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Post by sonorous on Feb 21, 2023 20:46:07 GMT
So I've started reading Against Nature. I've heard good things about it, and I do love me a multiple perspective story across vastly different timezones all tying together.
I found a glossary of all the Nahuatl terms used in the story on the Faction Wiki and have been doing my best, but...
Faction stuff at the best of times for me needs to be re read a few times to grasp it, but I find myself entering this terrible cycle when reading:
I find a Nahuatl term I don't know (and there are many). I cross reference it, but doing so I lose my place in the story. So I re read it slowly, trying to re position myself in the narrative, but this is also difficult. I run into the same term or a similar term, and because the word construction is so unknown to me, I don't know if I've already checked the term, then I check the term, lose my place in the story, double back, check the term, lose my place, etc.
Did anyone else have trouble reading Against Nature?
For those who enjoyed it or made it through, do you have any tips?
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Post by Peterchu on Feb 21, 2023 22:09:57 GMT
I made it through purely because I know that Faction Paradox will always be a bit confusing for me. But Against Nature was particularly so, similarly to Spinning Jenny. Maybe I'll re-read it one day because I barely remember it.
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lb
Little Sibling
Posts: 5
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Post by lb on Feb 23, 2023 22:41:21 GMT
Sorry about that but thanks for trying anyway. To be honest, I can't remember much about it either and I wrote it - besides that it seemed like a good idea at the time. If it's any help in the event of anyone attempting a re-read, I later compiled a glossary of all the Nahuatl used in the book. Probably should have been in the book, but never mind. Not sure if I can post a link, given that this is my first post here, but if this doesn't work, the blog is called Ce Acatl, it's a Blogger jobbie, and the glossary was posted 31st August 2013. onereed.blogspot.com/2013/08/against-nature-nahuatl-glossary.htmlNext one is much shorter and a bit more user friendly. |
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Post by sonorous on Feb 24, 2023 16:42:02 GMT
Sorry about that but thanks for trying anyway. Oh, don't get me wrong, I haven't given up! And I was actually able to find the blogpost relentlessly googling the book for info on it, so it's been working out! A big issue I have reading Faction Paradox is trying to catch every single reference and decode every aside to try and link it to the larger whole of the universe. I find doing this cheapens the experience of reading each book on its own for its own sake. I'm about 150 pages in now, and once I'd given up trying to cross reference every name and location, it's actually reading much better now. I'm especially interested in Todd and Primo's stories echoing each other. Everyone here is very knowledgeable and I feel a pressure to sort of live up to them. Ironically, the Faction Books I enjoy the most are the ones that aren't as directly related to the Faction, so perhaps I'm coming about this whole thing the wrong way. Either way, I didn't mean to trash the book or anything! |
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lb
Little Sibling
Posts: 5
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Post by lb on Feb 24, 2023 20:10:18 GMT
No worries. It didn't read like a trashing at all.
To be honest, the continuity thing drove me f***** nuts and is, I honestly believe, best ignored. If anyone cares enough, Tlotoxl from the Aztecs turns up in there and is fairly easy to spot (not that it changes anything - just put him in there for a grin tbh).
Most of it was written, or at least plotted, with er... an editor from the previous regime figuratively breathing down my neck and making suggestions of which about 50% were helpful, and the rest really weren't. So once Obverse came into the picture it was mostly a case of trying to rationalise a massive spaghetti pile of clever references (Lorraine Conti was Godmother Olympia - I mean really, who cares?) into something which was at least fun to write. There were a few things I wanted to do, or possibly ended up doing anyway (it was ten years ago so I can't remember it all) which were declared forbidden because it would contradict Faction continuity. Yes, "Faction continuity".
Anyway, with all of those Nahuatl names, I tried to keep those the reader might need to remember either down to just two syllables or which would at least look fairly distinctive on the page, meaning anything longer was mostly there for texture / atmosphere and probably wouldn't prove integral to understanding what was going on. If I knew then what I know now etc...
If it's any consolation, I had to read City of the Saved twice before I felt I'd got it, although now it's probably my favourite of the lot. Anyway, I do appreciate the effort you're making, and I hope it will feel worth it in the end. If it doesn't, that's okay too. I keep meaning to re-read it myself but I'm a bit scared it will turn out to be pants.
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