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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
A real meaning behind and clearly a bit of Balzac in Raphael de Valentin even though I found it really long and boring as it’s not a life choice that tortures me
After reading the rather spoilerific introduction (even though it provided some interesting historical analyses), I just couldn't get in to this book at this time, and ran out of library renewals on it. I'll pick it back up again after exams/the New Year.
I watched a musical based on this book after that divided to read the book. I got that I’m not a fan of French literature unfortunately
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Raphaël prend possession de la peau de chagrin qui exhaussera tous ses voeux mais qui en même temps raccourcira sa vie. Sur le coup, il s'en fout car il est suicidaire et qu'il n'a rien a perdre. Cependant, au fur et à mesure que sa condition s'améliore, Raphaël ne veut plus mourir. Il y a quelques bouts qui sont un peu long mais ce n'est pas si pire. Voilà un bon livre fantastique de Balzac.
reflective
slow-paced
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"The Vagina of my Life
is so stretched
out — Eileen Myles
Balzac is writing here like Tolstoy (in the sense that he's conveying a hatred of frigid bitches only slightly less intense than his hatred of the syndicated literature review). The point of interest doesn't lie in the chief character's punishment for use of the subjunctive tense. (I once had a professor who dealt out punishments no less harsh for use of the past imperfect.) It occurs, rather, after that romantic outing in which the chief character has managed to forget himself in "a pleasant abiding here and now" and yet manages no mistake. This is followed by the small anagnorisis (petite-mort) in which he notices a fractional retraction of the magic skin. A poisoning of regular happiness, to always be dependent on a convivialité one knows to be false. I wonder about the coincidence between the shrinkage of that glabrous skin after a pleasant episode of verbal intercourse and Balzac's knowledge of anatomy. Because he appears to be associating, in the negative movement, the stretching of the female organ that was once thought to be associated with the act. A skin that shrinks down to nothing and magically ends your life has its corollary in the moment when "the vagina of your life is so stretched out" that, to Balzac, you're as good as dead.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes