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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1518 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 30, 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?

I finished al-Ghazali's Banes of the Tongue, which was well worth the read. I can dimly see some aspects of Islam, and in particular the hadith "Beware of the believer's intuition because he sees by the light of God" has caught my eye. There is a sense of leaving uncovered what God has covered and not speaking about what doesn't concern you; in particular, if one is gossiped to, the gossip says more about the gossiper than the one who is spoken about. It has kindled an interest in ways of knowing which might arise from an Islamic mindset.

What is forbidden is supposition [about another's alleged evil ways], and supposition is an expression of what the soul believes is reliable, and the heart inclines toward. God says, O you who have believed, avoid much negative assumption. Indeed, some assumption is sin [Q. 49:12]. The reason for its unlawfulness is because the secrets of the hearts are known only to the Knower of the unseen, so it is not for you to believe in another’s wickedness unless it is disclosed to you by observation and cannot be explained away.

The book is quite comprehensive, talking about things like arguments, joking, praising or being praised, and I'm sure to be revisiting this often.

Borrowed the next Dresden Files, Cold Days, on a whim. So far been disappointed. Harry wakes up, gets in a fight, snarks at people, resists the charms of a beautiful woman, and then repeats the process. Unprecedented levels of wankery from a series which has always been rather indulgent.

Maybe I just really hate faeries? They’re horrible, irrational aesthetics-first plot devices in almost any story. Even when the author leans into that, I find it fundamentally unsatisfying. JS&MN was one of the rare occasions where I felt the characters were as annoyed as I was, and it still ended with a huge faerie ass-pull.

resists the charms of a beautiful woman

I mainly waved off complaints about the male gaze in this series but, if this is the book I'm thinking about, I distinctly remember thinking "I just don't need to know whether an immortal, god-like Faerie Lady is vajazzled or not". It was getting a bit much, even for peak-hormones me.

I didn't read anything past Skin Game and that somehow stuck with me for a decade.

It is that book, and that was the exact word used.

More eye-rolling than how previous books handled Molly. At least she’s got her own character alongside being a sex object.

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