Sally’s review of The White Hotel > Likes and Comments
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Ahahaha, that book is so trippy. Also, I seem to remember he ripped off a lot of the (very moving) Babi Yar passages from survivor testimony.
I remember a college friend recommending this book to me years ago. He loved. I hated it.
Chairy, I can imagine that men would find the author's attempts to portray things from a female point of view more believable. And they'd probably be more into the breast suckling than I was.
And Moira, I'm not surprised he ripped those scenes off. They are just too real to be fiction.
Sally wrote: "And Moira, I'm not surprised he ripped those scenes off. They are just too real to be fiction."
Yeah, it was like 'trippy, trippy, UNBELIEVABLY HEARTBREAKING, totally whacked-out.' They weren't very well-integrated into the rest of the book. I think it was wildly popular in the seventies....no doubt partly for the sexy bits.
Yes, and the unbelievably heartbreaking part is what salvaged its third star. If that part wasn't in there it wouldn't be half the book it is - and if he didn't even really write them...pffft.
I read somebody else's review talking about the "sexy" restaurant scene. I didn't find that part sexy at all, just nasty.
You are very wrong to judge the book without ever thinking of the symbolic values of the "problematic" scenes... If anyone needs some further info on some of these scenes, just ask. About the scenes of breast-sucking - it is not literal, of course. First of all - the first part, which is a case history, "written" by Freud, had never really happened - those are images following her hysteria. Breast suckling, to cut it short, symbolizes an attempt to return to the mother principle, or to the pre-Oedipal phase of life, where one was not separated from the mother or from the world and enjoyed what Freud used to call "oceanic oneness". Frau Anna's, or Lisa's, selfless breast-feeding of hotel guests is actually the symbol of motherly love, spiritual nourishment and selfless giving and empathy. NONE of it is pornographic - it is empowered by the eroticism which should not be frowned upon, at least D. M. Thomas thought so. As for the final chapter, The Camp, it is a fantasy or a vision of afterlife of a kind - a mixture of Christian and pagan paradises and traditions - place of spiritual wellspring, revival and rehabilitation, but not devoid of sexuality, body and pleasure, but welcoming of it!
This is an amazing book, maybe one of the best I've ever read. The complexity of it is so vast that going through its layers by scraping one by one can be very tiresome. It is best understood by feeling it, or going under the layers ;)
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Moira
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Jan 15, 2010 10:18AM
Ahahaha, that book is so trippy. Also, I seem to remember he ripped off a lot of the (very moving) Babi Yar passages from survivor testimony.
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I remember a college friend recommending this book to me years ago. He loved. I hated it.
Chairy, I can imagine that men would find the author's attempts to portray things from a female point of view more believable. And they'd probably be more into the breast suckling than I was. And Moira, I'm not surprised he ripped those scenes off. They are just too real to be fiction.
Sally wrote: "And Moira, I'm not surprised he ripped those scenes off. They are just too real to be fiction."Yeah, it was like 'trippy, trippy, UNBELIEVABLY HEARTBREAKING, totally whacked-out.' They weren't very well-integrated into the rest of the book. I think it was wildly popular in the seventies....no doubt partly for the sexy bits.
Yes, and the unbelievably heartbreaking part is what salvaged its third star. If that part wasn't in there it wouldn't be half the book it is - and if he didn't even really write them...pffft. I read somebody else's review talking about the "sexy" restaurant scene. I didn't find that part sexy at all, just nasty.
You are very wrong to judge the book without ever thinking of the symbolic values of the "problematic" scenes... If anyone needs some further info on some of these scenes, just ask. About the scenes of breast-sucking - it is not literal, of course. First of all - the first part, which is a case history, "written" by Freud, had never really happened - those are images following her hysteria. Breast suckling, to cut it short, symbolizes an attempt to return to the mother principle, or to the pre-Oedipal phase of life, where one was not separated from the mother or from the world and enjoyed what Freud used to call "oceanic oneness". Frau Anna's, or Lisa's, selfless breast-feeding of hotel guests is actually the symbol of motherly love, spiritual nourishment and selfless giving and empathy. NONE of it is pornographic - it is empowered by the eroticism which should not be frowned upon, at least D. M. Thomas thought so. As for the final chapter, The Camp, it is a fantasy or a vision of afterlife of a kind - a mixture of Christian and pagan paradises and traditions - place of spiritual wellspring, revival and rehabilitation, but not devoid of sexuality, body and pleasure, but welcoming of it! This is an amazing book, maybe one of the best I've ever read. The complexity of it is so vast that going through its layers by scraping one by one can be very tiresome. It is best understood by feeling it, or going under the layers ;)
