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3.17 AVERAGE
3.17 AVERAGE
Kukapa ei tuntisi Robinson Crusoen tarinaa! Taisin kuitenkin lukea alkuperäisen romaanin nyt ensimmäistä kertaa. Defoe kirjoittaa vahvasti aikakauden edistysuskon näkökulmasta: Autiolle saarelle haaksirikkoutuva Crusoe löytää Jumalan ja perustaa paratiisin kaltaisen ihanneyhteiskunnan, jossa hän, valkoinen mies, on kiistaton hallitsija. Vaikka Defoe jonkin verran kritisoi kolonialismin lieveilmiöitä, teos raapaisee niitä vain pinnalta ja jää jumiin hyvin Eurooppa-keskeiseen näkökulmaansa. Viihdyin teoksen parissa parhaiten, kun se tyytyi kuvaamaan Crusoen arkista ruumiillista aherrusta saarellaan, sillä Defoe on taitava kirjoittaja, jolla on silmää yksityiskohdille. Lopussa olo jäi kuitenkin lähinnä tyhjäksi: enimmäkseen teos tuntui ylipitkältä ja taantumukselliselta ihmisjärjen ylistykseltä.
2.5 stars rounded
It is always hard to rate these old classics because I always end up reading them with modern eyes. Terms and phrases that would not be tolerated now, people tend to make allowances for. Overall, I found it...okay. The classist belief that someone is good or better at something because of where they were born or their status is abhorrent and is some self-important BS. The racism and white savior complex tend to ignite the rage in my brain. I had the same problems with Tarzan and clouds the experience.
It is always hard to rate these old classics because I always end up reading them with modern eyes. Terms and phrases that would not be tolerated now, people tend to make allowances for. Overall, I found it...okay. The classist belief that someone is good or better at something because of where they were born or their status is abhorrent and is some self-important BS. The racism and white savior complex tend to ignite the rage in my brain. I had the same problems with Tarzan and clouds the experience.
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I recently re-read this, and discovered that I really don't like a lot of it - it is colonialist, racist, and promotes a brand of Christian thinking I find particularly noxious (God gets credit for everything, human agency or bad luck get the blame for everything, and Christianity justifies whatever is done to those who are not white or Christian). It's also fairly tedious by today's standards, I think. I'm glad to have re-read it, having seen it referenced in countless history books lately (random example - in a book about the life of Abraham Lincoln, discussing books popular when he was growing up). The illustrations in this edition are beautiful, but still not a fun book, despite its status as "great literature" . . .
A landmark to be sure but how readable is it to someone used to modern novels? Middling in my opinion. The survival stuff and descriptions of circumstances still entertain greatly. His fondness for half-page run-on sentences and long musings on religion make this a great bedtime book to get those eyelids drooping. Overall, it's an interesting historical document but feel free to skip over large sections, you won't miss much. Also, this book is often categorized in children's literature but I'd suspect that it would test the patience of most kids.
reflective
slow-paced
Everyone's heard of Robinson Crusoe, the famous castaway, and his sidekick Friday. There are probably a bunch of movies about him (I haven't seen them), and a bunch of children's versions (I haven't read them). But do we really know his story? Have we read it, as he wrote it in his fading, fast-disappearing ink? And what happened after the ink ran out? Did he just remember it and then write it down later -- with embellishments of course -- after the island became a self-sustaining country of its own, its "creator" retired with plenty of free time on his hands to not think about survival and/or rescue? Did he tell it to a writer friend (a certain Mr Foe), who then wrote it down -- with more embellishments of course? Or is the story entirely made up, loosely based on the sad story of a castaway who survived on an island and then died, the only witnesses a mute slave and a late-arrival castaway? If we need answers to these questions, we've misunderstood Literature. The answer is yes to all of them, stories beget stories ad infinitum.
My favorite part of the book is the long middle section. The part where he's all alone on the island, contemplating existence. It's part Anglo Pragmatics, part Western Religion, part Eastern Zen. But can we really survive alone? Can we be islands? Maybe the final part of the book (the arrival of Friday on) is just Crusoe trying to keep his lonely self sane with an adventure story. He never did leave that island...
NOTE: I read the free gutenberg.org version to accompany Coetzee's Foe.
My favorite part of the book is the long middle section. The part where he's all alone on the island, contemplating existence. It's part Anglo Pragmatics, part Western Religion, part Eastern Zen. But can we really survive alone? Can we be islands? Maybe the final part of the book (the arrival of Friday on) is just Crusoe trying to keep his lonely self sane with an adventure story. He never did leave that island...
NOTE: I read the free gutenberg.org version to accompany Coetzee's Foe.
First this book is incredibly boring, then it becomes super racist, and then it goes back to boring again. What a load of piss.
What I learned from this book is that not every book that is called a classic earns that title.If this hadn't been on my Feb bookshelf then I wouldn't have finished it.
I know this is regarded as the first english language novel but that doesn't excuse the fact that it is badly written.
Robinson Crusoe is a complete and utter idiot, he never learns from his mistakes and never takes advice from anybody. Maybe it's just me but if the very first ship you are on sinks perhaps you should take it as a sign, but not him off he goes again and ends up as a slave. He escapes and is rescued by a too good to be true captain and makes a good life for himself in Brazil, but even then that is not enough. So when some of his friends decide they want more slaves he is selected to make the trip to buy them and of course being Robinson the ship is struck by a hurricane while in the Carribean. Sounds bad so far doesn't it and it only gets worse.
I know that I shouldn't complain about the attitude towards slavery in the book as it was a different time period and it is historically accurate but I just found it really hard to stomach, in fact it made me wish that Friday had been a cannibal.
I have read this book before but I was about ten and you don't really pick up on the racism and all the other things that are wrong with this book at that age. Then you just think about the adventure of being on a desert island. The reason I read this again is because a few weeks ago I was having dinner with my Mum and she was watching what I thought was I very bad adaptation. Turns out it was the source material that was the problem and based on that there was no way you could ever make a good version.
I know this is regarded as the first english language novel but that doesn't excuse the fact that it is badly written.
Robinson Crusoe is a complete and utter idiot, he never learns from his mistakes and never takes advice from anybody. Maybe it's just me but if the very first ship you are on sinks perhaps you should take it as a sign, but not him off he goes again and ends up as a slave. He escapes and is rescued by a too good to be true captain and makes a good life for himself in Brazil, but even then that is not enough. So when some of his friends decide they want more slaves he is selected to make the trip to buy them and of course being Robinson the ship is struck by a hurricane while in the Carribean. Sounds bad so far doesn't it and it only gets worse.
I know that I shouldn't complain about the attitude towards slavery in the book as it was a different time period and it is historically accurate but I just found it really hard to stomach, in fact it made me wish that Friday had been a cannibal.
I have read this book before but I was about ten and you don't really pick up on the racism and all the other things that are wrong with this book at that age. Then you just think about the adventure of being on a desert island. The reason I read this again is because a few weeks ago I was having dinner with my Mum and she was watching what I thought was I very bad adaptation. Turns out it was the source material that was the problem and based on that there was no way you could ever make a good version.
