From de890d6d35d84bae8ba9bd3f7eeb0614ed2e246c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Zane Meyers Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2026 09:02:28 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] vault backup: 2026-02-08 09:02:28 --- 2026-02-07_09-16-31.md | 24 +++++++++++++++ 2026-02-08_08-00-49.md | 69 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 93 insertions(+) create mode 100644 2026-02-07_09-16-31.md create mode 100644 2026-02-08_08-00-49.md diff --git a/2026-02-07_09-16-31.md b/2026-02-07_09-16-31.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b41300b --- /dev/null +++ b/2026-02-07_09-16-31.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +id: +aliases: [] +title: "2026-02-07 09:16:31" +tags: + - authorship/original + - destiny/permanent + - status/draft + - type/periodic/timestamped +dg-publish: true +daily: "[[2026-02-07]]" +weekly: "[[2026-W06]]" +monthly: "[[2026-02]]" +quarterly: "[[2026-Q1]]" +yearly: "[[2026]]" +--- +# 2026-02-07 09:16:31 + +> [!quote] Malcolm X on Prospects for Freedom in 1965 (January 7, 1965) +> You can't separate peace from freedom +> because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom. + +> [!quote] Patera Silk in _Exodus from the Long Sun_ (1996), by Gene Wolfe +> Nobody can be truly free without peace. diff --git a/2026-02-08_08-00-49.md b/2026-02-08_08-00-49.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..17c89bf --- /dev/null +++ b/2026-02-08_08-00-49.md @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +--- +id: +aliases: [] +title: "2026-02-08 08:00:49" +tags: + - authorship/original + - destiny/permanent + - status/draft + - type/periodic/timestamped +dg-publish: true +daily: "[[2026-02-08]]" +weekly: "[[2026-W06]]" +monthly: "[[2026-02]]" +quarterly: "[[2026-Q1]]" +yearly: "[[2026]]" +--- +# 2026-02-08 08:00:49 + +> [!danger] Spoiler Alert +> This note contains major spoilers +> for _Red Rising_ by Pierce Brown. + +I started _Red Rising_ yesterday +at the recommendation of three coworkers. + +Within the first hundred pages +the protagonist's wife is introduced, +given the most sympathetic characterization possible, +then summarily killed to motivate him to action. +This is an example of [fridging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_refrigerators), +a misogynist trope of lazy writing. + +Darrow takes Eo's death _far_ too gracefully, +he doesn't mourn, he gets straight to action. +He's characterized as hard, +(he doesn't cry at his father's execution, either) +but his immediate acceptance is so callous +it legitimately makes me sick. + +There are ways this could be recovered, +especially if Darrow recognizes +the emotions he's been bottling up, +or that there's no way Eo would approve of his methods. +(He flirts with the second +but doesn't give a hint that it might change his actions) +I am very dubious that the series will go that direction though. +It seems more interested in being "fuck this dystopia" +than in criticizing the male power fantasy roots +that often underly such motivations. + +I am also _so_ tired of dystopian settings with caste systems +that are begging for a Buzzfeed "Which Caste Are You?" test. +It's a cruel world that _Hunger Games_ is the best the genre has to offer. + +> [!aside] Digression +> If Suzanne Collins was unpopular online +> people would be doing the thing they do with Harry Potter now, +> where they point out bad writing (and there's no shortage) +> that always existed but that they only have a problem with now. + +This book is almost too YA for me to bare. + +Were I compelled to say something positive about the book, +I enjoy that the narration is in present tense. +I think it works well to invest the reader in the story, +(I was able to read thirteen chapters in one sitting) +and it's fun for its rarity besides. + +%% EOF 2026-02-08 09:02 %%