Lovely video.

impressive that she's smart enough to be able to do it, but I'm not at all impressed with her translation of Beowulf... but then taste is a bit subjective.

This afternoon I have a book discussion at the local library of Yellowface, R.F. Kuang's popular novel. To learn a bit more about the book, in addition to reading it, naturally, I watched a few You Tube video reviews. Some were very positive while others less so. I was wondering to myself while listening to the reviews if Ms. Kuang listen to them much like June Hayward aka Juniper Song, did in the book. I guess that's the life of every author, no matter how successful. The best to all of you and good reading.

Lol "bigots see themselves as the hero" shes talkin about herself the little hypocrit. Just read babel, i had to force myself to finish it

Babel was decent

“there’s love in the air… in hell” cant wait to read a romcom by rf kuang!!!!!!

A book that hides behind fiction and a shallow storyline to enable the pathetic unintelligent uninformed author to publish her hate, prejudice and racism. She shows her immaturity through advocating violence, anarchy and a breakdown of law and order. Books that promote hate have been banned for less. What is clear is her own hypocrisy as she obtains her lavish ‘silver’ riches from the book sale in a global capitalistic economy.

She's got the purpose of art all wrong

Really beautiful. Lovely talk.

This woman did the opposite of what the professor said was proper when treating an ancient text. And now she dares to invoke him. Shameful.

I think I’ll need a lecture on this lecture

That lecture was so good that I decided to buy Babel!

Best middle earth professor ever!

Excellent lecture Rebecca. I salute you.

It's amazing that we only think propaganda comes from the suppressed

There's nothing wrong with a good stick as a walking companion!

Ironic that she speaks against bigotry and hate when her book Babel promotes these exact things. I’m deeply concerned young people or anybody who is reading her books that are covert propaganda clearing leaning in a certain direction

Thank you for sharing her lecture, and thank goodness Tolkien shared his writing

im so happy that she exist

fantastic lecture : )

R.F Kuang perfectly captured my unspoken thoughts on the over-emphasis of readers on the themes in novels in contributing to the value of literature in contemporary society!

@ 1:07:55 - Tolkien would probably have agreed on skipping the battle scenes to get to the next long journey; he wrote in a letter criticising a proposed film version that "the most important part of the whole work, the journey through Mordor and the martyrdom of Frodo, has been cut in preference for battles; though it is the chief point of The Lord of the Rings that the battles were of subordinate significance."

I was so happy that this lecture was available online. Rebecca was a brilliant speaker, and I learned and considered new things from her talk. Questions were also very interesting. I'm reading Babel at the moment and it's wonderful.

the little tidbit on "show vs. tell" absolutely blew my mind out of the W A T E R Rebecca is such a valuable force on this world. she's going to take us into the heart of this millennium, until it's finally beating again. let's go.

I can't read his books because they are to graphic but I could listen to him for hours on end.

I really don’t like Rebecca

Ordinary mortals are too stupid anyway. They deserve stupidity.

Fantasy is but fantasy.

Thank you, Ms. Kuang, for having the courage to criticize the publishing world's current obsession with identity and labels, and for pointing out the myopic reading this leads to. Your critique puts me in mind of how Jeanette Winterson observed in Art Objects (I'm paraphrasing from memory) that publishing work or reviewing it favorably merely because the writer is gay or the work is about homosexual experience ultimately does a disservice to the writer and to literature. The one novel I've written so far features characters across the range of sexuality and centers a love story between a lesbian woman and a bisexual woman. The novel is a far-future, post-Singularity dystopia about digital disembodiment. The idea that readers are primed to take it as instead being about homosexuality, with some readers embracing it and others reviling it for that when all I've done is allow characters to be who they are and love whom they choose, is disheartening. The idea that, because of this priming, some agents and editors are assessing the manuscript simply for its strength as "representation" and missing its point entirely is not only disheartening but infuriating. For the sake of writers like me who write with diversity but not *about* diversity (and also hate the use of the word "diversity" in book marketing), I hope the publishing world takes heed of your criticism and course-corrects to engage readers with what we're really writing about. Also, your book Babel sounds fascinating and I look forward to reading it. Also, congrats on your engagement!

