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Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to? - All languages
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2024 2:59 am
by zompist
Ares Land wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 2:33 am
It's really a card game first! The occult associations came later.
As a teenager, I actually knew how to use a Tarot deck for fortunetelling. I wish I could tell something deep about the cards channeling Jungian archetypes -- the sad truth is they're mostly channeling the Barnum effect
Just as well... the occult makes for good fiction, I don't think it'd be better to live in a world where it was real!
Imagine Elon Musk starting a new business to disrupt and exploit the occult industries... that doesn't end well.
Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to? - All languages
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2024 3:56 am
by Ares Land
zompist wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 2:59 am
Imagine Elon Musk starting a new business to disrupt and exploit the occult industries... that doesn't end well.
Actually a minor plot point in one of the
Laundry Series novels, can't remember which.
(I've enjoyed the first four or five books in that series, but I didn't like the newer ones much)
Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to? - All languages
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2024 5:48 am
by zompist
Ares Land wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 3:56 am
zompist wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 2:59 am
Imagine Elon Musk starting a new business to disrupt and exploit the occult industries... that doesn't end well.
Actually a minor plot point in one of the
Laundry Series novels, can't remember which.
(I've enjoyed the first four or five books in that series, but I didn't like the newer ones much)
I only read those first books. I appreciate the fact that Stross has gone full gonzo... essentially asking, what if the Laundry fails?... I felt like the Culture novels suffered because Banks never gave the Culture an adversary that actually threatened it. But I don't much care for apocalypse stories... or maybe for long book series.
Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to? - All languages
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2024 7:27 am
by Ares Land
zompist wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 5:48 am
Ares Land wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 3:56 am
zompist wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 2:59 am
Imagine Elon Musk starting a new business to disrupt and exploit the occult industries... that doesn't end well.
Actually a minor plot point in one of the
Laundry Series novels, can't remember which.
(I've enjoyed the first four or five books in that series, but I didn't like the newer ones much)
I only read those first books. I appreciate the fact that Stross has gone full gonzo... essentially asking, what if the Laundry fails?... I felt like the Culture novels suffered because Banks never gave the Culture an adversary that actually threatened it. But I don't much care for apocalypse stories... or maybe for long book series.
The trouble with the latest Laundry novels is
that the series had build up to Case Nightmare Green -- Earth's inevitable takeover by Lovecraftian horrors. But then it turns out anticlimatic -- Britain is taken over by Nyarlatothep but nothing much happens,really. At times you get the idea that Stross would actually prefer Nyarly to the Tories.
Re: What are you reading, watching and listening to? - All languages
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2024 7:44 am
by zompist
Ares Land wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2024 7:27 am But then it turns out anticlimatic --
Britain is taken over by Nyarlatothep but nothing much happens,really. At times you get the idea that Stross would actually prefer Nyarly to the Tories.
Yeah-- and that's a pretty good joke. But it's not as good a joke as the original one (higher math + comp sci = magic). If things
don't actually spiral into doom, it may not age well in 20 years. Tying books too closely to their decade is not usually a good idea.