MD
The voices seemed to whisper in Rand's ears, right at the brink of understanding, and within it. Flesh so fine, so fine to tear, to gash the skin; skin to strip, to plait, so nice to plait the strips, so nice, so red the drops that fall . . .
I FINISHED! THANK THE LIGHT! The setup is sooo long and in the beginning it wears on you, the endless descriptions of various taverns and farms that don't even last a full scene, and the way the book lingers on the thoughts of the characters for such an extreme amount of time. But halfway through, after the action picked up and all, I found myself really enjoying the details that I'd hated before. It really paints a vivid picture and you feel like you're right there with the characters, whose thoughts and actions become a lot more engaging once you've come to know them. I didn't fall in love with the world or story through this, but I'm so so intrigued to read more, especially for where it left off. Blessed because I was gifted the second book for Christmas!!.. Although I might not get to it for a while.
Hello, War . . . I see you're going through a medieval European phase again.
I picked this up at a convention a few years ago, but didn't get around to it until now. Loved the concepts a lot, but the majority of the characters fell short, & the story seemed like it needed some editing. The prose also wasn't really what I look for. Will say that I loved the four horsemen, especially War <3. & once Death actually figured things out, it was much more engaging.
"I offer you helplessness," she said. "I offer you insignificance in the face of a world that thinks nothing of you. I offer you the cold, sick fear of not knowing."And the goddess took it and was gone.
and then I transformed into a fish or a gnat and then some mist and I observed it all and then I flew up into the sky and observed from there and I observed and made sure the audience knew deep in their hearts that I was also observing for 400 pages!
If you couldn't tell, I didn't appreciate the narrator. At the beginning I thought it was fun, but it soon became grating to read descriptions of the narrator purposefully accomplishing pure nothing over and over, & was it really necessary for EVERY scene to have a moment where the narrator went and described exactly how and where they watched the events transpire? & the humor in general I came to find annoying!! Didn't end up enjoying many of the characters, especially hated the Duke and Miss Bickle. Mitchelmore and Caesar were the only two I ended up really enjoying spending time around. I was blessed that Mitchelmore was the main character, but almost everyone around her.. uhg.h.
If honor and wisdom and happiness are not for me, let them be for others. Let heaven exist, though my place be in hell.
The loneliness seeps through the page. This is an obviously incredible short story, and it inspired so much that came after it. I was reminded of Piranesi, which no doubt took cues from the Library. I am sometimes floored by how much stories can accomplish with so little, that this made me anxious and sad with only a few pages.
I withdrew in silence and left her to her weeping. Perhaps it would help her start to heal.To me, it only sounded like pieces of glass falling from a shattered window.
Hell yeah!! I love this grimy urban fantasy detective novel shit. Storm Front is super silly (talking skull porn addict levels), but doesn't shy away from concepts of gruesome murder, domestic abuse, etc. Found it really stupid but charming, & now I need to read the rest of the series asap.
I almost forgot to breathe. For a moment I had an inkling of what it might be like if instead of two people in the World there were thousands.
This... wow. WOW.
Throughout my reading I came across numerous ways that the text could be interpreted, and I'm very curious to read some of those analyses. For me, there is only one way. Suppression, willing ignorance towards the cause of your pain. To forget is to heal, and to face it head on will only make things worse.
This is one of the most entrancing books I've ever read. It almost feels like it was written for me; the occult, the loneliness, the lingering sense of loss . . . all things I am transfixed by. I almost dropped Piranesi early on, and I am so so glad I didn't. When I became fully invested, I never wanted to leave this World. I'm still there, letting the waves sweep over me. Always I am saved.
Oh, you never sawsuch a good leafy place, andeverything was fine, my dog and the fawndid a little dance,they didn't get serious.Then the fawn clambered away through the leavesand my gentle dog followed me away.
