This book reminds me of a quote that I can't recover. I know I read it in a book by a Christian Physicist names John Polkinghorne. I think he was Wow.
This book reminds me of a quote that I can't recover. I know I read it in a book by a Christian Physicist names John Polkinghorne. I think he was quoting Blaise Pascal. I think it was more of a quote that sparked a thought in me and I heavily paraphrased the passage. Anyway, now that you are no longer reading this review the idea behind the passage was this:
When human beings look up in the sky, we are awestruck by the beauty and the mystery of the stars and galaxies above. It makes us feel small and insignificant. The irony in this is that the human mind and spirit is more of a mystery than even the stars and galaxies above. We are the observer. The ingredients that make up people are more complicated and intricate than the ingredients that make up the stars in the sky because we have consciousness and free will and the stars don't. We are more of a mystery than the mystery in the sky.
This book makes me think of that quote/passage/idea/thing.
Ultimately, I think this book is about what it means to be a man. It's about not letting your pain harden you in the wrong places. Becoming a man in our society is tough because we are told that we are supposed to be strong and invulnerable. When you are growing up, no one tells you that the toughness you develop through adolescence (because you need to) is going to hurt you later on in life.
As a man in our society you need to be hard in some places and soft in other places and it is up to you to know when to switch from one to the other. No one tells you when you are supposed to be hard and when you are supposed to be soft.
Dante's dad is a beautiful example of an adult male that has chosen to maintain a softness and a kindness that most men in our society are afraid to show. Ari's dad is a Vietnam veteran than was sent to war, then abandoned to deal with the scars by himself. What does a man like Ari's dad do when he feels weak and scared? Where does a man go at times like this?
Ari is a teenage boy that is coming of age in the middle of all this. He doesn't understand the mystery inside himself so he pushes it down until it grows strength and morphs into a destructive beast that he cant control.
This is an incredible book about the no man's land that exists inside many adolescent boys who want to be their full selves, not just their half selves. It offers advice to fathers about how to support their sons as they try to be whole in a world that cuts them in half....more
There were times where the prose was very pleasing. There were other times, however, that i found her unique word/perspecWhat a weird book to review.
There were times where the prose was very pleasing. There were other times, however, that i found her unique word/perspective/punctuation choices distracting. Any time stylistic choices distract you from the story, I don't think that is a good thing (in my opinion.)
I will give the book this: I feel like I could read one vignette per day and let it unfold in my brain throughout the day. Each vignette has a unique quality of being linguistically "light" in a sense but then thematically heavy as well. So that's cool.
My main beef: All the male characters in this book are tyrants. They are all very terrible, with the exception of Esperanza's dad. He is just kind of there. There are probably 25 other men in this book besides Esperanza's dad and every single one of them is a leering creep, a sexual harasser, a rapist or a domestic abuser.
I think Cisneros is making a point about freedom/captivity - power/powerlessness and how these things interplay with sexuality/cultural context. I agree that there are gender roles and gender inequalities in american society that need to be addressed but I worry that this book (in supporting that point) made all dudes straight up terrible, unsafe, suspicious, not to be trusted demons. I worry about teens reading this and drawing conclusions about an entire gender that are not true. I am open to being further enlightened. ...more
This was a really insightful easy to read book. Briefly, the author describes three levels of consciousness and uses examples from literature to illusThis was a really insightful easy to read book. Briefly, the author describes three levels of consciousness and uses examples from literature to illustrate each level. Each level is a developement upon the previous level. Don Quixote is the example of the first level (called two dimensional-consciosness). He simply loves life and thinks he is the best thing since sliced bread. His own perception of himself is false however and anything he experiences that doesn't jive with the way he sees himself (as a total hero), he simply ignores. He also holds close ideals about the world that don't necessarily have to correspond with reality, yet he resiliently holds them close. Hamlet is the example of three-dimensional consciousness. Hamlet knows he is not the center of the universe, which is true. He is courageous enough to admit truths about himself and other people, but he doesn't know what to do with the truth he is brave enough to admit. As a result he is a total neurotic, and hard to live with or relate to. He's a buzzkill. Faust is Johnson's example of four-dimensional concsiousness. Faust lives most of his live jiving with the devil (he sold his soul.) Johnson's interpretation of this is psychological and Jungian. He takes this to mean he has "encorporated his shadow." Basically, he was courageous enough, like Hamlet, to see the truth about himself and others, but, unlike Hamlet, he has learned how to live with this truth. According to Johnson, most people stay stuck in third level consciousness nowadays - the Hamlet stage. It is difficult to be a Quixote today. In a sense we have all become too complicated, and been exposed to too much of the world to live day in and day out thinking we're awesome, life rules, I rule, whats up, what the crap, and not ask questions of the world and ourselves that are not simply answered by one system of thought. Something I realy liked about this book was how much I fit the Hamlet stage. Not that that is a good thing, but it is a developement, and I could see that there is something good ahead if I keep on trucking, and being honest with myself. I'll end with a great quote from the book about the glimpses of hope you get while struggling from 3d to 4d: "When the dark night begins to lift, one morning there is an unaccountable touch of joy in the air. It is the tiniest trickle of energy, light and hope, but it is enough to keep you alive. This is the first contact with the four-dimensional consciousness, and one can begin to live from that energy."...more
I found this book to be pretty profound - not just blow your mind - novel thinking type of profound, but "Holy crap this is deep stuff, and it seems lI found this book to be pretty profound - not just blow your mind - novel thinking type of profound, but "Holy crap this is deep stuff, and it seems like it could really be true." It isn't empty intellectual exercise. It is based on Jung's archetypes, and I love Jung, but Pearson puts Jung's ideas into everyday language and makes them more accessible. The archetypes are like a catalogue of possible personalities one can have. It is a way of conceiving of the world. It is like a road map. You can go back and look through your life and recognize what archetypes were dominant at certain periods. You can check your growth and see which archetypes you may need to further develop. The theory also shines a light on personalities you might have difficulty with, and suggests that you could learn from people that are different from you rather than alienate them....more