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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1994 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 18, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

Still on The Question of Palestine. Said's writing is great as usual, and it is making me want to reread Orientalism. He kinda omitted that the displacement of 1948 was in the context of war, but perhaps he was assuming common knowledge. Interesting facts abound, but the core of the book is the system of thought he's applying, and it remains unclear how useful it is.

Otherwise picking up Al-Ghazali's The Book of Contemplation, book 39 of his Revival of the Religious Sciences series.

Re-reading The Blade Itself. This time around it's so obvious that Bayaz is one twisted evil MF. I've also been pleasantly surprised by how well this book held up.

Almost done with Marx as well which is a relief!

So I read Blade Itself and the follow up, but not the third book. The only bit I remember as a huge red flag was unleashing hellfire, I think in the first. Okay, maybe that’s a giant First Law violation, but at the time I handwaved it as setting-typical edginess. What am I missing here?

First scene where we meet Bayaz: He's butchering a pig. He also recruit Logen, knowing he's the bloody-nine, which you maybe don't appreciate the extent of given you stopped at book 2. Then once they're in Adua he gets really pissed that they put on a play about the death of Juvens/the war with the maker, and it's heavily implied that Bayaz is lying about what happened.

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