Sudeshna Bora > Recent Status Updates

I am curious if he would continue using communism throughout or it was just a very ill placed beginning of the book.
If former, I wonder what the narrative he wants to set.
He did use simple clear words for RSS whereas shrouded Communism in fractions, abstract words etc.

Coming to the preface, the writing seemed impersonal . I would have liked to see a bit of the motivation of the author, his journey to gather information etc (used to see the passion behind the authors of such books). Additionally, he has mentioned it is not going to be exhaustive but would pick and choose certain events without informing the readers the criteria for it.

Preface : Very surprised that the author somehow picked up Indian Communism to draw a parallel. I don't understand the need for this and it seemed sudden. Additionally, he tried to use communism and its state as a way to highlight how more successful RSS became without giving Communism a fair shot.

The second part ties this chapter with the first one. What surprised me is how different the personality of Petrina and Irimias were in the outside world compared to the office. Here, they are prone to anger, prone to violent threats. Also, finally these people are the people who the villagers were talking about. I also was surprised the disdain they felt towards the villagers.

This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part is a Kafka-esque bureaucratic nightmare of two characters. What struck out for me was the attitude of the characters (more on it later) and how no one knew what they were doing but were full of jargons. I really struggled with this part cause I just don't know where it was going. The sentence structure is also absurd, it goes on and on.

The first chapter shows a bunch of poor people(?) stuck in a dead city. There is a merging of reality and fiction. I guess the landowner is back and they know they are caught and so are hopeless. Weirdly even though the city is dead, apparantly there are people coming her to settle.
Very confused , and feel like missing out on the core.

Reading this after he has been presented with the nobel prize. Sky high expectation but feel very foolish reading this book. I feel like , I am not getting the beauty of the book. Every page seems to mean more than most probably it is. I don't want to miss out.

I liked how oblivious to social repercussions , Nirmal was.

On second thought, I think Souroshi will grow into me. Maybe I will start seeing her as a strong lady, who strength is not how Kamal was or I wanted her to be.

Nonetheless, I am enjoying the book. It is written like a simple nice story. It highlights the hypocrisy and the selfishness of the bengali society.
The zamindar is fun. I know it is his redemption arc story so let's enjoy.
A very simple sweet story that is not pathbreaking for me. Maybe it would have been if I read it as a teen.
Heim's character was the quintessential sarat female character though.

There was only 1 moment where I really appreicated her. Where she was firm in her opinion that she is not letting go off the sourashi position even if she has let her house.
I don't like her, she seems the sacrificial, quiet lady. Also being moved the moment she saw her husband was very annoying.

Sarat Chandra is the author that introduced me to the feminist or women's pov in literature. Kamal is still the strongest character I have seen so , forgive me, if I say I am really struggling with Souroshi.

I am not sure what to make of her. She is the typical, keep quiet, emotional woman who is so driven by her emotion that she does not think of consequences but then looses her head over the said consequence.

I feel sad for Felicite.
A woman in a man's world. With high aspirations and entitlement of what she deserves but shackled by her gender.
She has been for so long trying to fulfill her hopes and ambition via her husband, father and now her sons.

Second, it breaks my heart to see such selfish, "evil" albeit characters (it amuses me that I have become so good and evil, my palette has constricted). This book was written almost 200 years ago and it feels same, petty, selfish, entitled people doing better in life.
Petty of me, but I felt such mirth seeing them not succeed or even fail.

The undercurrent of sexism is shown beautifully. I love Emile Zola and the way he writes his characters, no doubt about it, but I do have my grips.
First, Adelaide was a unique, never seen before character for me, it annoys me that he didnot want to explain her or her motivation. I wanted him to dig deeper.

Enjoying the gore and violence. It truly makes sense considering they are non humans.
Humanizing Zach was surprising. I am also surprised by how the author is showing the brutal reality of the world (slave trades, gang rape, prostitution). Though the characters are so inhuman and the author does not shy away from grotesque ways of violence and gore, the reality of the world still seems jarring.

