spoko’s Comments (group member since Mar 05, 2021)

spoko’s comments from the EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club group.

I’m a couple of chapters in. This book keeps getting mentions in all the book groups I follow, so it’s been gradually climbing my TBR list. Truly starting to feel like everyone has read it but me.

I felt like the core theme was a bit muddled, to be honest. Will’s father speaks about the carnival as though it were about Good and Evil, broadly, and about people succumbing to their worst urges. But in reality, all we really see is the effect of the carousel, which is all about mastering/overcoming time. Obviously there’s a lot of evil energy powering the works, but the actual human desire being fed is just the will to master time. If Bradbury is identifying that as the most evil urge the human race has, I would say that’s a pretty uncommon idea.

Just finished re-reading it; this is my second time through. I didn’t love it as much as I did the first time, but did still like it a lot.

Reading through some of the comments in this thread (from previous reads), I’m surprised to see people interpreting Victor’s revulsion as being from the creature’s looks. I know he does speak of the way it looks, but really I always assumed his horror arose from a feeling of abomination—a sense of just how unnatural the creature’s existence really is. There seems to be a moment when this unanimated assemblage of parts—which may have been unattractive, but wasn't repulsively ugly—rapidly transforms into a real, live monstrosity which he cannot bear to behold.

I’ve always taken this story as a morality tale about what happens when scientific curiosity and passion are allowed to run away, unchecked by morality or humility. We see this again and again in human history—from the industrial revolution which dehumanized human labor, to the development of nuclear weapons and drones, which have dehumanized human conflict, etc. One example that kept recurring to me this time through was Artificial Intelligence. We have created it, set its course, and now we are increasingly terrified of the havoc it is wreaking on our world.

I think I see what people enjoy about his writing style, but I don’t love it. “Rococo” is how I would describe it, and I’ve never enjoyed that approach to any kind of creative work. The story and characters themselves are interesting enough for me to overlook the writing, though.

I second Their Eyes Were Watching God.

I nominate A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (112 p.)

I also second The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

I second The Bluest Eye, and Year of Wonders.

Also interested.

I second Parable of the Sower.

I second Steppenwolf.

I second The Vanishing Half.

I’m reading it now, and actually enjoying it even more than I thought I would. I didn’t have many expectations, but the reviews I’ve read have been a bit mixed. So I’m happy to report that I’m finding it interesting and well written.

I second Man’s Search for Meaning and The Turn of the Screw.

I nominate In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (343 p.).

I nominate The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, 246 pages.

I have to say, I’m really glad I wasn’t that knowledgeable about (or attached to) the original story of The Iliad; this novel’s departures from it didn’t bother me in the least. I’m not sure what would be the value in retelling a story like The Iliad without making changes to it, honestly. I had also always assumed that—like most religious or quasi-religious narratives—there had always been multiple, sometimes contradictory, narratives of this story. It seems I’m wrong about that, and there was just one canonical telling? Either way, I’m glad to have been able to take this book on its own terms.

Aliana wrote: “What did you all think about A letting P go ward off the Trojans in his armor? I thought that was out of character.”

It was, but it clicked for me. I guess it seemed that Patroclus’ desperation (for some resolution to the stalemate) was beginning to rub off on Achilles, so an out-of-character move like that was to be expected. Maybe it’s just that I, as a reader, was getting desperate to see the stalemate resolved, so I was willing to accept it.

I second The Alienist.

So, I finally finished couple of days ago, but have been too busy to respond.

I definitely agree about the disappointing similarity between Laura & Anne. “They’re half-sisters” is really just not good enough. If Collins hadn’t spent so much time driving home the point that they were just too similar for words, it might have been easier to accept this facile explanation.

My biggest disappointment with the book, though, was Laura herself. She’s such a simp—I couldn’t see why Hartright was so infatuated with her. (On Wikipedia, she’s described as “guileless,” which is a serious understatement.) Especially in comparison to her other half-sister, Marian, who is a really great character. I mean, I could see him taking pity on Laura, and even just vowing to get justice for her on principle. But his professed love for her always made me think less of him.

I did notice the same thing you mentioned about Laura having to drop to Hartright’s social status before they could be together. I hadn’t thought of it as a critique until your suggestion, though. If it was, he should have played it up a bit more.

I agree that Marian is the most interesting character, and also agree about Fosco. The turn in the final section, where he turns out to be a spy and Pesca turns out to be his undoing, was a bit over the top. But he’s a really intriguing villain, because he does seem to have his own code that he adheres to. Btw, I noticed that in the 1948 film adaptation, he’s played by Sydney Greenstreet. That’s a great choice, and makes me want to see it.

Walter certainly transformed pretty significantly over the course of the book, which I was glad to see. I wasn’t crazy about him in the first epoch, but in the third I liked him.

Dew wrote: “And I also didn’t really like the whole Scyros drama, it made me feel that A went from gullible to stupid there.”

Completely agree about Scyros. I think it sets up Odysseus pretty well, but otherwise it’s a section of the book that I’m mostly repressing in my memory.

I don’t know if you’ve gotten this far yet, but Scyros does also play a role in Achilles’ thinking when he’s making his decision about sailing to Troy. It provides him with an interesting dilemma, I think. Doesn’t really outweigh how annoying Achilles is as a character through that section, though.