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Book Club
Book Club https://media.istockphoto.com/photos/stack-of-books-in-home-interior-picture-id532852345?k=6&m=532852345&s=612x612&w=0&h=5folmZQzguOesYnvHTpPRWd4ixOlBoJrL7mONtqbbb0= Welcome to the book club! This is the place where you can discuss your favourite books of any genre! You can share your thoughts and feelings about a recent read, recommend books to others, or discuss plot lines with like-minded people! If you love books and have a passion for reading, this is the place for you! We welcome all members with open arms! https://i.giphy.com/media/toSMxU7Mguxnq/giphy.webp Rules and Guidelines: -All existing PokeCommunity rules apply -Please be respectful to all members. It's completely normal to disagree or offer different views or opinions, however, please do so in a civil manner -Be sure to specify the book(s) you are discussing to prevent any confusion Sign-Up Sheet: Name/Nickname: Favourite Book: Favourite Author: Members: Midnight Umbreon, Astinus, Cherrim, Lycanthropy, Bay, Charlie Brown, TheGhostHunter, Bobandbill, Baire, Desert Stream, Aslan, VisionOfMilotic, Benjamin |
Ooh a book club? heck yes!
Name/Nickname: Calzone407 Favourite Book: Rangers Apprentice Favourite Author: Christopher Polini. Maybe? I've read a lot of books kind of hard to pick a favorite author |
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I'll join! Always enjoy a good discussion about reading! And I'm always on the search for new books to read.
Name/Nickname: Astinus Favourite Book: Ender's Game Favourite Author: Orson Scott Card I'm currently reading the Redwall books by Brian Jacques. Anyone else read them? I kind of miss the days when my favorite author was really obvious here. |
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I'm currently reading a novel titled Traveling Light by Lynne Branard. The characters in it are certainly quirky, if not atypical, however, the story so far is really excellent. I'm only 63 pages in and I'm already fairly invested. |
So I know it's a bit early to start a conversation, but have either of you ever read a series of unfortunate events?
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Excite!!!! I love reading!!
Name/Nickname: Erica / Cherrim Favourite Book: Sphere by Michael Crichton, but my fave book that I read recently was The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. :3 Favourite Author: Michael Crichton although I worry that if I went back to reread all my faves, I'd find them too misogynistic/right-wing :x I'm currently reading The Art of Racing in the Rain by uhhhhh... Garth Stein. It's told from the POV of a dog and it's very weird right now, but hard to put down. It will be the 57th book I've read this year, because apparently I am crazy. ???? |
I do apologize for not formally introducing myself when I initially created this club. Anyways, I thought I'd share a little bit about myself and my undying love of reading.
My real name is Adele (no, I can't sing before anyone asks.) Anyways, I've loved reading for the entirety of my seventeen years of living. Fun fact, in the second grade, I was already at a grade 6 reading level. English has always been my strongest subject and I'm currently in an Advanced Placement english program at my high school (or I will be when school officially begins in September.) My love of this subject, of course, is fueled by my passion for reading and writing. I have a plethora of books that I'd consider my favourites, including but not limited to: Dangerous Lies by Becca Fitzpatrick, Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick, the Wake series by Lisa McMann, and Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. I generally prefer romance, drama, historical fiction, adventure, and mystery novels. My favourites often are ones that tend to be centralized around realistic, imperfect characters who learn to cope with and overcome their internal/external struggles. I find realism in characters to be incredibly refreshing, I love seeing the humanity in protagonists and antagonists alike and I enjoy three dimensional characters that have utterly complex personalities and continually evolve as a story unravels. Might I add, I often shy away from fantasy or sci-fi novels, however, there are a select few that I thoroughly enjoy in these two particular genres. (I.e Hunger Games, Divergent series, etc.) As of late, I've been reading a lot of poetry and quote books and I've fallen in love with them. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur is a superb one that I'd highly recommend. My favourite authors include John Green (Cliche, I know. He's simply marvelous though) and Becca Fitzpatrick. (if you couldn't already tell.) Anyways, if there's anything you guys would like to know about me, please, feel free to ask. I'm an open book, truly. (Ahaha I'm hilarious.) https://i.giphy.com/media/wiPVz0nY5sd8I/giphy.webp Quote:
Anyways, The Art of Racing in the Rain sounds rather peculiar, although, I have a tremendous love for dogs so I can already tell that I'd enjoy it. Quote:
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https://media1.tenor.com/images/2ea3135361d8b404089087f1efc7d8bb/tenor.gif?itemid=8323658It is about three children who have an enormous fortune, but are very unfortunate, inn the first book their parents perish in a terrible fire, perish means - yeah, you probably know what perish means, anyway they are sent to live with an evil man named count Olaf, who does spoilery things to them. sounds bad but they are good books, and sometimes even funny
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Heyy, I love reading! I'm afraid I don't have as much time to read anymore these days as I want to, but I've slowly started catching up on my huge backlog during my Summer break.
Name/Nickname: Lycan Favourite Book: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams Favourite Authors: Douglas Adams, Terry Goodkind, Agatha Christie |
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Thanks for the welcome!
I can't pick a favorite genre of books. My favorite author is known for sci-fi, but I don't read a lot of sci-fi. I've read a lot of fantasy, but I wouldn't say it's my favorite. Really, I just read whatever strikes my fancy, no matter what genre it's in. Quote:
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I just finished Traveling Light, the novel that I was reading. I managed to read 217 pages today and I didn't initially plan on reaching the ending of the book, however, I couldn't resist. I was unable to set the book down, my eyes were firmly glued to the parchment.
Every time I finish a book I feel a mix of contentment and sorrow, as well as a certain emptiness. It may sound weird, but, it's almost as if I'm internally mourning the conclusion of a book. I currently feel like I don't know what to do with myself after devoting so much time to reading. Does anyone else feel that way? Perhaps I'm alone in this and my apparent attachment to novels and to the written word is uncanny. https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1469404411l/30011023.jpg Anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed Traveling Light. It was the type of story that's rather unpredictable. Even during the denouenment did I continually question and speculate about the events that were to occur. The novel was fascinationing and presented a deeper meaning about the utter importance of spontaneity and living life according to your own rules, and ultimately doing whatever makes you happy. |
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Either way, she has written so many books that it's hard to pick just one favorite. I really enjoyed The A.B.C. Murders and Cards on the Table, both are quite unique in their own way with a couple of rather unexpected twists of their own. The biggest twist however is definitely that of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. The book is so fantastically written as a whole, and my mind was blown entirely when it reached the conclusion. I wish I could tell you more about it, but huge spoiler alert. Quote:
And wow, I totally recognize that as well. Reaching the ending is great on one hand, because you get the satisfying feeling of all the pieces falling together or the story reaching its conclusion. On the other hand, finishing a book also means you have to find something else to read and can no longer enjoy the characters unless you read the same story again. Of course, the feeling can easily be avoided by simply reading books that are part of a sereis, then you can freely move on to the next part. ;] |
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There's been instances in which I've reached the conclusion of a series and have proceeded to weep. Usually tears of joy in the case of a happy ending. As I previously stated, I do have a tendency to be rather sentimental and get attached to books. |
Hey, since I'm the fanfic mod here guess it's apparent that I'll join!
Name/Nickname: Bay Favourite Book: The Things They Carried by Tim O' Brien Favourite Author: Tim O' Brien, Dennis Lehane, Neil Gaiman Currently I've been reading more fanfics than published novels, but I hope to set aside some reading time once real life and fandom projects gets less hectic. On the topic of feeling sad when finished reading a book, I felt that way when I was done with my last published read, Neil Gaiman's American Gods. I was reading the book on and off for several weeks, and when I finally finished it I was like, "awww that's all?" haha. |
Hullo! Keen to join as well :)
Name/Nickname: Charlie Brown / Josh Favourite Book: '1984' by George Orwell Favourite Authors: Haruki Murakami, Rupi Kaur, James Dashner Will respond to the conversation topics later |
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Name: TheGhostHunter (Savanna)
Favorite Book: To Kill A Mockingbird-Harper Lee (Classic), Project 17-Laurie Faria Stolarz (Modern) Favorite Author: Edgar Allen Poe (Classic), J.K. Rowling (Modern) Currently Reading: On Ghosts: The Spirit World Throughout History-Ronald L. Murphy Jr. |
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Name/Nickname: bobandbill
Favourite Book: Buh, not sure tbh. The Merlin Conspiracy, Howl's Moving Castly, The Singing Tree spring to mind... Favourite Author: Diana Wynne Jones, but also Terry Pratchett, Michael Crichton, Ursula Le Guin Currently reading 'Threat Vector' by Tom Clancy. Standard action thriller thus far. Book was on the free-to-borrow bookshelf where I am currently staying, so I figured I'll give it a go. Got around to Mazerunner recently too. I agree with the sentiment on To Kill A Mockingbird, btw. |
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Also, I've recently purchased a plethora of novels and I can't quite decide on which one to read. They all differ immensely and I've gone back and forth trying to choose which one to conquer first. Does anyone have tips for choosing a novel? Thanks in advance. |
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My to-be-read pile is organized out for the next year (I hope). How I organized it was by grouping the books into general piles (series, stand-alones, genres), and then sorting everything out so I'm not stuck reading the same sort of thing for too long. Like after I finish the two series that I'm in the middle of, I'm switching over to shorter middle-school-aged stand-alone books. After those come the more stand-alone adult novels that are a variety of genres (you have your H.P. Lovecraft right next to your Nicholas Sparks!). The piles go on like that so I get a good variety. |
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Also, Nicholas Sparks is a marvelous author. I don't think anyone would dare to disagree, given how many of his novels have been made into big-budget films. |
orz, sorry I disappeared for like a week LOL... I was busy with stuff, but not too busy to read, apparently, since I finished a few books in that time!
I finished that weird The Art of Racing in the Rain book. It was really, really good--the writing was absolutely beautiful. It was like poetry sometimes. However, the subject matter was pretty depressing and the ending very bittersweet. I think I'd still recommend it, though. ESPECIALLY if you own pets. Aaand then I quickly read through The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins which is the graphic novelization of the first arc of the D&D podcast run by the McElroy brothers. I ADORED the podcast and preordered the book as soon as it was announced, although once it finally arrived it took me a couple weeks to finally sit down and read it because I just wasn't really in the mood for comics when it came. But it was really good and I highly recommend it. :D Finally, I also read Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries. I've been wanting to read it for over a year, but it's been on hold at my library for ever. (Well, it did come off hold sometime last year but it came off hold AT THE SAME TIME AS LIKE 6 OTHER BOOKS because somehow that ALWAYS HAPPENS TO ME and I just did not have time to get to it before I had to return it--since I couldn't renew with tons of OTHER people on the waiting list.) Uh, anyway to get back to the point, it's a book about dictionaries, written by a lexicographer (someone who writes definitions). It was absolutely FASCINATING and I urge anyone who enjoys the English language, language in general, or even just books in general to give it a read. The author is really funny while still being super informative and you learn all kinds of little tidbits about language and words. It was also the first time I had to look up a LOT of words without feeling really frustrating, like I do whenever I have to look up tons of words in academic writing. Like, the author used plenty of words I'd never heard of before, but not in the condescending way of academia, ahaha. It was a really great read! I'm not sure what my next book is gonna be. I think a few things are due to come off hold in a week or two, so maybe I'll hold off on starting anything new until I have a deadline looming, ahaha. Quote:
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Ohh, and from your description of the kinds of books you like, I think you'd DEFINITELY like Racing in the Rain. It's totally right up your alley, re: slowly getting to know characters and seeing personalities unravel and build up over time. It's also very realistic--well, aside from having a dog as the narrator, ahaha. Quote:
But yeah, Next in particular is one of the ones that makes me worry about going back and rereading. I really enjoyed it when I read it, but it put me DANGEROUSLY CLOSE to becoming a climate change denier when I was much younger and much more impressionable because that was Crichton's stance and it was abundantly clear in the novel that the "real science" intermingled with his classic pseudo-science was very, very conservative in nature and very, very skewed. @[email protected] And then when I read, uhh.. I think it might have been called Micro...? One of the novels that was published posthumously and finished by a ghostwriter. The female characters in it were very... bad. Like really bad. It makes me worry if maybe back then I just glossed over how bad his other female characters were because I liked his work so much. Oh well. He'll forever be my guilty pleasure favourite, I think. I just really love how well he writes suspense and even if his formula is so obvious (he loooves his "countdown" chapter titles), it sucks me in every single time, lol. I'm just glad that now I'm old enough to be a more critical reader! Quote:
I usually solve it by reading library books that I've borrowed on a whim instead because those at least have due dates and then my pile of owned books just gathers dust, so I suppose that's not much help. ????Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, perhaps? |
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Does anyone have books that they've been dying to read? New releases? Old classics? With autumn just around the corner, perhaps there's also a shift in book preferences.
