Question Reverend Insanity

Discussion in 'Novel Discussion' started by bellasantaella, Feb 26, 2021.

  1. bellasantaella

    bellasantaella Well-Known Member

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    I have long since wanted to read it. As far as I know, it has everything I like - Mc mostly travels solo, is concentrated on cultivation, novel is written well, and he is handsome. The only thing I am uncertain about is Mc being too cold bloodied and all that stuff. Like does he at least have some emotions, or smile and joke sometimes? What are your opinions on this novel? And one more, in the tags there is an ‘Evil mc’ tag, he is not going to be the final boss himself at the end, right? Like him vs everyone in the world.
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2022
  2. Astaroth

    Astaroth empty

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    He does have emotions but he "cut them off" so to speak in order to prioritize his goal, which is to become immortal (or die trying).

    He does smile and joke and what not, but it's always 100% acting, he just does it if he thinks it will be beneficial. The MC (Fang Yuan) is extremely cunning, manipulative, cold-blooded, indifferent, rational, etc.

    At one point he's like public enemy number one, but in practice nothing is ever that simple, because everyone else also have their own goals and are mostly rational so for everyone to team up against him would require there to be an actual benefit to them that would outweigh the potential losses
     
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  3. bellasantaella

    bellasantaella Well-Known Member

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    So is he just emotionless? I mean because he cut them off he doesn’t appreciate anything like good fortunes and what not. Umm do you think it’s worth reading?
     
  4. dio

    dio Well-Known Member

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    It is, because it is well written, and because it's a novel with a true evil mc. Unlike most novels where mc is the reincarnation of an ultimate evil but still ends up with a harem of random FL.
    This one has his goals, his reasons and stick to them.
     
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  5. Elementarteilchen

    Elementarteilchen Well-Known Member

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    Yes he is and this was a huge turn off for me :/
    If it is benefitial to befriend someone, he will do it. If he don't need him/her or if he gets ressources by disregarding them later on, then he will definitely do it, because he doesn't give a damn about emotions or relationships.

    If you don't care about his "A.I. personality" and some other pecularities in this novel, then it is a must read, but on the other hand it could also be a total miss.
     
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  6. Blank-1

    Blank-1 Fantasy-holic

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    Have you read the whole of Warlock of the Magus World?
    If so, FY’s more evil than Leylin. The difference is while Leylin just about has some level of concern for family and fairness in terms of ‘equivalent exchange’, any and all options are open to FY
     
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  7. bellasantaella

    bellasantaella Well-Known Member

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    I didn’t read it but now it’s hard for me to decide whether to read RI or not. I am out of good novels to read so I’d want to read it, but it’s such a huge turn off really that he doesn’t have emotions.
     
  8. bellasantaella

    bellasantaella Well-Known Member

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    Sadly I care about those:(
     
  9. Blank-1

    Blank-1 Fantasy-holic

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    Yeah, it’s an amazing novel where the MC has to struggles every inch in a world that feels alive and realistic.
    Pretty much every so called ‘side’ character has their own motivations and story that you can empathise with.
    But on the flip side, you should be prepared to hate and despise the MC for his actions
     
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  10. readerX

    readerX Well-Known Member

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    If you care about MC lack of benevolent personality even though he is not your generic face-slap Xianxia MC then this probably not your cup of tea.

    This is good novel though. Good enough to attract some people in china's higher up got there attention and put this novel into infinite hatius. :ROFLMAO:
     
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  11. Astaroth

    Astaroth empty

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    Like I said, he's not emotionless, one time he even gets stuck by a certain illusion formation by an enemy trying to use his emotions against him.

    It's just that he ignores his emotions as they pale in comparison for his desire to achieve immortality.

    Anyway the novel is great and I highly recommend it, I've read close to 2k chapters.


    Just try it and see, if you don't like it then just drop it. I'd say though that there's a few benchmarks in the novel: 200 chapters, 600~800 somewhere, 1100-ish and right before 2000 (where I'm at) where some big story arcs begin/end.

    Also something to note is there's a few things that might seem to be plotholes but some time after 1k chapters you get to find out a lot of hidden details which explains why some things that seemed to be plotholes in the beginning happened.


    So that's my guideline if you ever wonder about if you should continue to read or drop, say you read 170 chapters and want to drop, continue to read to 200 and see if it changes your mind or not. Ofc you can drop the novel any time you want, don't force yourself to read something you don't want to, but I'm just giving you some tips.
     
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  12. bellasantaella

    bellasantaella Well-Known Member

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    One minute ago I was like I won’t read it but that first sentence of yours just changed my mind. I’m so happy that he just ignores them and he’s not just an emotionless vase. I’ll definitely read it.
     
  13. Cjjapz

    Cjjapz Active Member

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    Fang Yuan never lack emotions, you can say he detached it to himself, he ignores it. He is an amoral person, it means a person who don't give a shit or indifference towards moral norms, he's unethical and individualist. He makes computations of benefit for himself and himself only. A profound schemer who plans way ahead from you, who never bet his life on luck, who knows when to retreat during dire times and a person who hates classism.
     
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  14. Exalted

    Exalted Well-Known Member

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    As stated before he's not emotionless, in-fact he has a wide range of emotions. He just does not let them get in the way of his goal. If/When you read a certain arc, you'll feel the sheer emotional weight of not only that scene but his struggles leading up to it. I would dare claim that he feels more like a person than 90% of these novels around. Please give this story a try!
     
  15. Vorpal

    Vorpal Well-Known Member

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    I'll give you a passage from the novel that will answer your question about if he has emotions or not. It's also one of my favourite passages ever.

     
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  16. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    Wait, is this representative of the writing in Reverend Insanity?
     
  17. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    Yes, the protagonist is a scholar.
    So I assume the author might be one too
    Most likely a poet
     
  18. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    I heard a while ago that the prose in "Reverend Insanity" was really bad and it comes from someone whose opinion I trust so it colored my own feelings for this book. And this quote seems to confirm all this. It looks okay when translated to English, but this kind of writing would be terrible in Chinese.
     
  19. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    I find that odd given the output of the translation"studio".
    I will bet my money on the English being worse


    Chapters by @Sky Farrow were much better. You can ask the first translator since I can't comment on the Chinese
     
  20. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    It's less a matter of the quality of the translation and more about how certain types of sentences will work better in different languages. In this case, "Reverend Insanity" seems to be well suited to English as a lot of readers seem to think that the prose is good. in Chinese though, this kind of writing wouldn't flow well and will look really self-indulgent.

    it reminds me quite a bit of Gu Long's writing, and even though he's famous and popular, a lot of people have also criticized his prose. If you were to translated Gu Long to English, then I'd bet it'd sound a lot better. On the flip side, a lot of good Chinese prose is very difficult to translate because it draws from the unique features of the language and its literary (and poetic) tradition. Put this writing in English and you lose all of this and it's going to look a lot worse.
     
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