Read this because it was written on high
A great existential novel begging the question of purpose within a "bourgeoisie" society. The dichotomy of a tamed man and wild beast is explored beautifully by Hesse. The novel focuses on the transcendence and healing of Harry as he, surprisingly, willingly tries to assimilate with the help of a mysterious lover.
This book has an incredible pace and will twist and pull you across each part. The themes of love, politics, laughter, and memory are woven well into his story. You can feel the ghosts that Kundera captured.
Here you read the last known words of someone condemned to die in the gestapo. There is a haunting pang with the last page. This short collection, notes scribbled over seventeen months in prison, is a testament to Fučík's resourcefulness. A kind guard smuggled the small scraps of paper in and out of the prison.
I particularly liked Chapter VII, where he does character sketches on the different people he interacted with.
I particularly liked Chapter VII, where he does character sketches on the different people he interacted with.
I've always had an interest with esoteric and occult groups. The ones that seem to work their way into the mainstay and gain momentum before crashing out into oblivion. Seldes' exploration is thorough from renowned to the obscure, to the infamous and the forgotten.. This work explores aspects of life and society that are pastoral that to a modern 21st century reader that may as well be fiction. Maybe that why these sorts of books have such a strong appeal. Days of yore long passed, the ground trampled again and again. New buildings. New fads. New fashion. Diets. Media.. Ideas?
This book shows the natural inclination of a select few who tend to cause ripples to a system. The individuals highlighted are powerful and the guardrails of 19th century society had no way of of holding them back. At a certain point, the lawlessness and wilderness of America's past was a bountiful testing lab for these movements, beliefs, and culture.
This book shows the natural inclination of a select few who tend to cause ripples to a system. The individuals highlighted are powerful and the guardrails of 19th century society had no way of of holding them back. At a certain point, the lawlessness and wilderness of America's past was a bountiful testing lab for these movements, beliefs, and culture.
This book would've blown my mind if I grew up in Japan in the 50's...
An interesting slice of history mixed with the drama of a love triangle and murder based on a true story. The book is cinematic as it pulls you through a cast of characters with suspense and comedy. Despite the murder I thought it was fairly lighthearted.
There was something vague about this story that I thought was distracting.. it turned around towards the end and I enjoyed it.
There’s a cinematic aspect to this story that is special, and I think it’s because a movie or show can’t capture that essence. The dark and brooding world trying to cast off the fleeting light we alone can carry. Post Covid, it’s curious seeing how King predicts the world would be when it’s shut down.. he wasn’t too far off.
Such a pristine portrayal of the beauty and chaos of Nature.
"What brings people into relation with each other by liberating them from their local and national limitations is also what keeps them apart. What requires increased rationality is also what nourishes the irrationality of hierarchical exploitation and repression. What produces society's abstract power also produces its concrete lack of freedom"
I believe we are moving increasingly faster into a superficial present. War and peace are the only guardrails.
I believe we are moving increasingly faster into a superficial present. War and peace are the only guardrails.
A true Revisionist Western with gray moral lines and a hero with an impossible task. Showcases the human desire to build up heroes while setting unachievable standards to watch them climb and ultimately fail. Pynchon called this "a novel of abysses" - and it's a perfect encapsulation.
Read in a time in America where justice feels haphazard, where division is algorithmically seeded throughout communities, where grotesque oligarchs shamelessly pull strings, and where being a decent person actually feels like a social disadvantage.
Favorites: Book III, Book V, Book VII, Book VIII, and Book X
Favorites: Book III, Book V, Book VII, Book VIII, and Book X
Such a great sci-fi concept with beautiful drawings and panels.
What a ride. Each of the five parts have a semblance of feeling - the lovers, the history, the murders, or the spiraling madness.. feeling bubbles to the surface but burst away so quickly it leaves you searching and waiting only to be cast aside for an odd belaboring of life.
There are moments in 2666 that really moved me but they were in the current of a littered post-modern flow that constantly pushed me away. Worth it to drown in it sometimes!
There are moments in 2666 that really moved me but they were in the current of a littered post-modern flow that constantly pushed me away. Worth it to drown in it sometimes!
"Should readers in the new nineteenth-century public libraries have the books that they desired, or books that would make them better, more cultured people? This raging debate was still echoing deep into the twentieth century:”
This book does an amazing job chronicling the chaotic and uncertain path that libraries and book collections have been through the last two thousand years. They cite concise data points - giving the reader a clear scope of the magnitude of books both collected or lost through time. They also add important context with quotes from each time period, along with photos and illustrations throughout. Long live libraries!
This book does an amazing job chronicling the chaotic and uncertain path that libraries and book collections have been through the last two thousand years. They cite concise data points - giving the reader a clear scope of the magnitude of books both collected or lost through time. They also add important context with quotes from each time period, along with photos and illustrations throughout. Long live libraries!
wtf I hate pasta now
Marinetti's futurist cookbook is fearless and radical. The challenges that Futurists faced with art/music/dance were mere hurdles compared to the struggle of changing a country's palate. While he would mock the the phrase "don't fix what isn't broken" his vacuous destruction of taste and focus on aesthetics of food was a ripple in Italy and the world's menus. Even if you never try and of the recipes in this you must appreciate his passion.. or jetfuel for dynamic, unsurmountable, boundary breaking ideas that could only be fenced in by the universal love for what actually tastes good.
Marinetti's futurist cookbook is fearless and radical. The challenges that Futurists faced with art/music/dance were mere hurdles compared to the struggle of changing a country's palate. While he would mock the the phrase "don't fix what isn't broken" his vacuous destruction of taste and focus on aesthetics of food was a ripple in Italy and the world's menus. Even if you never try and of the recipes in this you must appreciate his passion.. or jetfuel for dynamic, unsurmountable, boundary breaking ideas that could only be fenced in by the universal love for what actually tastes good.