Natalia > Recent Status Updates

"There is nothing more difficult than to be a stepson of the time; there is no heavier fate than to live in an age that is not your own. Stepsons of the time are easily recognized: in personnel departments, Party district committees, army political sections, editorial offices, on the street . . . Time loves only those it has given birth to itself: its own children, its own heroes, its own labourers."

"There, in huge chilly halls newly refurbished with loot from France, Hitler and Mussolini were to hold another of their meetings [...] The two dictators, the self-styled masters of Europe, had met each time Hitler was preparing some new human catastrophe."

How hard can a first chapter slap? Haven't read such a strong opening scene to a novel in ages.

"Madame de Rênal had been deeply upset, deeply astonished, to realize that the man who, in a flash, had become the whole world to her, was an idiot."

has a truer sentence ever been written

this book is truly something else

"The wealth of centuries had been transmuted into ornament, luxury, pleasure; no more; the abolition of feudal rights had swept away duties with privileges; wealth, like old wine, had let the dregs of greed, even of care and prudence, fall to the bottom of the barrel, preserving only verve and colour."

At this point in the book Angie just won the chancellor election, and so far there was one question that kept coming to mind: how did she deal with all this buffoonery in German politics and not go INSANE? She should teach a masterclass on that particular skillset. Very impressive.

be warned, this book has the size and weight of a brick. After bringing it home from the library today, I even pinched my fingers, trying to transfer this book from my purse to the coffee table :D be safe folks

"Und dann, was wußten 1914, nach fast einem halben Jahrhundert des Friedens, die großen Massen vom Kriege? Sie kannten ihn nicht, sie hatten kaum je an ihn gedacht. Er war eine Legende [...]"

Eerie stuff. Feels just like history is repeating itself.

On the 2011/12 protests in Russia: "Asked if the Kremlin was surprised by the unfolding of events, a senior United Russia functionary, Yuri Kotler, responded: ‘Well, imagine if your cat came to you and started talking. First of all, it’s a cat, and it’s talking. Second, all these years, the government fed it, gave it water, petted it, and now it’s talking and demanding something. It’s a shock.’" what a metaphor :D

"Russia’s political elite, in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet collapse, was by no means uniform. But most of them found faking democracy perfectly natural since they had been faking communism for at least two decades before 1991."

strong intro chapter, ngl.

A theologist on American evangelicals and their involvement in politics:
“I’ve come to believe . . . that the Christ of the gospel has become a moral stranger to us,” he said. “If you read the gospels, the things that profoundly mattered to Christ, they marginally matter to most evangelical Christians. And the things that really profoundly matter to them, marginally mattered to Christ.”

"The overwhelming question, obviously, is why anyone would enjoy listening to people get fooled into becoming more and more offended and upset. To which there seems no good answer. At some point we have simply to bow our heads in acceptance of the fact that some Americans enjoy stuff that seems like it ought to make any right-thinking person want to open a vein. "

I wonder what he would have made of Twitter

"But of course we should keep in mind that vulgar has many dictionary definitions and that only a couple of these have to do w/ lewdness or bad taste. At root, vulgar just means popular on a mass scale. It is the semantic opposite of pretentious or snobby. It is humility with a comb-over"

this is getting off to an insightful start...

There is this unique joy I get from reading Olga Tokarczuk's work. But I feel like this one is already impressing me on a whole other level (maybe because it's about the world of my ancestors and the research and attention to detail is out of this world).

"It’s the litmus test for distinguishing between authoritarian authority and genuine authority: If they build you up, they are genuine; if they put you down, they are authoritarian."

"I’m not saying never doubt or question. The Lord gave you a mind so that you would make honest use of it. I’m saying you must be sure that the doubts and questions are your own, not, so to speak, the mustache and walking stick that happen to be the fashion of any particular moment."

"I do not remember grief and loneliness so much as I do peace and comfort—grief, but never without comfort; loneliness, but never without peace. Almost never."

"People don’t talk much now about the Spanish influenza, but that was a terrible thing, and it struck just at the time of the Great War, just when we were getting involved in it. [...] There was talk that the Germans had caused it with some sort of secret weapon, and I think people wanted to believe that, because it saved them from reflecting on what other meaning it might have."

I barely remember anything in particular from the last time I read it. So now I get to be amazed and surprised all over again. What a blessing :)

When I was a student I bought my first copy of this book on a flea market. When I started reading it, I noticed that every single page had typos (all 1200). It drove me mad but I kept reading because I found this book so fascinating. Needless to say, that copy found its way to the donation box quickly. This year for my birthday, I treated myself to the best version available on the market. May the joy begin <3

I think this promises to be a great book, but I don't seem to be in the right mindset for it at the moment. Thus I'll save it for the day that I am and place it back on the to-read shelf for the time being

This is one of the Tokarczuks earlier pieces ... and to be honest, it feels like a rough sketch to what would eventually become both Fligths and Drive Your Plow of The Dead. It doesn't quite live up to the greatness to either of those works, so I'm quitting at this point.

Right now I don't see myself finishing it, although it has been kind of informative. So this is going to dnf but I might pick it up again one day

I just don't like the narrator at all. For around 100 pages he either gave a long-winded, self-centered monologue about how miserable he is... or his childhood memories took forever to get to some point. I don't see myself reading 1100 more pages of this.

The writing style isn't my cup of tea at all. This book will most likely find its way back to the library in the near future.

I'll give it another day or so, but I don't think I can finish this. While I can guess why so many people liked it, it's not really my cup of tea.

Quite stunning so far

I'm not sure if I can finish this. While I can totally see how Sugar's responses provide comfort to many readers, all these stories about hardship impact me quite strongly (which isn't usually the case) and I'm not finding real enjoyment in reading that stuff. I'll let it rest for a few days.

This is the oldest book on my To-Read list. It was recommended to me four years ago by someone I met while travelling through Serbia and I'm excited to finally follow through on my promise to read it some time.