Personally, I've been looking forward to reading To all the Boys I've Ever Loved Before by Jenny Han. Every teenage girl within a mile radius has seen the movie on Netflix. However, as someone who believes that books are superior to films, I've been holding out as I want to complete the novel first. I don't want the movie to influence my perception of the characters. Although, I've been told how spectacular the film is and I can only imagine how incredible the book must be. I bought it a few days ago but I haven't gotten the chance to peek at it yet (as I've been quite ill as of late). I do plan on beginning the book today as it's rainy and cold outside (perfect day to read, if you ask me.) |
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As for books that I haven't gotten yet, the Animorphes series is right at the top of my list. The themes and characterization that it has in it is what I'm really interested in. I've heard that they're really good, and stick with readers for a long time. Had no idea To All the Boys I've Ever Loved Before was a book! Hopefully you feel better soon so you can read it! (For me, the best weather for reading is when it's sunny and warm [not hot] out. Then I can sit outside and soak up some much needed vitamin D while also reading a good book.) |
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I will say I agree, reading a book with the sun on your skin is marvelous. I still believe that nothing beats reading while listening to the rain as you cuddle up under a blanket near a fireplace with a cup of tea! |
Last weekend while I lacked internet, I found a bunch of book stalls had popped up for the weekend at the nearby shopping centre for charity. Was able to snag a few books for pretty cheap. :B Pratchett, Cohen and also Dickens as I never did read much of his stuff before.
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Animorphs! Now that's a blast from the past, haha. I read a bunch of them back in primary school, out of order and not with all the books in the end. That was a cool series though. Never watched the show. |
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Anyways, I STILL haven't read To All The Boys I've Ever Loved Before, even after all this time. Instead, I began How To Love, a novel that I've mentioned a plethora of times before. Honestly, I'm really loving it so far. It's quite a simple book that lacks any sort of monumental climax, yet the plot is incredibly compelling. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who adores real, raw romance. It isn't overly saccharine but it still conveys a message about true love and how it's not always easy. After this read, well, maybe then I'll read To All The Boys I've Ever Loved Before. Although, over the summer I had a habit of impulsively purchasing every eye-catching novel that I could locate and I now have quite a gargantuan pile of novels to get through. Most of them are romance or historical fiction (or both), but I did find a Mystery/Thriller novel that's been piquing my interest as of late. For the love of God, I can't think of the title, anyways, I'm thinking that it'll be my next read. If anyone has found an enthralling read perfect for Autumn, do let me know, I'd be delighted to hear! Autumn is my absolute favourite season and in my opinion is one of the best seasons to read in. You can sit outside while it's still nice out with a book and just enjoy the fresh crisp air and the vibrant leaves scattered about and in late fall you can curl up under a quilt with a book and a cup of tea! :) |
hello, v new to these forums but I hope I can still join! pretty neat how many other canadians there are here
Name/Nickname: baire Favourite Book: The Big Sleep or The Long Goodbye (both by Chandler) Favourite Author: Raymond Chandler, Douglas Adams, Ludwig Wittgenstein Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels make up my favourite series and I'm not sure that any other has come close. I'll have a bit more time to read novels over the next week so I'm excited for that at least |
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Anyways, I've heard a lot of positive things about Raymond Chandler and his work. While I, myself have never read one of his novels, I've always yearned to. Perhaps I need to pay another visit to my local book store! Any recommendations? |
Thanks for having me! I think The Big Sleep would be worth going through at some point, it's the first and most well known in the series and takes a really dark and complex direction. I've never gotten a chance to read Agatha Christie but I know she's written a lot of detective/mystery type of stuff, since you've mentioned that you really like her works I don't feel Chandler would too far off.
I myself still haven't decided what I want to be reading over the next week, I've been meaning to read the Foundation series by Asimov or maybe even Solaris by Lem for a while now so I might start on that sooner or later. I've also been meaning to read Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon since one of my friends named it his favourite book, but it just looks so long and I don't know how I'd find the time to ever get around finishing it. |
Name/Nickname: Catnip~ or Desert Stream~ is fine I guess
Favourite Book: Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy Favourite Author: whoever wrote that ^ (I'm bad with names, sorry :p) Honestly I don't read a ton anymore, but I kinda want to get back into it, because when I like a book it's a really nice feeling lol. I've only really felt that way with a few books though. I mostly like Sci-fi or Fantasy, and I especially like things that can make me laugh so if anyone has any suggestions you can post them and I'll try to read them I guess? |
Sign me up, I love reading <3 Haven't had as much time due to school being really busy this year, but I hope to get through my to read list soon.
Name/Nickname: Aslan (feel free to call me Sophie though) Favourite Book: Not sure about now but my childhood favourite was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban! Favourite Author: Haruki Murakami or Kazuo Ishiguro |
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Welcome! It's lovely to have you. I'll admit that I'm not particularly interested in novels of the Sci-Fi or Fantasy genre. However, there still are a lot of superb novels out there that would indeed suit your taste. The Heart of Dread series by Melissa De La Cruz and Michael Johnston are excellent novels if I do say so myself. The first book is my personal favourite as it's one of those books that I simply could not put down. The characters in the series are marvelous and diverse and the series is full of action, adventure, and even a touch of romance! I highly recommend this series and I think you'd really enjoy it. Michael Vey is another series that I'd recommend. Admittedly, I've only read the first book. However, I have indeed heard marvelous things about the sequential novels. If you like Sci-Fi, the series is perfect for you! Again, you meet a plethora of contrasting characters that contribute to the story's upbeat nature. The first novel is full of suspense and action but it is quite the cliffhanger I must say. Quote:
I have actually never laid my hands on a Harry Potter novel in my lifetime, the series has never captivated me if I'm honest. Am I missing out? Also, I've never heard of those authors! What are some of their novels that you've enjoyed and that you'd recommend? |
I guess I should also mention I'm way more inclined to read something if it's a series then I am if it's a singular book. I like things that will last me a long time :p
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Yes. I am the same way. Finishing a good book is truly bittersweet. You've reached the conclusion, yet you yearn for more. That's why series are the best because there's always a second, third, fourth book and so on.
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congrats on getting the club featured! hooray for books
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I'd like to join this award-winning club. I'm currently reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman, as always Gaiman's lyrical prose are a delight.
Name/Nickname: Sam Favourite Book: Game of Thrones (Asoiaf) Favourite Author: Suza Scalora. She is a photographer first, but she uses magnificent illustrations to bring her children's books to life. I also love Jane Yolen's wonderful lore. |
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Our Club was awarded this ribbon to signify our achievement as Club of the Month! Very lovely indeed. http://www.pokemopolis.com/pics/eps/gbattles/gabites12.jpg Quote:
Game of Thrones is immensely popular and admittedly, I never realized that it is a book series as well as a television one. I've always been intrigued by the medieval feel of the show, despite the fact that I've never actually watched it. What in particular about the novels do you find the most compelling? Also, Suza Scalora sounds like an oddly familiar name. I do think it's unique that she started off with a career in photography! |
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I am drawn to historical fantasy as a genre, particuarly the medieval era. The legend of King Arthur for instance is something I always love to see revisited, or the Lord of the Rings. The series A Song of Ice and Fire was always right up my alley, but like many people I was first introduced to the books by the television show. I got addicted to the show for about 4 seasons. I haven't watched lately, finishing and rereading the books is what I am content with for the time being. I think the show had a good run for awhile though. It had a colorful cast of powerhouse actors and great chemistry between them. But even though I am a fan of the show, there's nothing quite like reading books. Martin is quite the world-builder. He really takes his time with maps, and developing regions, social systems, and different cultures, noble houses, ancient history and its a really rich world, and the show I think does a good job of capturing that. Something else I admire about Martin is his prose however. Reading his books weaves a spell on me. His writing is very subtle. He writes very close third person povs, and really nails his characters. Every line of dialogue is so accurate. They are very consistent characters that develop interestingly. Yet in spite of being very low key as an omniscient narrator, and filtering everything through the thoughts and feelings of the characters, there's something about reading him that's almost sensual. He really describes the world around him. While the tv series is known for capturing the grit, and that is indeed present in the novels, the more lyrical atmosphere from Martin's books I think is more elusive to capture. He can just indulge you for pages in descriptions of the banquet hall, and every strand of music comes to life, the smells of the herbs on the meat, the fabric of a woman's dress blowing in the breeze as she sits beside you at the mahogany table. Martin is straightforward and I think easy to follow, but its all so textured and rich. Its such a sensory experience. I think people foremost think of Martin's characters and plot twists, but in my opinion he's also got some beautiful writing. |
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Honestly, I need to pick up a novel of George Martin's! His writing style seems splendidly descriptive and detailed, which is one thing I love. As you've described his style, I have gotten goosebumps! That's the power of writing right there. Might I add that you are a fabulous writer yourself and you have such a way with words, I think you'd make a marvelous novelist. |
Such perfect timing for the forum to be back up!
For the last month or so, I've been slowly reading a wonderful novel called The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. To say that this novel is incredible is an understatement. This book is life-changing, heart wrenching, and so immensely powerful. I actually finished the novel an hour ago and burst into tears while reading the last two chapters. I honestly haven't felt such a strong connection to a novel in a very long time. After booking down the book, I continued to weep with feelings of joy and sadness. https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/1567-1/A6A/E21/B8/%7BA6AE21B8-4BD3-4EB6-A104-382D789B9457%7DImg400.jpg The Nightingale highlights the struggles of women in France during the second world war. In this moving novel, Kristin Hannah tells us the story of two contrasting sisters, divided by years, circumstance, and ideals, with each encountering immense danger and struggle on the path towards survival, love, freedom, and hope. The Nightingale shares the untold, unrecognized stories of the women in war and showcases the everlasting resilience and bravery of these women. One of the things that I appreciate about this novel is how real it is. The Nightingale is extremely educational and I learned some of the horrid acts that Jews and non-Jews alike encountered during the German occupation of France. We truly must never repeat history and let such a hate-driven tragedy such as the holocaust ever happen again. Furthermore, we must never forget those who died, those who lost, and those who fought hard to survive during this horrendous period of time. I wholeheartedly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, romance, and even thriller books. This is such an excellent read and I'd even dare to declare that it has become my new favourite novel of all-time! |
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RIP all the posts that have vanished into thin air (edit: they are back NICE). also this site came back up, like, an hour and a half after I finished writing my last exam so wow
historical fiction novels are something I haven't gotten a chance to read too much of so I can't add too much to that discussion :< my favourites from the genre are The Wars by Timothy Findley, and The Pianist by Szpilman (though The Pianist is a non-fiction memoir). Especially The Wars, it has left such a strong impression on me with how haunting, terrifying and dark it was. Along with the unusual, interesting shifts in second and third-person points of view it's probably one of my all time favourite books, definitely among the most emotionally impactful for me. I'll have to read The Nightingale at some point! it sounds like an incredible experience I could get behind since I seem to like war novels. I think in general I'd like to read more novels, so many of the books I read are almost essay-like or just expository in nature; I'm about to start reading Complications: a surgeon's notes on an imperfect science by Gawande because it was recommended to me. I've read one of the chapters before and loved it, it feels like an insightful perspective on a field I don't know very much about. Another book I've been really wanting to read recently is Justice as Fairness: A restatement by John Rawls. Rawls' thinking on political philosophy has captivated me since high school and I really want to explore more of what he has to say |
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Complications: a surgeon's notes on an imperfect science sounds interesting! Once you have finished it, I'd love to hear your thoughts. |
I declare that 2019 shall be the year of reading!
