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
There's no comparing Salvation of a Saint to The Devotion of Suspect X.
The plot structure for Suspect X was excellent and fresh: We follow both sides There's no comparing Salvation of a Saint to The Devotion of Suspect X.
The plot structure for Suspect X was excellent and fresh: We follow both sides of the case -- both the detectives and the criminals -- after seeing the crime for ourselves and knowing everyone's reasons and motivations, watching as one side tries to uncover evidence while the other tries to hide it. We learn about the different characters, their lives and feelings, and begin to root for both sides. Other than Kusanagi, everyone has an emotional reason to care (and to make us care) about the plot: Yukawa's relationship with -- and admiration for -- Ishigami; Ishigami's love for Yasuko; Yasuko's actions, and conflicting emotions about what happened and about what she should do next. Slowly, more and more evidence is revealed, until suddenly everything is flipped on its head and we learn that much of what we though we knew about the story was actually misdirection -- all part of Ishigami's plan, who managed to deceive not just the police but us too. Then the ending comes (which I didn't like, but still), radically changing everything one last time.
None of that exists in Salvation of a Saint.
This book returns to the old, decaying formula of murder mysteries. A man is dead, but we don't know how or who killed him. We get an obvious suspect, but won't know the answer until the very end. Ayane, the main suspect and a major character, is a closed book; we don't know what she's thinking, what's her story, or how she really feels -- she's a classic detective-story suspect. Hiromi is... there, I suppose. Kusanagi suddenly and inexplicably falls in love with Ayane, consequently losing about 80% of his capacity for rational thought. Utsumi, the new junior detective, is suddenly the main character and wows everyone with how good a detective she is (and gets constantly praised for being smart and a woman...) -- only without any hint of personality or an emotional life, and therefore no reason for us to care; she's simply the new (and more rational) Kusanagi. Yukawa shows up every now and again, but without any personal connection to the case he feels like little more than a random guest, since unlike other detective stories, he isn't the one leading the investigation. Then comes the great reveal -- and its just that, a reveal. We didn't know how the crime was committed -- so we learn how it was committed. And yes, its clever. But that's all it is. No big revelation, no great twist which makes us reevaluate everything we though we knew. A generic solution to a generic story.
(And does anyone know why it's called "Salvation of a Saint"?)...more
I can't recommend this book to anyone. It's the most horrifying, heart-breaking book I've ever read. The excellent writing and the fact this is based I can't recommend this book to anyone. It's the most horrifying, heart-breaking book I've ever read. The excellent writing and the fact this is based on true events make this book into something truly unique, as twisted as that might sound.
Strangely enough, the extreme rape and torture weren't the worst parts -- they were so extreme they didn't feel real to me. It felt more like some ridiculous pedophilic rape fantasy. It's the human parts that hurt me the most: the parents, too self absorbed in their own troubles and traumas to care about anyone else; the community, trying not to interfere in other people's business to the point of turning a blind eye to rumors of horrific things done by their neighbors; the authorities, too blind and too timid to go the extra mile and maybe save someone; the children, confused and looking for guidance, trusting any adult who seems to care about them, and willing to give in to their worst inclinations as long as a parent says it's okay. The extreme parts may be rare occurrences, but the environment which allows them to happen is common -- and that's terrifying....more