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thevampiremars's reviews
215 reviews
PSYCHO NYMPH EXILE by Porpentine Charity Heartscape
Scattershot vignettes. Psycho Nymph Exile seems to rely quite heavily on shock factor (the shock of violence, the shock of gruesome imagery, the shock of weird sex stuff) but I soon grew numb to the onslaught and it didn’t impact me as powerfully as the author had perhaps intended. Or maybe that effect was intentional – a commentary on terrible things being normalised and (re)traumatisation becoming an everyday occurrence for many. In any case I found particular concepts and descriptions compelling but wasn’t drawn in by the book as a whole. Somehow it didn’t connect with me but it also hits close to home? Strange. I’m not sure what to make of it.
emotional
sad
3.5
I am bitter and resentful, I am not ready to give up this life. I hope another me, as stubborn but a little brighter, is out there, and will carry on.
Scattershot vignettes. Psycho Nymph Exile seems to rely quite heavily on shock factor (the shock of violence, the shock of gruesome imagery, the shock of weird sex stuff) but I soon grew numb to the onslaught and it didn’t impact me as powerfully as the author had perhaps intended. Or maybe that effect was intentional – a commentary on terrible things being normalised and (re)traumatisation becoming an everyday occurrence for many. In any case I found particular concepts and descriptions compelling but wasn’t drawn in by the book as a whole. Somehow it didn’t connect with me but it also hits close to home? Strange. I’m not sure what to make of it.
The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang
Did not finish book. Stopped at 10%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 10%.
In a word: clunky.
I have a fairly high tolerance for purple prose but this reads like it was fed through a thesaurus. The way characters’ pronouns were shoehorned into narration felt very odd; I’ve seen other reviewers compare it to a HUD. I’m not a fan. On a similar note, at one point a character asks “Show, not tell. Do you imagine that the two are really so different?” Yes I do. Telling instead of showing fosters detachment and makes it hard for me to invest in the characters and the story, plus it makes me feel a little spoken down to, like I’m not trusted to pick up on context clues or interpret the text myself.
The writing in general feels unconfident – there were three or four instances of the narrator pondering where to begin before actually beginning, which was just irritating and not a good start to the novel. I gave up at the first interlude.
I’d plough on if it were shorter. I like the sound of some of the concepts this novel plays with so I may give it another go at some point, but for now it’s a DNF because I’m just not in the mood to work my way through this right now.
Prokaryote Season by Leo Fox
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Monochromatic yet saturated with life, marginalia surrounding the solid panelling. Delves into delusion, judgement, and the urge to not exist, with nihilism and melodrama giving way to the absurd. Absorbing.
Sacred Bodies by Ver
emotional
fast-paced
4.5
Fantastic creature design, beautiful colours. A lot of depth and catharsis in only a few dozen pages but even so I wish the comic were longer <3
Chapter House Dune by Frank Herbert
Above is an excerpt. In isolation, I like this writing style. I like the back-and-forth, I like the punchiness of adjectives-as-punctuation, I like the poetic feel to it. It’s fun. But more than four hundred and fifty pages of this... it starts to wear thin eventually, and scenes where I don’t really know what motivates any given character are especially unengaging.
I keep umming and ahhing about whether I should bother reading Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, follow-ups loosely based on Frank Herbert’s notes for “Dune 7” written by his son Brian. I hear they’re not very good so I’m hesitant to pick them up. While reading Chapterhouse I got the feeling the Dune series was losing some of its personality, introducing typical sci-fi staples like robots and cyborgs. A new writer stepping in (even one who happens to be the son of the original author) would only compound that sense of unDuneliness, surely? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll revisit the series and read those additions one day but for now it’s a bittersweet goodbye.
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
We give in to pressures and are shaped by them. Or we react against pressures and are shaped by that. Pressures and shapings, that is life.
Answers are a perilous grip on the universe. They can appear sensible yet explain nothing.
Like the previous book in the series, Chapterhouse Dune meanders and drags and is ultimately unsatisfying. It does feel as though it exists primarily to set up and move pieces around in preparation for what was to be the final Dune novel, referred to as “Dune 7” by Herbert. The fact that this was the last instalment Frank Herbert wrote only makes the dullness/anticlimax even more disappointing.