Over Christmas break I finished a book, The Paris Seamstress, the tale of a young woman, Estella Bissette, who flees Paris as the Nazis enter into France, and heads to New York. While in the Big Apple, Estella follows her dream and attempts to establish herself as a fashion designer while she uncovers secrets about her past. In the present day, Estella's granddaughter, Fabienne, dives deep into her ill grandmother's past, while struggling with her own romantic life and suffering with immense feelings of anxiety at the mere thought at being the successor to her grandmother's fashion empire. This story is full of engrossing twists and turns, romance, loss, and struggle. It is a fantastic read for anyone who has an interest in the fashion industry or anyone who appreciates historical fiction! I cried at the ending, as I typically do. Fabulous story. https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-h8IRza4L.jpg Today, a mere few minutes ago, I finished yet ANOTHER world war 2 fictional novel, one that'd received as a Christmas present, The Lilac Girls . This novel is based on the true story of Caroline Ferriday, who advocated for 74 young Polish women known as the Rabbits or the Króliki in Polish. These 74 women were experimented on at Ravensbrück, a German concentration camp exclusively for women of all nationalities. These women had their limbs grotesquely disfigured, some infected with diseases that lasted well after their freedom. This story is written in the perspective of three contrasting women, Caroline, a New York socialite in her late thirties, Kasia, a Polish teenager, and Herta, a German physician. This book will move you in ways that I cannot describe. Such a beautiful novel! https://images.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9781101883075 I hope 2019 has been wonderful for everyone! Feel free to post on what you have read, or what you're planning to read in the new year. New members are always welcome! :) |
After a year of slumber, it's time that this book club awakens from its rest and reaches its full potential!
Yes, that's right! I declare that this is time for our humble club's long-awaited revival! https://78.media.tumblr.com/6d25293d02572e2ae597ffc434046711/tumblr_mu3brikSNq1s7u09qo1_400.gif I welcome all readers, bookworms, literature-lovers, and novel-enthusiasts to this club! To all former members, or newcomers, I present you with a question question: What is your favourite genre of books and why? Also, feel free to name and discuss your favourite novel of said genre! Happy reading, everyone! |
This one of my favorite clubs! Feels good to walk through the doors of the MysticalNinetales archives again.
I usually have to have a little of the fantasy genre in whatever I read. Right now I am reading the classic Sci-Fi novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" I am enjoying the world-building a lot. |
heloo hello
I like reading scifi :) I don't do it enough, but am actually currently reading Sleeping Giants which is a sort of scifi in interview format. Pretty interesting writing! |
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Also, how are you enjoying the novel thus far? Do you like the writing style, the pacing? I'd love to hear your thoughts, my dear! Quote:
I did a bit of research on Sleeping Giants as well and I must say, it has a fantastic premise! I tend to stay away from sci-fi novels, but this one seems quite peculiar in the best way! Are you enjoying it thus far? Do you like the interview format? |
I like it so far! The interview format... I thought I would be annoyed but it's written really well so I'm enjoying it a lot :)
Do you stay away for a particular reason, or just don't usually like them much? |
I'll join if I may.
Name/Nickname: Seliph Favourite Book: I don't really have one. There are a lot of books I really liked, but none stick out to me as being the best I read. Favourite Author: There were instances where I read a lot of Stephen King and J.K. Rowling when I was younger. Currently I don't really have a favorite. -- I've had a very long break from reading books and only read some philosophical/psychological books (so basically complicated stuff). Over the last couple months I started looking into mainly public domain literature. I actually managed to finish quite a few books including the original "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" novels and more specific stuff like the German "Nibelungenlied" (yk the story where Siegfried slayed a dragon and after his death a lot of other things happen that we never really get to see in any modern adaptations). I think the best books I read (and finished) this year where "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" and "Crime and Punishment". Though, I've picked up "Moby Dick" a couple days ago and it looks promising as well. Another book I'm currently reading (that I'd really like to drop but I'm already over two thirds in) is Dante's "Divine Comedy". Idk, I just find it boring and repetitive... |
Oh MysticalNinetales!
I intend to answers questions about Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep soon, but there's something else that I wanted to ask you about if you don't mind :) This morning I saw the most delightful and informative video on YouTube about cooking in the Victorian era. There's a a twist here for the viewers though... an Oliver Twist. The dinner is served in the home of the greatest writers of all time Charles Dickens, who gave us a Christmas Carol, A Tale of Cities, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield and more. We tour his house, hear stories about his life and meet one of hid surviving descendants Cedric Dickens. I thought this was fascinating, and would say it's not a one-dimensional viewing experience because it some literary and historical value in addition to being an exploration of the culinary world. I want to share this with others, but wasn't sure quitw where to post this. Obviously this is good for the Cooking Club, but I think it could also be relevant for the history club Whispers of the Past or your book club even since members would learn some things they probably didn't know about author Charles Dickens. I wanted to ask if it would be okay with a video like that appearing in your club, do you think it fits at all within your topic? |
I must apologize for my delayed response! I've been preoccupied offline with finals and I've been working a ton as well. Please feel free to discuss whatever you wish! I promise I'll be more active in a few days!
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If there are any sci-fi novels that you'd like to recommend, I'd love to hear! Quote:
I must admit I'd never read a Stephen King novel in my life. I've always been too afraid to. I've also never read anything overly philosophical. What in particular draws you towards those types of books? I will admit that I do adore psychology and if you have any books that involve psychological concepts, please do share them with me! Psychology is something I'm studying in university, I find it absolutely enthralling! Although, I have read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and it was quite a peculiar read. I must confess that it wasn't my favourite, I felt that the storyline was rather incomplete, but I did enjoy it nevertheless. Was that the same novel that you're referring to? If so, what was your opinion on it? May I ask, what about Divine Comedy is boring? Usually you'd expect a book with "comedy" in the title to be engaging. What about it is lackluster? Is it the writing style, or perhaps a lack of context? Quote:
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I'm super excited to be sharing this! Here is dining with the great Dickens!
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https://i.imgur.com/1cYl7ao.png currently reading Mason & Dixon by Pynchon as well as The Tempest by Shakespeare, both have that older style of English which has been really fun, even though Pynchon wrote Mason & Dixon in 1997. I always wonder how many of these words are actually pronounced the way I imagine it, I know that Shakespeare for example used words in his writings that were specific to his time period, so professors are always talking about how great the OED is for close readings etc. but not only that, often the words were pronounced differently in their time and you ended up with some funny puns that just don't carry over! |
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Philosophy: I've always been a little too much into trying to grasp the big meanings of life. I've also never been the type to make friends, never had any feeling of belonging anywhere. During the lowest of my life, when others may look into religion or unhealthy groups, I picked up Nietzsche...and didn't understand anything at all. But it's something I find important, back then in hopes to figure out who I am and even now still as a means to find something to go towards to. But needless to say: that stuff is difficult. I personally prefer ancient Greek/Roman philosophy over modern. They had something special, their own weird quirks, but still simple enough to understand. Modern philosophy I find mostly either lacking, superficial and on the other side of the spectrum of modern philosophy overly convoluted (read: academic). Psychology: goes kinda along with my interest in philosophy. If you want something that's good to get into then read "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman. It's very approachable, at least I found it so. Imo it gives good insights into why we act the way we act and why we make so many mistakes. Quote:
But yeah, it's not particularly...complete. Quote:
In that sense, "boring" might not be the right word. It may well not be my type of literature, something I enjoy. But I read it anyway, because I'm that stubborn in terms of literature: finish what you start. Even if it's Hegel. But more on that when I talk about what I've read this year and what I plan on doing in the next one. |
D-did I never join this club??? Shame on me!
Name: Fairy Favorite Book: This is a tough one. A Song of Ice and Fire, Slaughterhouse V, To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Traitor Baru Cormorant... but I’m also a big fan of amateur horror too. Favorite Author: Octavia Butler, Kurt Vonnegut, and Orson Scott Card would be too if not for all the... bigotry. :/ |
this club is cute
i genuinely miss reading books like i used to when i was a kid |
I am very excited as moderator of this section to present MysticalNinetales with a Silver Sylveon award for excellence, and a commemorative plaque. One of my favorite hangouts The Book Club has been voted first runner up for Club of the Year! Congratulations my dear friend Lina. May the silver Sylveon be a light illuminating the pages of this wonderful library.
https://i.imgur.com/ibk3aeb.gif https://i.imgur.com/5AVlDcD.png Be sure to come claim your giftcard prize! Let us know when you're ready which store your gift card will be from. Your awards were designed by none other than the legend Sylveon mod herself! I'll private message you the imugr link if you wish to display em in any particular way for your award-winning club. /Hands you a bouquet of roses |
Many congratulations to MysticNinetales for a well deserved, well beloved club here. We are so honored to host a place that encourages reading in its members. May your pages never be empty! ( ˘ ³˘)♡
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I will respond to all of the posts shortly! I apologize for my brief absence. I wish everyone a happy new year and I'll talk to you all soon! Keep on reading! ^-^ |
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Maybe I should give one of Shakespeare's plays another read. How are you enjoying The Tempest thus far? Quote:
I do agree, I've always admired Greek/Roman philosophy, you're right, it's very easy to understand, and so many of their ideas are so incredibly profound. Early Greek theorists such as Aristotle and Democritus and philosophers were truly ahead of their time. In terms of modern philosophy, well, truthfully, I don't have much of an opinion. I think in our increasingly connected world their are so many ways of thought and such an array of ideologies that it's hard to keep up with. I'm not even sure I can offer an explanation on what modern philosophy is. Perhaps you're right, maybe it is overly convoluted. Thank you for the recommendation. I will have to keep an eye out for that book. I've been yearning to read something non-fiction and relating to psychology for quite some time now, given that 100% of all I read and have ever read is fiction. Quote:
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A good example of this is Life of Pi by Yann Martel. It wasn't a bad novel, by any means. It's widely popular and has been made into a successful movie (As I'm sure you may know). Last year, we had to read the novel within the span of the month, and once a week as a class we would come together to discuss it. I read the last two chapters and a couple of pages scattered throughout the novel and that was it. I simply couldn't get into it. I found a lot of the underlying messages quite interesting, including ones related to religion and whether Richard Parker was a real, living tiger or a fable of Piscine's dazed imagination. I read mostly of the book's plot online in order to contribute to the discussions and that was really it. Again, it wasn't that I disliked the book, it just wasn't something that I would've ever selected to read myself. The book at you're describing does sound quite interesting. Perhaps that's because I'm Christian myself, although I don't know that would jive with comedy. (I must admit I don't believe in Inferno or "hell" myself but it would be interesting to see its portrayal.) Quote:
Oh To Kill A Mockingbird. Yes what a classic. Now that was a novel that I didn't expect to take to but I genuinely enjoyed it. What about the critically-acclaimed yet immensely scrutinized novel did you enjoy most? Who was your favourite character? Myself, I loved Atticus Finch. I imagined him as quite a dashing older gentlemen. A Song of Ice and Fire also rings a belle. I'm almost certain that a friend of mine read that once, although I don't think I've come across it myself. It has a lovely title though so I'm sure it's fabulous. |
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In terms of content: Nietzsche is kinda hard to understand and he's made very much clear that he did so intentionally. It took me about 8 of his books just to get the feeling that I finally got what he wanted to say. I think, for me the most important part was about individuality and the associated purpose. Thing is, I never had any feeling of belonging to a group and usually was stuck with my own thoughts. Nietzsche does talk many times of people who "suffer from society", that is those, who don't fit into a current system and are instead people made to pave the path to, what Nietzsche likes to call, the "Übermensch" (uber human, super human, whatever English translation there is). I personally don't think I'm entitled to such a position, it may even well be that I completely misunderstood something completely. But in any case: if you happen to have a better understanding of him, you can go ahead and correct me. That, btw., is something everyone else can also chime in, if they like. :) Quote:
But it is true, that the book requires a lot of context. Dante (the rl author that is), being exiled after repeatedly going against the pope and other Christian influence holders, calling them out on their power abuse. The book was very much made as some sort of retribution, showing that he indeed is a devout Christian who cares about the morals and values. I'm probably doing a very bad job at describing it so you may want to do some of your own research. ^^" |
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The title is that much more poignant in context because there was a mass extinction that took place before the events of the novel, and what mostly roams the world are electric animals that were made to simulate real ones so post-apocalyptic earth looks more like it did before the war. The few surviving animals are sometimes wrongly assumed to be fake, meanwhile the imitations are so realistic that they can fool the onlookers into thinking they have come across a real living creature. Even though people often struggle to distinguish the two unless they are around them for extended periods, everyone would prefer to have an authentic animal instead of a synthetic one because of their rarity, and because it's a connection to another living being in the desolate remains of earth, even though real animals are almost unaffordable and will eventually die like all living things. To have any animal is a status symbol, and if you can afford a living pet even a common mouse you are thought to be very lucky. The protagonist Deckard, a government contractor and android bounty hunter can't afford a real animal and keeps an electric sheep to graze in his yard because of the pressure from his wife to keep up with the Joneses, but he is obsessed with having the companionship of a live animal some day, especially one that hasn't been domesticated, something wild and free. He has contempt for the electric sheep because it feels dishonest to him. He has a memory of real sheep from before the war. The electric sheep epitomizes everything he finds hypocritical with this world. Because Deckard is a sensitive man with a conscience he initially tries to justify his job "retiring" androids (killing them) by comparing androids to his electric sheep that he can walk over to and just turn it's switch off when he's tired of it. The key word there is tries. His job gets harder and harder psychologically the more androids he has to face. As for how androids are treated, I will quote an android so you can hear it from their own lips. "It's a chance anyway, breaking free and coming here to Earth, where we're not even considered animals. Where every worm and wood louse is considered more desirable than all of us put together." I won't tell you which android said it and spoil things in case you read the book one day. It's something of a detective novel that keeps you guessing about who is an android and who is not, and throws curve balls at the reader. One of the things I found especially riveting and original about this book is a concept known as Mercerism, it's a sort of religion that has taken root in post-war earth. In accordance with Mercerism you do not kill any living thing, not even an insect, it is sacrilegious. You would certainly never harm a human being. Androids are legally classified as property like animals. However unlike an animal an android is not recognized as even alive by the state, so they are not protected by the aforementioned moral code. While the death of an animal would be regarded as a tragedy and a serious crime, killing an "Andy" (as they are derisively called sometimes) is of no consequence unless it was still in service to a person or company as , in which case there penalty would be some minor fine to compensate the owner for profit loss or property damage no more. Androids themselves have no civil rights. To "retire" an android no longer considered useful or manageable would not only be permitted by law, the law would enforce this like scraping an unsafe car. You would be expected to terminate a runaway android. Being an android is perhaps an existence even more hopeless than that of a slave in the history of our world because a slave might be able to purchase their freedom or be set free under some circumstance or run away to a place that doesn't have slavery and live in peace. But sadly there's nowhere that you can go as an android where you would be recognized as a living being. The only way to not be enslaved is if you escaped and passed as human for whatever time you had left. It's a life of constant fear. There is no destination where you are safe once and for all, you just have to keep running and hiding. Androids might be designed and employed for any occupation, but they are mostly found in colonies on Mars to do labor in conditions that humans would not be able to physically withstand. At the start of the novel we learn that a rebellion happened on planet Mars where a number of androids killed their owners to escape slavery and fled to Earth to hide, and have now infiltrated society, posing as human. This is where the specialist Deckard comes in, to track down everybody who had anything to do with the revolt, unmask them as androids and "retire" them to make the streets safe again. I think the book is interesting because the morals are not black and white. The androids Phillip K Dick introduces to us are often ambivalent figures. They are usually physically beautiful, they can form friendships, display emotion, use reasoning powers, they show curiosity and exhibit all sorts of talents. They in some ways have a childlike quality. Yet the author doesn't romanticize androids. He is willing to an explore an android's capacity for cruelty and manipulation, something that also exists in the heart of human beings in his story. Nobody is noble. It's one continuous shade of gray that just gets a lot darker in places. I would give this book four or five stars, and want to check out more of Phillip K Dick's stories like "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" and "Minority Report." |
I'm done with Moby Dick. The end was a little bit heavier than I first expected. I'm going to take a little while and think about it. Afterwards I may talk a little bit more about the book and the experience I had with it.
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To be honest: when you spend hours thinking about what to write and you could literally fill books with those thoughts alone; but then you write things down and afterwards realize that what you wrote down is not much at all; it kinda makes you sad; and by "you", I mean myself.
Anyway, here are my condensed thoughts on "Moby Dick; or, The Whale" by Herman Melville. *** Call me Ishmael! Among the few things that I new about the book Moby Dick, this quote was one of them. Yet, only when I got to the first sentence of the very first chapter did I actually remember it. Ishmael introduces himself as a scholar with the occasional urge to board a ship and earn is money as a sailor. Though, having been on a couple of merchant vessels before, this time he desires to join the crew of a whaling ship, that is: he wanted to try out the profession of hunting whales. Thus, he heads out to the town of New Bedford where he meets and befriends a harpooneer called Queequeg, a member of a cannibal tribe. The two decide to board the same ship and head for Nantucket, hailed by Ishmael as the birthplace of whaling. Finally, they join the crew of the Pequod. However, the tone of the story is set even before the sails are set as a prophet tells them that the voyage will end in certain doom. As the ship sets sail we get introduced to the main actors on board. Starting with Starbuck, the first mate and the "voice of reason", Stubb, the somewhat crazy, but also quite philosophical, second mate, who describes himself as "always jolly", and Flask, the third mate who starts off a little bit too cocky but gets cut down to size pretty quickly only to be taking only a minor role for the rest of the book. Those mates also assign their respective harpooneers. Those being Queequeg, Tashtego, a native American and Daggoo, a man from Africa. Lastly there is Captain Ahab. At the beginning he is rarely seen, being assumed to be ill. As time progresses he starts appearing more and more up until at last he calls his crew on deck to reveal to them the true intention of the voyage: to take revenge on and kill Moby Dick, the white whale. This is also the first instance where we get to see the first mate trying to reason Ahab out of his monomaniac plans. The book thenceforth is filled with little stories describing the everyday life on the Pequod as well as with a lot of analysis in regards to the profession of whale hunting, the methods and tools used to hunt down whales, the anatomical structure of the different species of whales, but also some mythological aspects as well. There are also multiple occasions when the crew encounters other ships and exchanges information, hoping to learn the location that Moby Dick resides. Some things about the whale himself: he belongs to the species of Sperm Whales. Those whales where the main target of whaling ships due to the oil they store in an organ inside their head. This oil has a milkish color which the sailors back then confused with sperm leading to the species being called the way it is. This oil becomes solid when cooling down and was used for e.g. making candles. The Sperm whale is also one of the few whales who have actual teeth, making them the largest predator on earth. This circumstance also lead to Ahab losing his leg during his last encounter with Moby Dick. As for the conclusion of the book, I don't think there is much to spoil about it. The story is well known and the trope of revenge has certainly been used many times in media afterwards. I won't talk about how it ended, but I will talk just a little bit about how I experienced the ending. That is: even before the final chase happened, the stage was already set for the things to come. And more important: some of the information given at that point made the ending more of a tough pill to swallow than I was expecting at first. It usually does take a lot to get any reaction out of me. Feeling empty after reading a long book is normal, but this book took "feeling empty" to a completely new level. Anyway, I'm not rating the book. I don't like rating things. Numbers are too arbitrary. What I will say, however: I liked the book. And I will put it into my pile of "will reread in the future". |
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I love your analysis of Moby Dick, thank you so much for sharing! I must confess that I was genuinely unaware of the premise of this popularized rale before your explanation. The entire premise of whaling is unexpected honestly, I always assumed it was about a man or women who befriended a lonely whale. How juvenile of me! Oh whale, I do have a child-like imagination (sea what I did there?) Honestly, the way in which you've described the characters makes them seem quite interesting. I adore stories with a that have lively and interesting stories. Are any of the character's backstories heavily explored? If so, which character had the most intriguing past and who was your favourite character? I also find it interesting how details about whales were presented in the book. Its nice when authors offer bits of information that can help a reader to connect and understand various elements of a story more. I certainly was unaware where sperm whales got their name from! Anyways, Moby Dick seems like a fabulous read. I genuinely might consider reading it. I'm also thrilled that you enjoyed it. Spoiler:
One question I immediately have as I read through your analysis is are there any efforts to increase the population of "authentic" animals? Are there scientists working to breed these creatures in order to allow them to flourish once again in the wild? Or are scientists solely focusing on the development of artificial electric organisms? I'm rather intrigued. This story deeply interests me to the highest level. A post-war, post-apocalyptic society where machines can model as human beings and other living creatures sounds truly terrifying. It also highlights a fear that many people have in our increasingly technological-reliant society, is that one day computers and "androids" may outsmart us. I think perhaps there is a similar fear that is present in the society that you describe, which perhaps would explain why "androids" have no civil rights. This is perhaps a bizarre question, but is there a part of you that hypothesizes that are current society is heading towards an age of dominated by artificial intelligence? Anyways, the prospect of androids getting hunted down genuinely breaks my heart. I feel for these individuals, even if they are indeed soulless. What is your perspective on this? http://pa1.narvii.com/6328/219ef4442ff68a4814fde710aae425d52c482014_hq.gif I appreciate your thought-provoking analysis of this story, as well as Seliph's intriguing review. I love hearing different opinions on various stories! I do plan on sharing details on stories that I've read within the past month or so, so please stay tuned! ^-^ |
As I've finished not one but two books just recently, I want to take some time to talk about both of them. One belonging to the "health" categoriy, the other being a short story written by Jules Verne.
The first one is a German book called "Die 7 Revolutionen der Medizin" (transl: the 7 revolutions of medicine). It's divided into seven chapters talking about some modern world health problem before providing some sort of wonder medicine supposedly fixing the issues. You know, I didn't quite decide to read this on my own. I have a relative who is heavily into this stuff and really likes not only reading those books (among others) but also constantly giving them to others so that they too read them and then give them back. That's how I ended up with it and I really wanted to get this over with. Anyway, I'm not a medical expert so I want to keep this rather short. There are some things in this book that over time have been proven right, the others I can't tell. To be fair, the book does provide some references to some of the studies the guy talks about, which to be fair, I didn't bother doing some research in the matter. I know I didn't like some of the statistics provided, in particular those who had a very small amounts of test subjects and those more anecdotal "evidences". I also didn't like how at times it felt way more like an infomercial and from what I've gathered the stuff you're supposed to take costs quite a bit. Well, I don't wanna rag on this book for too long because the next one is actually more interesting. The next one I'm going to talk is "From the Earth to the Moon" by Jules Verne. In regards to stories written by Jules Verne there are two that I've already experienced. I've watched "In 80 days around the World" on TV a long time ago. "A Journey to the Center of the Earth" I've read last year. The former I've forgotten most of, but as I have it in book form I will pick it up in not too long. The latter on the other hand is an excellent book that I definitively recommend reading! I've been meaning to continue reading more of Jules Verne's stories so after finishing Moby Dick I decided to start with "From the Earth to the Moon". Guns, Cannons, death and destruction. The US has been waging its war for independance for quite some time now. But alas! at last victory is attained, the US freed at last. No more need for guns or cannons, no more reasons to develop new weapons of destruction. With these depressing thoughts in mind the members of the Gun Club of Baltimore now had to come to terms with the fact that their club might soon disband. However, in these trying times a wonder was about to happen. A letter was sent to the members of the club. It was written by Barbicane, the president of the Gun Club, himself. He was organizing an assembly for he had an announcment in regards to the future of the club. Barbicane's plans are revealed: to push the frontier of human society even further a cannon will be build. A cannon of obscene size that is meant to shoot a projectile to the moon. This is welcomed with great excitement and the plan to build it is set into motion, immediately. But this will not be all, not by a long shot. Right after completion of the the massive columbiad a telegraph makes its way into Barbicane's hand. "From the Earth to the Moon" is a rather short story. Its main focus revolves around the planning, logistics and building of the cannon and projectile as well as all the problems that come along with that. What materials to use? Where to set up the cannon? Where to get the financial support for all of this? Those and more questions are being tackled throughout the whole process. All in all I enjoyed the story. I think in part this is also due to how the story ended. Without spoiling too much: the ending was kinda surprising but also kinda hilarious. Though, while I did enjoy it, I don't think it gave me enough to make me want to reread it some later time. Quote:
As for my favorite it's most likely Stubb due to his rather philosophical though processes. Though, I should probably also mention that he also has some rather "outdated" viewpoints. But that's what you kinda expect from media from back in the day. |
I mean to come back for a long visit soon. I got so many interesting questions about Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and am dying to answer them when I get the time. I also want to comment on some of the new books I have been reading. I am going to pop in for just a hot second though because I stumbled open a video called The World's Most Mysterious Book, and I thought it would be perfect to share with my beloved Book Club.
