imrehg's reviews
441 reviews

It's amazing how well an atmosphere is created, like a picture drawn, like little fragments of film projected on a clean white wall, by just a few words and expressions. The whole book passes so quickly like a dream, though it might be rather a nightmare for most people concerned. Like a panopticum of unfinished conversations, everything is so light, but that lightness also makes it incredibly heavy, since people can imagine almost everything behind it. Most of it is untrue, misunderstanding or even lies, but for most of the time it all doesn't matter. Just the consequences.

A haunting book for me, half of it is so playful, half of it is so dark. Makes me think what am I doing with my past, is there something I'm chasing which I shouldn't?

In many ways it is much better than I expected. The writing is occasionally not well polished (or maybe it's because I read it after a very very well written book, which made the contrast larger), but it doesn't matter much, because the story sucks me in. It is very well thought out, all the background to magic, the whole thing makes much more sense than the philosophy behind e.g. the Harry Potter books. Makes it more everyday, more "what if magic was indeed a normal thing for normal people", and brings a lot of ideas to their logical conclusion. It is quite fun how it ties in the ideas from other fantasy series as well, makes me think about those in a different way and also appreciate them more. Quite thought provoking in so many ways, about psychology, the value and purpose of things in life, relationships, ego. A rough ride that will likely stay with me for a while.

Some of it was way over my head, and feels like it can be argued in many other ways as well, because in the end there's not a single right answer. Some of it is way too political, and the authors stance did influence the conclusions a lot, but a bigger part of it seems to be relatively convincing, or equally it can just be ignored and not taking away much from the discussion.

In the end, however, he did change my perception of art. The essays, about the nature of reproductions, the different perception of man and woman, the history and function of oil paintings, and about the promotional images, they all altered my perception, and made me at least aware of different ways of seeing.

One of the most inspiring and intriguing book I've read for a long time. I think it's a must to read for anyone who takes pictures or sees pictures - which is basically everyone. Very insightful, and won't look at photography the same way ever again.

Reading it (especially the first essay) felt like Sontag taking my DSLR out of my hand, start basing in my head while calmly saying "Do you" baam "even know" bam "what" baaam "are you doing?" bambambam...

I guess she would have much more to say now with the proliferation of digital photography, and some things have changed, but that's just extra.

This book worked out to be pretty different from what I expected from the basic setup: alternative universe where the Allies have lost the war. There's so much more to that in this, discussion about what's art and what's authentic, people choices and how do they make them, high level diplomacy and spying, and a lot of little segments that don't make much sense to me just yet, but certainly will with time.

Lots of great insights, that already made me see things in a very different light, things makes much more sense. The emphasis on learning, and the custom-tailored ways to make the given human enterprise one is work is really eye opener, an "of course!" moment.

Altogether I got enough ideas that will take probably years to completely digest, but could already start experiment with them.

Nevertheless, the final section which deals with some future predictions sounds like other "visionary" books about tech, that just feel dead wrong reading after 5-6 years after publication. That part is really skippable, the important part is all before that.

Genious composition, something that is really need to be read again and again, with every read exposing more of the intricate details, which there are surely a lot, since this story has been revised for decades by Eileen Chang. It's feels like an unstoppable flow that bring the reader forward, and while glances over a lot of things, it also invites the reader to fill in the blanks - and it's not pretty what kind of imagination the backdrop of the war suggests.
Very powerful writing, deep effect.