Jake > Recent Status Updates

One chapter in and I am just vibin heavily w the style

Darcy be the og tsundere

Heard ending bad but here we go

Finished first book of the trilogy~
Very nice so far

Almost there.....

The author's style is quite similar to Zewig's "Letter From An Unknown Woman", with long paragraphs of narration. This kind of style really flows through the story and the author is able to stop at any time to add a piece of dialogue. Very effective style.

In the post-WWII economy, Japan's economy is recovering with the labor of workers. Post poison attack, though poisoned, though they knew, they lied to themselves, and many chose to dash to their work but not to the wounded, to money but not humanity. Though who can really blame them? Who can blame them for trying to make a living, for the struggles of a nation recovering from a war none of these workers wanted?

The world of Mango Street is a very true, very realistic one. Yet the events were told in the voice of a little girl, sounding perhaps even imaginary at times. A child can't express what the world really is behind the surface so she describes the mask. And that's the house on Mango Street. A mask for the real society.

The world of Mango Street is a very true, very realistic one. Yet the events were told in the voice of a little girl, sounding perhaps even imaginary at times. A child can't express what the world really is behind the surface so she describes the mask. And that's the house on Mango Street. A mask for the real society.

I truly love this book so far. This character of Scott so delicately described and the setting was so interesting! What a poor man indeed, having to born into a time and place one does not desire, dragged into the deep ocean of sin uncontrollably by the people around him. A man trying to be a man, ultimately is not suitable, in this world of monsters.

In one's most natural environment, many things are hidden inside, and one would try to conceal the things that make their heart ache. Yet in the outside world, everything can trigger the memories that have been buried. All are exposed to the outside world. Under the old skin, Harold knew his bleeding heart, needed to heal. The people he met on the way, perhaps were the same, which was why the talked. About secrets.

Man is half God, half insane. The reason why men can't become fully God (not with God's abilities, just God's virtues) is because of the insane human nature inside. Now as the town goes wild, everything plunges into darkness, and in the darkness, the monsters show themselves. Nobody knows anybody in these nights. Though I suppose they can't recognize​ anyone day or night, not even themselves.

Originally the people followed Kino as an act of compassion, now something like leeches, trying to suck off some money from the about to be rich man. The world was no longer hidden, yet Kino does not quite care since he was part of this new society, good or bad, he was in it. And just like one can not see one’s own eyes, he was blind of the man he became.

The pearl brought out the song of evil, once suppressed by the song of the community. In some ways, everybody is like the capitalist doctor, hypocritical and snobby. They want to feel superior, so they stand on the winner's side. But the winner is never a winner, just the trophy, and in this case, the pearl. The town turns from the community to as isolated as the doctor, split by jealousy, greed, and selfishness.

Trevor’s life sometimes has to be forced to live certain ways, such as eat less if you have no money, yet the problem is that people have the money yet still do nothing. They already confined themselves to rules. They believe it was what they are. Though it is not rules that defines our lives, it is not our language or our skin color that makes us who we are. It is the stories that makes up who we are.

To survive in a world of simple minded people is to be simpleminded themselves. People get it when they do not feel superior that they try so hard to be above others and even make up lies. Many focuses on fame more on creating actual art that they lose themselves in the society’s river of never ending change.

The author uses a cat’s perspective to point out the abundance of desires of these intellectuals at his time. It almost seems as if it’s more of a competition of fame rather than of quality of art.

I love how Murakami displays his character as this quiet, mature teenager. A slight existentialist feel to his writing. When people goes into adulthood, they tend to hide a lot, and in Murakami’s books, a lot of people talk to the main character (who exists as a kind of listener position). It’s a truly great balance between description of the characters themselves and their surroundings. A “3D” book.

Traditionally, father and son treats each other with respect. But the dad here chooses to want to break this traditional thinking and want his son to see him as a friend. Although in the end, the father is a vulnerable man, he’s simply trying to play a roll he’s not to try to please his son who tend to keep things inside. Yet in the end, they both don’t know what they want, what the perfect relationship is.

The main character was once a gambler then lost all his money and started a simple life as a farmer. Like a kid wearing an oversized coat and suddenly had it taken off him to expose the weak man that's underneath. How fake this world seems, in the first part of the book, but as the story progresses, the real face of society looks straight into the eye of Fu Gui, making him kneel at the utter cruelty of the world.

This existentialist novel talked about how absurd this world is. That it was all just like a joke, like a puppet show. When a man is nothing but a shell working for the government, it all seems pointless except a fate designated by the government. I think individualism and this humanist worldview can coexist since as it was said in the book ​since nobody can really betray everything to the government.

The lost of individualism in a communist society which wanted the complete “nakedness” of their people. For them to be all controlled and no seed of rebellion. To live in a world of complete realness. One would lose oneself at a certain point until nothing could be recognized of themselves. What is the solution?

Death is just part of living. The real death is when the living disappears completely. We want to be remembered, because parts of us would die. A person dead wants people to remember his/her past glory. A man alive want his knowledge to be passed on. We also don’t want to live like we died, so at least symbolically, this way, we can reach infinity.

I’m going to quit the book. The author’s mainly attacking the logical fallacies of the existence of God. He talked about how stuff like morals don’t have to be learnt through religion, well you also committing crimes can be done without religion too. The governments are perhaps the root of many terrorist attacks, so then does that mean we should eradicate the government?

I’m going to quit the book. The author’s mainly attacking the logical fallacies of the existence of God. He talked about how stuff like morals don’t have to be learnt through religion, well you also committing crimes can be done without religion too. The governments are perhaps the root of many terrorist attacks, so then does that mean we should eradicate the government?

Gravity is the force
That pulls together the loneliness of the world
The world is expanding
Tilting
Everyone wishes to encounter one another
So like shooting stars
We shoot for the place two billion light years away
We pray
In solitude
Yet in progress
Of becoming the universe

The author believes the Einstein view of God is the correct kind because others are merely delusions of what people imposed God to be. The mystic property of God, it is easily misinterpreted and changed to fit their purposes. It becomes a subjective belief of what God is because the range in which what God can be varied in people's heads like an imaginary rule that shapes itself to fit their own desires.

A memoir like this is is is always incomplete because some memories were forgotten in the river of time and memories. I personally feel like writing about me is writing of what I want to be, remembered as. Perhaps that is the true self, since all is lost in the river of memories and time, what more is there than our interpretations and imaginations of what everything really means? Through art, we see.

Colors are only shown with comparison. With no white, there will be no black. Yet what is colorless?Colorless, a state of the ability to become everything yet is nothing. The main character is a very mechanical person, without much character. He’s kind of like the catcher in the rye, a man of all colors, a man who sees the truth yet is blind of himself, perhaps that explains the lack of color.