Coming back to it

I’ll return to it later. I’d just read Laziness Does Not Exist and wanted a change of pace. 

I was very curious about COUNTERWEIGHT—it had all the hype going for it. A mysterious author, whose actual identity is remains unknown. Compared by WIRED to classic science fiction greats like Philip K. Dick and breakout modern writers like Hwang Dong-hyuk. A scrutinizing portrayal of corporate powers consuming the world, wrapped in a low-budget noir aesthetic.

When I stopped reading the novel, about a quarter of the way in, I wondered if I was being too hard on it—unfairly comparing it to DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? So I had to ask myself what was missing—what would I need from this book to compel me not to DNF it? I think it's ultimately the lack of the human element. Whether it actually ended up reading like a psychological thriller or a Kafkaesque descent into corporate hell, the main character didn't compel me. He had questions, yes. A need to find out how a perfectly ordinary man in this corporation knew about his extremely classified secrets. And yet, that curiosity didn't feel real. I found myself craving the unlikeable, singleminded thinking of Deckard. Or the even more unlikeable Winston. I don't have to like a scifi noir protagonist—I usually don't—but I also crave the way classic scifi authors know how to poke them with a sharp stick even the most Nihilistic of dystopian circumstances.

Unfortunately, while the narrator of COUNTERWEIGHT has a sense of dry, dark humor, "I don't know how other people feel, but in my book, not having to kill an actual person when someone needs to die is a pretty big plus." it isn't enough to carry the plot forward. When I had the patience to read a 900-page epic before this book, but then could barely make it past 50 pages in COUNTERWEIGHT, I found it telling. 

Was only reading an excerpt for a paper. 

I'll finish this eventually; it's just dense. Very interesting and enjoyable though—but when I have time for it.

I'm going to finish this book! I just wasn't in the mood for it at the time.

I began listening to it when I had a concussion and at first I was very engaged. But a few episodes in, it became clear that there were multiple writers working on it because not ever episode had consistently as enjoyable writing. By episode six I was kind of slogging through it out of obligation—all of the characters incredibly predictable. In episode 9 I decided to just stop feeling guilty for not finishing / wasting time with this book/audio play. I realized I wasn't having fun with it anymore.

It was just too triggering for me to read right now. 

This book is just jarringly sexist and once the narrator turns 16, I couldn’t read more than a page and a half before running into another description along the lines of undressing a woman is “like peeling a sweet potato on a winter’s night” or lengthy descriptions of breasts. At first I thought the author was just trying to characterize a few characters as womanizers… but every single man except one minor character in this novel can’t speak one sentence without objectifying every woman around them. I just want to read the actual mystery and the gothic elements but it’s impossible. 

I was just reading the articles relevant to my research. Fantastic book.