Thomas > Recent Status Updates

Grass, from what little I read on Wikipedia, clearly believed that denazification did not go far enough. Clear from the fact that 'the war years' are from the POV of open and closed Nazis.

Each story is like its own guessing game. Not just on protagonist but also on when it’s even taking place cause it’s rarely the actual year the perspective of narrative is set on.

To throw the Communists under the bus is slimy, even if they opposed the Weimar Republic. The SPD also employed and allied with groups who would eventually fall in with the Nazis, their own regrets realized too late. It isn’t a clean story, but elevating the SPD at all times while pushing down on the Communists isn’t a solid impression. Both of them were flawed parties.

Grass’ portrayal of Jünger, the more “foreign” when it comes to his war memory, gives the man a tint of clearly having been traumatized by the war even if his supposed lack of portrayal of said trauma is offensive to men such as Remarque.

Next book in my graduate seminar. Have to present this one and honestly I don’t know how I’m going to manage.

Merely contemplation or an attempt?

Me: Hmm this is a fascinating book but the topic of homoromanticism is really missing in this book. Oh well, I mean it was written in the early 70s.

Fussell: Don’t worry mate, I got you a whole chapter on being gay.

Reading this for my honors seminar.

This book makes me so frustrated with the audacity of its antagonists.

Being a tenured professor is a very comforting and stable job, something which Stoner clearly sought - and now has - in his life. Yet, not everything is as he envisioned, but the sadness is not profoundly bleak - only a mild disappointment. He is content - just about.

I think from the very beginning you know that this marriage will so be a very good one. But why does Stoner go for Edith? Was it the urgency of the passage of time - the poem?

John Williams just perfectly described the purpose of the University. It holds the same purpose as monasteries did back in the Medieval Period.

The first chapter of this book is a masterpiece. I've come to appreciate prose a lot more than I used to, and the language John Williams employs to describe the farm, and later the university, is undoubtedly simple but very effective.

Small correction. Heathcliff escalated rather quickly, but it is still hard to sob much tears for Nelly and Linton Jr. I feel bad for Cathy Jr. though, as while she is a bit of a brat, she is probably the best out of the lot.

No matter what Heathcliff does, all I see is that injured young boy who was labeled a devil the moment he was bestowed to these isolating cliffs.

This is shaping up to be one of my favourite books.

The scene where Heathcliff laments on Hareton Jr. is just so sad as he compares the injustice of class and character, knowing that he is merely speaking of his own previous experience.

Yes everyone is terrible, but I still consider Heathcliff the most righteous but this is really a competition between a bunch of horrible people.

As a wealthy British woman, Catherine is stuck in what, to her, feels like a nightmare as it is due to the pressures of gender, class, and to a lesser extent ethnicity/race, that she had to suddenly marry Edgar over Heathcliff. I don't feel bad for Catherine personally but it's a classic 19th century tragedy - probably the final period where such an issue can cause such trouble in this corner of the world.

The worst thing that Heathcliff has done so far was be rude to the new neighbor in the first few chapters. That really speaks to how awful everyone else is to him.

Bought my own copy because I've had one dream and one daydream about this book, and that sort of thing does not casually happen.

'O Heathcliff I still do not yet hate you. In fact I cheer for you to destroy these aristocrats.

How the hell does Heathcliff get whitewashed in adaptations? I thought him being Roma was like a minor note of appearance but it's like the center point of his character. Insane.

This is such a strange book. I am enjoying it though, even if the language is a bit difficult.

Fuck this "updated" Goodreads UI.
WHY did you REMOVE the ability to SWITCH EDITION when I SEARCH UP the ISBN???