Jessica

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Jessica’s Bookshelves

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Jessica is Currently Reading

Jessica is currently reading

Bend Sinister

by Vladimir Nabokov

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Jessica said: " [from nov or dec 2011, given the top/bottom notes; i wouldn’t be so b*tchy about orwell or ratm now okay]

so i'm again just using this book review spot as a placeholder for other book-y things in my life (SEE BELOW), though i went w/ nabokov specifica [from nov or dec 2011, given the top/bottom notes; i wouldn’t be so b*tchy about orwell or ratm now okay]

so i'm again just using this book review spot as a placeholder for other book-y things in my life (SEE BELOW), though i went w/ nabokov specifically because he has crawled into my SKULL lately -- could easily have opted for recent reads laughter in the dark, transparent things, the real life of sebastian knight, the eye, or (currently) despair or pale fire, but bend sinister i'm going to go ahead & declare one of the best novels i've ever read.

what, bring it.

on the one hand shut up nabokov OF COURSE it's political, but oh jesus god i feel ill when people compare bend sinister to 1984 (i mean seriously dudes reading 1984 as an adult is like drinking mountain dew as an adult, or listening to rage against the machine or something, whatever). go talk to my little brother about 9/11 if you want but there is no system so tight, no assembly line so synched.

so the basic premise, the plot synopsis, would sound thin & big brothery & solzhenitsyn did it better & OKAY, but that's not what he's doing here. here is about mistakes, the pain of writing/living/thinking, the moment of realization (oh god what have i ---), about waiting too long, being too incredulous, about our basic tendency to think it will not happen to us (even as it happens to us), that it can in fact always be worse (if you can feel pain you will feel pain), or more absurd emptied pointless, or or or the difficulty of creation or escape, your dignity your insistence your righteousness oh kitten, are not a thing, the thought of control an adorable illusion, that you can in fact always be more alone (until the "you" cannot even clutch its self) --

to be held hostage. to be fractured. to be kept, always, from the moment of completion or climax. to be unfinished. to okay right, be WRITTEN (more on this eventually). "all loveliness is anguish."

& all this nestled in language like woah. i keep seeing reviews where people say stuff like "the language is so beautiful it's distracting!" but um, distracting from *what,* exactly? why do you have books again? go read orwell on your kindle (i also have a kindle) (but i mean you get it).

ANYWAY WHAT I'M ACTUALLY GETTING TO -- i'm working on scheduling for the spring & it is like, i don't even know. here's the reading list for three (3) of my nine (9) (oh fuck) classes:

[redacted]

NABOKOV ...more "

Sep 28, 2023 10:55AM · see review

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Existentialism and Human Emotions

by Jean-Paul Sartre

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Jessica said: " [redacted] "

Jan 16, 2010 03:23PM · see review

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The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World

by Michael Pollan (Goodreads Author)

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Jessica said: " just as a warning, the below is not really about the book by pollan at all (which is great, btw!), but is mostly some really juvenile hatin' on thoreau. so if you read it, shut up, i warned you; i needed to get some trash-talking out of my system bef just as a warning, the below is not really about the book by pollan at all (which is great, btw!), but is mostly some really juvenile hatin' on thoreau. so if you read it, shut up, i warned you; i needed to get some trash-talking out of my system before going on w/ my day.

*********

so i cannot, for the life of me, read thoreau. & this may not be entirely his fault. it may not just be that i find him frustratingly ignorant, pompous, rambling, lacking cohesion & coherence, more irritatingly than profoundly w/out style, hypocritical, blah blah blah... because when i think these things i assume it's at least partly because i'm either too stupid or too culturally vapid to "get it" (tho in this case that theory's feeling a little stretched).

to be fair, ht also has pretty shit luck w/ me. when i finally got around to reading a full collection of his essays this week it was for a class, making this the first time i can EVER IN MY LIFE remember reading something i didn't want to read (so of course, irritatedface); i was also around 3/4 of the way thru when i picked up a copy of the botany of desire, which makes the former collection look like preschool sketchwork & illustrates perfectly my theory that michael pollan's nature writings (his less overtly-about-agribusiness writings) are thoreau minus suck.

so now i'm pretty much ruined for thoreau, even tho pollan quotes him & references him & generally seems to boycrush on him. whatever, michael pollan; you may not be happy about it, but you've allowed me to feel WAY SUPER COMFY about my visceral hatred for such essays as "walking," which, even if i'm humming along comfortably for a while, underlining & marking, suddenly breaks out such gems as "I THINK THAT THE FARMER DISPLACES THE INDIAN EVEN BECAUSE HE REDEEMS THE MEADOW, AND SO MAKES HIMSELF STRONGER AND IN SOME RESPECTS MORE NATURAL" (caps & emphasis mine, obvs), or the bullshit about the "weapons" ("the bush-whack, the turf-cutter, the spade, and the bog-hoe, rusted with the blood of many a meadow") that make the farmer's ability to "redeem" nature far superior to the unskilled following of the indian to natural occurring sources of food, or whatever fuck'd & self-contradictory political ramblings, oh my GOD i am so grossed out.

thoreau, you were probably a pretty cool dude once, but right now you seem like a libertarian w/ out the constitution, a naturalist w/out a respect for (or knowledge of) real nature, a man opposed to the press who finds himself entrenched in its habits. i will "appreciate your relevance" but i will not like you, & i will only ever read you when people make me, because michael pollan is like you if you were educated & relevant (but i know, dude, "every thought that passes through the mind helps to wear and tear it" - !!!!!!), if you were capable of transitions, if you cut out yr empty lines of political propaganda, if you were able to integrate culture & history & politics & mythology & science & some openly speculative musings into something enjoyable to read, if you didn't sound like such an obnoxious little fucker. you are gross, pollan is sexy, the end. now i'm going to go lie on the beach w/ a good book, goddamn it. ...more "

Feb 09, 2015 10:34PM · see review

See all 16 books that Jessica is reading…