zachari's reviews
364 reviews

wow

mixed feelings on this one

the first 3 parts functioned really well as environmental/climate fiction, the portrayal of society from the mundane to the metaphysical under the pressure cooker of the Black Death

part 4 was bold and weird and reorinted the narrative to more interpersonal papal court politics at the same time a shift from magical realism to a more ordered clash of capabilities and powers, and something was lost that made the first parts so weird and great. 

the end, especially the detentmont, was very neat and tidy, very just so, and while some of the surreal poetry of the earlier parts of the work reemerged the impression was one of a shift from the horrors of a heaven and earth abandoned by God to one micromanaged by  him just-cause.

😭

the most unsatisfactory part of the book was Schmitt's assumptions regarding the concept of democratic homogeneity, which he takes from Rousseau more or less as given. 

the preface to the second edition clarified a lot.

his identification of the opposition between mass democracy and liberalism seemed to me to be basically correct.


I've been mostly using The Storygraph this year, so I have a few readings to add to Goodreads when I have time. 

perfect heartbreaking genre redefining . these books are scripture to me. I cannot express by words how much these words mean to me. 

wrong edition the one I read was illustrated by s. d. Schindler 

I was read this book often as a small child. it appears to have been illustrated by different people over several editions, but this one was particularly scary. especially the bee ready to trip the kid on the bike. 

the sort of book which parents afraid of CPS love. even as a little kid I could tell something was off about it. given how much more common abuse is from family and those known to the family than total strangers, the emphasis on only and always trusting those your parents know was disturbing. with regard to strangers, there's a degree of parity between them and children, but in my family speaking out against an older relative or family friend was discouraged as rude even when the abuse was explicitly acknowledged. 

I hate this book. I hate its moralizing refrain which only sometimes rhymes, it's learing cartoon animals, it's one size fits all victim blaming approach, it's petite bourgeois fortress mentality, insufferable smugness.