Analysis of the 1st paragraph of Gardens of the Moon (No Spoilers) 

Thank you very much. And, weirdly enough, when I checked this last, the entire Malazan Book of the Fallen was just over 3.2million words.

@@ACriticalDragon That's a relief... Seriously, I do hope you'll select other passages for some closer scrutiny. Erikson's prose merits it.

Thanks Philip, I really love how through discussions with you and the other youtubers I am gaining a new and better appreciation of the books. I was kicking myself when I eventually saw riddhima's analysis video because it was spot on and really great and I had spent hours trying to work out the video editing software. So I haven't really added much to her points, if at all. But being part of that conversation about the books, being part of the community that wants to discuss and analyse, and is so free with sharing their experiences is such a great honour and pleasure.

@@ACriticalDragon That's so true about being engaged with the BookTube community -- it's been a real education for me as well. Both your analysis of the weather vane and riddhima's are fantastic!

Thank you so much riddhima. I loved your video and thought it was great.

Raf, that is an excellent point. Thank you.

I love how many interpretations and the depth of meaning that can be gleaned from a single paragraph in Erikson’s work. I learned a lot from this video. My impression of this scene was actually similar to Raf’s, except that I had always focused on the fact that we can’t see wind. So I took this to be an indication that the direction of the empire was being manipulated by unseen forces.

I am glad that you enjoyed it. I am certainly going to try to make more of these types of videos. Philip Chase is making me reread all the books, so I will try to schedule videos according to when we do the discussions on his channel.

Thanks Lonny, I am glad that you enjoyed the video, and I hope that you enjoy the books. Keep me updated on how you are getting on.

@@ACriticalDragon Will do man!

I finished it today :) Loved it. Jumped straight into Gardens’ a few weeks ago (hot off the heels of finishing the final Wheel Of Time book). Definitely a more involved read than WoT and I quickly learned that it’s not an Audiobook in the background whilst cooking dinner sort of caper. Was worried that I might have to re read before moving on to the next book, but most things came together for me towards the end and after a few hours of watching the more spoilery and in depth vids on Gardens’ i’m pretty excited in moving forward…annoyingly I didn’t have to foresight to order any other books before Xmas so I’ll be waiting a while for my copy of Deadhouse Gates.. Thanks again for your vids. Looking forward to delving deeper and engaging with the fandom!

Always a pleasure to hear from you Iskar. There are not that many fantasy novels or series that lend themselves to close reading analysis, so it is so much fun to do this for the Malazan books.

Hi Franz, I am really glad you are enjoying it. Thanks for watching.

Hi Rox, thanks for watching, I am so glad that you enjoyed it.

Glad you think so, but I really am a grumpy old man at times. All these young whippersnappers with their fancy video editing and snazzy animations.

Hi Johanna, Riddhima did a brilliant analysis but I was so proud of myself for figuring out how to insert a text box into my video that I couldn't just delete the video. I wish I had seen her video before filming this. It would have saved me ages. Steve will tell you that every sentence and passage is deliberate... personally I think he was just making stuff up ;) But this is one of the reasons why re-reads are so much fun. The first pass through you follow the story and notice some great details on the uppermost layers. The subsequent re-reads you start to uncover all these additional layers of meaning, all these points of interconnection, aspects of the world, foreshadowing, thematic hints, and all the richness of the deeply meaningful language of poetry and short stories, but in a novel.

@@ACriticalDragon This comment made me laugh! I'm already planning to reread Malazan after I finish my first read through the series. I love uncovering layers whether that be in books, music, or visual art. I'm not always the best at detecting every foreshadowing or theme, but nothing is more satisfying than the experience of discovery.

More to come as Philip and I move on to Deadhouse Gates at the end of the month. Thanks for watching.

Hi Claudia, there are so many scenes and passages within the books that I love. I have been amazed by the brilliant insights and commentary that all the different booktubers and commenters have been making. It is a real joy to meet everyone and be part of the community.

Thanks for watching and commenting Eric, I don't think Erikson enjoys the collective 'duh', I think he loves the moment when readers go 'ahhhhh you sneaky bastard... I just got that'. But I completely agree, he is a sneaky writer, and it is one of the reasons I love the books.

Hi Edwin, thanks for watching. I will be doing a chat with Philip Chase at the end of January on Deadhouse Gates.

Hi Benjamin, you are very welcome. Thank you for watching. I hope that you enjoy the other videos. Good luck with your writing.

Hi Eric, thank you for watching. I am very glad that you found this useful.

