My Problem with The Poppy War | Rant?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 พ.ค. 2020
- I felt the need to go back to my first rant pf R.F. Kuang's The Poppy War before I upload my reviews for The Dragon Republic
First Rant: • The Poppy War Review +...
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The Mugunese are depicted as monsters not in reality but in perspective. We get snippits showing us that what we see is not a hard truth but how war operates on a deep level. The reason many US veterans continued to see the Japanese as enemies after WWII is because they had to rationalize what they "had" to do in the service of their country. This book never tries to genuinely say that genocide or the murder of enemy civilians is okay or good but the need for the people doing these horrible things to shelter their conscious with rationalizations and lies. This is why we see Rin swapping between guilt and indifference. It's because she has to lie to herself or she won't be able to handle the weight of what she's done. Rin was never meant to be the hero or "good guy" of the story. Just like the book says she's a product of war. We see through out the book her willingness to commit atrocities for her perceptions of the greater good (ex. When she suggests destroying a dam in her strategy class, when she kills the monster with Altens face, and when whe doesn't feel remorse the first time she kills). I understand it's greatly upsetting to see the reality of their situation and their actions and knowing how horrible they are, but that's really the point of it. It isn't a good vs evil and happy ever after story
I don't agree with your opinion regarding "putting a trigger warning on historical events" because there are many ways to describe events and inform people. For me, reading a fictionalised account of events will be much more immersive and therefore much more triggering than let's say reading a wikipedia page. Similarly I'm generally more able to digest written accounts of events rather than seeing them on tv. So putting trigger warnings might not be much about censoring history, but allowing people to be informed in a way that won't send them in an anxiety attack. Also, trigger warnings are important because a few years ago, I was still deeply traumatised and could not deal with sexual assault in media, it would send me on a debilitating spiral. However, I can deal with it much better these days so choosing to read The Poppy War when I was actually ready for it made a great difference for me. Also something that made a great difference for me was actually being able to mentally prepare myself for what I was going to read in the book. To this day, I still will not be myself for the day by having sexual assault themes being sprung on me in media, I can however deal with it much better when I know it's going to happen. I can still be informed about events happening in the world, this is very important and I know it, but I can still respect my limits by choosing how I inform myself, which is where trigger warnings help me a lot.
i also noticed that the mugunese were portrayed as very non-human but i just put it down to war propaganda and that sort of thing, since we were only learning about them from the perspective of someone training/trained to fight them. i had no idea chapter 21 was based on a real event, id never heard of the nanjign massacre.
Now that you've explained you background I understand how conflicting this book must be for you. I think the dehumanizing of the other nation was intentional so that the reader would be on the side of Rin. Supporting her decision felt like being an accomplice in the crime. Beforehand you think who could commit such crimes, but after you wonder if you are capable of such crimes.
Please make more rant reviews. I have noticed that I tend to like the books that you do not like. "I need more book recommendations."
I want to comment on the Poppy War. (spoilers) I wanted to like this one, but there are just too many flaws. Most conspicuous is the fact that it is simply a flat retelling of the sino-japanese war/ww2 (37-45) and should be only vaguely categorized as fantasy. Anyone with a basic insight in Chinese history and culture would have their immersion in the story broken by the introduction of real life people such as Mengzi, Confucious, Sunzi and so on in a fantasy story. Imagine Shakespeare and his work turning up in Lord of the Rings. It has copied events directly from the three kingdoms red cliff and presents it as something original. Also did I mention that Sun Wukong And Zhu Bajie shows up? The story is simply not very original and on top of that has a main character who becomes more and more unlikeable as the story progresses (hopefully intentional on the part of the author). However the most problematic thing about his book is that it portrays not-japan as really evil without giving a reason as to why not-japan is like that. By copying the events of the sino-japanese war, but not everything that leads up to it in history, it makes not-japan seem like Sauron (no reason to be evil), and that is dangerous because not-japan and not-China is not just random fantasy countries, but the story is a direct retelling of the war
While reading the book, I never really noticed that the Mugunese were just depicted as monsters. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this book. I have to say I agree with everything that you said, even if I didn't noticed it before. I also loved that you referenced to Hannah Arendts book, so people can read this and understand your points better. Great video.
My question is, what does Japanese readers think about this book? What about Taiwanese readers? Speer
Did the book have major flaws? Yes
As for me I love the poppy war to peices. Someone warned me about the gruesome things in chapter 21.
Fwiw I think throughout the trilogy Kuang was showing the Muganese being viewed as monsters by the Nikan (I don't know how to spell this crap) with intentionality and there are several moments in the trilogy (not sure if in first book or not) where the author intrudes into the perspective limitations of the character to go out of her way to signal to the reader that this dehumanization is part of the experience of being in warring states with each other, i.e. that the author does not accept the logic of the people she is depicting.
So, essentially...since it wasn't done the way you think it should have been done you didn't like it? But, is that how critiques should be done?
okay, this is very inarticulate. maybe it's really just that you can't express your thoughts well on this subject. because, i don't think you made any good points here. I watched both of your videos because I'm considering reading the series. I don't care about spoilers.
I’ve just finished The Poppy War, I haven’t read the rest of the series yet. And I feel like I’d agree more with your criticisms if it was a stand-alone book, but knowing that there’s more to explore in terms of Rin’s contentious, barbaric, and selfish choices, the fall-out of that, her immense power, her desire for power and revenge, and potentially seeing a more rounded perspective on the Mugenese and the world in general, makes me very intrigued and willing to reserve judgement on how Kuang dealt with these choice. Because I don’t think we have a full picture yet, and the impression I got was that Rin is heading down a dark path, and that this could secretly a Villain’s origin story, albeit one with a redemption arc?…or not…idk (please don’t confirm or deny, I’ve still got two big books to get through 😂). I like when an author doesn’t make it abundantly clear how we should feel about a character’s morality, because it prompts us to ask those questions ourselves and have these interesting discussions (which is why I actually appreciate your perspective even if I disagree).