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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
It's literary, dystopian, fantasy, sci-fi, satire, an epic quest, and also very humorous. It's about race and revolves around a little known Edgar Allan Poe story. We have a black professor denied tenure because he sees himself as an English professor and not some token to be put on Diversity Committees. His obsession is the story by Poe. He ends up networking with some others (all black and some family) to go to Antarctica and search for a fabled land while drilling for fresh water. They soon meet a yeti-like race of white "snow monkeys" and a clash of cultures ensues. There's literary analysis as digression while a modern survival drama takes place. Won't spoil it for you. Certainly worth a read. The satire is serious though when you contemplate current events. If it were a movie it would be like Life of Pi meets Black Dynamite.
Loved the way this guy's voice sounded in my head. I would not have expected such a thoughtful action movie from this.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I wouldn't mind reading a follow-up about Tsalal. :)
Brutal satire. Our (Black) protagonist is denied tenure after focusing on Poe rather than the African American literature he’d been expected to focus on. He’s been obsessed with Poe’s only novel, a tale about Arthur Gordon Pym’s trip to the South Pole. After the tenure denial, convinced the novel was really a true story, he ends up taking a motley (all Black) crew down to the South Pole tracing Pym’s supposed trail. Satirical take on race in our society, wrapped in a withering revisiting of the Pym novel, full of snark. I see a lot of reviews commenting that the first half (the tenure denial, the interest in Pym, the decision to strike out, putting the team together) is satisfying satire while the second half (what happens when they get to the South Pole) jumps the shark, but I think the second half is where the author does most of the work he wanted to do. To explain is to spoil it.
Great literature? No. Worth reading? Yes.
Great literature? No. Worth reading? Yes.
I wasn't sure I would really need to have taken the time to re-read The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym before starting this, but I'm very glad I did. This book is in such close dialogue with Poe's that I think I would have missed a lot without having the original fresh on my mind. It plays with and twist's the original, while also offering some really delightful layers of its own. I feel like it's got a fascinating racial perspective--the crew of the Creole show up, more than ready to enact a little bit of colonialism upon the Tekelians, until the exact moment that the tables get turned--and it did so in a way that never crowded out the rest of the story.
And honestly, I liked the vagueness of it all. What happened to the world? Where did Chris and Garth end up? It doesn't really matter--we only know what the answers aren't, but weirdly in this case I feel like the ambiguity is less ambiguous than in Poe's original. Chris, at least, got a more-or-less complete story, and it's just the cleaning up that's missing.
And honestly, I liked the vagueness of it all. What happened to the world? Where did Chris and Garth end up? It doesn't really matter--we only know what the answers aren't, but weirdly in this case I feel like the ambiguity is less ambiguous than in Poe's original. Chris, at least, got a more-or-less complete story, and it's just the cleaning up that's missing.
I abandoned this one. It just didn't do it for me. The premise and, honestly, the first 150 pages were great. I found myself struggling to read it after that point. Then I read an interview with the author, and it took him 8 years to write it, and even he almost scrapped it.
A wonderfully engaging story that introduces a sci-fi/fantasy scenario to discuss real issues around race, racism, slavery, and society.
While a light and refreshing read, it has heavy satirical themes that benefit from discussing and being shared.
While a light and refreshing read, it has heavy satirical themes that benefit from discussing and being shared.
For science fiction, it's a very good history book. Johnson's prose is lively and the frame story seems like we're going to be set up for some very fun indignant-academic storytelling. Then things get weird, and we get a history lesson.
I'm kind of curious who Johnson's target audience is, because when he talks about arbitrary violence and "living in a three-fifths house" he does so quite often. There's almost certainly other symbols I missed, but the symbols I got it was like "yeah, I got you." The characters aren't very deep besides the first two, and a lot of it is simply absurd.
But under the absurdity is a very good understanding of history, deployed carefully. And the history works well with the fourth-wall breaking asides where the protagonist speaks directly to the reader. It's a very engaging way to understand African American history and American literature.
So if you're looking for the "be entertained and learn some shit" thing, Pym's very good. Luckily, those are things I am all about.
I'm kind of curious who Johnson's target audience is, because when he talks about arbitrary violence and "living in a three-fifths house" he does so quite often. There's almost certainly other symbols I missed, but the symbols I got it was like "yeah, I got you." The characters aren't very deep besides the first two, and a lot of it is simply absurd.
But under the absurdity is a very good understanding of history, deployed carefully. And the history works well with the fourth-wall breaking asides where the protagonist speaks directly to the reader. It's a very engaging way to understand African American history and American literature.
So if you're looking for the "be entertained and learn some shit" thing, Pym's very good. Luckily, those are things I am all about.
This was something. Listened on audio book for CMLT 2600 Black Diaspora Lit
adventurous
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes