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anywaaaay! i finished 1984 & am still under the impression that animal farm was better. i would italicize & capitalize properly, but i'm honestly too fatigued to bother with the html things. now that i'm done with 1984, i'd love to get back to reading pale fire, which i do intend to do, but i've been really busy lately and have been getting back into writing. i feel like i always feel ashamed of writing something self-indulgent, which really sucks since the majority of why i write is to be self-indulgent. i don't really know, nor do i particularly care to air all of my introspection out in public like this. as far as my takes on recent situations, i do think that the cheating fiasco aired out at the coldplay concert got taken too far. i understand making jokes about it given that that's the nature of the internet, but it's taken to such an extreme. people are so desperate for this easy serotonin (if that's even the right term... i doubt people actually feel happy, it's just this sort of mix of wanting to be in the know, or even worse, wanting this exclusivity to be the First to know) that they've gone to the wife's facebook account and started flooding her there. it's really shameless! and i hope people realize this. it makes me grimace seeing all sorts of posts everywhere online, but perhaps this was really expected. it's not exactly atypical of the internet to act this way, but i just still believe it's in such poor taste.
so! i've been reading 1984 recently (i'll try and get around to pale fire & the hitchhiker's guide eventually when i'm done...!). i'm about two chapters into part two and still am firmly under the impression that animal farm was orwell's better work. i can see why 1984 is regarded so highly, but i'm just not a big fan of the protagonist. one thing that i do really enjoy is the description of language use in the book. i found the appendix bit awfully fascinating to read about. i like thinking about the role language plays in society (but i'm not an expert by any means and usually this is surface level thinking), so i found it really interesting to see how the goal of the book's "new" language was to slim down the vocabulary you can use to express an idea. it's not a foreign idea by any means and is very reminiscent of how certain people tend to group tons of minorities into just undesirables or illegals in order to undertake genocides, but i liked how it was laid out. i've got a couple of more thoughts regarding the actual characters themselves, but since this is a general update post, that's not such a big deal.
i've also been playing a game recently, which i'll just talk about vaguely. i got recommended it by a friend, and since i finally have time on my hands now, i was able to play it. it's actually really good. i think i was originally put off by the expectation that it would be somehow lacking in writing (since i've shied away from the game developer's past games), but i've actually been endeared to the characters. i think it's especially surprising given the kind of person i am that i'm so interested in a relationship between two of the characters, too. it's usually difficult to get me to care so much about a relationship two characters share since i find that i tend to be a very character-focused person with regards to what i'm into. the writing isn't always stellar, but it gives me enough to chew on that it'll probably be a 10/10 anyway, but then again, i'm less particular with my ratings than the way i word things would leave someone to believe.
i've also been playing a game recently, which i'll just talk about vaguely. i got recommended it by a friend, and since i finally have time on my hands now, i was able to play it. it's actually really good. i think i was originally put off by the expectation that it would be somehow lacking in writing (since i've shied away from the game developer's past games), but i've actually been endeared to the characters. i think it's especially surprising given the kind of person i am that i'm so interested in a relationship between two of the characters, too. it's usually difficult to get me to care so much about a relationship two characters share since i find that i tend to be a very character-focused person with regards to what i'm into. the writing isn't always stellar, but it gives me enough to chew on that it'll probably be a 10/10 anyway, but then again, i'm less particular with my ratings than the way i word things would leave someone to believe.
so! i've recently been reading pale fire, and while i'm not terribly far into it (about 60 or so lines in with the accompanying annotations), i'm getting the feeling that this will be a book that makes my list of favorites. i'm really enamoured with the protagonist (which feels like the wrong word to use for a situation like this one given that it's an experimental format). i usually like egotistical characters given that they'll usually have more to them than just that facade, but honestly, i don't entirely know in this case. again, i'm not that far in, so my opinions are stc, etc etc. out of the three books i've read by nabokov, i think i like this one best so far. the narrator's insistence that his ideas are glorious and that he's been carefully feeding the poet, shade, his ideas so that shade can incorporate it into the poem from the first half of the book made me really amused and honestly reminds me of me prodding some of my friends to get into medias i enjoy so that i can hear their thoughts. on the other hand, i also do not stalk my friends and would prefer to imagine myself as someone relatively well-adjusted, so that comparison shouldn't be read into that much. another thing i really liked in kinbote was his penchant for describing himself and shade with way too much detail while he leaves sybil's (john's wife) description at a mere sentence or two. he's the kind of protagonist you're pretty much designed to criticize, i think, which i like!! i love seeing narrators who are pretty terrible or uptight people knowing the author intentionally designed them that way. i'm not quite sure if i've mentioned it before here, but that's one of the reasons i really tend to shy away from a lot of ya novels nowadays; the narrators are very unlikable to me and their personalities are insufferable but you can tell the author intends for you to like them. i guess i like it most when i can tell the author actually put thought into developing the character for the reader's perspective, which i mean, is something authors tend to do by virtue of wanting their books to sell but usually suck at.
well, the other day i finished reading a pretty problematic (?) trilogy, which i did really enjoy but will also be saving face on by not mentioning the name. it did have really excellent writing and development, and i think the characters in it were written with so much authenticity (if that's the right word...?) and i really just enjoyed reading it. aside from that, i started the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy today, and i also found myself really enjoying it. the prose is lovely and i already found myself enamoured with characters a couple of pages in. i've still yet to get to some of the books i want to read, and i haven't even come close to finishing pale fire, but i think i'll finish the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy first and then contend with the rest.
i read bloodchild a few months back and it's stuck to me ever since. partially since my friends allege i'm a freak, but mostly since it was genuinely good. i think the thing about african american literature is that people tend to read into it an incredible amount, which is not saying that that's bad in all cases, but it is saying that sometimes the identity of the writer clouds the reader's approach way too much. this is self-admitted by the author, octavia butler, in things she's written while reflecting on the writing of bloodchild. bloodchild as a short story is really great. the essential premise is that some rather vague event has resulted in humans flooding to the land of the t'lic, and this sort of societal conflict is represented through gan and t'gatoi, who i'd consider perhaps the most important characters. this isn't really a summary, but if i'm discussing what i liked about it, i think it has to go into spoilers.
regardless, i think the dynamic butler was able to set up was so intriguing. again, i don't think this short story is a commentary on slavery, but i do think it reflects certain tenets of misogyny. the men in universe are treated as (essentially) livestock (though there are complications the story brings up with this!), hosting parasitic brood from the t'lic, who choose humans as humans produce better results for the allegedly previously faltering t'lic species. the reason women aren't chosen is really rather simple. it's since they're seen as potential carriers for new humans, basically new livestock. it still keeps traditional impressions of misogyny with the human girls being seen as, you know, meant to have children, but there's the added societal aspect of this sort of feeling applied onto the t'lic and the humans. i really liked it. it was super delightfully messed up; the manipulation between gan and t'gatoi was fantastic and i enjoyed how t'gatoi, given all of those pretty evident flaws to the reader, is also stated to be one of the more caring if not better t'lic towards the terrans. it's just written so well...!!!
this is also from my own perspective, but i liked the details given regarding past terran-t'lic conflicts. the terrans are set up to be sort of attempted colonizers, trying to kill the t'lic using guns and whatnot, which provoked the first rudimentary breeding pens (though t'lic society has evidently progressed beyond that, though this is up for debate given the persisting obligations and roles of terrans in universe). that detail personally just felt extremely real to me, since, yeah. that's what humans would be doing if our planet suddenly became uninhabitable and there was some alien planet seemingly great for habitation. delightful! honestly, this might be one of the death of the author scenarios. i don't really know what core tenets butler wanted to impart if anything. all i have are my own experiences and values to find within the story, but i just found it really delightful. and in general i just like it when authors make no effort to hide the things they're into. it's pretty cute. the tl;dr is just that i liked bloodchild, and that it's quite short so i'd encourage reading it
regardless, i think the dynamic butler was able to set up was so intriguing. again, i don't think this short story is a commentary on slavery, but i do think it reflects certain tenets of misogyny. the men in universe are treated as (essentially) livestock (though there are complications the story brings up with this!), hosting parasitic brood from the t'lic, who choose humans as humans produce better results for the allegedly previously faltering t'lic species. the reason women aren't chosen is really rather simple. it's since they're seen as potential carriers for new humans, basically new livestock. it still keeps traditional impressions of misogyny with the human girls being seen as, you know, meant to have children, but there's the added societal aspect of this sort of feeling applied onto the t'lic and the humans. i really liked it. it was super delightfully messed up; the manipulation between gan and t'gatoi was fantastic and i enjoyed how t'gatoi, given all of those pretty evident flaws to the reader, is also stated to be one of the more caring if not better t'lic towards the terrans. it's just written so well...!!!