I think this book did a better job than Heretics at distinguishing the Bene Gesserit and the Honoured Matres (while also highlighting their similarities and parallels, of course) – I felt that was one of shortcomings of that book; the factions blurred together and I had a hard time telling them apart or caring who was doing what. Even so, I still found it hard to connect with the characters or feel invested in this story for the most part. Maybe I’ve just lost enthusiasm for the series?
‘Odi et amo. Excrucior.’
She lifted herself onto one elbow and looked down at him. ‘What language is that?’
‘A very old one Leto had me learn once.’
‘Translate.’ Peremptory. Her old Honoured Matre self.
‘“I hate her and I love her. And I am racked.”’
‘Do you really hate me?’ Unbelieving.
‘What I hate is being tied this way, not the master of my self.’
‘Would you leave me if you could?’
‘I want the decision to recur moment by moment. I want control of it.’
‘It's a game where one of the pieces can’t be moved.’”
Above is an excerpt. In isolation, I like this writing style. I like the back-and-forth, I like the punchiness of adjectives-as-punctuation, I like the poetic feel to it. It’s fun. But more than four hundred and fifty pages of this... it starts to wear thin eventually, and scenes where I don’t really know what motivates any given character are especially unengaging.
I think in some ways I was more charitable about this sort of thing in Heretics; I interpreted the directionlessness of the narrative as meta/diegetic, illustrating the aftermath of the Tyrant’s reign. I suppose that’s true here as well, only the various characters and factions are starting to form actionable schemes now. Again, it’s a shame there was no “Dune 7” to tie up loose ends.
Then again, do I really want more “Secret Israel” ?
I do want more cannibal catboys...
And I want some kind of payoff when it comes to Daniel and Marty (not so much “who are they?” but more “why were they present in this story?”)
I wish I had more to say.
I like Dune a lot and would recommend it to pretty much anyone who enjoys science fiction or philosophical novels. I would recommend the next three books in the series (everything up to and including God Emperor) to people who enjoyed the original Dune novel. But Heretics and Chapterhouse? I really don’t think they’re worthwhile.
I keep umming and ahhing about whether I should bother reading Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, follow-ups loosely based on Frank Herbert’s notes for “Dune 7” written by his son Brian. I hear they’re not very good so I’m hesitant to pick them up. While reading Chapterhouse I got the feeling the Dune series was losing some of its personality, introducing typical sci-fi staples like robots and cyborgs. A new writer stepping in (even one who happens to be the son of the original author) would only compound that sense of unDuneliness, surely? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll revisit the series and read those additions one day but for now it’s a bittersweet goodbye.
What about the rapists? : Anarchist Approaches to Crime and Justice by Dysophia
This book reminded me of Against Equality, in that it offers a snapshot of activist circles’ theories and realities from not so long ago (the early 2010s) but even so it’s a different political landscape. It didn’t give me much to underscore and say “I wholeheartedly agree!” or “I reject this entirely!” but plenty to think about and reflect on. Provocative.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
The book is split into two parts, exploring two approaches to justice in the wake of sexual violence: accountability processes based on principles of transformative justice, and retribution (as in violent revenge or expulsion). Both approaches are deeply flawed but worth consideration.
Slightly iffy gender politics (sometimes seeming to regard sexual violence as something which is done by men to women (and worse, treating men as inherent aggressors and women as inherent victims)). Plus trope-ish characterisation of alleged victims and the accused, though this is acknowledged:
An identity politics around the labels “survivor” and “perpetrator” has emerged, with scenes polarizing around them. In spite of efforts to caution against this and encourage all participants in accountability processes to remain self-critical, these labels have sometimes been used to leverage power, dispense or deny legitimacy, and erase differences in experience.
Some thoughts I had/am having:
- Accountability and Consequences are bludgeons
- Righteousness spurs violence
- Can we separate justice from retribution? If yes, how? And should we?
- How can we prove that harm has been inflicted? Is it reasonable to expect someone to prove they’ve been harmed?
