War with the Newts

Glad I decided to read on after a couple of chapters because I am OBSESSED with this book now. There are some books are eternally relevant, even to this age that the author himself could never imagine, i.e. brainrot content broadcasted in video to everyone with an internet access and a small rectangular piece of metal. Technology can changed but humans haven't, considering the numerous quotable passages (at the same time both comedic and tragic) that can be said even now.

The end of the world might not be due to a cataclysmic event, but due to everyone of us, due to our humanity, and our endless march towards benefit our own parochial interests at the cost of our future and the world that houses us. Maybe the world will be burned to the ground, or inundated with seawater from the million attempts to increase just a little bit more profit, just a little bit more land, just a little bit more of us and less of them, just a tiny little bit more. The death by a thousand tiny little cuts from the billions of us.

The author would probably have given a good chuckle to know that his belief is still relevant today, a fact that makes me a little disappointed because how can we not change that much despite all the technological and humanistic advances that we make. But I decide to be optimistic, for what other options can there be... at least it's not that late yet... right? Though I still feel a sense of comfort, in the same way misery loves company, that someone wrote this novel, hoping to leave a few words for posterity, and that one day someone can enjoy it immensely; the same way two siblings sat down near a bonfire, chatting away into the night and laughing about the funny and depressing shenanigans that the fucked up family is up to, but at the same time feeling comforted by the fact that we have that we were born and raised by the same people, lived and breathed with the same people. And within that shared context, there's something magical when both of us knew what the other feel without having to say in so many sentences. That at least someone understands us.

una muy creativa parodia de las guerras en general y como el especismo se vuelve un símil de los actos más horribles hechos por los propios humanos

me encantó el uso de extranjerismos para diferenciar la nacionalidad de los personajes. tiene un ritmo excelente que va in crescendo mientras todo se sale de control

las ilustaciones de la edición que tengo en físico, me recordaron a las de un periódico, las cuales aportaron a la historia un imaginario interesante. además, contiene notas sobre el mismo universo que el autor desarrolla. un universo distópico, por decir poco

incluso, uno de los personajes se lanza algunas descargas filosóficas sobre el futuro de la humanidad que me agarraron x sorpresa y que de hecho, va en consonancia con la temática desarrollada

ahora, me surgen preguntas.. xq las salamandras?? xq el autor se decanta por esos excéntricos animales? creo que una d las razones es precisamente esa: su excentricidad. pueden regenerar sus extremidades y resistir mucho tiempo fuera del agua. también su rápida capacidad de reproducción y las escasas condiciones requeridas para concebir nuevas crías. muy interesante, realmente. no pudo haber escogido una mejor especie !!

por último me resultó muy satisfactorio el efecto mariposa siendo fundamental para la catástrofe q se desata. la culpa, el qué hubiera pasado si se hubiera hecho tal cosa... o no

Quite brilliant.

The books I've read previously create pockets of world's to tell a story in. The War with the Newts, Capek create an all encompassing story that not only covers the entire planet earth, but also allows for economical, sociological, financial and political effects of the tale being told.

The book can sometimes come across as a quite dry historical account of how the world, and indeed, mankind came to exist with the Newts. But then throughout the book we follow a very small number of characters and eventually returning to the butler who burdened himself with the guilt of introducing the newts to the world, which leads to the inevitable near-end of mankind.

I found the story telling quite brilliant in the ability to describe, in such believable detail, the impact of these newts being on earth, the changes to their environment that allowed for their growth and the world wide impact of this ecological change.

But it was the last two chapters that really won the story for me. The penultimate chapter has us revisiting the butler in his 70s taking a rowing trip with his son, and where he so confidently tells his son that they're safe in Prague. His son isn't so sure, and in a turn towards the end of the chapter, we see that the butler has been carrying the torment of “what if...”, what if he had made a different decision: would the world's fate be in safe hands now?

Then the final chapter was (again, sorry) quite brilliant. A discussion between the author and himself as the writer, trying to determine if mankind's fate is truly doomed. Whether humankind has any way to save itself from its own inevitable self destruction through greed and fear. Or whether the newts are inevitably prone to the same failings as humankind too...

A tough, and sometime dry read, but really quite excellent!

Newts are people too
once they have bombs, anyway
top shelf herp satire.