What do you guys think of the Vonyich manuscript? Oh how I love watching Ted-ed! It has brought some really thought-provoking content to my attention. |
Name/Nickname: Neb/Benjamin
Favourite Book: Flowers for Algernon Favourite Author: Neil Gaiman I try to read from as many different genres as possible, but my favorites are memoirs and science fiction. |
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Also some once common species are not just endangered or vulnerable, but have sadly gone altogether extinct. So in many cases there is no way to authentically reproduce any more, only the synthetic copies are available now, having an owl would be like having a dinosaur in our world today. To get your hands on an animal of a species thought extinct and lead recovery efforts to increase the population would mean international acclaim, medals in the sciences, peace prizes, making billions of dollars and more. Quote:
On the other hand, androids are still relatively new creations. An android may physically look like a mature person in their thirties, but literally could have been born yesterday. Something I reminded myself of while reading the story is that the androids we encounter are all under 4 years old if you judge age by the date of their creation. As precocious as they are, there are still many things that androids don't have a reference for, which I attribute that to how short their time in the world has been. An android attempting to pass for human might begin to show signs of confusion and discomfort if you make mention of things that we did as a society in the years before the war for instance-- there were no androids at the time after all, and usually they learn about the past from books or movies. Though androids are intelligent, often at the same time there are gaps in their knowledge that the average person would not have. There's a naivety about androids despite their many talents, and humans can exploit this to ensnare them. So I think whether an android can take the place of a human would really depend on what it is that they're doing, because while they can outsmart us, there are also ways that we humans can outsmart them. There are jobs were you arguably need a human touch too, often humans are better as veterinarians for instance, "real" mammals often just bonds more with humans than they would an Android. Our animals are sensitive enough to just know there's a difference. I really love your questions! Well, I can't say whether we are headed towards an age dominated by artificial intelligence or not. I will say that some of the robots that have been developed do take my breath away with how human they look, especially the ones by Mesmer. You might want to take a peek at these if you haven't heard of them. I ask myself, "where do we draw the line between human beings and machines?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2BP6yndc6w Our present understanding of the science robotics is relatively new and budding, and the androids we have obviously are extremely limited and awkward compared to the Nexus-6 models that Phillip K Dick envisioned, but I do sometimes wonder... While I see a lot of potential for good coming out of AI like self-driving cars, robot-performed surgeries and bomb removal, and am happy for these contributions to a better world right now, I ponder sometimes if this cab lead to a greater morality issue in the future as we continue to make breakthroughs and develop more and more lifelike androids. If we develop an android with the ability to think on par with humans, that can survive without depending on us and coexist alongside then should they have the right to autonomy in our society? Should they be paid wages for their occupation? There are interestingly hotels right now in Japan that are staffed right now by all robots like the Henn na in Nagaski, Japan, and don't have any people working there to cut costs. Human beings have even married robots I have learned. Should we recognize these as civil unions? What if an android's creator wants to reprogram or discontinue the Android, does the android have a say? One of the most well-known androids is Sophie, she is an ambassador who holds United Nations titles, is recognized as a citizen in some countries and has acted in films and is a regular guest on many talk shows. She lives in Saudi Arabia and arguably has more rights than some human women in this particular country where there are many restrictions on mobility to travel and dress codes you have to observe. Sophia is a Hanson robot. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LguXfHKsa0c Victor Frankenstein tried to do something good, and create life, and made a new race of being that he wasn't prepared for the ramifications of, and I think that's a cautionary tale we should remember going forward and take into account many different possibilities as robots evolve. I'm not saying androids should not exist, but I do wonder what that will ultimately mean for our world. Quote:
I think androids wanting to escape captivity and death is a natural instinct that any human or animal would experience, and that very impulse would seem to indicate to me that regardless of what the law says--they are alive. So I do sympathize with these individuals too. Even to kill to get free or to kill to keep someone from killing you would be considered bravery in most cultures in human civilization, and reading this as an American descendant of slaves I don't think an android deserves death just for not wanting to be someone's property. I think if androids were treated with a drop more dignity then it might not have to come to humans and androids killing each other. That being said, I think PKD's world is one where I have to watch out for making generalizations about androids bad or good, or people for that matter. There are androids that don't seem dangerous, and like they could be a positive influence in society if given a chance. There's one female android I liked, and having the job to retire this android is what begins to disillusion Deckard as well. We meet a variety of quirky characters in the novel. There are androids that I would like to grant to clemency to, and give a chance to assimilate into society. But then there are others like Roy, leader of the recent uprising on Mars, who was built for combat purposes. He's portrayed as an anti-social, battle-hardened soldier and would quickly slit my throat if he thought I had seen to much and might expose him, and then go make dinner. Some of these individuals we will just not be able to negotiate with, and I think you'd have no choice but to take them down because they can be extremely dangerous. I would have to look at each android's case individually. What I like about the writer is that he shows the situation in it's complexities, sometimes he gives you an android that is likeable, sometimes he gives you one that's sinister, some fall into a grey zone and you go back and forth about whether you like them or not. The book still gives me much to think about. |
I'm currently a little bit of a slump and am taking a break from reading regular books. I still have a couple of them that I put on hold for the time being but will get back into at some point in the future. Those being:
- Musashi (Eiji Yoshikawa) - Five weeks in a balloon (another Jules Verne story) as well as potentially picking back up Terry Pratchet. I've read "The Color of Magic" about one or two years ago but never really delved deeper into the universe that comprises the Disc World. -- I do have a question: are Manga up for discussion as well? Because I've been reading (and finishing) a couple series as of late and I could probably talk a little bit about some that I found interesting. The finished ones I may talk about being: - Deadman Wonderland - Rurouni Kenshin - Claymore - Hellstar Remina |
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Hi! Welcome to the book club, so lovely to have you! ^-^ It's so wonderful to see my humble club growing. May I ask what memoir is your favourite that you've read thus far? Also, are there any other memoirs that you've been eyeing recently? I'm highly curious! Quote:
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Do you read manga? If so, what is your favourite manga (question intended for all book club members.) |
I really love anime and manga with historical themes like Rose of Versailles and adaptations of literary classics like Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo and Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette.
The manga I'm following right now Requiem of the Rose King is both. It's about a real period in English History the War of the Roses, and it's also a twist on Shakespeare's play Richard III. I love the art style, it's just ravishing and very sleek and graceful, and also full of expression. https://i.postimg.cc/rpj7V23s/IMG-20200405-140103138.jpg I like the characters mostly. For one I enjoyed the way Richard's father (also named Richard) the Duke of York was portrayed as a man of grace and honor with a very strong bond with Richard. While York gets depicted sometimes as ambitious and grasping in historical fiction novels, the impression I have of the historical Duke of York (also named Richard) is that he had innate leadership qualities that King Henry VI did not, and was very devoted to his family and house. His king had literally gone stark raving mad and was clearly unfit to rule, and York did have a legitimate blood claim to the throne, and had a reasonable case to make. So I don't think he was just a usurper, and suppose this is a fair way to show the father of the Kings Edward and Richard, if a little romantic. Shakespeare is not unkind to York either in the Henry VI plays. https://i.postimg.cc/ryC6HRCG/IMG-20200405-135245302.jpg The way Elizabeth Woodville is portrayed also stands out to me. She is shown as deeply in love with her first husband, and her heartbreak over his loss is her driving motive. The real Elizabeth Woodville was someone who ended up switching sides multiple times during her life. Her 1st husband John Grey was a knight who fought for the House of Lancaster (the red rose side) but was killed in battle, leaving her widowed with small children. When she petitions the king for help settling a land dispute, he falls in love with the famously beautiful Elizabeth and proposes to her to the shock of the country, and so she becomes part of the house of York, (the white rose) opposite of the house her family fought for. I mostly saw the historical Woodville as some just trying to survive the turning wheel of fortune, but Aya Kanno's Woodville is deeper than that. It's not often that Elizabeth's vulnerable side is portrayed in fiction, and it's an interesting conception of Elizabeth and Edward the story of the king who married a commoner for love as not a love story at all like we've been told, but instead she is a tragic and haunted character. https://i.postimg.cc/y6tFyhV8/IMG-20200405-135724951-2.jpg There's touches of the occult in this manga that I like, curses, demons to be exercised, ghosts. The spirit of Joan of Arc haunts the forest near where Richard's castle is. The English did after all kill her. She appears sometimes as a trickster of a guide to Richard. https://i.postimg.cc/DwYPMPwM/IMG-20200405-135750150.jpg While basically I like the characters, I think Kanno could present a more sophisticated portrayal for Richard, especially when there are so many other cool supporting characters. Shakespeare's Richard III is a machiavel full of intrigue and dark humor, bumping people off to clear a path to the throne. In the manga though he is demonic evil, psychotically massacring thousands indiscriminately. He is like the blood countess or Ivan the Terrible. Richard is drawn amazing, and I like a lot of the exciting situations he is placed in, I just think the artist can pull it back, and still have a villain without making him this extreme. https://i.postimg.cc/0NMZJYMD/IMG-20200405-140042661.jpg Historically the worst Richard III is suspected of doing is ordering his nephews (the princes in towers) killed to consolidate his reign as king, that is the worst charge levied against him, and even that has been challenged by some historians. What is agreed about Richard by historians is that he was someone who had distinguished himself in military campaigns, he did so in spite of having scoliosis and was brave on the field. he was very religious, he was popular where he lived in the North of England with the people and unlike his older brother the Duke of Clarence and his cousin the Earl of Warwick who both did rebel against King Edward during his lifetime, Richard stayed loyal to his brother throughout his reign. , There weren't the early signs of cruelty you might expect, and I think he probably just lost his way. Now of course this is fiction, I don't expect historical accuracy from a manga, and can enjoy material that takes artistic license. I just think it would be a more compelling story to tell the tale of a man who gets corrupted because of the pressures and temptation of the crown, rather than write a character who is just a sociopath from childhood. I think she has a lot of potential yet to be explored to make the story more dramatic and multifaceted. For what it is though it's a really fun and creative twist of time in English history that I like, the last Plantagenet king, it has a lot of style, and glad I bought the volumes that I did, would be interested in reading some more and seeing where it goes. |
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I have a few suggestions for you. I would recommend Oumuksu Kyoshi Heine or The Royal Tutor. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/thumbnails/max300x600/cms/news/107751/30745.jpg It is set in what in a post-industrial revolution society (most likely the mid-late 19th century). The city that the story takes place in, Wien, is supposedly modelled after the real life city of Vienna, Austria. It involves the story of 4 princes - Kai, Bruno, Leonhard, Licht, who are second-fifth in line for their throne, after their eldest brother, Eins. The king, Viktor von Granzreich, wants to prepare his younger sons in the case that Eins is unable to succeed him as king. Therefore, he hires Heine Wittgenstein to be their tutor and to shape them into perfect successors to the throne. Of course, the 4 boys, each with strikingly different personalities, have no intent of learning from an educator and have a history of running off previous tutors with their disobedience. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0pRP1Z5JKBk/Wjk0S1ak48I/AAAAAAAE62I/a3zrTJAIMgkSm14-gNIX3GrFYcKhWRPZgCHMYBhgL/s16000/0059-011.png It's a fantastic read! It's full of lively characters and each volume expands on the story of a different prince. I think you'd really enjoy it. Toward the end, Heine Wittgenstein's backstory is unveiled and it comes as quite a shock. Another option is Tsukumogami Kashimasu, which takes place in Edo, in what appears to be the 18th or 19th century. https://honeysanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Tsukumogami-Kashimasu.jpg Oko and Seiji own and run the Izumo-ya lending shop in the Fukagawa district of the city. Several of the items they lend are old and have become tsukumogami, which are objects that over time have acquired a spirit or kami and are usually items that are loved and treasured by humans over a long period of time. Seiji with the help of the tsukumogami, has a reputation for being able to solve mysteries and other difficult problems and would often lend the tsukumogami to people who he suspected to have information regarding a mystery. The tsukumogami are portrayed as loving gossip and are wise and intelligent, as well as compassionate and desire to help out others. Oko and Seiji often listen to the tsukumogami in order to gain information and solve mysteries. https://static.zerochan.net/Tsukumogami.Kashimasu.full.2286230.jpg While I haven't actually read the manga (I've watched the anime adaption instead), I must say, I think you'd really enjoy the storyline. It's easily digestible and is somewhat of a historical slice-of-life. The characters are fascinating and it has expanded my knowledge on various aspects of Japanese culture and the innerworkings of Japanese society in the past. I would definitely recommend! |
I've recently been in somewhat of a manga reading spree and finished reading a couple series of varying lengths. Some of which I found pretty good; others I found a little disappointing.