You are so welcome, I am glad that you enjoyed it.

Hi Colin, thanks for watching. This is one of the reasons that I love these books. Short story writing techniques deployed in epic length series are hard to come by.

3.2 million words... 10minutes to talk about 30... Quick calculation... Yeah, that would take a bizillion years :)

Hi Stephen, I hope you enjoy it. It is a great book and a great series.

I hope I didn't make it feel like homework. Glad you enjoyed the video.

Not at all! I quite enjoyed my literature classes - especially those focused on specific genres. I would love to see more of this for other books and series.

I hope that you enjoy it.

I am glad that you liked the video. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

Mark, great to hear from you. I hope you are well. We should catch up in a less public forum.

@@ACriticalDragon I'm ... really not sure how to do that. I'll figure something out.

Figured it out. Watch your emails!

Hi Jamie, my only advice would be, don't try to get everything all at once. Just enjoy what you can and relax. The book isn't going anywhere. A fantastic thing about books and stories is that we can return to them again and again. If you are enjoying it, if you are getting engrossed and immersed, then that is great and more than enough. None of us will ever know 'everything' that happens in the book, and a brilliant thing about all the Malaz-tubers, and booktubers, is that they bring up scenes and points, and interpretations, that give me new insight into the passages and books. Everyone experiences the books differently, and each reader emphasises different aspects, plot points, and meanings within the text. So when we are all discussing it as a group we get this collective increase in our knowledge and understanding. In fact, it is this very thing about how discussing texts with others can bring new and fascinating insights is one of the major reasons why I ended up studying literature. I just really enjoy it.

@@ACriticalDragon your totally right and I am really enjoying the book so far. I love that as you read, certain tiny bits of information can totally unlock mysteries in the plot that left me confused early on. The sign of a great book I think is one that changes every time you read it. Like Dune this book gives of the same vibe and can't wait to read more.

Thanks for watching, and thank you for using a quotation to make the point a lot more elegantly and powerfully than I did.

@@ACriticalDragon Hah, well you do all the real analysis. I get to plagiarize quotes and apply them to your work. That's the easy stuff. Your channel is quickly become must watch content.

Thank you very much. As to your spoiler point I totally agree. I will eventually get to that book and will probably talk about it there.

It would have been a very different novel if it had been the Benazan empire with the emphasis on the Ben ;)

While pike can refer to both the weapon or the fish, in this context, the weapon interpretation seems to make the most sense to me. I think of it in a similar sense to heads being mounted on pikes, the misshapen description also jives better with this interpretation. It is easier to imagine that a pole has become bent over the years, then some elaborate metal fish. Misshapen implies a deviation from proper form, not just oddly/complexly shaped.

@@riakm921 I can see that, also a battered weapon seems fitting for the Malaz world than a battered fish.

On the notion of descriptions being used as symbols, most of the time it is explicitly implied via more obvious analogies through a character and/or an idea. As it is, for example, when the author describes a mountain and decides to add the protagonist's vision of it (let's say it reminded him of something else and/or made him feel in a certain way). Sometimes however, as it is with the first paragraph in Gardens of the Moon, the author is more implicit and uses more subtle hints. They are difficult to catch even for native speakers (I rarely notice them in my own language, what to speak about english) and rely heavily on reference and metaphor, binding the image with a different concept. As Steve uses different metaphors to describe the empire via architecture. I recommend you read some short stories of your choice, because they use the second ones more often.

Thank you for watching Benjamin. I can see that Riakm has addressed your questions below. Sorry I was late to the party. A pike is like a long spear. You are absolutely right that it is also a fish, but in this context, a spear pole being used as a flag pole makes more sense. As to how to tell if a description is symbolic... unfortunately, it depends. Sometimes an author includes something deliberately as a symbol, other times we readers interpret or read a description as symbolic as it fits thematically with what we think the book is about or the passage is about. I can't imagine how difficult that would be to do in a second or third language. I have difficulty enough in English. But sometimes the fact that an author pauses longer than normal on an image or description can be a signpost about it being important. That importance might then be to the story, or, if no immediate story importance is relevant, then it might be a symbol. If the description is made prominent or important then there may be a secondary reason that the author has included it in addition to it being a description. Another signal might be if the author personifies the object, and describes them as having 'human' characteristics. That can sometimes draw a direct parallel between the object and a subject. The difficulty is that it depends on the book, the author, the genre, the style, and on a million other things.

So do I... then maybe I would finally get the better of him. :)