#miramemos

least favorite fantasy trope is where the country of white people has either outlawed or never had slavery but it’s still practiced in the nonwhite country like that sure is a fucking interesting interpretation of your real-world historical inspiration.

idk i just think that the two aspects of sanderson’s perspective on oppression that piss me off the most is the way that marginalized anger and violence are both viewed as both morally wrong and personally unhealthy, and that racism is something that is only the fault of those who are intentionally racist, and not those who are complicit in the system, both supporting and benefiting from it. it also behaves like the conversation on marginalization should center on the actions and attitude of the oppressed and not the oppressors like we really had a whole ass #not all lighteyes arc like all the poc readers really sat there like “wow kaladin’s bitterness and experiences resonate with me so much and validate my own hurt and anger :^)” only for sanderson to be like “and that was wrong and bad and kaladin needed to personally grow out of *checks notes* being oppressed” like they really pulled that on us.

ok lit crit hat is on and today i wanna talk about *spins wheel* model minorites and marginalized anger in words of radiance! if we look at kaladin’s actual treatment of adolin in wor, he’s grumpy and a little distant but he doesn’t actually antagonize adolin, while, for the first part of wor at least, adolin actively antagonizes him (calling him names, etc.) consider this specific conversation in ch 68 where adolin says “you’re good at military thinking, for a bridgeboy” and kaladin responds with “coincidentally, you’re good at not being unobnoxious, for a prince.” and once adolin’s out of earshot, shallan starts lecturing kaladin about his “”bad attitude”” because he insulted adolin.  even though it was a response to adolin specifically making a joke involving kaladin’s trauma / class status. and then kaladin points out that adolin calls him bridgeboy, and shallan completely dismisses him. the entire conversation reads like a microagression and kaladin’s anger gets completely shut down. kaladin’s general bitterness is viewed as a bigger problem than the lighteyes’ casual racism. this is a pattern in wor: it fundamentally views marginalized anger as both (a) unjustified and (b) unhealthy, which i think is a major flaw in sanderson’s perspective

one thing i’m personally not super fond of about sanderson’s world building in stormlight is that the vorin system of gender roles is different from ours in a way that i feel is not as interesting as it could’ve been. although i DO enjoy seeing lots of women in STEM / academia, because it’s so strict and segregated and since womens’ role is strictly academic, he ends up being able to pull this annoying move of having the women technically break gender roles in the book, without really challenging the modern day gender role biases of his actual IRL audience. he’s able to pass off “feminine girl but she has a sword” as revolutionary, because that is revolutionary in alethkar, but to a modern day reader it’s very much 90s’ era “you can have a skirt AND fight” feminism, which isn’t really a new or helpful take on gender anymore. women have been fighting in fantasy for a while – but what we still don’t see is women who break gender roles in other ways. we don’t see masc women. we don’t see women living lifestyles that challenge our societal preconceptions of womens’ roles. so when sanderson aligns his gender roles in this specific way, he gets to make “feminine girl with sword” revolutionary from a watsonian perspective, while avoiding the reality that it’s not really a revolutionary take on gender from a doylist perspective.

mutuals, reblog & tell me in the tags: what URL(s) do you feel most gleeful & guilty about hoarding? mine are @sigzil and @kholinphobe.

like the funniest thing about sanderson’s “being angwy and bitter is bad for you and wrong 🥺” message in wor is that i was reading that the whole time like damn kaladin is being so restrained right now he’s letting so much shit fly he is biting his tongue so hard kaladin wouldn’t you like to go apeshit. like his response to being called bridgeboy in the workplace is just to be a bit snarky and cold in response he even covers for adolin when adolin pulls that trick with dreamstorm, he literally continues working for dalinar after dalinar shuts down his confession about what amaram did to him. the way he’s constantly checking himself and his reactions to blatant racism. it takes sooo much for him to be like “ok we should kill elhokar” like kaladin was reacting the same way i’d react during my elementary school years where i was too shy and let racism fly left and right me now if i was kaladin and had the associated physical capabilities oooh i would’ve thrown hands at the first “bridgeboy”

i’ve probably made this exact same post before but what irritated me about the shift from story about class, politics, and war -> story about magical apocalypse wasn’t even that there was a shift in the plot’s focus. like ok we get it you want to write a big high fantasy story with evil gods that’s fine. the problem was that the writing behaved like all ramifications of class and nationalism and stuff just disappeared the minute bigger issues came along. like sure i get it that’s not the plot focus, but there were like barely any consequences of oathbringer draft being released. and it was written like there just was no public reaction? we got ONE line mentioning low morale or w/e. same about the whole caste thing we got one line being like “oh jasnah fixed things :) #girlboss” and that was it. like i understand that’s not the plot anymore but that doesn’t mean these things stop having an effect? even if we’re in an apocalypse?? these oppressive systems still have effects even when it’s not what the story is focusing on. and these effects are exacerbated during apocalyptic events & emergencies, not diminished.

i’m STILL not over sanderson’s “western philosophy is a more interesting basis for a story” like please mr mormon your orientalism is showing. like where the fuck did that come from lol. like are you really going to tell me chinese philosophy doesn’t have a complex and rich history. are you really going to use asian aesthetics then turn around and disrepect our culture and religion and history. as if buddhism and sikhism have nothing to say on personal morality and how one should strive to behave in life and shintoism has nothing to say on one’s relationship with the world and shintoism and hinduism aren’t fascinating and varied religions in both the theory and practice over time and across different populations. specifically the way these religions and practices highlight the relationship between religious belief, moral philosophy, and cultural values. like ffs 2 of your shards are preservation & ruin and hinduism’s 3 major gods are literally the gods of creation preservation & destruction i’m gonna scream.