[EDIT: Only after posting the review did I read some of the other reviews. And... wow. It blows my mind that people in 2025 will say things like "they[EDIT: Only after posting the review did I read some of the other reviews. And... wow. It blows my mind that people in 2025 will say things like "they say it's a forgery, but who knows" -- just look up how we know it's a forgery. Look it up. It's so easy. Just check. Then you have others saying things like "if it's not real, how did it know what will happen in the future more than 150 years ago?" first of all, it wasn't written more than a 150 years ago. It just claims it was. Also, it's so vague that it would have worked even if it was indeed written 150 years ago. That's why people today still believe certain passages in the bible predict political events in the 21st century.]
DNF 17%
The one thing interesting about this book: though ridiculous, proven to be forgery, and easily dismissed by anyone with a basic knowledge of history, still this book became highly influential among many groups of people, who all swear on its authenticity. The conclusion? people will believe anything, which is why they will always be controlled by others. Which funnily enough, is exactly what the "elders" in the book are telling the reader: people are stupid, emotional, and weak. As long as you can make up a story that makes them feel the right kind of feelings, you can always keep them under your control.
The book is a proven forgery. Feel free to look up the evidence. My interest in it lies elsewhere: it's ridiculous. The Elders of Zion, on a supposedly secret meeting recorded on a supposedly internal and very secret document, seem to spend most of the page-time telling each other how evil they are, how weak everyone else is, and how Jews will soon control the world through their evil means and through tricking the Christians into thinking it's better to be "good". It reads like a propaganda book, the kind a dictatorship would give its citizens, but that makes no sense here because it's supposed to be a secret book read only by the leaders.
Why would they write this? The parts that describe a plan I can understand, but the rest? it's ridiculous. Especially since this whole plan is built around Jews being far smarter than everyone else. Then again, the number of people who read this book decades ago and thought it real sort of proves the book's point about people being idiots.
Another important part: the historical. The elders claim their power comes from mastering two things: force and make-believe. They claim to control the Christian population by combining force and a fake narrative. But when had that been true? for two thousand years, Jews were always at a disadvantage in terms of force, and always lost to the Christian population the moment force entered the equation. As for controlling the narrative: for two thousand years Jews were hated by Christians in Europe, hurt and murdered by them, and seen as the most evil group in existence. Where is the narrative control, which the elders claim is one of their two best weapons? there is no evidence for anything like it anywhere in Europe before the 20th century, as far as I know.
The elders claim their plan is based around convincing the Christian population to idealize "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", which are the poisons that ruin their countries. But when was this poison supposedly employed? True, it's not very Jewish, but that's because it is Christian. The equality of people, their freedom, their brotherhood regardless of race or nationality -- those are Christian ideals. To believe it is a Jewish plot, one would have to believe Christianity itself is a Jewish plot, created at the time of Jesus with the foreknowledge that Christianity will make its way to Europe and become dominant there.
The Jews have, historically, gained power through financial excellence. Whenever they became too rich, there would emerge a new tax on Jews to make them poor again, only for them to soon become rich once again. But that kind of story makes the Jews look good and the Christians look bad, while the fantasy of evil Jews poisoning Christians (by convincing them to follow Jesus' teachings, apparently) is much more appealing....more
The prose is poetic and a joy to read, and the contents place just as much focus on the psychology and e3.5/5
It's well written, but it's just erotica.
The prose is poetic and a joy to read, and the contents place just as much focus on the psychology and emotions of the characters as it does on the physical aspect. All of it is explicit, both the sex and the thoughts and emotions around it, which can be interesting. But it's just sex -- just erotica. There is nothing more to it....more
What kind of introduction would you expect from a book titled "the best american erotica"? What we got, asDNF 4%.
Didn't make it past the introduction.
What kind of introduction would you expect from a book titled "the best american erotica"? What we got, as it happens, is a long rant about how the negative attitude to erotica in the US is all a result of oppressive straight white men and how it is directly tied to racism and slavery...
