7.1 KiB
[RT][DC] The Dao of Magic, Chapter 115 - Hordes
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Author: u/WeirdWhirl *
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URL: http://royalroadl.com/fiction/11397/the-dao-of-magic/chapter/196456/115-hordes
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Score: 19
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Created: 2018-02-23T15:02:34
Post:
Comments:
u/AugSphere [+6] Dark Lord of Corruption (a day later)
Chapter 15 frustrated me so much with its justification for why the protagonist isn't particularly smart that I can't bring myself to read further at the moment. Hard to say definitively whether this has direct bearing on RT aspect, but it struck me as a very implausible explanation and a clumsy way to justify the abilities and intellectual level of the protagonist. It pretty much takes the straw vulcan view of super-intelligence peppered with a bunch of other obnoxious anti-intellectual cliches, which I suspect many people here would find similarly frustrating.
I suppose it's at least consistent that a (momentarily) stupid person would be too stupid to realise that deliberately keeping themselves stupid isn't really a good way forward.
u/WeirdWhirl [+4] (2 days later)
Thanks for the feedback!
That part was based on no science whatsoever, so it's probably a weird justification. Do you have any suggestions on good superintelligence literature?
u/AugSphere [+2] Dark Lord of Corruption (2 days later)
Well, for non-fiction you have, for example, Bostrom's Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies and Miles' stuff.
For fiction, HPMOR is a decent example, both in what a smart protagonist behaves like and a practical demonstration of what a super-intelligence of sorts can achieve with the final exam. Marked for death may also be useful, since players are encouraged to invest a lot of effort into making the character behave optimally, which (sometimes, arguably) results in super-intelligent behaviour from in-universe perspective. Although both HPMOR final exam and MfD are examples of what happens when normal humans collaborate with each other, rather than examples of a single superhumanly smart agent. But it's probably the best we're gonna get, practically speaking.
u/WeirdWhirl [+4] (a minute later)
I asked whether or not my story was [RT] enough to post here a while ago. I was told yes.
Please give me some feedback on the rational aspect of the story. I tried pretty hard to demystify the cultivation genre and bring some reason to this genre.
u/None [+8] (4 hours later)
[removed]
u/WeirdWhirl [+4] (6 hours later)
Could you elaborate on the 'deux ex machina' bits? I try pretty hard to avoid contrived situations, so where did I go wrong?
u/yagsuomynona [+6] (5 days later)
It's pretty clear that you are talking about science that you don't really know. I specifically recall a comment about water being harder to understand than wind, because water is fluid dynamics, when they are both fluid dynamics. Try to avoid that. More generally, there seems to be an overapplication of scientific concepts and an implicit scientific reductionism which doesn't reflect the practice of actual scientists. For a more realistic and more modern picture of what the essence of science is, I recommend the book Is Water H20. PM me and I can send a copy. It's a light and engaging read.
The reduction of martial arts to sequences of moves also seems unrealistic and impractical. If you reflect on the mindset which had you produce that as a solution to the problem of teaching martial arts, then I think you will see a bunch of other errors that you make, including some of the scientific ones I mentioned.
u/causalchain [+3] (a day later)
In the earlier chapters up to about where he left the dungeon, (I forgot what happened in particular) the rational(ist) theme kind of died off and I stopped reading it. I remember that before that, I absolutely loved it for being genre savvy and generally interesting.
u/plushiemancer [+5] (17 hours later)
This is the hpmor of the chinese cultivator fantasy genre. Well done. How have i missed this all this time.
u/WeirdWhirl [+1] (2 days later)
Thanks!
u/None [+3] (2 days later)
I'm sorry, but I found this story very, very difficult to get into. The prose and the dialogue just did not work for me. Is this an aquired taste kind of stylistic thing?
u/WeirdWhirl [+3] (2 days later)
This story is my first attempt at writing and has a rather limited target audience. Thanks for giving it a try anyway.
And style... I just started writing. Present tense and first-person perspective might not have been the best idea ever, but ill stick with it for now.
u/None [+2] (2 days later)
Thank you for writing! I really hope I haven't turned you off it at all, it's really impressive that you've got so much out there. Keep at it!
u/GaBeRockKing [+2] Horizon Breach: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857 (2 hours later)
Can we get a summary please?
u/WeirdWhirl [+4] (3 hours later)
Check the summary I posted in /r/novelupdates: https://www.reddit.com/r/noveltranslations/comments/7zolzi/en_the_dao_of_magic_chapter_115/
But in short, it's about a thousand-year-old cultivator that does random stuff in a magical world.
u/Ibbot [+2] (a day later)
Where can we look for context? Even starting from chapter one I feel like there’s a lot of concepts that aren’t really explained in the text.
u/WeirdWhirl [+5] (a day later)
It's a xanxia deconstruction/parody (xianxia means 'immortal hero'). Chinese mythology contains stories of cultivation, and instead of planting crops on land, it's about cultivating energy inside the body.
Chapter 60.5 of my story is a glossary, see here.
The site Wuxiaworlds contains a lot of information about general cultivation terms, this one is a primer on cores, for example.
u/Ibbot [+3] (2 days later)
Thanks! I’m not familiar with the genre, so it should be interesting to learn about.
u/LimeDog [+2] (3 days later)
It is enjoyable. Vaguely feels familiar with what the guy doing White Collar Cultivator is doing with you both having the deconstruction theme, but xanxia could use more of that writing style.
u/WeirdWhirl [+2] (3 days later)
Is that a choose your own adventure forum? Why do you do this to me? I planned on writing later tonight. Now I will probably spend that time with unproductive binge reading.
u/LimeDog [+1] (3 days later)
Well that bites...Just finished binging your series.