Scan barcode
gamuchams's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book is very disturbing and uncomfortable to read. I can’t tell if this is a reflection of the author or if Tanizaki did this on purpose to reflect japans changing cultural identity in the 1920s. Either way, do not read this if you are sensitive about topics like grooming
brainemptyjust's review against another edition
challenging
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
chairmanbernanke's review against another edition
3.0
It is stunning how accurately the author has observed and prefigured certain developments in society as well as individual roles and choices.
rakbuku's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
korrick's review against another edition
4.0
3.5/5
If one wishes to render a portrait of an egotistical tantrum, one simply needs to tell a grown man no, and only no. Various demographical and self-reflexive factors interact with this situation, of course, but the gist of it for a long time now has been that normality is artificial, and the obsession with demonizing the used stems from nothing more than said calcified reality of whose word becomes law. Men gave rights to women; men never should have been in the position to give rights in the first place.
I said in a status that this book is a great litmus test, and this holds true because in the end, who takes Jōji seriously? By seriously, I mean his spoiled insecurity wherein he refuses to converse with his peers of equal social status, instead of obsessing over someone whose station in life entails she is as literally trapped by him as he pathetically pretends to be by her. Fetishism is the art of the powerful imagining they are anything but in control of every aspect of the fetishized, and building up an underage girl, whom society would not mind seeing raped and/or murdered and/or swallowed whole, as a goddess of temptation is nothing more than a self-absorbed dictator obscenely taking their power for granted. Education is the stuff of the rest of one's life, so why all the bafflement when a girl-child shut up in a cage of dehumanizing lust, made to perform for financial security, quickly learns it is always good to have a back-up life, or two, or three? And why would someone keep to the truth when the truth is enforced isolation with a slavering patriarch in a life that acts out Ibsen's 'A Doll's House' from a different angle and, in a sense, higher stakes?
I make it a rule to never pity the person in power, for the fact that Naomi isn't beaten or (successfully) caged and doesn't end up in some back alley with her throat slit doesn't make Jōji anything worth humanizing, for he merely refuses (on one level, at least) to do various things that society would love to let him get away with. Until that changes, what is bred in the powerless cannot be blamed on the individual alone, for it is not absolute powerlessness that corrupts absolutely.
I equivocate about the rating between the positive remembrance of [b:The Makioka Sisters|34449|The Makioka Sisters|Jun'ichirō Tanizaki|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388340763s/34449.jpg|841208], a facile time of fitting the words to my purposes, and some truly vicious status quo upholding reviews that find easy purchase in this rather noncommittal piece of work. Much as what happened in [b:On Beauty|3679|On Beauty|Zadie Smith|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1341993915s/3679.jpg|910752], [b:The Age of Innocence|53835|The Age of Innocence|Edith Wharton|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388248423s/53835.jpg|1959512], and what I hope, upon rereading, to happen in Lolita, the obsessed over with no voice speaks clearly enough to make a person of flesh and blood, however much the audience-constructed saint/whore dichotomy mewls and pukes otherwise. As such, the book is useful enough for my purposes, but the same cannot be said about its other readers. What with the mainstream enamorment with noncritical adulation of the machine of the state and recent events fated to make that state an even more efficiently murderous contraption, I'll be needing my energy for activities other than wasting it on sea lions playing pretend, denying what they have been artificially rendered as capable of on the grounds that they haven't done it: yet. The US is the only country in the world that doesn't have a bill of rights for those under eighteen, and the fact that Naomi is received with hatred and objectification simply ensures her real life descendants will continue to be bought and sold on the market of might makes right. Poor Jōji, having his pedophilic purchase backfire on him. Poor Jōji should never have been in the position to purchase.
If one wishes to render a portrait of an egotistical tantrum, one simply needs to tell a grown man no, and only no. Various demographical and self-reflexive factors interact with this situation, of course, but the gist of it for a long time now has been that normality is artificial, and the obsession with demonizing the used stems from nothing more than said calcified reality of whose word becomes law. Men gave rights to women; men never should have been in the position to give rights in the first place.