Of course there's a core of truth to it, but there's no attempt of context (or honesty) here. And you know an author (or editor) has no faith in their work when they want you to read it not because it's good, but because it's part of a moral battle for justice.
I hate moralizing; especially when it comes as pure preaching without anything of real value to add.
And if you attempt to criticize moralizing by doing your own version of extreme moralizing, then you have completely missed the point....more
You should not read this book. Now that that's out of the way:
It's a decent experiment. It references fight club a few times, and the inspiration is cYou should not read this book. Now that that's out of the way:
It's a decent experiment. It references fight club a few times, and the inspiration is clear. Only this book is about an extremely antisocial weirdo with some very unconventional (and criminal) sexual fetishes.
At the beginning I thought there was too much focus on shock value, while also walking the line of not being as shocking as it can. Later on more is revealed, and the story becomes less about shock value while at the same time crossing all the lines I was sure it will never cross.
If you want to experience the actual fringes of societal norms, then this is it. Unlike the usual "I'm different because I can't relate to people and I'm sexually unique because I like BDSM", this book is about actualy extreme outliers of society in terms of social relations and sexual appetites.
I still think the shock value takes away from the more interesting character study, as the protagonist is too far from the norm to be comprehensible to the other 99.999%. But it's a unique book none the less....more
I was vaguely familiar with the name of the book since childhood, and always assumed it was a children's book. As you probably realize, I was very wroI was vaguely familiar with the name of the book since childhood, and always assumed it was a children's book. As you probably realize, I was very wrong. Essentially, this book does to travel/adventure novels something similar to what Don Quixote did to romantc tales of chivalry: it exposes the lies of the genre it's based on, while delivering a brilliant and subversive adventure of its own.
Decided to finally read it after watching Miyazaki's Castle In the Sky, as it happens.
The satire has been talked about enough by others, so I'll skip it. I'll just say that Swift's misanthropy was a bit too much for me.
The two aspects of the book which spoke most to me were the general humor and the author's "observations" of different cultures. By the second I mean how Swift describes the small details of how it feels to live among giants, horses, or other strange people. With the giants, for example, he describes how he got used to shouting and to looking up, and how hard it was to re-learn to speak normally.
It's fine. A bit too random and shallow, with most characters being too uninteresting. But I like Matsumoto's writing, as Review for the entire manga:
It's fine. A bit too random and shallow, with most characters being too uninteresting. But I like Matsumoto's writing, as he always has at least a few interesting things to say....more
As I'm ignorant of the majority of the historical context and cultural importance of this work, I can only judge it in a vacuum:
The story itself appeaAs I'm ignorant of the majority of the historical context and cultural importance of this work, I can only judge it in a vacuum:
The story itself appears simple, with Beowulf simply killing three monsters. But there are a handful of interesting explorations, the main one being the superiority of the body (or spirit) over man-made weapons, which might also be read as a critique of Norse culture: Beowulf chooses to fight Grendel with his body alone, claiming it's only fair since Grendel can't use weapons. But later we learn that Beowulf was not seen as a great warrior before the fight with Grendel, as he didn't use enough force when fighting with a sword. At the second fight, against Grendel's mother, Beowulf's sword proves useless and he has to fight with his bare hands. At the final fight, with the dragon, the now old Beowulf breaks his legendary sword by swinging it too hard. I can't claim to know what the author meant, but I read this as a criticism of warriors who value nothing other than a skill in sword-fighting, or perhaps a praise to the human body and spirit (or the will of God): Beowulf is stronger than anyone, and is also a great leader, but in a culture that values one's skill with a sword, Beowulf's absurd strength ends up making him seem weaker than he is. At the end his sword breaks and the crucial moment, and while old and without sword Beowulf still succeeds.
Another interesting part is the use of Christianity in a Norse setting. The author finds all sorts of ways to make the story fit a Christian framing: he explains how Beowulf, while not Christian himself, is still acting out the will of God, and how being one with God takes precedence over the specifics of one's worship. The characters in the story all refer to "God", never to "Gods" or to Thor or to Odin. I'm assuming the Christian readers of this story would have been offended otherwise, which is why the author chose this path. Which is interesting from a storytelling perspective.
