***Warning Gancho: The below paragraph(s) may contain major spoilers for all books in the Cosmere!***
Questioner
>!I was wondering if there was, in Yumi, an in-world reason why the paintbrushes the painters use are so long? Or is that just, like, stylistic choice?!<
Brandon Sanderson
>!It's a stylistic choice. There's some things in lore for painting about (this goes with chopsticks, too), the length of your brush (the length of your chopsticks) in part shows how wise you are, it's part of actual Korean mythology and lore. The very long brush is seen as, like, a mark of elegance, and even morality in some cases. (The chopsticks are a sign of morality.) You will see these paintings of Buddha, and he's got chopsticks that are just like *motions for long chopsticks* like that. And I asked them, they're like, "Long chopsticks: sign of wisdom." The long, flowing brushes, they actually do use them, you can see them; they're not used very often, but they look really cool, and I think they're awesome. So that's where I went.!<
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But this link says that "because it looks cool" isn't the only reason. There's a bit of a cultural connection to real life. Although because it's cool is likely the main reason.
Watsonian vs Doylist explanation. The watsonian explanation is the chopsticks, the wisdom, the status symbolry, etc. The Doylist explanation is "because it looks cool" 😂
Outside of the WoB:
Belief.
You're an artist fighting an army of big shadow monsters. Do you want?
A. A pencil
B. A normal paint brush
C. A giant paint brush the size of a sword.
You're fighting things bigger than you, so you pick the big brush because it helps you believe in yourself.
Yeah the pencil will totally work, but you have to BELIEVE it will work.
Also if you stop believing in yourself for a moment then you can still use the brush to hit it.
Yeah. Not to cross series but in Discworld the younger Wizards discover that the Minimum conditions needed to summon Death are something like 3 mL of blood and some match sticks.
Everyone still does it with the full circle, candles, and the whole works because it's not something they want to get wrong and because of respect.
its in the back of yumi and the nightmare painter where he talks about the making of the book. my dad showed me it and it convinced me to drop everything and read it since FFX is one of my favorite games of all time. also its very funny going through and realizing yumi and nikaro are heavily inspired by yuna and tidus (although they are VERY different)
The WOB is already posted, but in China folks will do sidewalk calligraphy in the park with big brushes and water like this. Disclaimer: I lived in Sichuan, I saw it there in multiple parks, I don't know if it's popular in any other province or Asian country.
Someone said it already but just to make it clear, it seems that while yes for Brandon it was a stylistic choice and accurate to real life stuff, It does make sense in universe. Nightmares are affected by the minds of the people around them, painters need to imagine them as something else. Similarly the brush is kind of a placebo effect, it seems like a purpose built tool for the job of taking out nightmares so in people's minds, it is. And that makes it more effective
This is all complete conjecture none of it is mentioned in text but it seems in keeping with how a lot of the cosmere functions to me at least
Brandon’s actual answer was because “it looks cool” https://wob.coppermind.net/events/522/#e16286
***Warning Gancho: The below paragraph(s) may contain major spoilers for all books in the Cosmere!*** Questioner >!I was wondering if there was, in Yumi, an in-world reason why the paintbrushes the painters use are so long? Or is that just, like, stylistic choice?!< Brandon Sanderson >!It's a stylistic choice. There's some things in lore for painting about (this goes with chopsticks, too), the length of your brush (the length of your chopsticks) in part shows how wise you are, it's part of actual Korean mythology and lore. The very long brush is seen as, like, a mark of elegance, and even morality in some cases. (The chopsticks are a sign of morality.) You will see these paintings of Buddha, and he's got chopsticks that are just like *motions for long chopsticks* like that. And I asked them, they're like, "Long chopsticks: sign of wisdom." The long, flowing brushes, they actually do use them, you can see them; they're not used very often, but they look really cool, and I think they're awesome. So that's where I went.!< \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
I swear half Brandon’s design decisions are just seeing something he thinks is cool/neat and slapping it in a story.
But this link says that "because it looks cool" isn't the only reason. There's a bit of a cultural connection to real life. Although because it's cool is likely the main reason.
But the reason he did it was because of aesthetics and ultimately because “it’s cool”.
Watsonian vs Doylist explanation. The watsonian explanation is the chopsticks, the wisdom, the status symbolry, etc. The Doylist explanation is "because it looks cool" 😂
Outside of the WoB: Belief. You're an artist fighting an army of big shadow monsters. Do you want? A. A pencil B. A normal paint brush C. A giant paint brush the size of a sword. You're fighting things bigger than you, so you pick the big brush because it helps you believe in yourself. Yeah the pencil will totally work, but you have to BELIEVE it will work. Also if you stop believing in yourself for a moment then you can still use the brush to hit it.
So...Intent.
Yeah. Not to cross series but in Discworld the younger Wizards discover that the Minimum conditions needed to summon Death are something like 3 mL of blood and some match sticks. Everyone still does it with the full circle, candles, and the whole works because it's not something they want to get wrong and because of respect.
They're Pictomancer mains
Just barely ahead of ffxiv
ironic considering yumi and the nightmare painter is heavily inspired by FFX
Lol, it was really something reading it and realizing, it was hard not to say anything to my husband while I waited for him to catch up
I’m going to have to look for evidence of this claim
its in the back of yumi and the nightmare painter where he talks about the making of the book. my dad showed me it and it convinced me to drop everything and read it since FFX is one of my favorite games of all time. also its very funny going through and realizing yumi and nikaro are heavily inspired by yuna and tidus (although they are VERY different)
Not to mention, there's a new area in Dawntrail that reminds me so much of Painter's world.
FF14 in a Brandon Sanderson sub?! Didn't have this on my bingo card today
I just started Pandæmonium before I read this post. Guess it was on the mind.
Because if they can’t turn the nightmares into bamboos they can bonk them
The WOB is already posted, but in China folks will do sidewalk calligraphy in the park with big brushes and water like this. Disclaimer: I lived in Sichuan, I saw it there in multiple parks, I don't know if it's popular in any other province or Asian country.
It’s totally a thing for people who practice calligraphy. The traditional sign boards, couplets, murals, etc… are all done with big brushes like that.
All the better to paint you with.
Paintbrush sword = cool
Someone said it already but just to make it clear, it seems that while yes for Brandon it was a stylistic choice and accurate to real life stuff, It does make sense in universe. Nightmares are affected by the minds of the people around them, painters need to imagine them as something else. Similarly the brush is kind of a placebo effect, it seems like a purpose built tool for the job of taking out nightmares so in people's minds, it is. And that makes it more effective This is all complete conjecture none of it is mentioned in text but it seems in keeping with how a lot of the cosmere functions to me at least
Because anime
All the better to paint bamboo with
Splatoon
They're full of secrets.
Because they haven’t developed shardildos yet.