Gustavo Del Vecchio > Recent Status Updates

Probably the most creative and interesting book I’ve ever read. The ways the agony of the inability of social communication is present are great, because these examples, scattered throughout the novel, are not connected to the main characters, they superficially hint at this inability. It shows, with mastery, how the deep abyss of Aphasia’s many forms is always present in everyday life, different and subtle.

Er instruirte, rustete aus, bestrafte Feiglinge, belobte Mutige, ein kleiner Gott war er. Sich selbst ubertraf er, langst war sein Glaube erschuttert, sein Hass geschwacht, seine Begeisterung ausgekuhlt, er glaubte nur an sich, liebte sich selbst, begeisterte sich an seinen Taten. Er sah die Sinnlosigkeit dieses Schlagwortes, jenes Arguments. Er wollte... was er wollte, was ihm nicht klar.

Astonishingly good. The many labyrinthic ways the problem of identity and authenticity in the (then recent) era of reproduction is treated is marvelous for me, so much so that it reminds me of the great Saramago's O Homem Duplicado, with its thousands of philosophical digressions around the same theme of the double.

For any cinema enjoyers, Certified Copy (2010) is a must if you liked Stiller.

Incredibly dense, heavily packed with archaistic symbols of a long-lost pure relationship with nature while also pointing to its inevitable dangers to the cultured man. Comparisons with the magical atmosphere of cosmic horror literature and its overall pessimistic resignation could be made.

Really can't understand how such an astonishingly bad "novel" as Steppenwolf can ever exist and claim success when we have this brilliant piece of literature by Mann a decade earlier. It's like what Hesse said repeatedly over 200 pages, using the same words everytime in its self-conscious intellectualism, about the problem of identity in the modern world Mann had already said in a single brilliantly condensed page.

Verräth sich doch selbst im dem Genusse, den der Gott beim Anblick einer lieblichen Gegend empfinden kann (Od. ε, 72) ein Mangel, eine Bedürftigkeit seiner Natur.