heresy

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heresy is Currently Reading

heresy is currently reading

The Magic Toyshop

by Angela Carter

bookshelves: 20th-century, feminism, horror, weird, books-that-read-me-back, 5-stars, reviewed, gothic, currently-reading

Reading for the 3rd time

read in October 2020

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heresy said: " some people go out of their way to read genuinely unpleasant books. i hear the writer mentioned in passing, think she sounds interesting and borrow a random book by her from the library, only to discover that it’s HORRIBLY intense and full of unpleas some people go out of their way to read genuinely unpleasant books. i hear the writer mentioned in passing, think she sounds interesting and borrow a random book by her from the library, only to discover that it’s HORRIBLY intense and full of unpleasant vibes that will throw my mood off for a whole week. and, in a very macabre way, i enjoy it.

im fairly confident ms carter did indeed set out to utterly horrify me and would be delighted to hear that this is definitely the most unpleasant book i’ve ever read all the way through. every time i put it down i’d feel weird for the next hour or so. the first chapter, the part with the swan puppet and the ending felt like being beaten up, in simultaneously the best and worst possible way.

i LOVE the way it’s written. i don’t think i’ve ever come across anything like it before? it’s, as i said, intense, and it’s very poetic? see: the opening - given that i didn’t really know what this was going to be about going in, i was CACKLING. there are lots of very gory metaphors, lots of repetition and lists, lots of juxtaposition; it really adds to the bleakly surreal vibe. also, it feels really distinctly victorian despite being set in the sixties. sometimes a modern thing will be thrown in randomly and really drag you back to reality - false eyelashes, hollywood, the woman who came in and described the shop as “dickensian”? adds fantastically to the jarring weirdness.

not a lot happens in it, really. at face value, it’s about having to go live with your creepy uncle (a toymaker, hence the title) bc your mum died. it’s Heavily allegorical though, and since i was made aware of this, i successfully managed to read it at Marginally Deeper Than Face Value! here, i found a portrait of the horrible transition from adolescence to adulthood. holden caulfield who?! melanie is a FANTASTIC character. the first chapter of this book alone summarises the primary Teenage Girl Emotions: horny, i would like to marry but only to the idealised man in my head, moon!, weird train of thought hours, i miss my mum.

"Please God, let me get married. Or, let me have sex." (pg 8)

this is !!!!!!!! so perfect. one of the analysis things i watched said this quote was contrasting childish desires with mature ones, but honestly? i think it’s more what girls are supposed to want, cleaned up and nicely presented, versus what they privately really do want. that is what feminists in the sixties were all about, right?

it is A Lot about sex. it opens with melanie masturbating, and some of the descriptions are like, if they weren’t in a book from the feminist publishing house i Most Certainly Would put it down. also, a lot of threat of sexual assault (view spoiler)

which is quite weird, given how much i’m confident aunt margaret’s character is about Breaking Free of that. her husband is melanie’s oppressive, aggressive uncle philip, and all margaret does is cook for him as he messes about making toys. she is mute, she wears a collar and a very Proper™️ grey dress, and she’s over the moon when she meets victoria (melanie’s feral little sister) bc she’s always wanted children and never been allowed them. and then, at the end, (view spoiler)

the ending is what let me down, i think. it felt very random and incomplete, and the unpleasant intensity wasn’t as fulfilling as at previous unpleasantly intense points. but on the whole i did really like this book, sort of kind of. i will definitely be reading more angela carter in the future (particularly given that this is apparently one of her weaker books?!) but i think i’ll return to something slightly less intensely horrible first. ...more "

progress:

(page 59 of 240)
"me rereading this immediately after wise children, googling, "did angela carter have a ginger uncle who she-"" — Sep 04, 2023 01:09PM

Sep 04, 2023 01:08PM · see review

heresy is currently reading

Flatland

by Edwin A. Abbott

bookshelves: currently-reading

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progress:

(page 37 of 124)
"reading this i am suddenly aware of what reasonable adults have felt like talking to me for my entire life. self recognition through the other (concerned)" — Jul 14, 2023 06:16AM

Jul 14, 2023 06:14AM