Originally published at: The AG Bukbang - Episode One - Ackerly Green
Catherine and CJ eat tons of food, drink wine, discuss the books they read in January, and asked each other rapid-fire lit-related questions.
Originally shot live on Instagram, on the last Thursday of the month.
Very fun to watch live!!!
Was so much fun to snack with yāall on my way into school! Certainly made my day 
Iām gonna have to watch this in increments so that I can hear everything, but I just love how you got distracted by the parsley on your pizza @CJB!
Oh my gosh, you guys, this was the most fun!! Loved seeing you all pop in and out, thanks for hanging with us!! 
I may have heard wrong (laundry), but did I hear āAztec thundering bosomsā in there? 
It was an absolute blast getting to watch and interact with part of it live before (and a bit during) my classes! Itās so heartwarming to see Catherine and CJ laugh with each other and all of us
āthundering bosomsā may or may not have been said, yesā¦
34:45 when Catherine tells me Iāve interrupted her 8 million times is my favorite part.
Any plans for another one? I want to catch the chaos live one of these days
Weāre planning on doing them the last Thursday of every month!
Alright, so I kinda managed (after lots of struggle with my free time) to finish watching the first bukbang and I love the chemistry between you two (hope the fluās gone btwā¦ and that this poor delivery guy didnāt freeze anywhere).
One thing I need to tackle, however, is the rampant feminism of @CJB - I get where you guys are coming with the quasi-sexist approach of Patrick Rothfuss when it comes to character creation (or maybe not sexist but stereotypically simplified), yet I still canāt believe you gave up because of the ārapeā academy in the second part of the series 
A couple of things here - I believe that when it comes to crafting a female character, we (as a literary world) have already made a huge progress. Just look at the Gor cycle where the women were, pardon my French (feel free to edit this out) slave f***toys.
The same criticism came fell on one of my favorite authors - Robert Jordan for following the same pattern which was either a woman was a feminoid with feelings closeted so deeply, they were probably having tea with Mr Tumnus 90% of the time (Galina, Nynaeve, Aviendha) or a cute idiot (Elayne for half of the series). Or both (Moiraine). Or a cheerful granny whoād rip you apart and feed to the crows (Verin). Oh, and then we had rampaging feminists with the Green Ajah.
You could even extrapolate these accusations towards such blockbuster series like Harry Potter. The thing is, however; I believe that for any writer itās always difficult to create a character without falling into the pit of stereotypes, regardless of sex or their background - I had to rewrite some of them myself when doodling with some stuff on my own.
I completely get that the fantasy from that era (early 00s) has its flaws and is still enslaved to some general patterns but this extends even further - I couldnāt but read Nevernight without struggling over the main character which shouldnāt be the case.
Anyway - I believe you should disregard the gossip about Wise Manās fear. I read it a while ago, right after the release but I canāt recall such instrumental approach.
ā¦thinking of it, maybe you could actually explore the topic of stereotypes in the next video 
I wanted to add that Name of the Wind has particularly been broken down and about 1/3 of the women are specifically in the novel to be sexual objects. Dude definitely has some hangups with women.
I would also say that, while there are some absolutely abysmal writers, thereās plenty who buck the trend. Ursula K Le Guin was writing in the 1960s and wrote some profoundly feminist works. Even JK Rowling, who began writing Harry Potter in the '90s, includes a wide range of characters that exist to be more than eye candy for Harry. Hermoine in particular stands out as a very nuanced character who holds her own as one of the core trio, but there are all sorts of characters like McGonagall, Molly Weasley, Tonks, and Rita Skeeter who have defining moments in the books and manage to stand on their own as characters. Rowling has other issues, but I think she did pretty decently on representing women.
I donāt necessarily think writers have to be squeaky clean. Obviously thatās nice when it happens, but there are some truly exceptional writers who were garbage people. HP Lovecraft comes to mind. Harlan Ellison was apparently also a terrible human. And for folks who love Rothfuss despite his issues, thatās a valid stance. But for meā¦ I canāt really support him. Itās too ingrained into the text for me to enjoy.
Ad everything you said:
True. The thing is, however, itās a fantasy with some medieval-esque setting. One could only speculate whether this depiction of the characters is the result of Rothfussā Jung/Freudistic problems or willingness to preserve some quasi-historical realism. Yes, this realism falls apart when the major characters are introduced, so Iād agree that the bias is blatant.
Regarding Rowling, Iād say she didnāt manage to completely escape stereotypes - what you perceive as Hermioneās strong character buildup, Iād blame on her following a generic trope of a nerd which is particularly visible in The Goblet of Fire and the failed night out with Krum. Sheās a complete opposite of a romantic character and her bond with Ron leading to the marriage is almost a classic deus ex machina. While other characters are developed to some extent, Iād say the best one was Dolores Umbridge but we could still argue sheās one-dismensional until the Wizengamot trial.
Iād say - Iām not gonna force anyone into loving Rothfussā works cause I completely get the stance of his sexism and Iām not trying to disregard it. I still believe, however, that to everything is context.
This is also sort of difficult for me as I love his series for how some other parts of the world are built, especially all the unresolved arcs. Honestly, I was rather bored with the clunky depictions of Kvotheās relationship with the women and I almost skipped them while yawning. Your arguments are strong and I see your point.
From my perspective, I remember that I had to actually shelve one story I worked on because of how difficult to manage were the female characters. Having them set in the Victorian era didnāt help and Iāll probably have to - volens nolens - rewrite these parts from the scratch.