Some I finished: 1. Deadman Wonderland I've know of this series for a couple years. Back then the anime adaptaion comprising of only ten episodes and therefore only covering the first few arcs made its way on TV. It was one of those showes specifically designed to serve as advertisements for their respective manga. However, I mostly forgot about it shortly after the series finished and only remembered when I stumbled upon a random Youtube review. At that point I decided to take a closer look at the series. Ten years after a massive earthquake in Japan that destroyed a big part of Tokyo things seemingly went back to normal. We get introduced to the main character Ganta Igarashi who is soon found to be plunged into great despair as not only gets his entire class killed by an unknown man in red right in front of his eyes, but also he ends up being blamed for the murders, sentenced to death and then thrown into the privately run prison called Deadman Wonderland. He is forced to wear a collar which is constantly infusing a deadly poison and the only way to survive is to participate in games and earn money to buy an antidote that allows him to survive for a couple more days. Shortly after his arrival a strange power awakens in him that allows him to utilize his blood as a weapon, something that brands him as a so called deadman. At the same time he meets a girl that not only seems to be able to walk the prison freely but also claims to know Ganta. Yet, he doesn't remember her at all. The main focus here is for Ganta to uncover what happened ten years ago all the while fighting to survive the constant onslaught of deadly challenges he is forced to face by this prison that seemingly seems to be connect to the past as well. Honestly? I think it was alright. It's definitely not the greatest, but definitely above average. I can't really put my finger on what exactly felt a little off; if I had to guess it was probably just me and my expectations being a little bit too high? I suppose I was expecting something a little bit more philosophical. But its still good. 2. Rurouni Kenshin Have I mentioned yet that Youtube was one of my main resources to make me look up manga series? This one was no different. The era of samurai has come to an end. Ten years have passed, governments have established and the possesion of swords is prohibited. Kenshin who was a major figure during the war that brought the change is now living his life as a vagabond. With him he carryies his sakabato, a reverse bladed sword that is only meant to be used in self defense and to protect others. Kenshin wants nothing but to atone for the atrocities he commited. But the scars go far deeper. Things are about to change hwoever when after years of restless traveling he finds himself moving into a rundown dojo that teaches the way of the sword that protects life. All in all I like the series. All things considered it's pretty short only boasting two big arcs and some minor ones. It still amounts to over 250 chapters which means that everything that really matters is explained with throughoutly enough. It has a bunch of serious moments but also likes to balance them with some more lighthearted ones as well. Some I'm still in the process of reading: 1. Sun-ken Rock This one was made by boichi who is also responsible for the art of Dr. Stone. And it really shows! Since I also happen to read Dr. Stone and I randomly watched a Video that talked about the art style used I got interested into the series and figured I may as well pick it up. Kitano Ken confesses his love to a girl but is soon rejected as she tells him that she is in fact Korean and intent to return to her home country as well as become a policewoman there. Not being willing to accept instead he decides to drop out of school and move to Korea as well. There he spends his first year as a recluse before being thrown into a situation where he is forced to fight a couple gang members. Soon after Ken is being approached by another gang who proposes to make him their leader. Is is the beginning of a conquest to take over and reform the country, all the while Ken finds himself constantly having to balance between learning what it means to be a leader as well as making sure to keep his occupation a secret to his girlfriend. The series is a seinen series and therefore very adult, _very_ adult. Violence, corruption, racism, sex, etc. you name it, you get it. All depicked in a really beautifully detailed art style. But it isn't only dark and gloom, there are plenty of light hearted moments. Ken himself, while having his own convictions and determination to push them through, he also is kind of a dork who does some really hilariously stupid things at times. 2. The Promised Neverland I wanted to pick up a more modern series that was considered to good. This one seemed promising. The series starts by introducing us to a bunch of children living at an orphanage. Their life is a happy one. Lots of food, lots of playtime, learning and a loving mother. Out of all the children there are three that standout for their high intelligence: Emma, Norman and Ray. When one of their siblings got adopted Emma and Norman stumbled across a dark secret that made them realize the true purpose of the orphanage and that they need to get out of there as fast as possible. However such a feat is not done easily as they find out pretty quickly. The first arc is in my opinion by far the strongest. Even the following arcs are still pretty good. However as times progressed the pacing just went wrong. With all the buildup done throughout the story the last few arcs should have been the most satisfying. However, things are just being resolved so quickly it makes it feeling as though the writer is trying to end the series as fast as possible. Something similar happened with the characters themselves: did the series start off introducing three main characters, at the end only one really takes the focus and everyone else has been relegated to being nothing but a support character. Granted, the series is still going. So maybe some other characters may still be able to shine. I'm not going to drop it, but I'll not hold too high of an expectation. -- I may also talk about a couple other series like Dr. Stone which I'm also currently reading on a later day. Quote:
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In wake of recent events, I thought it'd be a marvelous time to highlight the works of Black creators and Black authors and their contributions to literature. https://vanessaboudreau.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/maya-angelou-9185388-2-402.jpg Maya Angelou is one that comes to mind. Not only is she a successful author but she's also a famed poet and activist, who dedicated her life to combating racism and sexism. She is known to have advocated for the rights of African Americans alongside Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights movement. A prolific poet, her words often depict Black beauty, the resilience of the human spirit, female empowerment whilst demanding social justice and pushing for social change. She is know for her critically acclaimed autobiographies that detail events from her early life. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) is one of her most famed autobiographies and was the first. She sought to alter the very structure of autobiographies. Her first collection of poems Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1972. This was the same year she become the first Black woman in history to have a screenplay produced. She passed away in 2014 after a long, immensely influential and prosperous career. I personally recall watching a series in which Oprah interviewed her when I was younger and she discussed her life and her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. I was immediately drawn to her, she had such wisdom and class, and had such a way with words that truly touched the heart and soul. To me, she is one of the most wonderful and talented writers that has graced the earth and I admire her dedication to changing the social fabric our world for the better. She is an inspiration to all. https://pmcfootwearnews.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/michelle-obama-2.jpg Michelle Obama is another one of my favourite authors. Her famed memoir Becoming, is a wonderful, incredibly powerful read that details her time as First Lady of the United States, motherhood, and how she found her voice among other things. It's something that I'm currently reading and I can only sing its praises. Michelle Obama is a graduate from Princeton and Harvard Law School who is known for her dedication to healthcare reform, education, poverty awareness, and her efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of school aged children through nutrition, physical activity and opportunity. A gracious and thoughtful woman, Michelle in my opinion, is one of the greatest female role models of our generation. Despite not being American, I respect her hard work and her devotion to change and Becoming is a literary masterpiece in its own right. With almost 10 million copies sold worldwide, it is regarded as one of the most successful and best-selling memoirs in history. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0953/4528/products/m-1_grande.jpg?v=1564719714 Who is your favourite Black author and why? Have you read a novel that has themes relating to racial discrimination or racial inequality? How did you feel about how these issues were portrayed? |
Who is your favourite Black author and why?
Probably Zora Neale Hurston. I read Their Eyes Were Watching God, and really enjoyed that. I find her voice as an author very lyrical, natural and airy. It's the story of a free-spirited biracial young lady named Janey living during the turn of the century and orphaned at a young age. She is a great beauty that many want to possess, but the men in her life often prove to be people she can not count on, and fortune wheel never fully stops turning. Hurston is an Alabama-native, and Southerners often bring these rich dreamy romantic prose that make even everyday settings hypnotic I find like William Styron or Tennese Williams. My favorite black poet might be Robert Hayden. His imagery is poignant, you can see a person and their character and the pain of their line in a few lines. He's a very sophisticated writer, and you might find interesting allusions from Greek mythology to impressionist masterpieces to biblical references to contemporary political events all wrapped into verse for a juxtaposition that can be breathtaking. Have you read a novel that has themes relating to racial discrimination or racial inequality? How did you feel about how these issues were portrayed? Yes, Beloved by Toni Morrison comes to mind. It's the story of a woman who escapes from slavery and the psychological and literal physical way that it scarred her. It's a very graphic portrayal, there are beatings, rapes, lynchings. It's honestly a tough read to get through, very unsentimental. The heroine makes a terrible choice in the story when met with the prospect of being dragged back into slavery and having her family also taken back into this institution. I don't always like Sethe or agree with her decisions, but I think it's a realistic portrayal. The story is deeply personal, and I like that the ghosts of her past are not just physical, but literal supernatural ones that haunt her as well. One of the things I think is interesting about the novel is that it's not as simple as black and white. I don't think Morrison idealizes anyone, and even inspite of the horrendous racism and oppression there are some characters like the escaped indentured servant Amy that give you a glimpse into the way poor white people also suffered within structure of the Society. |
I have a couple more books I'd like to list:
1. "Musashi" by Eiji Yoshikawa This is a novel about Japan's legendary swordsman Musashi Miyamoto. It depicts his way from a young mindless brute to a mature well versed and spiritual samurai. As it is Japanese literature you can expect there to be a hugh focus on honor. At the time a lot of ronin where roaming the land turning bandits and threatening the common folk. You have schools that have lost their way and are now deteriorating. It's very much reflected in the actions of the main characters: Musashi who starts out as a good-for-nothing maturing over the course of his journey; Matahachi, his best friend, who starts out as the son of a noble family but becomes a good for nothing; Sasaki Kojiro who is a strong as Musashi and a lot more talented but lacks spirituality; Otsu who has engaged to Matahachi but after his loosing the engagement falls in love with Musashi and stays true to her feelings; Akemi who is very much the opposite of Otsu; Osugi who is Matahachi's mother and who swore revenge on Musashi; as well as Jotaro, Musashi's first disciple, who is very much undisciplined and Iori, Musashi's second disciple, who his very much the opposite. The first half of the story plays out in the region around Kyoto, the old capital. Musahsi is pitched against the Yoshioka school who after having lost against him on multiple occasions became quite desperate to try anything in their power to restore their lost honor. The second part majorly plays in the region of Edo, the new capital, where slowly all the different paths unwind and the stage gets set for Musashi's final confrontation against his biggest rival. I started this book because I saw others talking about Japanese literature. I got curious and I also remembered an old school mate reading this book back in the day. So I decided to read it. I have to say: I really liked it! It was definitely an experience and it's pretty neat being able to catch a couple more references in more modern Japanese media. 2. "20000 Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne A strange whale like thing has appeared on sea and on multiple occasions has been the cause of accident. It has gotten to a point when the war ship "Abraham Lincoln" sets out to hunt this being down. Invited on board is also the professor Pierre Aronnax, known for his book he wrote on creatures that roam the oceans. With him his has his trusty assistant Conseil who is good at categorizing but lacks practical experience. On board also is the Canadian harpooner Ned Land who is well versed at his job. When the ship finally found this creature it turned out to be a massive underwater vessel. What's more: they can't do anything against it. During the chase the three get swept overboard and when they awake they find themselves on top of the submarine. The hatch opens and they are led inside where they meet Captain Nemo. He allows them to roam the submarine as they please. However the one condition is that they need to obey when Nemo demands it. And as such a journey of 20000 Leagues (1 League=~4 Kilometers) begins. Throughout the journey they visit a lot of different places all across the globe, although all of them within the boundaries of the sea. They also categorize a lot of creates of the sea. A _lot_. However what are the origins of Captain Nemo? Who was he, why did he decide to cut ties with the rest of the world? This is definitely one of my favorite Jules Verne stories so far. I found it very interesting how someone can just write a book (technically two) that does nothing but talk about things that happen during an ocean journey. Especially given that back then a lot of it was still unexplored (example: the Antarctic). 3. "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway This is a story about an old fisherman catching a fish. For weeks he had bad luck. The fish just wouldn't come and he would return empty handed. But the boy would still come and support him. He would help the old man and bring him food and he would ask him to take him on board to catch fish the next time. Another day approached and the old man went to the sea again to catch fish. And then he would try to catch a fish. I don't know if I'm doing this properly. Hemingway is kinda weird. Tbh. I'm not sure if I like his very simplistic style or not. But it was definitely an interesting read! Quote:
