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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
probably my favourite book i’ve read this year?? rothfeld put words to so many of the thoughts, feelings and desires that i’ve experienced throughout my life that i always fet were too much for the world to handle. in a way reading this was very validating and, for me, rather emotional at times. i love reading writers who genuinely care about the erotic.
favs: all things are too small, more is more, the flesh it makes you crazy, wherever you go you could leave, only mercy: sex after consent
favs: all things are too small, more is more, the flesh it makes you crazy, wherever you go you could leave, only mercy: sex after consent
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
really liked! thought all of the essays were incredibly well done, prose was epic esp for nonfiction writing, and the sally rooney essay was SO GOOD. dragged a bit through essays i wasn’t connected to but overall so interesting and brought together so many interesting thoughts and topics
I absolutely loved this collection of essays. The premise of the title essay is what drew me in, with the jacket of the book asserting that she "confronts one of the most sacred dogmas of our time: the demand that we apply the virtues of equality and democracy to culture and aesthetics. The result is a culture that is flattened and sanitized, purged of ugliness, excess, and provocation." I was excited for someone to tackle this exact idea, to refute the profoundly anti-intellectual 'let people like things' brigade, and she did a wonderful job of breaking down what is wrong with this unfortunately popular mindset.
Then I moved on to the other essays and was delighted to find that they were all fascinating and well written. Other than the title essay my other two favorites were Only Mercy: Sex After Consent, which was an incredibly important parsing of sexual culture in the wake of Me Too, a must read honestly, and then the final essay ended up being my favorite I think. It is called Our True Entertainment Was Arguing and is about equal love, which according to the author should just be called simply love because nothing less is acceptable. Marriage is a bit of a bad word among some millenials I know, and I've often struggled to defend the concept even though my own marriage is the greatest source of comfort and happiness in my life, but if I'm ever again asked what is so great about marriage I'm going to refer people to this essay. When you find someone you want to argue with forever, someone you are always excited to talk to even though you spend most of your time with them, someone with whom, "a lifetime is not enough for all we have to tell each other." you realize you have something valuable beyond measure and couldn't imagine ever living without it again.
Then I moved on to the other essays and was delighted to find that they were all fascinating and well written. Other than the title essay my other two favorites were Only Mercy: Sex After Consent, which was an incredibly important parsing of sexual culture in the wake of Me Too, a must read honestly, and then the final essay ended up being my favorite I think. It is called Our True Entertainment Was Arguing and is about equal love, which according to the author should just be called simply love because nothing less is acceptable. Marriage is a bit of a bad word among some millenials I know, and I've often struggled to defend the concept even though my own marriage is the greatest source of comfort and happiness in my life, but if I'm ever again asked what is so great about marriage I'm going to refer people to this essay. When you find someone you want to argue with forever, someone you are always excited to talk to even though you spend most of your time with them, someone with whom, "a lifetime is not enough for all we have to tell each other." you realize you have something valuable beyond measure and couldn't imagine ever living without it again.
challenging
inspiring
medium-paced
This book is visceral, raw, and extravagant exactly what is being praised in the book. What is being human if not a bit dramatic, messy, and real? The sanitation and paring of the self, the mind and the body is a cultural theme that has disturbed me for many years. This collection of essays explores the origins of that phenomenon and delves into what is lost when we are and do, less.
Her writing is lush and gorgeous, particularly when she writes about her personal experiences. She writes very authentically, a reprieve from the undertone of fear and uncertainty that had become characteristic in a lot of writing. This book is excellent and I am better for having read it.
Her writing is lush and gorgeous, particularly when she writes about her personal experiences. She writes very authentically, a reprieve from the undertone of fear and uncertainty that had become characteristic in a lot of writing. This book is excellent and I am better for having read it.
challenging
informative
medium-paced
reflective
medium-paced
"Absolute equality requires Absolute identity. A world in which everyone loved everyone else equally would contain no love worth mentioning. All things considered, we are lucky that when they beat you, you cease to be the best"
I am so lucky to love the best people
I am so lucky to love the best people
informative
slow-paced
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
funny
informative
medium-paced