Elizabeth Bien > Recent Status Updates

Oh my god.

Anyone who has ever dealt with any form of self loathing will find this book relatable. While it focuses very heavily on the black experience specifically, there were elements of self loathing that I could understand and had experienced.

This book upset me, but I think that it needed to. I had to put the book down to process things. Go into this prepared.

Waiting for doors of stone with bated breath! (Why do the things I love take decades?)

Chapter 4- Aspects of mental illnesses which are changed- time, space, social interactions, and self. I agree but there might be more to that.

Chapter three finished- defense mechanisms! I agree that Freud’s establishment of psychoanalysis was important to the field of psychology, but his actual interpretations are bad science. A lot of the author’s examples that go back and cite Freud’s work to build on it, I disagree with it. I do agree with defense mechanisms and his thoughts that they exist and how they could manifest from last experience. So close!

I finished chapter 2 yesterday, and here’s what I got out of it. When people become mentally ill, there aren't just negative symptoms, there can also be positive symptoms. I agree with that. When people become mentally ill, they’re regressing into childhood. I’m less onboard with that….but ok. When people become mentally ill, they’re regressing back in time evolutionarily. I can see the argument for that but….ok.

Just finished chapter 1, and my thoughts are….1. A lot of these psychological diseases that are nonorganic have either been shown to never have existed or actually do have an organic origin, they just didn’t have the tools to see it yet….are there any truly non organic psychological illnesses? I don’t think so. I don’t agree with the premise here. God that chapter was hard to understand.

The spiciest of the bunch!

Nesta’s redemption arch. I still don’t like her but I do relate to her. Make it make sense.

Came for the fairy smut
Stayed for the fairy smut

Like an animal documentary in book form….wonderful.

It’s hard to get going at first. It’s hard to pay attention to what the commenter’s irrelevant comments have to do with anything, and then, it all clicks.
The last 100 pages were exciting. I recommend reading it in this order- forward, canto 1, comments on canto 1, canto 2, comments on canto 2, canto 3, comments on canto 3, canto 4, comments on canto 4.

This book is humorous about both the narrator’s experiences as a white American in Kenya and about his baboons. As a (fledgling) scientist who tends to get very attached to her work and anthropomorphize it, I very much understand and appreciate his honesty with his words and with his experiences. I often think about the day-to-day in similar terms, and it is comforting as well as engaging.

This should be required reading for high school.
What I got out of “homegoing” and more.

I love the plot.

Shadow’s passiveness/lack of emotion (which I guess make more sense towards the end of the book) angered me a lot of the time.

I think that Marvin is my favorite character