Scan barcode
spectracommunist's reviews
372 reviews
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
5.0
1915, Penguin 20: Great Books of the 20th Century - 2/20
“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes.”
Great Philosophy writers of 20th century - Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Gabriel Garcia Marquez were influenced by this book and other Kafkaesque works. They studied these as textbooks.
The Metamorphosis is not only a 'sad and devastating portrait of the modern family' but it's a metaphor to human society.
It describes the human instincts on filthy insects, on things or entities they find useless. It is an Existential tale of human struggle in Modern Times.
Gregor Samsa was quite a hard-worker to earn for his family till his metamorphosis and was the sole bread-winner and debt-payer but as he gets transformed to filthy creature(though is humane in his soul and mind), the family changes their attitude towards him.
He is then confined with alienation, physical and mental abuse by his father and sister.
It makes us think more deeply about our own identity, about the fluidity of what we take to be stable and fixed, and about the perils and miracles of our own metamorphoses. Kafka shows us that how the values of conventional society are warped due to our inability to look beyond the surface to the human being inside.
This short story describes the humanity of a man turned vermin and the monstrousness of his loved ones in his physical transformation.
Franz Kafka has been my all time favorite on philosophy + classics
“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes.”
Great Philosophy writers of 20th century - Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Gabriel Garcia Marquez were influenced by this book and other Kafkaesque works. They studied these as textbooks.
The Metamorphosis is not only a 'sad and devastating portrait of the modern family' but it's a metaphor to human society.
It describes the human instincts on filthy insects, on things or entities they find useless. It is an Existential tale of human struggle in Modern Times.
Gregor Samsa was quite a hard-worker to earn for his family till his metamorphosis and was the sole bread-winner and debt-payer but as he gets transformed to filthy creature(though is humane in his soul and mind), the family changes their attitude towards him.
He is then confined with alienation, physical and mental abuse by his father and sister.
It makes us think more deeply about our own identity, about the fluidity of what we take to be stable and fixed, and about the perils and miracles of our own metamorphoses. Kafka shows us that how the values of conventional society are warped due to our inability to look beyond the surface to the human being inside.
This short story describes the humanity of a man turned vermin and the monstrousness of his loved ones in his physical transformation.
Franz Kafka has been my all time favorite on philosophy + classics
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
5.0
1962, Penguin 20: Great Books of the 20th Century - 8/20
This was my first read of the great Pied Piper of the U.S. Counterculture. His role became actively prominent in American history post this book. There's a lot of him to read about. I've seen the adaptation like ages ago and since then I was waiting for the right moment to start reading this and it never came. I don't have to review this, it's simply amazing. The book is great, the movie is great.
Just one thing: it's better to listen up someone pulling all the American accents in it, I happen to listen up the audiobook narrated by John C. Reily and that made it even funnier.
This was my first read of the great Pied Piper of the U.S. Counterculture. His role became actively prominent in American history post this book. There's a lot of him to read about. I've seen the adaptation like ages ago and since then I was waiting for the right moment to start reading this and it never came. I don't have to review this, it's simply amazing. The book is great, the movie is great.
Just one thing: it's better to listen up someone pulling all the American accents in it, I happen to listen up the audiobook narrated by John C. Reily and that made it even funnier.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
5.0
1957, Penguin 20: Great Books of the 20th Century - 4/20
This 281 pages has been a long road for me as I was traveling to places and was actually feeling the book...
'On the Road' is a Beat Classic which is a pioneering milestone with other works for the era of the 1950s to be framed as 'Beat Generation', even The Beatles were inspired by it (notice the spelling despite its pronunciation). These revolutionary pieces were written in a very unique way which Kerouac calls 'Spontaneous Prose'. This book listed as fiction is actually a thinly veiled memoir of the author which includes many Beat authors like Neal Cassady (being the hero Dean Moriarty), Allen Ginsberg & William S. Burroughs.
This book is an Odyssey of aimless wanderlust, infidelities, bigamy, meanderings, and lawlessness of the post-WWII men with no frontier to conquer. Though the vice this portrays and inspires generations of exuberant, passionate and adventure seekers to travel and to lead a different life away from all the materialistic bounds on the road with no destination.
Here I can see much hatred for this masterpiece due to all the hype and self-destructive nature. I think its fascinating that how people come to meet such ends.
Some might say it is the sexy, dangerous devil in Cassady that somehow tempts others like Kerouac into ablative behavior. I think that the seeds of self-obliteration lie dormant in the person waiting for a Cassady or a bottle or a drug to come along and start the process. It's going to happen; the cause is unimportant.
Below quote at the climax symbolizes this perfectly - ' the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue center light pop and everybody goes “Awww! ". Thus at the end Dean was a sputtering but a beautiful Roman candle. The candle also symbolizes the generosity of the mad travelers which is deeply described.
The work is so touchingly vibrant, I would recommend it to everyone who hustles to explore the so-called Classics...
This 281 pages has been a long road for me as I was traveling to places and was actually feeling the book...
'On the Road' is a Beat Classic which is a pioneering milestone with other works for the era of the 1950s to be framed as 'Beat Generation', even The Beatles were inspired by it (notice the spelling despite its pronunciation). These revolutionary pieces were written in a very unique way which Kerouac calls 'Spontaneous Prose'. This book listed as fiction is actually a thinly veiled memoir of the author which includes many Beat authors like Neal Cassady (being the hero Dean Moriarty), Allen Ginsberg & William S. Burroughs.
