Yuragi > Recent Status Updates

I like how he plays with time, and can write on and on about literally anything. His metaphors are quite nice and deep. It somehow makes me want to be one with mud (even though I hate mud very deeply). I think the narrative structure is gelling with me(?), need to read more of Laszlo to make a final comment.

He has a way with words and sentences that make you feel like you're inside a movie. I cannot explain, but something about this entire book is very soothing and terrifying

I picked up this book to contrast with Anna Karenina, the overall message. And the tussle Tolstoy has with the institution of marriage, love and sex. I believe Tolstoy wrote this to cope with the immense guilt he must have felt in his personal married life.

Doris Lessling provides such an amazing and humorous introduction! I love it.

I am currently reading his book on colonialism and how it affected the Indian mind. And, I am genuinely surprised by the depth of the discourse he provides. From understanding the very basic principles which feed the growing cultural changes in India, and how people react to it, to describing the various models of Hinduism which arise, it is a very intriguing article.

As I finally move into the last leg of the book, the tension and expectations are high. This is what I wanted. Akin to the collapse of the wavefunction, it is only now that I will see the ideology of Tolstoy bear its full form, by the way he chooses to end this book.

I really like this book for capturing the 'big ideas' floating around the aristocracy. Especially the ones on democracy, socialism, liberalism, etc.

Started reading an essay on Indira Gandhi, and now I want to learn all about the Emergency period.

The essay on Gandhi and Godse is one of the most amazing pieces of literature that I have encountered. Such a wonderfully deep analysis for a very sensitive issue.

Tolstoy writes about Anna's feelings and desires in such a profound way that it moves you to such an extent. There definitely is a lot of pain, hurt and jealousy everywhere but one can only hope how life would have been. Alas, are we individually fully responsible for the situation we find ourselves end up in? The contrast and connection between Kitty-Levin and Anna-Vronsky is striking, for sure.

Levin! He is my favorite character in this book so far! Yes, he might be a little slow, very stubborn about certain things - but he shares with me the same feeling of being uncertain about what happens in life, and how to actively find a life better suited for oneself. I am so glad that he finally found satisfaction outside privilege, with community. But then there's Anna. Ahhh. What can I even sayyyyyy, it's complex

I wish Tolstoy did a little bit more world-building, but nevertheless, his grasp on aristocratic society is very deep.

Reading about Anna's affair with Vronsky reminds me of Baldwin's Another Country. There is something so free about his writing, I can lose myself in this book for hours and hours.

I find Tolstoy's way of blurring dialogues and monologues to be a very interesting stylistic choice. I also like the subtle critique of the 'performative' class. I have just begun the book, and I am very excited to read it.

I sometimes wish that I had access to more psychology and political science classes.

Infidelity, bisexuality, queerness, oppression, adulthood, identity crisis, midlife crisis, economic crisis, stigma, breaking societal norms, hurt, pain, guilt, payback, dues. What else? Amazing discourses on each of these words, with such a great understanding of humanity. Like, characters don't feel like puppets for someone's cause but as if they really do exist, and feel so deeply as I do.

Baldwin knows how to write love, oppression, vulnerability, everything. He uses such potent metaphors that leave a mark on you forever. Nothing more can be said about this I think, it really just hits that hard, when you realise the implications and the construction. I am glad I picked this book up.

Ah, I decided to not update until I read the first chapter because holy shit. Baldwin is amazing at scene setting and just so lyrical and masterful at writing. Fuck. It always drives me so very crazy and makes me very emotional. He encapsulates within words such power, such immense power to talk about repression, subtle, obvious but repression all the same. Very powerful voice in literature, I love him.

This book is finally starting to hit hard, like a strong slap to my face. We talk about what brings common people to violence, and the idea is somehow very simple - prejudice, it is THAT simple to make people hate. And once you hate, you can naturally be violent. Revising history is a dangerous game, and that's something which is very beautifully explored here; this is something we currently need to understand.

The main character I've read about in the last few chapters is essentially violent. It is ultimately a crucial part of human society and human history, but what I felt was a bit weird was to see Takashi's relationship with violence. That has been the central question that I've been constantly asking. Why and where does Takashi source his violence from? I think understanding this will help me understand life better.

There we have it! The first major conflict of the story, and it was a very painful read. It's like a slow, ice-like poison coursing through your veins, you know it does hurt you but still the process is comforting. You can see that Oe in his setting always makes jabs on capitalism and elitism. This is the turning point of the book, or so I fell.

I find Hoshio and Momoko to be very interesting characters. The story has been a bunch of scene building for the last few chapters, but you can gradually understand the slowly brewing tension between the brothers, in the way they see the world, history and how they conduct themselves, that's an interesting thing to see uncover.

Each page I read, I seem to feel very despondent, this is simply because the setting is very grim, and the overall atmosphere is just uninspiring. But it brings up some nice questions that I’ve been wondering about - can we ever have a non-traumatic catalyst to change ourselves? It seems that all our calls to change always refer to some hidden trauma inside. The imagery is very profound, makes you feel something.

The same old brutal exposition to fragile concepts of death, suicide, mental health. Self-image and how and why something leads people to feel uncomfortable with themselves. Interesting muse I got is the dilemmas b/w knowing oneself vs preserving oneself.

Whenever I read Jhumpa, it feels so easy to read. Like the words and ideas just naturally follow from the way the story is written. Really, masterful usage of writing, very emotional, Love it.

The last story was the hardest to read. Aaaah it hurt everything that was there to hurt in me.

Jhumpa's writing has this ability to captivate but at the same time leave you wanting for more. Her ability to weave drama and tension into a normal story of a family makes it so much more amazing.

The second chapter resonated with me to some bigger level, because that's partly how my family worked too. Aaaah. The bong connection in the story makes me appreciate it so much more. I love this book, I can't wait to read more and talk about it. This book also conceptualises and attacks the concept of youth and eventual middle age very well, ofcourse I have no experience but I feel oldies would love to read it too.

I am a Bengali who grew outside of West Bengal, and in some sense the anxieties that the first chapter brought up, resonated with me, and atleast the future I am going to have. I'm not sure if I relate more with the father or the daughter, but in some sense Jhumpa's writing captures the overwhelming fragility in such relations.

This book is beginning to remind me of All About Lily Chou Chou. Bullying has no rhyme or reason, but the pain I'm feeling, the disgust, and the internalized self-hatred for being someone in a 'similar' place are eating me; it's getting difficult to read. Excellent writing, but I feel I've see this treatment of bullying somewhere - mostly manga (March Comes as A Lion).

Ahhh reading that backstory really made me sad, children aren't supposed to think this way, to perceive life in such a sad way, it makes me feel in some sense happier that I didn't go throught what they did, but so so profoundly sad.