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saifighter's Reviews (253)
Slaughterhouse-Five feels like a PTSD dark ride. Instead of "A Small World" its more like "A Funny-Horrible World." We experience the "so horrible its funny" life of Billy Pilgrim as he survives the Bombing of Dresden, starts time-traveling/not experiencing life in a linear way, and getting abducted by aliens. I think this was the first time a war story was truly a pleasure to read. I think the only reason I'm not giving it five stars is because unfortunately, this book isn't saying or doing anything for me that I haven't already read somewhere else. Like yeah "A Small World" is a nice, its no Splash Mountain.
You ever love someone so much you want to eat their cuticles?
On the surface, Y/N seems to be a critique of the para-social relationship of we have with celebrities/characters and fandom culture as a whole. But somewhere in this surrealist mess, it feels like the text is trying to say something more profound about the corruption and unknowability of love, art, and maybe even God. Are we crawling up the Mountain of Purgatory, corrupting the meaning of love as we attempt to glimpse a God who will only disappoint us by not resembling our idols? Or is this just some Sad Girl Lit™ disguised as pretentious fan fiction? I have no idea. At times I thought it was genius before the narrative would yank me in another direction and just drag into the boring. I enjoyed this read and its exactly what I thought it was going to be, but thats about it.
On the surface, Y/N seems to be a critique of the para-social relationship of we have with celebrities/characters and fandom culture as a whole. But somewhere in this surrealist mess, it feels like the text is trying to say something more profound about the corruption and unknowability of love, art, and maybe even God. Are we crawling up the Mountain of Purgatory, corrupting the meaning of love as we attempt to glimpse a God who will only disappoint us by not resembling our idols? Or is this just some Sad Girl Lit™ disguised as pretentious fan fiction? I have no idea. At times I thought it was genius before the narrative would yank me in another direction and just drag into the boring. I enjoyed this read and its exactly what I thought it was going to be, but thats about it.
This is a re-read but I will be honest, I didn't remember anything from when I read this in college. So, this is basically a new read for me.
"Voyager" feels like a re-telling of Date's Divine Comedy. Dante is now Kurt Waldheim and Virgil is the narrator. Book One, Two and Three are Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise respectively. It confronts Waldheim's past of erasing his involvement with the Nazis in the form of erasure poetry, which is incredibly ironic.
Book One (Inferno), the narrator points out Waldheim's sins and questions his character. The line "the dead do not cease in the grave" really makes it clear that the narrator thinks the cover up is an injustices to the dead. This book references the circles of hell, tying it closely to Inferno.
Book Two (Purgatory) the narrator talks about his motivations behind the writing of the book. He confesses that he has mixed feelings about Waldheim's actions. The erasure "carries out the bodies"/points out Waldheim's sins while also acknowledging that Waldheim was playing the alter ego that authorities wanted. That Waldheim was a puppet. The narrator doesn't come to a defined conclusion about how he should feel.
Book Three (Paradise) I really struggled with understanding. In this book Dante (Waldheim) is abandoned by Virgil (the narrator). Waldheim recounts his own story and sins. This fictionalized Waldheim says he did not like playing the alter ego role and did not want to participate in the lies, but felt that he had to. He says he wanted to show the truth but did not know how. I think he talks about the erasure helping him show the truth. In the end, Waldheim rises to the heavens like Voyager (I think?)
I enjoyed "Voyager" especially Book One, but I'm not sure I agree with the author's feels regarding Waldheim. I also think it kind of sucks that a knowledge of Waldheim is kind of required to understand this book. For me, the whole thing is very middle of the road, thought provoking and witty but nothing in this book is going to stay with me for long.
"Voyager" feels like a re-telling of Date's Divine Comedy. Dante is now Kurt Waldheim and Virgil is the narrator. Book One, Two and Three are Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise respectively. It confronts Waldheim's past of erasing his involvement with the Nazis in the form of erasure poetry, which is incredibly ironic.
Book Two (Purgatory) the narrator talks about his motivations behind the writing of the book. He confesses that he has mixed feelings about Waldheim's actions. The erasure "carries out the bodies"/points out Waldheim's sins while also acknowledging that Waldheim was playing the alter ego that authorities wanted. That Waldheim was a puppet. The narrator doesn't come to a defined conclusion about how he should feel.
Book Three (Paradise) I really struggled with understanding. In this book Dante (Waldheim) is abandoned by Virgil (the narrator). Waldheim recounts his own story and sins. This fictionalized Waldheim says he did not like playing the alter ego role and did not want to participate in the lies, but felt that he had to. He says he wanted to show the truth but did not know how. I think he talks about the erasure helping him show the truth. In the end, Waldheim rises to the heavens like Voyager (I think?)
I enjoyed "Voyager" especially Book One, but I'm not sure I agree with the author's feels regarding Waldheim. I also think it kind of sucks that a knowledge of Waldheim is kind of required to understand this book. For me, the whole thing is very middle of the road, thought provoking and witty but nothing in this book is going to stay with me for long.
I used to browse the sub-reddit r/Asexualpartners a lot when I just started dating my asexual wife. That place is a WASTE LAND. I want to throw this book at every single one of those users in that sub-reddit. A lot of the repulsive stereotypes I found in this books are things I have seen in that reddit forum. Things like "maintenance sex" and the ace person in the relationship needing to find a solution to their ace-ness. This book explains those stereotypes (and more that I learned!) and why they exist and why maybe they are wrong. I do live in an East Coast Liberal Bubble ™ and I think I just was not aware of the rest of the world's view on asexuality. One of the only thinks I found really frustrating about this book is that most of the successful allo/ace relationship examples in the book are open relationships. I know this book isn't "Handbook for the Successful Allo/Ace Coupling" but I think the lack of other allo/ace dynamics gives the false perception that an open relationship is the only path to success. Besides that I think this book is a great starting point for allosexuals to understand asexuality. It even helped me to understand my own sexuality as a bisexual. The quote about sexual attraction being "horniness with a target" is honestly brilliant.
The whole Chibi Usa and Mamoru stuff really soured this whole arch for me. Loved Sailor Pluto though!
I love this series but I think I want to delete these chapter from my memory.
I got to chapter 6 (16%) and while the world is interesting I don't really care about any of these character.