Jonathan

Dostoevsky recognizes how noble a dreamer can be and perhaps he wants us all to dream and seek out those moments of bliss and happiness, believing that even a single one could make everything worthwhile.

Cărtărescu, con este libro, demuestra una gran experiencia en el arte de escribir, de ser lector y de ser heterosexual. Me parece magistral su capacidad para escribir sobre la memoria, las fantasías y los sueños, y sobre todo, sobre el sexo y las mujeres. Además, muestra que los que consideramos “grandes escritores” también pueden escribir cosas totalmente banales y aburridas. Así que este es un libro con altibajos.

La última historia de este libro explica mucho sobre la actitud promedio de los hombres heterosexuales y aborda por qué nos gustan las mujeres. No quiere decir exactamente que el autor sea sexista, pero los estándares que tenemos los hombres sí lo son. He notado que las reseñas en rumano son de personas ofendidas; entiendo que se pueda ofender por la existencia de esos estándares, pero afirmar que el autor es un tipo extremadamente misógino no me parece estrictamente cierto. Además, no siento que el objetivo de este libro fuera defender esos estándares, más allá de si son los estándares que el mismo Cărtărescu tiene.

I enjoyed reading this tiny book because it's intriguing and easy to follow, but after a while I realized that I wasn't looking at it too critically. I think I liked it as a critique of how power hungry individuals like Napoleon can corrupt a revolution. Given what I've read about Stalinism, the book seemed to fit as a critique of Stalinism. But I have considered the possibility that is not accurate and that Orwell was not all that familiar with the Soviet Union.
I enjoyed the book because it's concise and entertaining, and because at times it seems like a worthwhile critique of government structures that I find oppressive, but at the same time I find it conflictive because it portrays the working class as stupid and docile to make its point.
So Napoleon isn't really the main reason why the revolution is corrupted, the revolution is corrupted because everyone except the pigs and the dogs are stupid and they let it happen.
One could argue that Orwell's depiction of the working class as willfully stupid is a criticism of the many supporters of authoritarianism who are also working class and too stupid. That doesn't make it any better.