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Seeing by Jose Saramago


Sofia

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Well I'm a bit further on now and this sentence really gave me serious chills

 

"In the end they'll say you lied, you'll deny it, you'll swear you told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and that might be true, you didn't lie, you just happen to be a very nervous person, with a strong will, it's true, but you are nevertheless a tremulous reed that shivers in the slightest breeze, so they'll connect you up to the machine again and it will be even worse, they'll ask if you're alive and you'll say, of course I am, but your body will protest, will contradict you, the tremor in your chin will say, no you're dead, and it might be right, perhaps your body knows before you do that they are going to kill you."

 

eerie...

 

I also love when he says that "inalienable rights" should only be employed in "homeopathic doses....drop by drop.......you can't come here with a pitcher overflowing...." In otherwords you can't exercise your rights in any way which will be effective. It's more the principle of having rights rather than acually using them to achieve any goal. How ironic and insightful.

 

Back to the book:readingtwo:

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I was up half the night reading.....Okay the government's cleary insane and interested in it's own survival here. Saramago is making such a powerful statement about how limited the power of the peple in a democracy really could be if they allow it. Or do they have a choice?

 

"All your suffering will have been futile, all you stubborness in vain, and then you will understand, too late, that rights only exist fully in the words and on the piece of paper on which they were recorded, whether in the form of a constitution, a law or a regulation, you will understand and, one hopes, be convinced, that their wrong or unthinking application will convulse the most firmly established society, you will understand at last, that simple common sense tells us to take them as a mere symbol of what could be, but never as a possible concrete reality"

 

Another great line:

 

"..they are preparing to hold a demonstration. What on earth do they hope to achieve by that, demonstrations never achieve anything, if they did, we wouldn't allow them..."

 

 

So Saramago is exploring here the power of peaceful protestation in the extreme. I'm excited to see if the public will be able to "hold out" and not

resort to violence as the government clearly has.

 

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went to the library book sale yesterday (again) and the very first book that caught my eye......The Stone Raft by none other than Saramago!! I was so excited, as I had borrowed this book from the library twice and never had gotten around to reading it. Brand-new hardcover for a mere $2.00!!:D

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Marvelous Sophia! :D

 

I tried to find a Saramago at our Library Sale and had no luck. :)

But I did find another Auster....Moon Palace, er plus 20 others......:)

I know the feeling. I came away with a good 20-25 myself....plus about another 15 for my daughter:blush:

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I have tried all afternoon to slip into Seeing. I just can't.

I was falling asleep at p. 19, skipping at p.20, and scanning,

going back by p.27. I got to p. 32, I gave up.

 

It's just not my cuppa. I can't even completely say why, aside from

the fact it bores me. Perhaps I am not being fair to the book, but that

is the way I feel.

 

I've scanned a bit of All The Names and that looks more interesting to me. So I'll tackle that one a bit down the road. So it looks like there

will be Saramago in my future, just not Seeing.

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I have tried all afternoon to slip into Seeing. I just can't.

I was falling asleep at p. 19, skipping at p.20, and scanning,

going back by p.27. I got to p. 32, I gave up.

 

It's just not my cuppa. I can't even completely say why, aside from

the fact it bores me. Perhaps I am not being fair to the book, but that

is the way I feel.

Time to start reading a James Lee Burke. One thing that is quaranteed, you will not be bored. :D

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Time to start reading a James Lee Burke. One thing that is quaranteed, you will not be bored. :)

There is pontalba pulling Heaven's Prisoners from the shelf.

Maybe a Burke thread would be a good idea, started by the resident expert.....muggle.....:D

 

whoops.....found it!

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I have tried all afternoon to slip into Seeing. I just can't.

I was falling asleep at p. 19, skipping at p.20, and scanning,

going back by p.27. I got to p. 32, I gave up.

 

It's just not my cuppa. I can't even completely say why, aside from

the fact it bores me. Perhaps I am not being fair to the book, but that

is the way I feel.

 

I've scanned a bit of All The Names and that looks more interesting to me. So I'll tackle that one a bit down the road. So it looks like there

will be Saramago in my future, just not Seeing.

Pontalba...when you are ready to try Saramago again...try Blindness first. Then try Seeing again after. You don't have to read them in order to get it...but maybe that'll help you get more into it.

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I think part of the problem is that I cannot stand anything political. Then there is the plot. /sigh/ It is like a rehash of every conspiracy theory that was written ages ago.

 

I have hopes for the other one though, All the Names. :D

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Just remember Pontalba I realy didn't like Lolita (shame I know) but I loved Speak, Memory and it was only with your persistent recommendation that I even picked it up.

 

If you wan't non politcal and fabulous I would strongly recommend The Double first. It's my favorite Saramago and I promise no politics.

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Okay Sophia I just finished up. What an ending!

 

 

It's as if the superintendant knew he was bound to be killed and martyred himself as a final solution. I loved the images of the fountain woman waiting for the water to flow. And what a surpirse... after the interior minister was fired I thought, "Great now thing will get back to some normalcy and sense will rule and then out of nowhere the wife of the doctor is killed by the very same man. Great, great ending:readingtwo:

 

 

"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we pracice to deceive"

 

So Stone Raft in a couple of months then? :D

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Just remember Pontalba I realy didn't like Lolita (shame I know) but I loved Speak, Memory and it was only with your persistent recommendation that I even picked it up.

 

If you wan't non politcal and fabulous I would strongly recommend The Double first. It's my favorite Saramago and I promise no politics.

OK, I do have The Double as I'd bought it at the same time as the others. So I'll try that one after the next Nabokov in line, and the Burke.

Thanks dogmatix. :D

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