drethelin comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapters 105-107 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: b_sen 17 February 2015 01:17AM

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Comment author: drethelin 18 February 2015 07:08:15AM 1 point [-]

It's a reference to the Gormenghast trilogy, of which one of the main characters is an isolated teenager named Steerpike.

Comment author: Bugmaster 19 February 2015 12:36:07AM 0 points [-]

I started reading the first book, but stopped about 20% of the way in (may have been less, it's been a while since then), because I found it stupefyingly boring. Does that trilogy get any better later on ?

Comment author: drethelin 19 February 2015 01:41:16AM 0 points [-]

If you find it boring it's probably not for you. I enjoy the language, the descriptions and so on. It's the same as my recommendation for LOTR. I liked it a lot but I don't think everyone should. I find both pleasant to read even when nothing is really happening in the story.

Comment author: Bugmaster 19 February 2015 04:18:14AM *  0 points [-]

Oddly enough I really like LOTR as well as The Silmarillion... So maybe I should give this Gormenghast thing another shot, I don't know.

I think the difference between LOTR/Simlarillion and Gormenghast is that Tolkien's books contain well-crafted language and descriptions of scenery that are punctuated by moments of sheer epic overload; whereas Gormenghast contains the former but not the latter.

But again, I haven't made it that far into it, so I could be wrong.