this is also from my own perspective, but i liked the details given regarding past terran-t'lic conflicts. the terrans are set up to be sort of attempted colonizers, trying to kill the t'lic using guns and whatnot, which provoked the first rudimentary breeding pens (though t'lic society has evidently progressed beyond that, though this is up for debate given the persisting obligations and roles of terrans in universe). that detail personally just felt extremely real to me, since, yeah. that's what humans would be doing if our planet suddenly became uninhabitable and there was some alien planet seemingly great for habitation. delightful! honestly, this might be one of the death of the author scenarios. i don't really know what core tenets butler wanted to impart if anything. all i have are my own experiences and values to find within the story, but i just found it really delightful. and in general i just like it when authors make no effort to hide the things they're into. it's pretty cute. the tl;dr is just that i liked bloodchild, and that it's quite short so i'd encourage reading it
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when i made this blog, i thought i'd be doing a lot of book reviews. that decidedly did not happen, as you can assume from the preponderance of ai posting i've done. in any case, to save a certain amount of face, i'm just going to make an update on what i've read recently. i made it about 40% of the way through not my father's son and then had to drop it from boredom. the abuse cumming experienced was certainly horrific, but i felt just wholly distant from the book. it's not like i'm expecting to stumble upon some moral from a person's real life experiences, but if i'm reading a book i'd like at least for it to inspire something in me. this book did not do that for me, and sure, maybe i can't say that when i've not read the whole book yet, but i find that if i'm 40% into a book and haven't found a single portion that i genuinely enjoy, it's not worth it. perhaps if i'd been interested in him or had even remotely heard of him before i picked the book up, i might've enjoyed it more. none of that happened. i wouldn't really recommend it; i know someone who was shilling it lots, but i just couldn't understand what portions they enjoyed.
additionally, i've been slacking off. boy parts is another book i'm working my way through (and by that i mean it's been almost a year since i started & i hit 50% in three months and didn't open it again). i want to finish that one; i'm not quite sure what my feelings on it are yet, but i think at the very least that the main character's interesting and that well, it's a novel novel.
aside from that, i'm actually attempting to start a couple of books on my tbr list. there's a ya novel that i'm honestly not looking forward to at all, but since it's a book club book, i'll be doing that in the future. i can't be bothered to recall its name right now, but in its synopsis, i vividly remember the words "the infamous 2020 graduates"... and really, infamous just repulsed me a bit. i don't know what it is about that word choice, but i just couldn't see myself liking the book afterwards. i've a bit of an issue with turning my nose up at ya books, but given the state of the industry right now, i feel like that's a bit warranted.
in other news, from my actual tbr list: i'm really trying to start black reconstruction in america right now. checking out the page number count made me a tad bit dizzy, but it's not as though i'm obligated to finish it all in one sitting, and i'd love to further expand my worldview. courtesy of a friend, i'm also trying to read hitchhiker's guide to a galaxy right now. i enjoyed octavia butler's "amnesty" as well as "bloodchild" (lots of emphasis on the latter. i'd love to reread the former in the future so i can better formulate my thoughts on it, though!), so i'm also interested in reading her other short stories as well as maybe even one of her novels. there's a bunch of books i want to read. i feel like that's about it for my reading recap. ideally i get boy parts finished first, but who really knows?
additionally, i've been slacking off. boy parts is another book i'm working my way through (and by that i mean it's been almost a year since i started & i hit 50% in three months and didn't open it again). i want to finish that one; i'm not quite sure what my feelings on it are yet, but i think at the very least that the main character's interesting and that well, it's a novel novel.
aside from that, i'm actually attempting to start a couple of books on my tbr list. there's a ya novel that i'm honestly not looking forward to at all, but since it's a book club book, i'll be doing that in the future. i can't be bothered to recall its name right now, but in its synopsis, i vividly remember the words "the infamous 2020 graduates"... and really, infamous just repulsed me a bit. i don't know what it is about that word choice, but i just couldn't see myself liking the book afterwards. i've a bit of an issue with turning my nose up at ya books, but given the state of the industry right now, i feel like that's a bit warranted.
in other news, from my actual tbr list: i'm really trying to start black reconstruction in america right now. checking out the page number count made me a tad bit dizzy, but it's not as though i'm obligated to finish it all in one sitting, and i'd love to further expand my worldview. courtesy of a friend, i'm also trying to read hitchhiker's guide to a galaxy right now. i enjoyed octavia butler's "amnesty" as well as "bloodchild" (lots of emphasis on the latter. i'd love to reread the former in the future so i can better formulate my thoughts on it, though!), so i'm also interested in reading her other short stories as well as maybe even one of her novels. there's a bunch of books i want to read. i feel like that's about it for my reading recap. ideally i get boy parts finished first, but who really knows?