This book is an Odyssey of aimless wanderlust, infidelities, bigamy, meanderings, and lawlessness of the post-WWII men with no frontier to conquer. Though the vice this portrays and inspires generations of exuberant, passionate and adventure seekers to travel and to lead a different life away from all the materialistic bounds on the road with no destination.
Here I can see much hatred for this masterpiece due to all the hype and self-destructive nature. I think its fascinating that how people come to meet such ends.
Some might say it is the sexy, dangerous devil in Cassady that somehow tempts others like Kerouac into ablative behavior. I think that the seeds of self-obliteration lie dormant in the person waiting for a Cassady or a bottle or a drug to come along and start the process. It's going to happen; the cause is unimportant.
Below quote at the climax symbolizes this perfectly - ' the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue center light pop and everybody goes “Awww! ". Thus at the end Dean was a sputtering but a beautiful Roman candle. The candle also symbolizes the generosity of the mad travelers which is deeply described.
The work is so touchingly vibrant, I would recommend it to everyone who hustles to explore the so-called Classics...
Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
Howl
What a magnificent piece! Dedicated to Carl Solomon, whom he met in an asylum. It perfectly describes the death of the American dream as the citizens of late capitalism and how it demands fakeness in an individual, which leads to the birth of underground for the beat generation artists, and the proses revolve around freedom, sex, violence, and spiritualism. I especially love how Ginsberg jumps from places to places in the lines as a stream of consciousness and it literally feels like a trip. I found this segment from James Franco's movie with the same name:
Howl Animated
I don't think any interpretation of this work should be spoon-fed like that, but still, it's beautiful.
A Supermarket in California
Here, Ginsberg talks about Walt Whitman in his elder days as a supermarket owner, he observes how America has shifted to greed and the dream is dying in front of his eyes. Ginsberg even juxtaposes the conditions of the Beat artists with Whitman.
America
This one's so fucking funny! A parody of hypocrites. Believe me, this could be your favourite one. Hear it yourself:
Ginsberg recites America
Sunflower Sutra
A Sutra is a wise saying in Hindu and Buddhist scripts. Here, Ginsberg describes him and Kerouac sitting at the banks of a lake and has a vision of a blooming Sunflower: like the birth of a revolution or some ideology that's dwelling on the pure hearts of humankind.
Transcription of Organ Music
Ginsberg was influenced by his friend Kerouac on reverberating his works with jazz beats and pop music of 50's:
Recital with beats
5.0
Howl
What a magnificent piece! Dedicated to Carl Solomon, whom he met in an asylum. It perfectly describes the death of the American dream as the citizens of late capitalism and how it demands fakeness in an individual, which leads to the birth of underground for the beat generation artists, and the proses revolve around freedom, sex, violence, and spiritualism. I especially love how Ginsberg jumps from places to places in the lines as a stream of consciousness and it literally feels like a trip. I found this segment from James Franco's movie with the same name:
Howl Animated
I don't think any interpretation of this work should be spoon-fed like that, but still, it's beautiful.
A Supermarket in California
Here, Ginsberg talks about Walt Whitman in his elder days as a supermarket owner, he observes how America has shifted to greed and the dream is dying in front of his eyes. Ginsberg even juxtaposes the conditions of the Beat artists with Whitman.
America
This one's so fucking funny! A parody of hypocrites. Believe me, this could be your favourite one. Hear it yourself:
Ginsberg recites America
Sunflower Sutra
A Sutra is a wise saying in Hindu and Buddhist scripts. Here, Ginsberg describes him and Kerouac sitting at the banks of a lake and has a vision of a blooming Sunflower: like the birth of a revolution or some ideology that's dwelling on the pure hearts of humankind.
Transcription of Organ Music
Ginsberg was influenced by his friend Kerouac on reverberating his works with jazz beats and pop music of 50's:
Recital with beats
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
4.0
Penguin Great Ideas 1/100 || Series One 1/20
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli has dedicated this book to Lorenzo Di Piero De’ Medici the ruler of Florence at the Renaissance of Italy. This book is an intense case study of practical traits essential for a prince to control his reign from the history of diverse rulers in Italy including France, Spain and Ancient Rome.
However, the book is often criticised for it's separation of politics and ethics, Machiavelli argues that political action must always be considered in light of its practical consequences rather than some lofty ideal.
But as Machiavelli clearly conceives the book as a means to expedite the successful unification of Italy, the vices like 'ruthlessness', 'deception' and 'manipulation' in perfect timings and limited quantities can work as a virtue for a ruler.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli has dedicated this book to Lorenzo Di Piero De’ Medici the ruler of Florence at the Renaissance of Italy. This book is an intense case study of practical traits essential for a prince to control his reign from the history of diverse rulers in Italy including France, Spain and Ancient Rome.
However, the book is often criticised for it's separation of politics and ethics, Machiavelli argues that political action must always be considered in light of its practical consequences rather than some lofty ideal.
But as Machiavelli clearly conceives the book as a means to expedite the successful unification of Italy, the vices like 'ruthlessness', 'deception' and 'manipulation' in perfect timings and limited quantities can work as a virtue for a ruler.
The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
4.0
Mental illness, obsession, gender entrapment, madness, curiosity and wonders but not a single fright, amazing!
Junky by William S. Burroughs
4.0
The hilarious adventures with Morphine, Heroine, Goofballs, Marijuana, Cocaine, Peyote and ofcourse alcohol, and Yage remains to be abused; amidst the 50's drug-scene of the States and Mexico.