I have to say: I have hugh difficulties really relating our understanding what's going on. I suppose not being part of the afflicted group and in general lacking this "empathy" thing makes it not easier. Older novels kinda have the tendency to portrait racism as not as bad (read: normal). I don't know if that counts, though. But it's something to be aware of if you ever find yourself wanting to read an older story. Especially when the name of the author contains "Lovecraft". |
The Epic of Gilgamesh
This here is the oldest story that humankind knows about. There are two different versions known: one from ancient babylonian scriptures and one from old ninivitian tablets written, created at about 2700 B.C. The translation I've read (Reclam) was made from what we so far managed to reconstruct from the latter. In total the story is comprised of 11 tablets, though an additional 12th one was created years afterwards. I don't know much about that one, though, as the translation was purely about the other 11 that come before it and which entail the entirety of the epic. As is to be expected from old stone tablets, however, is that due to environmental factors parts of the story are still missing. It's estimated that about 2/3 of the story are yet to be reconstructed. Fortunately, the story is not too complicated which means that even without the last 1/3 it is perfectly understandable. The translation I used made note of any missing line as well as fractures of text that where lost. Another point that makes this a little bit easier is the amount of repetition. There where multiple times when the same lines where repeated, often the exact same and sometimes ones similar enough. Lastly, before I start summarizing the story there also needs to be mentions in regards to names. Different versions tend to use different names and some translations can be a little bit confusing, as well. For instance: Gilgamesch is also sometimes known as "Bilgamesh" or Chumbaba I've also seen being called "Chuwawa" or "Humbaba". Usually, if they sound similar, they probably are the same person. Btw.: spoilers for a ~5000 years old story :P The story: Gilgamesh is a mesopotamian king who rules the city of Uruk (somewhere in modern Iraq). He's known for being very capable and strong and supposedly was responsible for building the walls around the town. It's also said that he is 1/3 human and 2/3 god. But Actually, the story doens't start off with Gilgamesh. Instead it depicts the origins of Enkidu. Enkidu, being a man made out of clay by the gods who spends his entire time among the wild animals, gets civilized by the most effective way possible (aka sex work). He then learns about Gilgamesh's strength and decides to challenge him to a fight. Gilgamesh easily overpowers him and they become close friends. Afterwards there are depictions of the different exploits the two go on. The quest to the Cedar forest to fell some of those valuable trees as well as slaying its guardian Chumbaba (who curses the both of them to death) and the slaying of a godly beast sent by a very envious goddess (Gilgamesh wouldn't fall for her). Things take a turn for the worse when Enkidu dies. Gilgamesh spends a couple days in grief right at the bodies side. After the hopes of his best friend returning from the dead don't find fullfillment he gets terrified by his own mortality. He sets out to find the answer to life and death and even goes beyond the reaches of the world. There he finds the ancient hero who survived the flood (which was most likely the inspiration for the tale found in the bible) who only tells him that while humans where granted life, their death is still in the hands of the gods and if Gilgamesh can't even stay awake for a week he will never overcome death. Lastly this hero tells Gilgamesh to retrieve a flower which is supposed to give him back his youth and then to head back to his home town. On the way however, said flower got devoured by a snake leaving Gilgamesh empty handed. It's not said what happened after he went back home, however supposedly Gilgamesh ended up earning a place among the gods. To finish: I find this very interesting and I'm sad that we still aren't able to fully reconstruct the whole story. I wanna say I would recommend it. Obviously, if you pick it up you also want to read up on the context as society was very different back then; though, I suppose it goes without saying. :D It's also relatively short. |
I have here two books I want to talk about. However, there's also quite a bit of weight to what I'm about to do. If you're not interested into someone's self reflections then this here post is better off being skipped. The reason for this is that this is not just me talking about two philosophical books, but it is me closing a chapter of my life. So important, for myself, that I do feel the need to center a huge portion of this around the context of this my chapter.
The thing is that I've always been interested into the deeper questions of life. Even during childhood I spend a huge amount of my lonely time to reflect on all kinds of aspects in life. What is the meaning of life? How big is the entire universe? Where are me going? etc. Yet, for the longest time I've never read a philosophical book. A couple years ago I found myself in a bad spot. After a chain of terrible events I find myself isolating from the rest of the world. Cutting ties to everyone I knew, stopped going to university, closing myself into my small little room and spend all day just watching videos. It was very miserable. I was watching a documentary, something about modern workers. One of the interviewed employers was talking that nowadays nobody reads the likes of Nietzsche, anymore. The reasons for that statement were not important. But it let me realize that I had the time to look into one of those philosophical books. It would still take some time, however, until I picked the first one up. There were two weeks I had to spend without internet and I prepared by getting a copy of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" ("Thus Spoke Zarathustra") by Nietzsche. I spend the first week doing nothing but reading it. For those who don't know: philosophy books are difficult to read. Some of them are really difficult and Nietzsche is definitely among them. However, this book in particular is not one you want to start with. As you might expect: I didn't understand a single word of it. But I read it anyway. A couple years later I went to trade school and moved into my own apartment. At that point I started collecting and reading more philosophical books. They were a very wide array including: - The Art of War (Sun Tsu) - more books by Nietzsche - Politeia (Plato) - Meditations (Rene Descardes but also Marc Aurel) - The Prince (Machiavelli) - Nichomachean Ethics (Aristotle) - as well as different psychological books (mainly Freud) - I even read parts of the bible Aristotle actually had some huge influence as he made me look into politics. When I started I picked the for me most logical place for political input: Youtube You know, the definitely not most toxic place you can think of. That was long before they cracked down on right wing propagandists/grifters. You can probably imagine what channels I got presented. One of those channels I remember in particular. I was watching this guys channel who was constantly shouting around how important "philosophy" is. I actually likes his stuff for the most part. However, then I stumbled upon a video that guy made about Nietzsche. He labeled him a psychopath and even dragged down Plato just for good measure. At the time I was still fairly shaky about those two. But at least I had already developed somewhat of a feel of what they were about. So this is when I realized that that guy was full of shit. If that is what he had to say about those important philosophers who could say how much garbage the rest of his "content" was? Needless to say I stopped watching his videos and never looked back. This was a good thing because it turns out the guy was pretty much a cult leader with some very abusive ways to deal with people who first engaged with his stuff and later decided to stop. In that sense I dodged a very massive bullet. ^^ SO massive in fact that during the social media purge last year he was one of the major players who got banished to the shadow realm. Years later I still had two books to read though. This is when I realized that I was pretty much done with philosophical book. "Done" in the sense that I stopped having a desire to read them. This is why it took me years to get around to reading them. Well, sort of. I'll explain when I get to the individual books. The two books I still needed to read about were: - Organon (Aristotle) - Phenomenology of the Spirit (Hegel) You might have already guessed it. Going back to what this thread is actually about, I'm going to talk about those two remaining books. So without further ado: Organon (Aristotle) I'm going to be straight on this one: I've not read it completely and I'll never do it. I've read parts of it and I've skipped others. I will tell you why I decided to do it this way. First things first: this isn't a book written by Aristotle. It's a collection of notes made by one of his disciples. And it is a good thing they decided to do exactly that. For those who don't know: Aristotle is the inventor of the scientific method. He created different methods to categorize and analyze his surroundings. He laid the ground work for how scientific proof is conducted. The way how it is, however, is very convoluted which made going his explanations very difficult, to a point where I realized that it's not worth it. The way we conduct science nowadays is a lot more approachable because it's something we've been doing all our life. Thus I thought to myself that trying to understand an outdated version of the same thing we intuitively do every day is simply not necessary. SO I ended up dropping it. Sorry, if someone finds this disappointing, but I'm not going to change my mind. Phenomenology of the Spirit (G. W. F. Hegel) Looking back, maybe I should've dropped this one as well. But I didn't. Well, at least I can tell you that I've read all the words that the book had. They were words, alright. But let's start at the beginning: A couple years ago I was playing Persona 5. One of the characters was dropping Hegel's name which is how I became aware of him. Later on in school someone dropped his name and complained about how hard he is to understand. Because I'm such a huge masochist and I really love smashing my head against a wall I decided to look for books Hegel wrote. This is how I managed to get my hands on it. When people talk about how difficult Hegel is to understand then they are not kidding. But there is more to it than just being able to understand the words he was writing down. For example, when Hegel is talking about "logic" he isn't talking about logic as we understand it. To make matters worse he never gave an actually explanation as to what he even understood as "logic". It gets worse when you consider that this book was meant to be part one of a two part series. When Hegel got around to the second one he himself realized that this first one didn't actually fit anymore, which is why it kind of is a standalone thing but at the same time it isn't. The book is presented in somewhat of a circular way. The premise of it is pretty much proof of that: Hegel wanted to establish philosophy as a science. For that he created this book as a scientific philosophy book that used scientific tools of philosophy in order to proof that philosophy is scientific. The book is split into five parts: the introduction in which Hegel explains what his goals are by writing this book (showing that philosophy is scientific and necessary as such), the first part that deals with the individual and its perception, the second part that deals with society as an accumulation of individuals and their understanding of morals, laws and crime. The third part is about the cultural aspects: religion and it's trueness in its "being of light" and art in all its artificial and true nature. Finally, at the end he talks about true knowledge. There have been different system people tried to use in order to make sense of what is written in the book. I'll try to explain the two that I've found to make the most sense: 1. Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis There are two states: - the current (beginning) state - thesis - the final (ending) state that is the opposite of the current one - antithesis and there is the transition from the first to the final state - synthesis This synthesis is progression and life is all about one state flowing into the other. Philosophy is not a science of definite states, but rather a science of constant progression. In math you don't need to understand why a formula gives you a specific result. You just put in the numbers and get a result. In real life this, however, is not how things work. Only if you understand what you need to do can you progress to the final stage. If you don't know about a subject (thesis) but you want to know about it (antithesis) then you need to actively learn about it (synthesis). However, in the book it is also noted that different people can get a different understanding of the world around them. If you have two people looking at the same tree, they will still see a different one. The reason for that is because even though they may look at the same object, they still look at it from different angles, see different details that the other may not see. Another example deals with the question on whether one can determine the character of a person on how they look. Hegel's taking one of the back then leading scientific fields that tried to figure out if you could understand the intends of someone by looking on the shape of their skull. He argued that the only way to determine who you are is not by looking at your features but rather by observing on how you act. Someone is not a murderer because they look like a murderer but rather because they murder people. You are what you do and not how you look is still pretty important nowadays, don't you agree? So parts are still pretty relevant today. 2. Master-Inferior I actually don't know if those are the actual words used for the system. Basically, there are two people. One who is the dominant one who needs someone else who acknowledges their superiority and another, an inferior who needs a superior that recognizes the inferior. This causes a sort of dependency between the two which has this interesting side effect in which the two keep changing from one of the extremes to the other. In a sense the superior is also the inferior due to their need of the other to recognize them as superior all the while the inferior for being recognized by the other shift to the superior because of how their efforts cause the other to be dependent on them turning them into the inferior instead. I think you can see where the problem lies with Hegel's philosophy? It was very difficult to go through. But interestingly enough it also gave me a bunch of ideas for world building stuff, etc. In that sense it was not in vain. Though, I may still need to make some more research in the matter. But not by reading more philosophical books. That train left already and I'm ok with not boarding another one like this. All in all, when looking back, I can't tell if reading philosophical books helped. When I started I wanted to find a purpose in life and was very miserable. Now, I still haven't found a purpose in life, but at least I'm a little less miserable? I won't deny that there may be some positive influence (apart from the political stuff I was talking about earlier), but only future will tell. So the question is: do I recommend reading Hegel, or any philosophical book? The answer is: if you have to ask, then no. No you shouldn't read them. If you want to know more about different philosophies, go to Youtube, look up some good videos about them. They are shorter, they are a lot cheaper and the people who talk about them usually have done the difficult part of trying to make sense of it. |
