Kyle Hutchins > Recent Status Updates

The magic pixie dream peddler really kills the climax tbh

Major debut novel vibes, Kerouac said this said everything he had to say, and that he simply repeated these themes as infinitum. What sets it apart and puts it at a disadvantage compared to his later work is the omniscient narration. By the end, his young mens’ reckoning with the real world is too higher-than-thou, too I’m-21 and just figured this all out bro this life shit easy kid.

You really gotta see if you can get your hands on this

Damn I assumed this Penguin classics from the library was as ancient as all my dusty ones but shit dropped in 2024!!! Was curious why there was virtually no data on here.

This is so cool, legitimately could have come out 100 years later and set the template still used 150 years later

This one’s for you Saul, protagonist spends almost every page talking about Huysmans

By page 500 its truly undeniable how disappointing the characters' seemingly impervious financial security and the earnestness with which its delicacies are described, ala Patrick Bateman but exceedingly tone deaf in juxtaposition.

I don't know if the structure is necessarily genius but Yanagihara's firm grip upon it, the seamlessness with which large time jumps are suddenly appear and how believable the vast differences each protag is viewed privately by their friends in the fleeting glimpses we get.

The closest any Hardy comes to Jude, just lacking the scale.

Joy and anguish are not foreign to one another.

Something I've been noticing more and more as I've mainlined so much Hardy is the relatively minimal presence of religion within his Wessex tales, despite the overwhelming adherence to the social strictures held up by it. The concerns of rural folk are by necessity too earthly to engage beyond the absurd standards within which they still operate.

Many criticisms of this novel focus on the absurd juxtaposition of its protagonist's privilege and trauma. Totally understandable if its just instantly repulsive to you see the upper middle class treated in a novel, but maybe just stop for a second and consider whether Yanagihara truly means to elicit sympathy for its own sake or whether her work's tone is so deeply ingrained into Jude's psyche, thus coloring it all.

It had been 8 years since Hardy had penned a tale unencumbered by commercial interests, and my god its exceedingly apparent how much more detail and patience he is able to inject under the right circumstances. This one moves really fast, and almost hearkens back to Hawthorne in theme.

I became interested in a re-read of this during her debut, because I've read so much more (and better) transgressive fiction since cracking this open in February. Done a lot more reading than I ever have this year, and it feels like it was far longer ago. One that's paled in my mind as I've consumed more of its clear influences.

I'm getting a little tired of the self serious second act garish sex act trope seemingly characteristic of mid-10s fiction

Hmmm honestly doubting that this could possibly end up any more profound than the section of Simmons' Hyperion in which he chronicles the backward Cruciform people when it comes to degenerative immortality cautionary tales.

Not sure if Hardy was up to the challenge of hopping from setpiece to setpiece like its a whole ass spy thriller

Channeling late resurgence Philip Roth - usually a bad thing

A very contemplative work more straightforwardly about the moral role of the artist in reconfiguring history, with a far more interior-focused mise en scene than typical Hardy.

You get what you ask for, and thus far Orange's more linear narrative actually feels lacking in tonal balance. Much of the plot is practically outlined in There There and Wandering Stars just hasn't been adding enough to feel worthwhile.

Kinda like trumpet major, in which he's applying his major ideas to the military, nationalist context, Hardy here explores the morality of his former profession as architect.

As time goes on one gets the feeling that a similar plot device is in play, albeit arranged in an entirely different manner in terms of temporal displacement.

Idk if Tom's wife was transcribing this from his deathbed she did a pretty good job

I kind of wanted to read a more traditional narrative from Orange and this work is basically re configuring the same themes into exactly that so wish granted

The most prominent characters in Hardy's novels are women. Now, there's almost always plenty page committed to the several juxtaposing suitors, but these segments are typically used to premeditate the follies and constraints which affect our heroine. Early on, Hardy's women are often more traditionally Victorian in their habits, still believing themselves liable to marry, but here they begin to gain more agency.

Being a first novel, I'm starting to reach the point in the narrative where its somewhat showing. Beginning to feel too much like a short story collection ; this isn't always a bad thing, but being a novel I'd expect more narrative momentum from narrator to narrator.

Intrigue is just starting to kick in toward the end of this chunk, thus far though easily Hardy's least distinct characters. Supposedly this and his subsequent two were written under various forms of distress, from deadlines to health troubles, some of them reportedly dictated to his wife thus resulting in a somewhat skewed prose from his norm.

What's impressive is that this novel does not solely consist of pain and suffering. Because that's not human. Orange doesn't settle for strictly misery, which would reflect the pity that colors the perception of Native American culture, particularly to the political left.

Hardy's only proper historical novel, but don't get it twisted because he's still in his usual bag. Calling Napoleon "Boney" is very funny.