Yet another interesting part is how this story tries (in my view) to convey the end of Norse culture: having banished the monsters, Beowulf dies without children or heirs -- why? such a great hero, who ruled for decades and reached old age, why didn't he have any children? perhaps because it's the end of his culture, the end of all Norse heroes and monster-slayers. Perhaps the author wished to let it end with a bang, with one last great hero. ...more
Update: Finished it. Kept the 2/5 score. The writing isn't that bad. This isn't the way a story should be written, as every character is just an authoUpdate: Finished it. Kept the 2/5 score. The writing isn't that bad. This isn't the way a story should be written, as every character is just an author self insert, but if I look at the book purely as a vehicle for Heinlein to explore his own ideas (well, mostly to preach them), then this book has some merit. Ignoring the incest (which isn't very doable, but still), the main character is interesting and at times well-written.
Original review:
DNF 43%.
(tl;dr: The problem is not that there's incest, but that this book reads like an incest fantasy with little else to it, and that the character writing is one of Heinlein's worst.)
It's not a bad book. In most respects it's a usual Heinlein book, with the usual Heinlein caveats. Only this one takes the Heinlineniness to the extreme: every character with any kind of page time, and I mean EVERY character, is simply a self insert of the author with zero variation. In his other books usually every character portrays a different aspect of Heinlein, but here they're all exactly the same. Also, there's no plot and no action, and instead a lot of political ramblings and sex.
This is a historical drama about Maureen Johnson, a 19th century girl (and later woman) experimenting with sex, getting married, and living in general. Sounds interesting? in theory, sure. Even the incest could, in theory, be explored in an interesting manner. But it isn't.
The problem isn't the content, but the execution: 1. It reads purely like a sexual fantasy. 2. Every character is just Heinlein (I mean, more than usual). 3. There's only the preaching of ideas, never explorations of them. 4. Having no plot, the characters have to do the heavy lifting -- but they aren't nearly good enough for that.
Imagine an 80 year old man. He just wrote a book. The book is about a fourteen year old girl in the late 19th century who's character is exactly like the old man's. She's hypersexual, and strongly attracted to her father, who's an exact image of the old man. Her body leaves a scent that makes men unable to control themselves around her, so she has to wash her skin regularly. She often enters into "rut", unable to think of anything other than sex. She sleeps with all sorts of people, most of them disappointing to her. She finds a perfect man and marries him. He is also an exact copy of the old man. They have lots of sex. Both of them just happen to be swingers, irreligious, and libertarian, with the same opinions on everything else. They have several children. I haven't gotten to that part yet, but from what I hear one of the children (Lazarus) will later, as an adult, marry his mother.
If this is your kind of book, I'm honestly not judging you (though I am judging the book). The contents are not for me, and the writing I simply find bad....more
From the writer of the brilliant Boku-tachi ga Yarimashita come a sports manga unlike any other: it's not the most Review up to chapter 233 (ongoing):
From the writer of the brilliant Boku-tachi ga Yarimashita come a sports manga unlike any other: it's not the most exciting, or with the best characters, or with the best plotting, but it understand something about individual psychology that few other stories do -- in any medium.
The main theme of this story is egoism. Egoism in sport is common in the real world, but most sport-themed stories do their best to show egoism as an obstacle to winning: if you only care about yourself you won't work as a team, and therefore won't win. It's true, but it's only a part of the truth. Many teams know how to work well together, yet most of them lose. Why? because at the end of the day, winning at football comes down to scoring more goals than your opponents. Teamwork is an important part of it, and so is personal talent and ability, but there is something else -- a driving force, a powerful motivation, a hunger that pushes an individual to fight against all odds.
