#I literally hated blind and sphinx in comparison (as people) to black and smoker

[susansontag]

So I've finished the gray house. Very interesting book! Still a little confused, lots of layers to unpack there it seems. Curious to why you're "smokerpilled" and "blackpilled". Wish we got to see more of the girls.

this is good to read after you've finished the book, especially if you want to understand what happens to each character at the end

it was a while ago I read it now but I believe smoker and black threatened the others, especially the likes of sphinx (who is interesting but as a person sucks imo), because they were able to see above and beyond the world of the house and thus were better able to withstand its internal politics etc. they were shunned by the others for this esp those who sought to maintain their power in the 'world' (read: the house) because they believed this was the only way of surviving, so flaunting it altogether as smoker and black do at various points is dangerous to everyone else's understanding of their shared reality

smoker even makes lengthy comments about how, really, it's all just a game they're playing in the house; playing at politics, etc, and becoming so wrapped up in it that there end up being real casualties (kind of lord of the flies style). other characters accuse them of simply not 'understanding' what is self-evident, or even pretending that they don't to be deliberately contrary (in black's case this may be somewhat true; smoker is reacted to with either horror or interest at times for his inability to grasp why others are reacting the way they do - he sees past it to 'reality'). remember when tabaqui absolutely flew at smoker for suggesting he shouldn't have been taking something so seriously?

smoker and black are sort of, if I recall correctly, rejected by the house for this rejection of it and its workings (I'm certain there is deeper political commentary in this book though it'd probably be difficult for me to grasp as I imagine it's localised to russian/eastern european history etc), so their storylines seem less 'magical' or fantastical (one could argue they seem more... mentally stable) but nonetheless I tend to respect characters in books who, even if they're smug and insecure (black), or just resigned (smoker), are able to set themselves apart from their communities and come to tough conclusions that may threaten and/or upset said communities. basically I like characters who say it how it is lol

on one last side note, sphinx is an interesting case because I personally believe he was so hard on smoker and so disappointed when smoker finally 'sided' with black, because he seems his old self in him. I'm sure you know sphinx and grasshopper are the same person, GH is just his younger self's nickname, but when sphinx was young he was much more questioning of the authority/inquisitive about the house, much like smoker. I guess after finding and bonding with blind he realised the only way to feel safe in this environment was to consolidate power within it, and to do this one must play by the rules. he wanted smoker to go down this same route, or at least behave 'correctly' like every else, but he refused to. black is the opposite example; he used to have power and had a dramatic fall from grace, so his rejection of the house's rules could absolutely be read more as bitterness than a true indifference or skepticism towards it, but nonetheless he ends up in that place. his was basically a role reversal with sphinx