This week’s reading was an interesting yet difficult book to read as it was more focused on the backgrounds of war, with similarities to George Orwell’s 1984 which I’ve read in the past. After finishing “The Trenchcoat,” I was left with a feeling of, “Well, that’s that.” nothing, no deep feelings of emotions—just a quiet […]
Seemingly becoming a trend, I again feel very neutral about this book. When I finished reading, all I thought was “okay, I guess that’s it,” and not much else. I chose this book this week because I am interested in the Cold War and the Soviet Bloc countries during this time period. I think this […]
Posted in Blogs, Manea | Tagged with communism, control, fear, norman manea, surveillance, The Trenchcoat, trenchcoat
“Because there’s the right to scream. So I scream.” This novel is not supposed to have you gripping your seat with anticipation, it is a story of a mundane, normal life of someone who you might not have previously paid attention to. Rodrigo is using hi…
Posted in Blogs, Lispector | Tagged with fear, mortality, poverty
“Because there’s the right to scream. So I scream.” This novel is not supposed to have you gripping your seat with anticipation, it is a story of a mundane, normal life of someone who you might not have previously paid attention to. Rodrigo is using hi…
Posted in Blogs, Lispector | Tagged with fear, mortality, poverty
War seems to be the common theme the last couple of weeks and it is no different as this story takes place during the Angolan Civil War. However, this book tries to find the best out of this horrible situation by creating a dreamlike landscape and beautiful imagery to make this situation a little tolerable […]
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with Conflict, dreamers, fantasy, fear, society, war
There are many things I liked about this book and I will attempt to mention them all. Firstly, I enjoyed that I was reading two stories simultaneously, guided by the different font I found my mind to almost switch to the story I’m about to get into and what I’m visualizing instantly changed. One moment I was reading fragmented memories of a childhood torn apart by confusion and fear and another moment I was transported into a horrible place where no one has control over their fate, people leading lives that are also guided by confusion and fear.
The fragmented memories of childhood were sometimes hard to follow, but Perec repeatedly reminded us that the stories he was telling were a mix of truth and imagination. This is an important lesson to learn, our memories are more often than not, flawed and incomplete. There’s a lot of power in realizing that. Of course, reading this book I was compelled to think back about my own childhood. All these things that I “remembered”, how much of it is real? Those photographs that I look at and make up stories about their backgrounds, did any of it happen the way I think? Probably not.
I was more intrigued by reading about the horrible place Perec called W. The more I read about it, the scarier it became and the more I wanted to continue reading. The worst thing a person can go through is a life of uncertainty, where laws are unclear, fear predominates and there is nothing they can do to dictate their fate. It was difficult reading the fate of children who are taught nothing about ‘the world’ or even their world. It was difficult reading about the fate of women and how they were either killed at birth or used for conception, rape was a part of their existance. The adolescents who were thrown into this world essentially getting tortured without reason. And eventually the ‘athletes’ and their miserable lives and deaths. The writing was impactful and I don’t believe the images I’ve conjured up in my head of W would be going anywhere.
Although a very emotional book, I found it easy to read. Part because the writing was clear and easy to follow and part because it was two stories at once. I’m wondering if other people thought the fact that there were two stories a positive or a negative thing? Did you look forward to one of them more than the other?
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with confusion, dystopia, fear, ww2
There are many things I liked about this book and I will attempt to mention them all. Firstly, I enjoyed that I was reading two stories simultaneously, guided by the different font I found my mind to almost switch to the story I’m about to get into and what I’m visualizing instantly changed. One moment I was reading fragmented memories of a childhood torn apart by confusion and fear and another moment I was transported into a horrible place where no one has control over their fate, people leading lives that are also guided by confusion and fear.
The fragmented memories of childhood were sometimes hard to follow, but Perec repeatedly reminded us that the stories he was telling were a mix of truth and imagination. This is an important lesson to learn, our memories are more often than not, flawed and incomplete. There’s a lot of power in realizing that. Of course, reading this book I was compelled to think back about my own childhood. All these things that I “remembered”, how much of it is real? Those photographs that I look at and make up stories about their backgrounds, did any of it happen the way I think? Probably not.
I was more intrigued by reading about the horrible place Perec called W. The more I read about it, the scarier it became and the more I wanted to continue reading. The worst thing a person can go through is a life of uncertainty, where laws are unclear, fear predominates and there is nothing they can do to dictate their fate. It was difficult reading the fate of children who are taught nothing about ‘the world’ or even their world. It was difficult reading about the fate of women and how they were either killed at birth or used for conception, rape was a part of their existance. The adolescents who were thrown into this world essentially getting tortured without reason. And eventually the ‘athletes’ and their miserable lives and deaths. The writing was impactful and I don’t believe the images I’ve conjured up in my head of W would be going anywhere.
Although a very emotional book, I found it easy to read. Part because the writing was clear and easy to follow and part because it was two stories at once. I’m wondering if other people thought the fact that there were two stories a positive or a negative thing? Did you look forward to one of them more than the other?
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with confusion, dystopia, fear, ww2
This novel seemed to be a bit more engaging for myself compared to the others I’ve read for this course. I think I was able to find certain passages of Lispector’s writing to be overdramatic and borderline humorous, with immense detail to totally picture it happening. The best example of this would be the beginning […]
Posted in Blogs, Lispector | Tagged with cockroach, confrontation, disgust, Drama, fear, introspection, overdramatic, Romance text, self-reflection
