin and I.N are now that they are adults?
So now I'm attempting to fill in the gaps and find the things I've missed. I realized I never watched their vlives, so I'm working my way through those now. I'm sure I'm going to discover the source of a lot of those cute Instagram and TikTok edits I've seen. Hopefully, the YouTube archive channel has all of them since vlive is gone.
One good thing about OCD is that I spent much of my earlier journey counting the number of members present in videos so I could tell pre- and post- Woojin activity. It was also handy to understand when HAN and Hyunjin weren't participating. Unfortunately, even though they are now settled in the 8-member lineup, I'm still counting. 😒
#skz#skz stay#stray kids#bystay#bang chan#christopher bang#skz bang chan#skz chris#lee minho#lee know#skz lee minho#skz minho#seo changbin#changbin#skz changbin#hwang hyunjin#skz hyunjin#hyunjin#han jisung#han#skz han#skz jisung#lee felix#lee yongbok#skz felix#skz lee yongbok#skz yongbok#seungmin#kim seungmin#skz seungmin
5 notes
·
View notes
Note
hey hey, happy STS!! what advice do you wish you were given as a beginner writer? was there any that has stuck with you until now?
Hi there :)
I never really had advice when I was beginning, so any sort of advice would have been helpful. I grew up on a diet of pulp fantasy books, handed down from my dad, so I often just copied the tropes and themes from them- authors like David Eddings, Stephen R Donaldson etc. My early stuff was very formulaic and boring.
I would just regurgitate the same old medieval fantasy setting with different characters. I didn't understand character journeys, needs vs wants etc. And dialogue...ugh...so stilted and boring, filled with exposition.
It was only when I branched out to authors like Terry Pratchett, Ursula Le Guin etc that I realised that fantasy doesn't all have to be pale, stale and male! Writing is about stretching your imagination, filling in the little blanks of 'what if' and branching off into alternate universes.
I also learned to be critical of things that I was reading. Could I still enjoy, for example, David Eddings' work? Yeah, sure, but I could also see the problematic elements in it i.e. most of the books I read as a kid couldn't pass the Bechdel test, or showed abusive /toxic relationships in a positive light.
So the common advice of reading widely has been really important to me. Reading my favourite genres (fantasy, sci fi & crime) from authors who are POC, or neurodivergant, LGBTQ+,or just from a different cultural background has expended my own writing, and understanding of how important it is see the world through others' eyes.
(Which is one of the reasons why we read, right? Escapism from our own experiences, as well as to widen our own knowledge!)
It's also helped me address my own biases, which I try to counteract in my own writing. I think it's fair to say that we all want to be the change that we want to see. So adding women, POC, neurodivergent, LGBTQ+ characters into my writing is important to me. |I feel that I need to atone for all the pale-stale-male fantasy authors that I read in my early teens!
So read widely, experience the world through others' eyes and perspectives, and that will make you a better writer (imho)
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
You Should Read (Part 3)
You Should Read (Part 3)
You Should Read Number 3
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever: Lord Foul’s Bane: Chapters 13-18
Josh (writing for his Substack): This is a continuation of a running commentary about one of my favorite series with my lovely wife, Renee.
Renee (previous article here): We start to see a difference in Covenant’s attitude in this section, particularly his reaction to the horsies, the…
View On WordPress
2 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
s41-mooon
Simón
cielcloudds
CL_Cloudds
strawberry-soil
Hana
fruitqueer
stay queer! and open your mind!
