Vigilant Corpse > Recent Status Updates

I need more essay collections by John Green, I know I will feel the loss and absence in my bones the moment I finish this amazing book. It's just so rich, humane, and I get to learn and understand so much our kind, our coming, and the nature of humanity. The perseverance, the strength, the brutality and all the depravity, that makes us, us. Such a gem of a collection, there's always something to take from each essay.

"Good journalism seeks to correct for those biases, to help us toward a deeper understanding of the universe and our place in it. But when we can't read the writing on the plywood but still think we know what it says, we are spreading ignorance and bigotry, not the peace and friendship Turner promised."

It's interesting and engaging, has that queer yearning and angst element to it. Alot of commentary on social norms, societal prejudice, religion and the internal bigotry of homosexuality in more conservative places like South Asia, a majority of the book is set in India itself and the characters backgrounds are rooted in India and Indian culture.

This is a book written in English and published for a more international audience, I don't see the purpose of using blatant unnecessary hindi phrases written in English just to make the reader confused. Indian culture and society should be explored rather than giving the readers a difficult time to process sentences for no apparent reasons. 12% in and this continuous usage is getting out of hand.

The prose is very choppy and gimmicky, the themes are nice so far, the book trying to convey the societal discriminations and the bigotry layered within South Asian Countries, India mainly.

But there are many direct Indian (Hindi) phrasings and deliberate hindi words just written in english, which definitely will cause an issue for non-native and non-familar people to follow.

(Contd..)

This still doesn’t fail to disturb me and make me uncomfortable, I thought it couldn’t get worse. Also, the portrayal of misogyny of our narrator is done so well, and also we as readers can form a basis and understanding of where this unnecessary hatred and sexism is coming from. It is making me uncomfortable, the suspense is their although storywise nothing much has happened throughout. Enjoying myself with this!

A part of me wants to finish this tonight, the other more reasonable part wants me to finish this tomorrow after my exam. It's also 12AM as of speaking, the entire experience was in one word, fascinating. Absolutely immersive and engaging as well as critical and nuanced, layered with an eerie, distinct and disturbing seal about it.

Very entertaining, disturbing and has a sense of distinct confidence about itself that at times questions me. Ofcourse I am not understanding symbolisms or am being able to extract meanings and critical parts, also producing my own analysis properly since I'm listening to the audiobook, but honestly, enjoying my experience and massive props to the narrator for making the experience so engaging and thrilling.

My very first ever audiobook experience, and what a delight? This is disturbing, nauseating and extremely messed up and petrifying. Props to the narrator for making the experience so memorable and engaging, I have some thoughts on it, but really just enjoying my time with it. A very, well lets just say, unusual and eerie piece.

This collection is such a delight!

Missed reading these essays. Still as humorous and insightful as I remember.

Thank you to the author himself for reaching out and giving me an E-Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.


Just started, actually am very interested to see how this unfolds!

Lapvona comments on so many things critically and puts you in a place of prolonging contemplation and wrestling your mind to comprehend the intensity of each conveyed meanings. This book specifically revolves around the idea of blind and self inflicted forced faith and challenging/understanding the concept of religious belief's itself. And, to what extend does this faith tamper with one's own perception of reality.

I never knew John Green could come up with such nuanced, emotional and intricate pieces of vignettes. So so different and for me, better, than his other YA popular boos. Such an important and warm yet critical collection.

I think of this book everyday but it's been a month since I picked it up. This is such an amazing book and I don't why I was pushing it. Every chapter demands critical understanding of humanity and feeling the depth and rawness of emotions, fragility, strength and intricacy. Marvelous piece. Every chapter I've read so far is filled with my notes and marked quotes. Aso personally, this book hits too close to home.

"It can sometimes feel like loving the beauty that surrounds us is somehow disrespectful to the many horrors that also surround us. But mostly, I think I’m just scared that if I show the world my belly, it will devour me. And so I wear the armor of cynicism, and hide behind the great walls of irony, and only glimpse beauty with my back turned to it, through the Claude glass."

Loving this so much. So insightful, nuanced and warm.

Really curious to see where this book goes. It just keeps getting better and increasingly disturbing.

Throughout the essays Greene effectively displays how us humans have shaped the world and our own very imaginations via artificiality. Because, that's what thrills us rather than delving in actuality. How our assumptions, ideas and the portrayal of media regarding things can dilute with the actuality and authenticity of them. Through the lens of media and such, humans tend to make their imaginations the 'reality'.

Really liking how John Greene speaks about the little details of life, little subtle moments that we often brush past but they had done many things for us, in shaping us for who we are and providing us sanctuary and/or places of terror. How through everything, he critiques and comments on the beauties and brutalities of mankind and humanity. At times adding historical lens or simply by expressing his own experiences.

This is a 5 star read. Never expected Tampa to be this good. So complex and layered in nuance as we progress, my God, never read anything like this before and seriously awestruck.

Seriously in awe and admiration, can't wait to see where this book leads to. It's just getting better and better.

Just loving this so much. And I didn't realize the author was Osamu Dazai's daughter, what a sudden surprise.

Just read the first chapter and I am already in love, this is what you call true literature, not pathetic wannabe's like Almod ffs.

This book is becoming a joke and I'm having none of it. I rest my case, the more I will talk about this, the more pissed I will get and the more my mood will worsen.