62 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
62 lines
2.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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id: 2026-02-08T08:00:49-0500
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title: 2026-02-08 08:00:49
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tags:
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- status/draft
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- topic/hobbies/reading
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daily: "[[2026-02-08]]"
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---
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# 2026-02-08 08:00:49
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> [!danger] Spoiler Alert
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> This note contains major spoilers
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> for _Red Rising_ by Pierce Brown.
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I started _Red Rising_ yesterday
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at the recommendation of three coworkers.
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Within the first hundred pages
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the protagonist's wife is introduced,
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given the most sympathetic characterization possible,
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then summarily killed to motivate him to action.
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This is an example of [fridging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_refrigerators),
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a misogynist trope of lazy writing.
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Darrow takes Eo's death _far_ too gracefully,
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he doesn't mourn, he gets straight to action.
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He's characterized as hard,
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(he doesn't cry at his father's execution, either)
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but his immediate acceptance is so callous
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it legitimately makes me sick.
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There are ways this could be recovered,
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especially if Darrow recognizes
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the emotions he's been bottling up,
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or that there's no way Eo would approve of his methods.
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(He flirts with the second
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but doesn't give a hint that it might change his actions)
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I am very dubious that the series will go that direction though.
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It seems more interested in being "fuck this dystopia"
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than in criticizing the male power fantasy roots
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that often underly such motivations.
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I am also _so_ tired of dystopian settings with caste systems
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that are begging for a Buzzfeed "Which Caste Are You?" test.
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It's a cruel world that _Hunger Games_ is the best the genre has to offer.
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> [!aside] Digression
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> If Suzanne Collins was unpopular online
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> people would be doing the thing they do with Harry Potter now,
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> where they point out bad writing (and there's no shortage)
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> that always existed but that they only have a problem with now.
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This book is almost too YA for me to bare.
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Were I compelled to say something positive about the book,
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I enjoy that the narration is in present tense.
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I think it works well to invest the reader in the story,
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(I was able to read thirteen chapters in one sitting)
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and it's fun for its rarity besides.
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%% EOF 2026-02-08 09:02 %%
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