3-4 chapters in and the book is very very diferent than I expected it to be. I imagined it to be more extreme exposure to war front action and its horror. But it is more pensive, more memoir esque where it feels like someone has a very detached , nostalgic tone about the entire thing. It has the weightlessness of youth which brings with it resilience.

Momonga at the core is till that lonely person who made a group of friends in Yggdrasil.
I also like the stereotypical women misconception these kids have. Though it raises my eyebrow but knowing it is from a group of young boys, it makes sense.

Kind of enjoying the story as it progresses. Both the characters introduced here are fun - Swords of Darkness are cutie. The villainness seems fun as well. I like such crazy characters. I am also enjoying the lore , the callbacks to maybe some other character.
I see myself progressing.
The exposition dump also seems to have gone down.

Sevitte Character Analysis end of chapter 1:A young lad with glorious ideas of revolution.Fighting the system to get better deal out of life.He is like 1000s of other poor villagers who want a good life and has taken up arms for it.He believes his goal,motivation are superior than Mitte indignation.I think he is not significant character in this series.He is either going to die or just disappear into insignificance.

Nice first chapter.
Right in the middle of an uprising through the eyes of kids with unbridled positivity. I cannot but compare it with what I read in Germinal and it feels same. The same optimism, the same "we can make change" attitude of the working class.
This feels like the mood of the series or the populace.

Was not expecting to see this march past of the different workers
It hints into how politically or revolutionary charged the society is.

The way the zamindar is shown is pretty surprising.
I was expecting a angry, morose person like Bride and PRejudice.
But this is a drunkard, really vulgar person with no redeeming quality.
Excited to see how the author redeems him.
The author also seems hyper critical of man, making woman very strong.

Nice that the author is focussing on how this world is different than earth as well as Yggdrasil.
Be it using magic instead of technology and hence making it superior even if it is in middle age.
Or, each goblin and ogre being an individual.

The writer takes his own sweet time , relishing each moment in its entirety. So slow, so in the moment. I despair of that.
He spent a half a dozen pages to explain the graveyard turned gypsy camp ground over the ages, then spent half a dozen pages talking about this love of Servitte and Miette, though I know those people will part never to meet again and are also an inconsequential part of this story.

Those bits of hyperawareness and integrity makes this book good.

Don't get me wrong I still think this book could be better written and my qualms remain.

Additionally, i acknowledge the writer and his integrity. He does not fail to pull in reality. How being an adventurer in real world would usually have a lot of practical and political issues (underpaid, looked down upon as free muscle). He previously also highlighted the reason he does not do anything with albedo is cause he feels weird as he knows the reason she is enamoured is due to his interference.

I find a change of gaze in me as I continue reading. I feel I now understand what this book is providing. It is providing a dream to the 1000s of players who engages in such games and dream of being in the game, of being adventurers , of having waifu. I don't connect cause I didnot share this. But I understand the pull.

Second, the lofty cloak he makes his mission wear whereas mocking her for feeling anger at her humiliation.
Both are same, both are mocked and degraded by society for their position but for one it is selfish and for the other it is not. The irony.
The idea we get from this is not only are "LA Chantegreill" poor and mocked by the poorer class, they are also infamous and have been a subject of collective justive.

Two lines stand out to me :
"You are wrong Miette; yours is bad anger. You should not rebel against justice. As for me, I'm going to fight in defence of our common rights, not to gratify any personal animosity"
This grates me a lot. But we get to know more about the characters (which I suspect are not going to play any relevant role). First, why is a adolescent guy deciding what she feels is selfish.

Part 1: LA Chantagreill -> So I understand Miette is kind of mocked by the society at large. She belongs to some family of disrepute called "Chantagreill" (though had no idea it is a proper name). The urchins even mock her which means she is lower than the urchins.
Similarly, Sirvette is also poor , downtrodded and his extended family frown at him or keep him at a distance.