Hell yes!! This collection is so human. It's cruel, regretful, and loving. I've fallen in love with Mary Oliver, and I do have to thank Shawn McComb for that. I think it was through one of his update videos where he raved about this exact collection of hers, that I decided to pick Dream Work up. I'm SO glad I did. The excerpted section above is from one of the standout poems, entitled: “1945-1985: POEM FOR THE ANNIVERSARY.” It's been a semi-long time since I've felt inspired enough to write analysis on a poem; I usually only do so for poems that impact me heavily. I'm so happy to feel that same inspiration flowing now, since it's the only way I feel like I can give back to these wonderful authors. Ugh that poem was just so beautiful it's taking up my entire brain. I will definitely be coming back to it often.
Laterthe doe came wandering back in the twilight.She stepped through the leaves. She hesitated,sniffing the air.Then she knew everything.The forest grew dark.She nuzzled her child wildly.
I don't mean to get emotional. But I appreciate that a young man like you sees yourself in me. You seem like a kind person. Maybe a little cold. But kind.That's not what people usually see in me.
The worker who recommended this to me didn't mention anything about the majority of the characters being gay, which, I don't know, made me happy. Just that being gay isn't something to be censored or warned about anymore to a lot of people. I remember it being very different when I was growing up, even though I'm still very young.
Aside from that, I thought The Deviant was intriguing and sad, but also felt something lacking. I'm going to read the rest when I can, and I really hope it only gets better. I have been encouraged by this to read more of James Tynion IV's stories, at least.
“Give me the same thing, only different!”
This line is referenced over and over by Snyder, spoken by some CEO during a conversation on film. It indicates that this book is not about producing a well-thought out, creative, intriguing work, but rather that the author likes money and is letting you in on ‘tips' to earn money like he does. He boasts about being a successful screenwriter but only two of his films have ever been made, and both of them were received terribly. All my thoughts were vindicated by a YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgO2XrKaFA8) that definitely explains the problems with this bundle of dead tree far better than I could. Go watch it!
Later, when I was out walking, I stopped dead on the street. Ahead of me, standing beneath a lamp hanging from an old wall, was the outline of a figure of my general size and proportions. He was looking the other way but very stiffly and very tense, as if waiting anxiously for the precise moment when he would suddenly twist about-face. If that should happen, I knew what I would see: my eyes, my nose, my mouth, and behind those features a being strange beyond all description. I retraced my steps back home and immediately went to bed.
Very odd. I found the first half to be boring and pretentious, filled with annoying purple prose that spoke really about nothing. It was only after I reached a story somewhere after the middle portion titled “The Masquerade of a Dead Sword” that I began to change my mind on the collection, and I found myself enjoying most of the stories that came afterwards. The abruptness of it almost feels like Ligotti had a revelation about his writing suddenly and altered it in unnoticeable but severely impactful ways. I don't know. I was about to give up on the collection until that story, and I'm happy I didn't now. I still find his reliance on puppet and doll imagery to be sort of corny, even though I can't lie and say I'm not afraid of them myself. I want to read more of his works though, as I know these were some of his earliest and probably not the best start! “The Journal of Dr. Drapeau,” quoted above, ended up being another one of my favorites.
. . . How strangethis world would be if we were all in uniform, sad to sewa garment for someone who wasn't allowed to dream.Now, go forth in the alluring clothes of the stranger,and visit others as if a needle and thread sewednot just a new style into this world but also a new dream.
- “The Tailor”
Technically, I thought from beginning to end was brilliant, but emotionally, there were only a few poems here or there that impressed me, until the last two sections. The last poem, “How to Celebrate a Revolution,” was especially beautiful and left me amazed.
God did not live in this church; these statues gave an image to nothingness . . . Loneliness. Loneliness to the point of madness.
Finally finished with this! Sometimes I'm ashamed that certain books take me so long to read, but life gets in the way I guess. Anne Rice lost her daughter when she was about to turn 6. In this book, the vampire Claudia is turned when she is about 6, and most of the story revolves around her. Rice has said it was her unintentional way of coping, when she'd lost faith in the church and all. Reading Interview with the Vampire in this light is a dramatically different experience than if you read it without context, I assume. It makes everything so much more tragic, the gentle feeling of loss that flows through every page, whether it's Louis's loss of his own human life or the connections he'd made with other vampires, etc. Claudia is the crux of it all, and it's heartbreaking.