I said in a status that this book is a great litmus test, and this holds true because in the end, who takes Jōji seriously? By seriously, I mean his spoiled insecurity wherein he refuses to converse with his peers of equal social status, instead of obsessing over someone whose station in life entails she is as literally trapped by him as he pathetically pretends to be by her. Fetishism is the art of the powerful imagining they are anything but in control of every aspect of the fetishized, and building up an underage girl, whom society would not mind seeing raped and/or murdered and/or swallowed whole, as a goddess of temptation is nothing more than a self-absorbed dictator obscenely taking their power for granted. Education is the stuff of the rest of one's life, so why all the bafflement when a girl-child shut up in a cage of dehumanizing lust, made to perform for financial security, quickly learns it is always good to have a back-up life, or two, or three? And why would someone keep to the truth when the truth is enforced isolation with a slavering patriarch in a life that acts out Ibsen's 'A Doll's House' from a different angle and, in a sense, higher stakes?
I make it a rule to never pity the person in power, for the fact that Naomi isn't beaten or (successfully) caged and doesn't end up in some back alley with her throat slit doesn't make Jōji anything worth humanizing, for he merely refuses (on one level, at least) to do various things that society would love to let him get away with. Until that changes, what is bred in the powerless cannot be blamed on the individual alone, for it is not absolute powerlessness that corrupts absolutely.
I equivocate about the rating between the positive remembrance of [b:The Makioka Sisters|34449|The Makioka Sisters|Jun'ichirō Tanizaki|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388340763s/34449.jpg|841208], a facile time of fitting the words to my purposes, and some truly vicious status quo upholding reviews that find easy purchase in this rather noncommittal piece of work. Much as what happened in [b:On Beauty|3679|On Beauty|Zadie Smith|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1341993915s/3679.jpg|910752], [b:The Age of Innocence|53835|The Age of Innocence|Edith Wharton|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388248423s/53835.jpg|1959512], and what I hope, upon rereading, to happen in Lolita, the obsessed over with no voice speaks clearly enough to make a person of flesh and blood, however much the audience-constructed saint/whore dichotomy mewls and pukes otherwise. As such, the book is useful enough for my purposes, but the same cannot be said about its other readers. What with the mainstream enamorment with noncritical adulation of the machine of the state and recent events fated to make that state an even more efficiently murderous contraption, I'll be needing my energy for activities other than wasting it on sea lions playing pretend, denying what they have been artificially rendered as capable of on the grounds that they haven't done it: yet. The US is the only country in the world that doesn't have a bill of rights for those under eighteen, and the fact that Naomi is received with hatred and objectification simply ensures her real life descendants will continue to be bought and sold on the market of might makes right. Poor Jōji, having his pedophilic purchase backfire on him. Poor Jōji should never have been in the position to purchase.
Jōji , you have no right to be angry, however cold I may be. You're taking everything you can from me. Aren't you satisfied with that?
smores5001's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Pedophilia
scheheerazade's review against another edition
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
verdecerase's review against another edition
4.0
J’ai apprécié ma lecture cependant les personnages m’ont vraiment été antipathiques; que se soit Joji ou Naomi. Je n’ai jamais lu un personnage féminin aussi insupportable. Est ce parce qu’il est écrit d’après le regard de Joji je ne sais pas.
En tout cas, d’une certaine façon, un peu étrange, ce livre m’a fait penser à Lolita de Vladimir Nabokov; principalement du à leur différence d’âge et la vision qu’à Joji de Naomi. En tout cas, le livre porte bien son nom.
Malgré tout, j’ai apprécié ma lecture. Le style d’écriture et facile et on entre plutôt facilement dans l’histoire !
En tout cas, d’une certaine façon, un peu étrange, ce livre m’a fait penser à Lolita de Vladimir Nabokov; principalement du à leur différence d’âge et la vision qu’à Joji de Naomi. En tout cas, le livre porte bien son nom.
Malgré tout, j’ai apprécié ma lecture. Le style d’écriture et facile et on entre plutôt facilement dans l’histoire !
lockerpaint's review against another edition
2.0
I thought I was getting My Fair Lady, but I really got Lolita.