- How can we prove that someone has changed their ways? Is it reasonable to expect someone to prove they’ve changed?
- Penance as punishment?
- In a political framework of comrades and adversaries, it seems subsuming yourself into an allied class (eg: women against men) makes it easier to justify or permit violence as being enacted anonymously against an equally anonymous entity (“us vs them” as an abstracted extrapolation of “me vs him”); sexual violence in this context is an act of war
- How is Tom?
This book reminded me of Against Equality, in that it offers a snapshot of activist circles’ theories and realities from not so long ago (the early 2010s) but even so it’s a different political landscape. It didn’t give me much to underscore and say “I wholeheartedly agree!” or “I reject this entirely!” but plenty to think about and reflect on. Provocative.
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis
fast-paced
3.0
I know I’m going against the grain by not giving this book a high rating, but I genuinely feel that Are Prisons Obsolete? fails to answer or properly consider its central question, and that the points it does raise are largely underdeveloped, misguided, and ultimately unconvincing. I say this as someone who already supports prison abolition, who picked up this book hoping to find well-articulated arguments and suggestions for alternatives to the prison system.
Sexual assault, labour exploitation, medical experimentation – these are all things that happen in prisons but they are not inherent to the prison system, no matter how prevalent they might be. If we were to eliminate one or all of these occurrences, the fundamental character of the prison would not change. These are arguments for prison reform and regulation, not abolition.
Likewise, the racism angle does nothing to challenge the prison system itself, only to argue that the wrong people are sent to prison. Also... maybe there is a direct lineage that can be traced from slavery to the modern prison system but it’s not made clear here; the comparison seems superficial, noting that black people are disproportionately represented in the prison population so therefore it’s akin to slavery. Yes, both systems are fundamentally racist, but pointing this out doesn’t convincingly prove they are the same system or two sides of the same coin. Black people are more likely to be deemed “criminal” and sent to prison than white people who commit the same offences, who might face lighter sentences or no punishment at all (this much is abundantly clear). That does not equate, however, to black people being sent to prison expressly to become slaves. It’s a weak argument. Or maybe I’m wildly misunderstanding it?
I did appreciate Davis’s notes on the gendering of punishment (“deviant men have been constructed as criminal, while deviant women have been constructed as insane.”) I thought that was a valuable addition to the conversation on prison abolition/reform which often focuses on the subjectivities of male inmates (or inmates generally, assumed to be male by default), and it’s always worthwhile to factor mental institutions into discussions on criminalisation and imprisonment.
What, then, would it mean to imagine a system in which punishment is not allowed to become the source of corporate profit? How can we imagine a society in which race and class are not primary determinants of punishment? Or one in which punishment itself is no longer the central concern in the making of justice?
Only in the last ten pages does Davis propose alternative approaches to justice, including an emphasis on “reparation rather than retribution”. She suggests decriminalising drug use and sex work, which is a good start. But it’s disappointing that such a small portion of the pagecount actually addresses the question of what might replace prisons, and it offers only a few vague ideas and anecdotes. This ought to have been the substance of the book.
This is hardly a prison abolitionist manifesto. A good primer, maybe, if you haven’t given much thought to prisons and what goes on inside them.
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault
Another reviewer (modestothemouse) said “reading Foucault is like being hit in the head with a sledgehammer wrapped in velvet” and, having now finished this book, I totally understand what they meant. I need a lie down.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Incredibly long-winded and dense and sometimes difficult to parse. Still, I think it’s well worth reading for Foucault’s keen insights not only on the origin/evolution of punishment but on its context within society, its connections to psychiatry, pedagogy/the education system, military discipline, etc. A couple of concepts that stood out to me as I was reading were 1) the idea that criminals (and madmen and perverts) are individualised and deemed distinct from a collective Normal People, and 2) that power produces reality rather than acting negatively (ie: limiting, destroying, negating). I’d like to read Foucault’s writings on madness/mental illness.
Another reviewer (modestothemouse) said “reading Foucault is like being hit in the head with a sledgehammer wrapped in velvet” and, having now finished this book, I totally understand what they meant. I need a lie down.