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francischerries's reviews
161 reviews
The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol
4.0
magical, entrancing, sad, engaging, funny, exquisitely well written... i could go on
Cat in the Rain by Ernest Hemingway
3.0
hemingway never disappoints !
"I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel. I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her."
"And I want to eat at a table with mv own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes."
'"[...] I want a cat, I want a cat. I want a cat now. If I can't have long hair or any fun, I can have a cat."
"I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel. I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her."
"And I want to eat at a table with mv own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes."
'"[...] I want a cat, I want a cat. I want a cat now. If I can't have long hair or any fun, I can have a cat."
The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley
4.0
loved this essay, and love shelley ! reading the part where he talked about death was particularly emotional, especially knowing how tragically his life ended..
"By the word death, we express that condition in which natures resembling ourselves apparently cease to be that which they are. We no longer hear them speak, nor see them move. If they have sensations and apprehensions, we no longer participate in them. [...] The body is placed under the earth, and after a certain period there remains no vestige even of its form. This is that contemplation of inexhaustible melancholy, whose shadow eclipses the brightness of the world. The common observer is struck with dejection of the spectacle. He contends in vain against the persuasion of the grave, that the dead indeed cease to be. The corpse at his feet is prophetic of his own destiny. [...] The organs of sense are destroyed, and the intellectual operations dependent on them have perished with their sources. How can a corpse see or feel? its eyes are eaten out, and its heart is black and without motion. [...] Such are the anxious and fearful contemplations of the common observer, though the popular religion often prevents him from confessing them even to himself."
by reading this i also found out he wasn't only a skilled poet: his writing is incredible in prose as well !
"Let us recollect our sensations as children. What a distinct and intense apprehension had we of the world and of ourselves! [...] We less habitually distinguished all that we saw and felt, from ourselves. They seemed, as it were, to constitute one mass. There are some persons who, in this respect, are always children. Those who are subject to the state called reverie, feel as if their nature were dissolved into the surrounding universe, or as if the surrounding universe were absorbed into their being. They are conscious of no distinction."
also, since i'm not religious myself i didn't need convincing or anything but i loved how persuasive and firm he sounded while talking about god here, sucks that he was too ahead of his time
If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future? If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers? If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him? If he is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses? If grace does everything for them, what reason would he have for recompensing them? If he is all-powerful, how offend him, how resist him? If he is reasonable, how can he be angry at the blind, to whom he has given the liberty of being unreasonable? If he is immovable, by what right do we pretend to make him change his decrees? If he is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him? IF HE HAS SPOKEN, WHY IS THE UNIVERSE NOT CONVINCED?
"By the word death, we express that condition in which natures resembling ourselves apparently cease to be that which they are. We no longer hear them speak, nor see them move. If they have sensations and apprehensions, we no longer participate in them. [...] The body is placed under the earth, and after a certain period there remains no vestige even of its form. This is that contemplation of inexhaustible melancholy, whose shadow eclipses the brightness of the world. The common observer is struck with dejection of the spectacle. He contends in vain against the persuasion of the grave, that the dead indeed cease to be. The corpse at his feet is prophetic of his own destiny. [...] The organs of sense are destroyed, and the intellectual operations dependent on them have perished with their sources. How can a corpse see or feel? its eyes are eaten out, and its heart is black and without motion. [...] Such are the anxious and fearful contemplations of the common observer, though the popular religion often prevents him from confessing them even to himself."
by reading this i also found out he wasn't only a skilled poet: his writing is incredible in prose as well !
"Let us recollect our sensations as children. What a distinct and intense apprehension had we of the world and of ourselves! [...] We less habitually distinguished all that we saw and felt, from ourselves. They seemed, as it were, to constitute one mass. There are some persons who, in this respect, are always children. Those who are subject to the state called reverie, feel as if their nature were dissolved into the surrounding universe, or as if the surrounding universe were absorbed into their being. They are conscious of no distinction."
also, since i'm not religious myself i didn't need convincing or anything but i loved how persuasive and firm he sounded while talking about god here, sucks that he was too ahead of his time
If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future? If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers? If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him? If he is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses? If grace does everything for them, what reason would he have for recompensing them? If he is all-powerful, how offend him, how resist him? If he is reasonable, how can he be angry at the blind, to whom he has given the liberty of being unreasonable? If he is immovable, by what right do we pretend to make him change his decrees? If he is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him? IF HE HAS SPOKEN, WHY IS THE UNIVERSE NOT CONVINCED?
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
5.0
as good as the movie (which i saw first), if not more. i loved both the story and how perfectly it was crafted (noticing parallels with the original trilogy was so satisfying) as well as the characters, especially sejanus plinth and lucy gray.
Poor Sejanus. Poor sensitive, foolish, dead Sejanus.
Good-bye, Lucy Gray, we hardly knew you.
even though i spent every single minute while reading this hating coriolanus, i have to say he was very well written too (so much so that his thoughts/morals pissed me off several times..). so yeah ! suzanne collins your mind >>>
Poor Sejanus. Poor sensitive, foolish, dead Sejanus.
Good-bye, Lucy Gray, we hardly knew you.
even though i spent every single minute while reading this hating coriolanus, i have to say he was very well written too (so much so that his thoughts/morals pissed me off several times..). so yeah ! suzanne collins your mind >>>