Blake Strider > Recent Status Updates

Interlude with ramy next
Robin suffers in a multitude of ways
No kissing
Terror
Anxiety
Fear
Failure

Still no kissing
The doppelgänger promises information
Women arrive 😒
Friendships abound, and the future looks grim
To the twisted root!

Robin and Ramy better kiss god DAMN IT
Racism 😢
Secrecy and Revolution? 😳

Lovell beats Robin for being late 😢
Robin goes to Oxford 🤓
Robin makes a friend 🥹

Great world building. Robin is a good blank slate character to learn about this era of London from, and I sympathize with him deeply. Excited to learn more!!

One day!

One day!

One day!

One day!

One day!

Whatever man. I don’t get it. Don Juan is the absurd man and that’s good because he lived the most life possible in the years he had? I guess? An actor is an absurd man because he’s able to “live” countless lives on a stage and experience fame. I’m missing something and I don’t know what it is. This shit confusing

Everything is awful and no one is happy. Well, except maybe Bernard. He’s a fuck. Loved the description of the treasure crypt; very cool. Also liked William’s constant admonishment of the riches and hypocrisy of the abbey, and the joke about the veracity of the relics at the end was nice too.

More murders, more debates on Christian theology. I enjoyed listening to William berate Adso for not recognizing Arabic, that was pretty funny. Benno is a snake, Bernard is spooky, Ubertino is great, and Jorge is a grumpy old man. Water is also wet.

Many things have happened. Adso got laid, and then had a panic attack about it. More murders, more philosophy, and now the popes men are here! Bernard Gui has arrived, cold gray eyes staring through a person. Scary dude

I don’t ever want to forget the conversation between William and Abo. Fascinating discussion on social issues, still plainly relevant today, told through the eyes of 800 year old religious men with incredibly limited perspectives yet William constantly makes prescient and surprisingly astute observations about “heresy”-ie. socialism and revolution (I also conflate this with tacit support of homosexuality).

Very suggestive word choice here: “His devout hands, his long white fingers stroked the most precious parts of the sacred wood, or, rather, the sacred ivory, for this noble material had served to form the arms of the cross.” It’s clear that every word is intentional in this book, notwithstanding the fact that this is a translation. I can’t help but think there must be some intention with this phrasing.

Fascinating debate on whether Christ laughed, the virtues of laughter, and whether it was acceptable for monks to laugh or tell jokes, or “engage in witticisms”. Jorge of Borgos is a fuckin Scrooge, grumpy ass old man. I wonder if Jorge Luis Borges was a grumpy humorless old man? Maybe Umberto Eco thought he was. I guess so!

Murdered and thrown in a vat of pigs blood, discussions on penitence and politics of the day. William is incredibly likable. I love the way they discuss topics that most people would be aware of, but in a way that sounds incredibly archaic. Touching a magnet is an entire paragraph of description. I love it!

Will and adso tour the scriptorium, where monks make copies of books, along with creating the illuminated art and the marginalia (art in the margins. Fancy doodles). They see the murder victims art, which is so creative and unique will and ad have a hard time not laughing at the art. They get admonished by an old blind guy (monk Jorge Luis borges) and then there’s some gay hints and violent blushing. Still p good!

Alright so adso and William are being asked to investigate a murder, but also for William to mediate a conversation between some opposing groups within the Catholic Church. Seems like herbalist knows something. I also really like ubertino, he was very interesting as a crazy old man type archetype. I enjoyed the discussion on the merits for and against torture between ubertino and William. Umberto Eco = wordmaster

Crazy how well spoken adso is

😞

☹️

God damn dude