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spectracommunist's reviews
372 reviews
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
4.0
"Silence creates its own Violence!"
Yes, the entire book is a psychedelic trip and I was so hooked up with it that I had to complete it in some 2 sittings or I would fall sick or something: the mystery in the plot was tearing me apart.
In a gist with an oblique perspective, I think this book questions our nature of reading: like Area X is metaphorically a book the biologist (you) want to read so bad: that you've been thinking about it, day-dreaming and drawn towards it. You see things in your environment that makes you more attracted towards the concept and the story that you expect from the plot. The biologist's husband (some binge-reader friend yours) is completely into it, shares the experience, recommends it to you, you're further attracted and so on... More obliquely it can describe a nerd's rush to get stoned and escape! Oh, I think I'm smoking much these days, it's getting in my veins like this book got me, Haha!
I think this book can work as a far sequel to "Alice in Wonderland", no kidding! That book was even more psychedelic as fuck. Like Alice grows up to become a biologist and in the way develops introversion and societal disillusionment, she's already wildly drawn towards nature! Okay, enough of this weird ideas here.
So this book is over-ambitious as it asks so many questions but not much answers here, I see it's a trilogy but that makes this part not stand-alone but dependent on the sequels. But if one is here just to enjoy the process of reading and not to expect much then it's totally amazing, harrowing and it's even so poignant as we engage in the quest to understand the plot as the protagonist strives to understand Area X and what a sheer-onerous that process is! but thrilling too along.
I've heard the movie is different from the book, I'm excited about that. I've been following Alex Garland since his book "The Beach" and with time he has polished his diamonds in the field of directing too like "Ex Machina" and Natalie Portman is my all time favourite actress.
Yes, the entire book is a psychedelic trip and I was so hooked up with it that I had to complete it in some 2 sittings or I would fall sick or something: the mystery in the plot was tearing me apart.
In a gist with an oblique perspective, I think this book questions our nature of reading: like Area X is metaphorically a book the biologist (you) want to read so bad: that you've been thinking about it, day-dreaming and drawn towards it. You see things in your environment that makes you more attracted towards the concept and the story that you expect from the plot. The biologist's husband (some binge-reader friend yours) is completely into it, shares the experience, recommends it to you, you're further attracted and so on... More obliquely it can describe a nerd's rush to get stoned and escape! Oh, I think I'm smoking much these days, it's getting in my veins like this book got me, Haha!
I think this book can work as a far sequel to "Alice in Wonderland", no kidding! That book was even more psychedelic as fuck. Like Alice grows up to become a biologist and in the way develops introversion and societal disillusionment, she's already wildly drawn towards nature! Okay, enough of this weird ideas here.
So this book is over-ambitious as it asks so many questions but not much answers here, I see it's a trilogy but that makes this part not stand-alone but dependent on the sequels. But if one is here just to enjoy the process of reading and not to expect much then it's totally amazing, harrowing and it's even so poignant as we engage in the quest to understand the plot as the protagonist strives to understand Area X and what a sheer-onerous that process is! but thrilling too along.
I've heard the movie is different from the book, I'm excited about that. I've been following Alex Garland since his book "The Beach" and with time he has polished his diamonds in the field of directing too like "Ex Machina" and Natalie Portman is my all time favourite actress.
Gruselkabinett 114/115 - Der Ruf des Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft
5.0
This is so other-worldly: cult, other-dimensional monsters, dreams, investigation, sea, chaos, even the described geometry of the places are so freakishly bizarre. This by far seems the best horror story that I've read.
Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson
5.0
Penguin Great Ideas: 5/100, Series 3: 1/10
“But if a man be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.”
Beside being uncompromisingly informative, however, it's so appeasing that it's meditative. This is the original naturalist manifesto that everyone should read atleast as the children of nature.
The essay even revolves around the foundation of poetry that originated in nature and how we as a human being relate our thoughts with animals and other earthly things and thus the comprehended brain-storming is expressed through words that aren't sufficient enough. Every sentence of this text is indeed a quote.
“But if a man be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.”
Beside being uncompromisingly informative, however, it's so appeasing that it's meditative. This is the original naturalist manifesto that everyone should read atleast as the children of nature.
The essay even revolves around the foundation of poetry that originated in nature and how we as a human being relate our thoughts with animals and other earthly things and thus the comprehended brain-storming is expressed through words that aren't sufficient enough. Every sentence of this text is indeed a quote.
The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
5.0
This short is quite amazing. The desire of a catharsis, the loathsome feelings of love, the release of pent-up moody emotions and all ablaze.
The Future of an Illusion by Sigmund Freud
4.0
Penguin Great Ideas: 6/100, Series 3: 2/10
As the civilization advances in this age of information boom, more and more people are disillusioned from religion and perhaps one major illusion is a necessity to bind human beings for their communal existence. Is Science an alternative? Is it too an illusion that's also bound to doom with time?
As the civilization advances in this age of information boom, more and more people are disillusioned from religion and perhaps one major illusion is a necessity to bind human beings for their communal existence. Is Science an alternative? Is it too an illusion that's also bound to doom with time?
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
1.0
I think this is too immature for kids, I'm not criticizing the coping mechanism here but I didn't find the plot captivating at all that leads there. There aren't many elements of horror here and very straight-forward to call it a "weird fiction". I mean all this build up just to make the kid speak the truth! I understand that mind is complicated and contradicts itself but that doesn't mean that all that matters is your actions, that narrows and drains down a child's consciousness. I thought that weird fiction is to genre what post-modernism is to literature but this story just narrows down everything so hopelessly, it's like spoon-feeding whatever the monster has to say. Even the much-anticipated nightmare turned out to be a bummer.
Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincey
3.0
Penguin Great Ideas: 7/100, Series Four: 1/10
The part which I felt captivating and interesting was the Pains of Opium as the last sections. Most of this book is filled with English Gossips and Victorian babbling with greek quotes. What I expected was either some kind of spirituality on one end or the loathing of the other end but that was so lacking and incoherent. It's like a newspaper article and was actually made for that, there are events and facts and less to ponder about.
The part which I felt captivating and interesting was the Pains of Opium as the last sections. Most of this book is filled with English Gossips and Victorian babbling with greek quotes. What I expected was either some kind of spirituality on one end or the loathing of the other end but that was so lacking and incoherent. It's like a newspaper article and was actually made for that, there are events and facts and less to ponder about.
The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
5.0
Penguin Great Ideas: 8/100, Series Four: 2/10
I so fucking love Lincoln's speeches and everything else about him.
I so fucking love Lincoln's speeches and everything else about him.