Lauren Smith > Recent Status Updates

I really *should* like this. Somehow I don’t. Somehow this short book is becoming a chore to finish.

Ray Bradbury really didn’t like 1950s housewives

This book is not a powerful tome against totalitarian censorship. It’s a screed by a pissed off man yelling at the clouds about TVs, comic books, earbuds, sports, and other such “non-thinking” pursuits. And the damn minorities.

When people reference this book, have they actually read it?

The real monster was with us all along—generational trauma

The real monster was with us all along—simmering, unsolved masculine rage

I’m not kidding, the last pages of this book feel like the climax of a thriller. The analysis of everyone else falls away, and Butler swoops in with their own conclusion:

Gender is a set of continuous actions to prop up the idea that gender is something at all.

This is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever read. I love it.

[someone yells from downstairs]: Dinner is ready!

Butler: What do we mean by this? The subject, dinner, is said to be presently “ready.” Thus dinner must not be “is,” in its original state; dinner must become ready. Dinner must become “is” by the construct of readying. Dinner is not born ready. Dinner is made ready; dinner is by necessity a state that only exists after readying.

What d’ye mean you dinnae ken windwhips wot from Donny wayland and er closelings?

(What do you mean you don’t understand slang from Ireland and its neighboring countries?)

(No that’s not authentic slang. It’s gibberish j made up.)

“You can’t trust folk songs. They always sneak up on you….They may start out by being bluebirds, but I bet they ends up some kind of mettyfor.” — Granny Weatherwax

Magrat woke up, stretching her arms over her head. Her breasts stayed where they were, because she had none. It was truly remarkable how flat she was. She rose, her thin nightgown revealing nothing, because she had no tits. Once, she’d read that witches used to dance around the fire with no clothes on. This would have looked terrible for Magrat, the most titless witch on the Disc.

Okay. First nine chapters done. I can do this.

I fuckin hate you, Stephen Dedalus.

Liu zips through massive social changes and cataclysmic human events with belief-defying speed. There are at least two books in here that are getting utterly glossed over.

The people of this era were pretty. Too much. She didn’t like it. Where were the manly men? With horror, she realized the woman next to her might be a man. The men were pretty. They spoke with soft voices. Their hair was long. What was the matter with these people? None of them were the hot sexy beefcakes of the past. Everyone is so feminine. How can we have a strong world defense system if everyone is feminine?

The entire series suffers from Liu’s over-optimism that a common enemy would unite the Earth. In a post-COVID era, we know this is far from true. Sweeping passages like “all cell phone use was forbidden, and everyone was okay with this” provoke incredulity.

I go away, come back, consume a hunk of a chapter, and wander off again. This is ideal. This book, heavily annotated, is incredibly rich. And now that we’re out of Stephen Dedalus’ stupid head, we can actually enjoy the journey.

I’m starting to think guy might not be such a good dude, and that this plucky young reporter is into something!

In all seriousness, there is a quote from Weinstein that has been haunting me for days now:

“It was the 90s, we all did it.”

Yes. This is the way to read this work: joyceproject.com and clicking on every hyperlinked annotation. Fuck Stephen Dedalus and his endless intellectual wanking, but this book is suckering me in. Damn.

I used The Joyce Project’s website to read annotations after listening to the radio drama first chapter, and decided it’s just simpler to read text and annotations at the same time.

Dear god I can’t imagine reading this raw, because no I don’t know my 1800s Irish history, my obscure Catholic theology, or my Greek classics.

It’s a hearty chew.

Here we go.

I was honest with myself that I wasn’t going to have the attention span to read such a long work. So, I’m listening to the 1982 Irish radio production. In for a long haul.

There’s something a bit deux ex machina about some of the plot resolutions for the main character…perhaps there’s still a surprise on the way

Well then. I went into this book utterly unaware of the controversy surrounding it. I didn’t even know the premise; I just knew it was an available audiobook at my library with a high Goodreads rating. Great.

An utterly humanizing and devastating glimpse of Central American migration into the United States.

I had to return this audiobook early and re-request it, which is boooo because this is a thoroughly good book that continues to be extremely imaginative and intriguing.

Another highly creative and enjoyable outing in the series

There’d better be a twist coming because I do not care about these silly people otherwise.

Ma’am, I would not take that course of action. Ma’am…why are you doing this? Wait no, stop…aaaaaand she’s done it.

Talk about an unsympathetic protagonist. There are multiple comparisons to Gone Girl, but Amy Dunne is a very interesting character, unlike our haplessly idiotic Rachel Watson.

I don’t usually cite an unlikeable protagonist as a criticism of a book. Unlikeable characters can be the most interesting. That is, unfortunately, not the case here.

Oooooooo. Yesss. This is GOOD.