It has been a while since I last wrote about the books I've been reading. In the meantime I've already finished three new ones that I'd like to talk about. I also think I'll not go in too deep. If anyone happens to have questions: just ask away! :)
Chobits This is a manga made by CLAMP and combines a rather liberal idea of technology with romance aspects. Hideki Motosuwa currently studies in order to make it to university. As he also lacks money he spends a lot of time in his part time job doing busywork and such in a small store. He'd really love to own a computer, a commodity that's becoming more and more common. Computers, however, while they function very much the same as we understand them in real life, in the manga they also happen to look like humans. Nobody actually knows why that is the case. As Hideki walks back home, being done with work for the day, he spots a computer that just lies in the trash! He decides to move it back home. As he moved it, a disk dropped to the ground. The computer looked like a little girl and when he decided to boot her up, she also started acting like one, all too eager to learn about anything she came across. She even gets a name in Chi. The story focuses on Hideki trying to find out more about Chi and where she came from. All the while a lot of focus is set on what relationships computers and their owners have between each other. Especially early on it is stated that a lot of people find themselves unhappy and lonely and for some reason computers always seem to be at least in part responsible in the matter. What's more: even though it is clearly stated that computers don't have feelings, that all they do is follow their programming. Yet, at the same time something strange seems to be happening whenever Chi finds another chapter of a picture book that somehow seems to affect her in some unknown way. There are also rumors about a very specific model of a computer: so called "Chobits". Could Chi belong to this mysterious model? This manga I bought as two compiled books, simply because I was interested into reading something cute. It ended up being a lot more than that, fortunately. I really like the philosophic aspects that are touched in this story. Can computers/robots have feelings? Can humans form actual relationships with them? Of course, for western audiences that's probably not as topical as it would be for especially Japanese ones. But it intrigued me, regardless; at least enough to finish the story. I did wish there was a little bit more to it. Some of the things built up seemed to be resolved a little bit too quickly which left somewhat of a sour aftertaste, but not too much as to ruin my experience. Uzumaki This is a manga made by Junji Ito who is very much, to this day known for his terrifying horror stories. Uzumaki might just be, among Tomie, one of his most known works. In the village of Kurouzu strange things are happening. Spirals appear everywhere and as their numbers increase the village spirals more and more into chaos. Protagonist of this sotry is Kirie Goshima, as student at the local school. Early on she disregards the warnings her boyfriend Shuichi, who was very heavily affected by the curse of the spirals, but as time passes she becomes more and more aware of the dangers that loom. The manga is very episodic, especially in the early parts. Those parts are very much "monster of the week"-esque. Every episode a new threat is introduced that is linked to spirals in some way. Some of the threats are overcome, some others, however, aren't and as such: a lot of those end up reappearing in a later point of the story. This was not my first time reading this manga. While I was walking through my local book store I found a compiled book that had all the chapters in one. Since I had a couple extra bucks I decided to pick it up and reread it. I do like a good horror story. I've read a lot of Stephen King books in the past and I've also read Lovecraft's entire story collection. I've also read a lot more stories from Junji Ito. Just taking into perspective all of his other works I've read I think it comfortably sits very high on the list. The Mysterious Island (Jules Verne) It is the later parts of the Civil War. The engineer Cyrus Harding, his trusted companion Neb, and his faithful dog Top, the reporter Gideon Spilett, the boy Herbert and the sailor Pencroft find themselves prisoners of war. Making up a bold plan they finally manage to escape their confinement by riding a balloon. But the euphory is not lasting long; a massive storm breaks loose and the balloon is swept to sea, flying for a long time until it starts to break apart due to air loss. During this occurance the engineer falls off and shortly after the balloon crashes on unknown shores. This unknown location ends up being an island not yet discovered! The group becomes a merry band of colonists who thanks to the seemingly endless knowledge of Cyrus Harding manage to build up their own colony on this "Lincoln Island". But there is more to the island than it seems, as everytime they find themselves in serious trouble, some mysterious events occur that always help them to turn things around. So as the colonists build up the colony and try to find a way that someday may allow them to get back to their homeland, they also keep their eyes open for any hint they can get on these mysterious happenings. Out of the Jules Verne stories I've read so far this one might be one of my favorites if not even my favorite story. It's a lot longer than the others, but it also has a lot more exploration going on. A lot of the story is spend with building different buildings, apparatus, furniture, etc as well as planting, cultivating, basically building the colony. But not in the same way how in different stories things just get listed up and be done with (listing off all the species they see in "20000 Leagues Below the Sea" felt very tedious), but it does all belong to the overarching story of building a new home for the settlers. I think, I'll be taking a little break from Jules Verne, though. I've almost exclusively been reading his stories for almost a year, when it comes to regular novels. |
Currently reading Song of Sacrifice by Janell Rhiannon. This is the first book in a series of novels about the Trojan war called The Homeric Chronicles. I know a lot about this legend and a thing or two about the bronze age. I have read Homer's poem The Iliad before and the Odyssey, and have seen performances of the Euripedes play The Trojan Women. I have also emersed myself in documentaries and books about the archeological site of Troy, ancient Greece before the Dorian invasions by historians like Bethany Hughes, as well as life in the near east, particularly within the Hittite empire--which the real Troy was connected to. So I am not a newcomer to this subject.
It's been some years though since I have read a good re-telling of The Trojan War. Though I am always interested in seeing my favorite mythological characters living again, most efforts end up disappointing me in oneway or another. There was one novella Kassandra by a German author Christa Wolf that I rather liked reading the translation of. However, I don't think I have yet read a large-scale novel that I thought really did justice to the subject matter. I say all that to say though that I may have finally found the book I have been waiting for. I think this is a interesting novel that was really a pleasant surprise. I can't believe I happened upon it almost by chance, this series deserves much more publicity than it has received. I learned about it through discussion on mythology with the author I found on YouTube, and I was impressed by how knowledgeable she was about ancient literature, and the insights she had into some of the Greek heroes. She has a character analyses series called Super Men and Wonder Women of Greek mythology that I find very informative. During the course of her podcasts she shared some samples of her own writing, and I was intrigued. So I purchased her book on my Kindle Amazon, and couldn't put it down in the first 20 chapters. I love that Rhiannon makes the Greek Gods and their magic highly visible in her world, because a lot of writers of today demystify the world of Ancient Greece, and tell the story of the Trojan War only as a drama, and not a fantasy. The most mystical it might get is a dream sequence or a priest. This story doesn't spoil my fun. The whole pantheon of Gods and Goddesses abound, Artemis, Apollo, Zeus, Ares, Hera, Poseidon and more all appear in the flesh. There's Pegasus, wood and water nymphs, shape shifting, psychics, healing just to whet the appetite within the first dozen chapters. In The Homeric Chronicles war is part of a grander plan by Zeus to end lines of demigod children between mortals and the immortals. When you think about it, there are many legendary figures half-human and half-divine who were involved in the Trojan War like Aeneas, Penthesilea, Memnon, Troilus, Achilles, Helen, sometimes Hector even is a son of Apollo, and several of them are killed, though some do survive. The theme of population control of these superhumans is actually supported by some ancient sources, not Homer so much, but in Hesiod. I have never seen a contemporary author make use of this as a plot though, and I think the author is brilliant for seizing on this. This plot device not only gives us a window into the world of the Gods, and their perspective, but it also allows me to look at some of the Greeks and Trojans from a point of view that I don't think is explored as often in contemporary adaptations of the Trojan war, as victims of fate. Paris is really well fleshed out well as a character in The Song of Sacrifice, and that's noteworthy I think because he is often not an easy character to relate to, it's his actions that trigger the war by running away with Helen. Homer portrays him in the Illiad as a pretty face, but weak of character, pampered and vain. He doesn't have the moral scruples that his brother Hector has, and they serve as foils, with Paris being considered dishonorable, and Hector being the good prince who gives wise, honest counsel, is devoted to his family and his city, and behaves responsibly, meeting his opponents in battle with courage and dignity. More recent depictions of Paris romanticize him into more of this Lancelot or Romeo-like figure who is offering a release from an unhappy marriage. The Song of Sacrifice offers a fresh interpretation though to the others that I am familiar with. We spend several chapters with a young Paris, long before the war takes place, when he's living on Mt Ida before he realizes he's a prince, and I like this portrayal of him. Rhiannon's Paris is kinda like a beast master. Paris being found by a cowherd as a baby and being raised as his own son is a popular motif in literature, but Rhiannon's twist of the legend is that he can talk to animals, which I think is fun! Again, there's a good dose of magic in this adaptation. I think Rhiannon's good at making characters come alive and re-interpreting legendary figures in ways that I have not seen before. Her prose are also moving. I like the way she writes Hecuba. The chapters dealing with her perspective are some of my favorites. The author puts some time into exploring how having her child sacrificed (or so she thinks) has traumatized her emotionally, and she writes Hecuba as a character who has sunken into a deep depression. The loss is magnified by the fact that she had previously suffered miscarriages, and then finally conceives this healthy, beautiful baby boy, only to be told that it's cursed and has to die. Rhiannon's Hecuba never stops fighting and begging for her son's life to be spared, and hates her husband Priam for taking him away. After losing Paris Hecuba is only going through the motions of her duties as queen. She's physically there, but has greatly distanced herself emotionally from her husband, and there's all this internal dialogue going on in her head while she wears a stoic face. Because of the trauma of the loss of this baby, she also wasn't able to fully bond with children that came after him, they are conceived without love because she no longer wants Priam's affections, and they remind her of the child she lost. The sadness is always there. The only one she really can open up to is Hector, and she rationalizes their relationship as special because he was born before Paris and before her sufferings started. This novel also has a good sense of historical accuracy I think, the types of rituals and temples, agricultural practices, descriptions of clothing and hairstyles feel appropriate to the bronze age. I think it also feels authentic that Priam has a royal harem, Homer did write that Priam had more than 50 children by various wives, and polygamy was a widespread practice for kings of the ancient world in the middle east, it was done by the Hittites, Assyrians, the Egyptians that ensure dynastic succession, so that seems on point here. Though I think sometimes she looks at concubinage from a perspective that feels more western, but that's a minor criticism. Overall, I like what this writer is doing a lot. |
Name/Nickname: Knight of Legendaries
Favorite book: Xiran Jay Zhao's Iron Widow Favorite author: Maybe Rick Riordan or Jim Butcher? Hard to pick a favorite. |
I recently read Animal Farm by George Orwell. It's damn good, albeit it's savagely cruel, even by Orwellian standards. I would make the arguement that Animal Farm is more cynical than his Magnum Opus 1984. Animal Farm can catch the reader off guard I think more easily because of the simpler world that the story is set in, and Orwell's ever-witty narrative voice, but below is why I personally think it's the more disturbing read. You have been warned of plot spoilers.
Spoiler:
It's a book that makes you think and poignantly feel, I do need a breather from it though, before picking up another. |
I agree, Animal Farm is, indeed, a very sad and cruel story. At the same time I also thought to myself, when I was still at the beginning, "is this going to end like I think it does?". And, yes, it did. ^^"
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