Growing up, most of us were taught to fit in. Fitting in depends on the culture you grow up in, but it usually means getting closer to the norm. What about people who have skills far above the norm? If they are lucky, they would be born in a culture that encourages them to excel. If they are unlucky, they would be scolded for shaming others by displaying their abilities. In these societies -- mine too -- a successful adult is kind, generous, modest, and prioritizes helping others over progressing himself. This manga is about such a place -- about a guy with exceptional talents who was told all his life that he should lower himself to the level of his peers. Then, out of the blue, he gets invited to a place that teaches the opposite.
You might even agree that this is how the world should be -- that the talented and brilliant should sacrifice themselves for the sake of the rest. If so you must, at the very least, be mindful of the people who's lives get ruined by such limiting morality.
Just to be clear, his manga isn't about being an asshole to others, or hurting others to get what you want. It's about personal growth in its purest form, and the author understand that part of people better than most other authors I've read.
Example 1: there's one character who refuses to work with others, at all. He goes alone and scores alone, never passing the ball to anyone. The main character tries to convince him to work as a team, but fails miserably. What does he do next? he incorporates that person's behavior into his gameplay, using that predictable selfishness as part of his own game strategy. If it was any other sports manga, the selfish guy would "come around" to selfless teamwork, but not here. Here you can't get a convenient scenario where someone else changes to fit you -- you have to change yourself.
Example 2:The protagonist's goal fails, and the ball happens to fall next to his most dangerous rival. The protagonist calls it "bad luck", because no one could know where the ball will end up. But he soon learns the truth: being unable to reach the protagonist, his rival chose to position himself in a spot that, should the goal somehow fail, he would be in the best position for a counter attack. That the ball ended at that spot was random chance, but that the rival was already positioned there was not random at all. While all other players simply gave up, that one guy thought: the best thing I can do is position myself in a spot that, should the ball end there by change, I will be able to turn things around. That person never gave up his chance -- when he realized there was no way for him to get the ball, he immediately looked for the next opportunity. Instead of waiting to see where the ball ends up, he took a chance that will give him at least some tiny advantage for the next attack. He was more hungry -- more egoistic. ...more
A decent character study. I'm not sure how I feel about it.
My third book by Vonnegut, and by far the most sensible. I read Cat's Cradle, which was a sA decent character study. I'm not sure how I feel about it.
My third book by Vonnegut, and by far the most sensible. I read Cat's Cradle, which was a strange mixture of very interesting character observation and lots of nonsense, and The Sirens of Titan, which was fun but too much nonsense for me. This book, however, replaces the wacky speculative stuff of the other two books with the grounded wacky stuff of the human condition.
It's a good book, but I'm not sure how much of it worked for me. The main character was too much without a self, and the result therefore too ambiguous. The book tries to deal with the moral grayness of his actions, but keeps presenting him as someone who barely knows why he does anything. It's hard to apply moral judgements to such a person, and even harder to use him as the focus of a character study....more
More of the same, only with even less risk-taking by Kepnes. This feels like a rewrite of YOU, with the writer girlfriend who's not used to a serious More of the same, only with even less risk-taking by Kepnes. This feels like a rewrite of YOU, with the writer girlfriend who's not used to a serious relationship, the writing workshop, and Joe doing the same things he always does regardless of his past experience.
It's still occasionally clever and occasionally funny, but it's the same clever and funny we've had in the previous three books, and by "the same" I mean "almost word for word same".
The only thing of note is an author self-insert character, a ruthless, brilliant murder-mystery author, who easily outsmarts Joe, disappears for half the book, then appears again for the finale. She has her own subplot that never ties in with the actual story, and it's just... bad....more
Truly brilliant from start to finish. It's been a long time since I've read something so good -- in any medium.
It's a stoReview for the entire series:
Truly brilliant from start to finish. It's been a long time since I've read something so good -- in any medium.
It's a story of average teenage life turned upside down. A group of friends try to deal with the devastating consequences of their actions, and while each have their own way of dealing, they come together (and fall apart) several times throughout the story.
Can you escape your past? the answer (and the truth) is both yes and no. You might think your past actions are why you can't move on, but in truth you can't move on because that's just who you are. It's not your past you can't escape, but your own character....more