I enjoyed the book a lot more towards the end, the middle was a little slow! Really it's a 3.5 star but half-stars don't exist here, so, 3.
A fun gathering of fan content, however one particular essay, about the film Fire Walk with Me, irked me. Here's why:
The piece insists that the film takes Laura's character and presents it as “a bad girl getting what she deserved.” This is an incredible untruth of the film and of her character in it! The movie is about how she copes with abuse in extremely unhealthy ways, so it should be assumed that there's very little of a “good side to counterbalance her descent.” That isn't the nature of the film. The essay in the same breath praises Laura Palmer's Diary, which is surprising considering I've had the complete opposite experience with both entries into the universe. The novel felt almost unnecessary, as if it was so focused on Laura's pain that it became fascinated only with displaying more of it, and not of Laura herself. I recognize that these are all personal opinions though, and it was interesting hearing what fans thought of the film upon release.
“I have become a thief like the visitor BOB is. Stealing pride and hope, confidence . . .”
I waited a long time to read this and built it up in my head that it was going to be mesmerizing or something. And so–well, I don't know. It's a fine companion to the show, and certainly adds a lot of emotion to her plot line. The devastation surrounding Laura, and how she became sort of cruel because of it, is one of the reasons why I love her character so much–she feels real. In this book, she felt a little bit more like a victim than a girl until we neared the end. Jennifer Lynch was incredibly skilled at writing here, don't get me wrong, but I feel there's something missing from her depiction of Laura. Though there are some scenes in here that do recontextualize the show in a more horrible way, which I appreciate.
ALSO, Josie was done a great disservice here!!! RIP Queen!
“. . . To be with me. That is what it means to be healed.”
Starting off the new year with something I've been wanting to read for a while. I've heard a lot about this author in general, and don't think this first volume lets down any expectations. It was a little hard to get into the groove at first, but once Donkey + the cult were introduced, I was ofc drawn in. Excited to see how it plays out!
GARCIN: I died too soon. I wasn't allowed time to--to do my deeds. INEZ: One always dies too soon--or too late. And yet one's whole life is complete at that moment, with a line drawn neatly under it, ready for the summing up. You are--your life, and nothing else.
It's really a 3.5 star, I wish there were half-star ratings on here. It might have just been the translation I read, or maybe the pace at which I read it, but I wasn't especially grasped by the story presented. Conceptually it's brilliant, and of course this is the story where the famous “hell is other people” line comes from, but something felt much missed. I'll probably try reading this again in the future, just with a different translation. It's short enough anyway.
Before he can devote himself to God or a woman, a boy will devote himself to his father, even foolishly, even beyond explanation.
this was an incredibly easy read, & i blew by it in a couple of days. however, i am so disappointed! some of the concepts and pages here are awesome, but feel like the writing limits things somewhat. the writing just reminds me of like, a mixture between melodramatic lifetime movies & dhar mann. the way characters will ask rhetorical questions and then answer themselves with a very clear moral message is so dhar mann!! loved the bit towards the end, but don't believe the rest of it was very worth the journey.
“There are some you go into—in this line of work—that you know will be heavy. The details don't matter. All you know, for sure, is that your brain starts humming with brutal vibes as you approach the front door. Something wild and evil is about to happen; and it's going to involve you.”
So, this book is an awesome piece of gonzo journalism! What I've pieced together from reading + research is that gonzo is more just about subjectivity of the author and capturing a feeling than the real event? This book is an extremely personalized depiction of drug abuse & hallucinogenic drugs. However, most of the events (especially the theft, assault, etc.) here are entirely fictionalized. The book feels like a gust of wind that drags you away with it, all the time. You never know what's going on fully because the characters jump from one objective to another in a flash, and it kind of makes you feel like you're on drugs too. After reading this, I def want to explore more of HST's books, + other works of gonzo!
i've read this before of course, through the volume collecting all of death's comic appearances. this time, i just read Death: The Time of Your Life , so i'll log it representing that. this is probably one of the most impactful things i've ever read. every time i even flip through the pages, i'm reminded of how powerful storytelling is, and just how much i haven't discovered yet. the thought that some book or movie out there exists that could make me feel the exact way this comic does, makes me want to live forever.