Great lecture! I related enormously to Schwab's story about, as a child, wanting the world to be magical and *more* than it is. I felt much the same way, and fantasies swirled around me, overlaying the real world, so it's not terribly surprising that eventually I became a writer too.

This man is interesting. I would even say rare. His conversation is crisply informative, thoughtful and full of wisdom. Wow

"...we've fallen into the habit of reading and critiquing books solely for their themes and messages, or what we think are their themes and messages, rather than reading them as explorations of all the infinite ways that one can be human." 12:40 this really struck a chord for me

"I grew wanting the world to be stranger than it was" - V.E. Schwab

4:43

When she said, “Bigots seeing themselves as the hero” that was some powerful stuff.

😔 ρɾσɱσʂɱ

Hey VE, I was wondering if you were interested in a date. Perhaps I could read you The Lord of the Rings?

Great talk and follow-up Q&A, I really enjoyed it. Kuang is a treasure and we're lucky to have her writing. Can't wait to read Babel!

You couldn't spell out the 2 Chinese reformers mentioned around the 5-6minute mark by Rebecca please?

OMG THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

She touched on a contradiction at the heart of modern fantasy. Part of its appeal is escapism, for sure. But because art is never made from a vacuum, it cannot be fully seperate from real life or from real human experiences. The fantasy author and blogger Brian De Leonard once said that if you want pure escapism, it is better to play tetris.

Love this! I read The Poppy War because someone said it did something quite new (in their experience) regarding violence & the cost of war within fantasy but came out thinking that a certain character was both monstrouous and also felt that it was interesting & somewhat relatable that their journey started on wanting to find their own worth & defend what was important to them. I got why Rin did what she did and was just thankful this wasn't a book and me in her shoes. It took me a long time to read & I have multiple learning disabilities but it felt more like through a horrific & terrifying scenario I felt like I grew a little, learnt a little & developed a little. I'm not sure if I've explained it well but Ms Kuang's work resonated in a way I wasn't expecting and I'm very thankful for her work.

I’ve been looking forward to watching this for so long and it somehow still exceeded expectations!!! Such a thoughtful lecture👏

Thank you for this wonderful lecture. Learning how you gathered your information for the books, even while studying and gaining your degree is quite impressive. You time management must be incredible. I find for myself going ONE way or ANOTHER, but the balancing of the BOTH incredibly difficult. Your thoughtful words about your experience as a writer was truly insightful and appreciated. I've read your Poppy War series twice and am looking forward to reading Babel...and your romance book that takes place in hell (so interesting). Congratulations on your engagement. May the two of you continue to inspire each other both in your relationship and in your careers. Again, thank you for this lecture.

Speaking to the purpose of fantasy in times of trauma and crisis: "Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed." - G.K. Chesterton

00:01 Intro 07:00 Tolkien quote, ox soup Leaving details to the reader's imagination 19:20 Working definition of Magic Realism Why use magic in Fantasy 26:30 Detailed versus vague descriptions of magic in a book 32:50 Effecting a change in the reader 37:20 Q&A

Had to watch some of this for my class. Let's go, Brandon!

Um um ummm um....

The bottom line is Tolkien took the time and energy to fully flesh out and describe an imaginary world based on European myth and legend. And that effort became the template for what would later emerge as the "high fantasy" genre, where you can imagine all kinds of variations of the theme of elves, orcs, goblins, wizards and so forth. And within High Fantasy there ample opportunity for all kinds of diversity based on the creativity and imagination of those making worlds in that genre. So the idea that Tolkien is somehow stifling diversity in mythology and storytelling is absolutely false. One only needs to look at all the games, books and other media in this genre to see that this is not the case. What is actually the problem is that Africans don't have an entertainment industry of their own that they can use to finance a $1 billion dollar epic fantasy story in live action. So instead of addressing that, they will claim they need to be "represented" in stories not made by them because somehow that is better than making your own.

Also remember castophes are also roots of broken laws, laws of man, and laws of nature