Hux
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Abysmal.
An obvious anti-Brexit tale which no doubt appealed to Stewart which, as a consequence of its premise, utterly undermines everything Roddenbery established. In Measure of a Man, Picard gives a speech about androids and slavery but in this show all of that is utterly forgotten. The Federation has become some kind of authoritarian nightmare that has no value for outsiders and thinks enslaving androids en masse is completely fine.
Meanwhile, Picard is now a privileged white man (boo, hiss) who is described as arrogant (have these people watched TNG?) who needs to be told by his female superiors to... 'shut the fudge up.'
Oh, and to really hit home the white male privilege angle, Raffi apparently lives in poverty (because that's a thing now) and she's forced to live in a trailer unlike privileged white man Picard who enjoys his white man privileged mansion and vineyard. Then we get a Seven of Nine who has gone from intelligent logician to a gun-toting lesbian who murders indiscriminately.
This whole show is based on the idea that Picard and Data were somehow deeply connected. Again, have they watched TNG? Picard tolerated Data at best. The idea that he's Data bestest friend is absurd. Data was no more meaningful to Picard than his toaster.
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Discovery was just endless noise and flashing lights.
Picard was a self-indulgent anti-Brexit fiddleathon which undermined almost the whole concept of Roddenberry's vison.
Lower Decks was inoffensive.
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The Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches - Gaétan Soucy
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Since there's no nature section, I guess this is the place to post this.
This is a book about a man (A.J. Baker) who develops an interest in bird watching and specifically takes an interest in peregrines. He details his fascination over the course of several months in the early sixties and follows the birds around the South of England.
I read it based on several excellent reviews. It's generally considered one of the best nature books.
The first two chapters detailing his interest in bird watching were indeed exquisite. The prose is gorgeous and sets up a passion which borders on obsession. His use of metaphor and simile are amazing. But I have to say, I found the diary portion to be hugely repetitive with endless descriptions of the same colours, the same landscapes, the same north easterly winds, the same list of birds (woodpigeon, lapwing, plover on and on). He occasionally returns to the wonderful language seen in the opening chapters, usually when he tangents onto a separate, more personal subject. There's one where he details the way animals fear humans and he describes humans as stinking of death; and another when he describes his encounter with a fox. But other than that, it just repeats, repeats, repeats.
Reading those opening chapters got me very excited about what was to come but the following diary section was a rather dull and turgid experience. I got the impression it was one of those books that one reviewer loved, then another, then another, until eventually, it developed an unwarranted reputation for excellence based on the poetic beauty of those opening two chapters. The fact is, the diary stuff doesn't match up to that. None the less, I definitely embraced Baker's passion for the subject matter. And I recognised his obvious gift for language. I just wish he would have more eagerly applied it to the latter half of the book. Or perhaps some fiction. The diary section only came to life for me when he expressed his opinion rather than when he described the same identical actions and events over and over.
I highly recommend the opening chapters. Some of the most beautiful prose I've ever come across.
After that... it's very repetitive.
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Confessions of a Mask (Yukio Mishima) 7/10
The Leopard (Giuseppe Lampedusa) 9/10
The Gathering (Anne Enright) 5/10
Normal People (Sally Rooney) 5/10
Atomised (Michel Houellebecq) 9/10
The Book of Ebeneezer La Page (G. B Edwards) 8/10
Blood Meridium (Cormac McCarthy) 3/10
The Old Man & The Sea (Hemmingway) 5/10
The Peregrine ( A.J Baker) 8/10
The Story of the Eye (Georges Bataille) 8/10
Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas (Machado de Assis) 7/10
Journey to the end of the Night (Louis Ferdinand Celine) 10/10
For Whom the Bell Tolls (Hemmingway) 7/10
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The Old Man and The Sea
Maybe I missed something here but this won the Pulitzer prize and was cited as an influence in Hemmingway receiving the Nobel Prize? Why?
I mean, it's a perfectly nice short story about a man battling with a fish then watching as his prize is devoured by sharks, but it's really not much more than that. I enjoyed it but at no point was I thinking... this is epic literature. Truth be told, it's essentially a short version of Moby Dick, a story that looks at a man's obsession taking over him and resulting in no reward. It had all the classic Hemmingway characteristics of being cold and detached and to the point which I disliked in his first person narratives (The Sun Also Rises) but don't mind too much here.
Ultimately, it's all rather forgettable stuff though.
For Whom The Bell Tolls
I really struggle with Hemmingway. His writing is so dry and matter of fact. Sometimes, it's unbearable, but other times, it's strangely compelling. Can't quite put my finger on it. I enjoyed this up to the half way point, then found it to be a bit of a slog.
The basic plot revolves around American, Robert Jordan, being an explosives expert in the Spanish civil war fighting against Franco's fascists. The vast majority of the book takes place in and around a cave where they're camping out in preparation for blowing up a bridge. And that's about it. There's also a romance, but that's the gist of it.
I didn't hate it, but like I said, Hemmingway is hard to like. So far, only 'The Sun Also Rises' impressed me. And that was a long time ago.
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This was wonderful though slight.
Firstly, it's really hard to believe this was published in 1881. It really does feel like it could have been written today (in terms of tone and humour). I guess because so many of us associate 19th century literature with the British and Russian greats. Their bombastic and proper style kind of sets a tone for what you begin to expect of literature from that era but the Brazilian style (at least here) kicks against that without being very familiar to us. Books like this were so hard to find in the pre-internet days. They've found a new audience now.
The story is told by a Bras Cubas after he dies. He begins by describing his funeral before telling us his life story. It's not an especially epic story. He just lives, loves, works, and often fails. There's not much more to him. Because that's what life is for most of us. It's more the humour and darkness of the book that make his story interesting. He rejects his marriage match then, once she marries someone else, begins an affair with her. But that's about as interesting as his life gets. Then, as promised, he dies. He takes comfort in having no children, specifically in the idea of not forcing the misery of life onto another.
The chapters are very short, some only a paragraph long. Some chapters are blank. Some are merely an opportunity to speak directly to the reader (or to the critic as he does in one short chapter). I was always of the opinion that people like Joyce invented the modern novel, but again, it seems clear that isn't the case. This book certainly qualifies.
It didn't resonate with me long after, but was an enjoyable reading experience.
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One of those books you feel like you've read before you have.
I finally got round to it and must say the prose is magnificent (in book one especially). I found it lost it's way in part two when the book goes from his detailed and beautifully described obsession to a more straight-forward narrative about 'what happened next.' Listening to Humbert explain his perversions, justify them, make sense of them, was very enjoyable and despite the content and subject matter, the language used was so lyrical and fluid that it was a joy to read. In part two, however, it becomes a little dense and stolid given that he's now on the run with Dolly and detailing their day-to-day existence. I found myself losing interest.
Then we have a kind of plot twist with a character (Quilty) that was so forgettable to me that when he was returned as Humbert's great enemy, I honestly wondered who the hell he was (I thought I'd missed some pages). Then the book descends into melodrama and murder and blah blah blah.
I adored the first half of this book when it was... 'I would walk along the lake,' but struggled with the second half when it was... 'I walked along the lake.'
Very Good though.
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Another refugee from Book Group Online. Joined them in 2008 but apparently they're shutting down.
I will post my pretentious reviews here instead.
Tenet
in Music / TV / Films
Posted
This was a real mind bender.
Very hard to follow and that's before we even get to the time travel stuff. It all makes sense but following is difficult. You'll need to watch it more than ince to appreciate how complex it really is. Not without flaws, but original and intelligent.