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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
I want to have read this book more than I want to actually read it. The premise is interesting to me, but the plot and characters aren’t.
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
⭐️⭐️.5
I’m so glad I watched the series before I read this novel. I don’t know that the scenes or characters would have been as easy to follow otherwise. Honestly, it’s impressive that the show was able to come from this book. It was choppy. Frankly the last chapter was the best one, but the ending might have sent me into an existential crisis, like Mrs. Abendsen. Oy!
The characters fell flat. The store shop owner Robert Childan seems to be the fullest character . . . His chapters are almost narrated by him. His thoughts and feelings (while still shallow) appear to be on display. I would argue the book is actually about him and his experience in the ‘Japanese West’, at least until the last couple of chapters. The only actual dimension Juliana was given seems to be superficial, it was weird and uncomfortable. She and Betty Kasouras were overly sexualized.
For such a short novel there were pages and pages of descriptions of items, clothes, boobs, the park sights, and sounds.
$4 for a book (today’s price ≈ $43)
$200 for a dress (today’s price ≈ $2,100)
Quotes:
‘ It’s a sort of brain defect, like a lobotomy - that maiming those German psychiatrists do as a poor substitute for psychotherapy. ‘
(pg. 36, ch 3)
“Afraid I do not care for modern art,” Mr. Baynes said. “I like the old prewar cu ists and abstractionists. I like to a picture to mean something, not merely to represent the ideal.” He turned away.
“But that’s the task of art,” Lotze said. “To advance the spirituality of man, over the sensual. Your abstract art represented a period of spiritual decadence, of spiritual chaos, due to the disintegration of society, the old plutocracy. - “ (pg. 39-40, ch. 3)
‘ It is not hubris, not pride; it is inflation of the ego to its ultimate - confusion between him who worships and that which is worshiped. Man has not eaten God; God has eaten man. ‘
(pg. 43, ch. 3)
‘ He glanced at the girl beside him. God, they read a book, he thought, and they spout on forever. ‘
(pg. 69, ch. 3)
The way women are spoken about and perceived…
‘ But he went on examining the book and nodding. "Yes," he said, "this does look interesting. I would very much like to read it. I try to keep up with what's being discussed." Was that proper to say? Admission that his interest lay in book's modishness. Perhaps that was low-place. He did not know, and yet he felt that it was. "One cannot judge by book being best seller," he said. "We all know that. Many best sellers are terrible trash. This, however -" He faltered.
Betty said, "Most true. Average taste really deplorable." ‘
(pg. 114)
So this gross phrase has been used for a long time…?!
‘ Even the I Ching, which they've forced down our throats; it's Chinese. ‘
(pg. 117)
Example of the superficially that was placed upon Juliana’s character:
‘ She always liked people to look at her, admire her; anybody. I guess most women are like that.
They crave attention all the time. They're very babyish that
way.
He thought, Juliana could never stand being alone; she had to have me around all the time complimenting her. Little kids are that way; they feel if their parents aren't watching what they do then what they do isn't real. ‘
(pg. 141)
"I like Verdi and Puccini. All we get in New York is heavy German bombastic Wagner and Orff, …”
(pg. 165)
"Are you reading straight through?" Joe asked. "Or skipping around in it?"
She said, "This is wonderful; he has us sending food and education to all the Asiatics, millions of them."
"Welfare work on a worldwide scale," Joe said.
"Yes. The New Deal under Tugwell; they raise the level of the masses — listen." She read aloud to Joe:
(pg. 166)
‘ "Listen, I'm not an intellectual - Fascism has no need of that. What is wanted is the deed. Theory derives from action. What our corporate state demands from us is comprehension of the social forces - of history. You see? I tell you; I know, Juliana." His tone was earnest, almost beseeching. “Those old rotten money-run empires, Britain and France and U.S.A., although the latter actually a sort of bastard sideshoot not strictly empire, but money-oriented even so. ’
(pg. 170)
‘ As he was taken upstairs, one of the cops said, "Will he be booked here?"
"No" another said. "We'll hold him for the German consul.
They want to try him under German law."
There was no list of attorneys, after all. ‘
(pg. 207)
‘ And what will that leave, that Third World Insanity? Will that put an end to all life, of every kind, everywhere? When our planet becomes a dead planet, by our own hands?
He could not believe that. Even if all life on our planet is de stroyed, there must be other life somewhere which we know nothing of. It is impossible that ours is the only world; there must be world after world unseen by us, in some region or dimension that we simply do not perceive.
Even though I can't prove that, even though it isn't logical - I believe it, he said to himself. ‘
‘ Things happen fast, during the time of transition in a totalitarian society. ‘
(pg. 258)
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I was often a little unsure of this book. It see as just sort of a view into an alternative history and how the world would be. The people living their lives and I found that to be genuinely interesting. The ending is quite open ended. A lot of people said this book is trippy given Dick's mental state and drug use, I think my brain blocked those bits out because I don't remember them all too well besides the ending. There was also a lot of characters to keep track of. I need to start writing them down!
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Very good! His focus on reality and and perception took more of a second seat the usual (though still very prevalent) but it was a very good early book from him. Highly Suggested.
Aufmerksam wurde ich auf das Buch durch die gleichnamige Serie, die ich anfangs sehr vielversprechend fand, die sich aber doch irgendwie im spannungslosen Tal verlaufen hat.
Das Buch wollte ich mir dennoch nicht entgehen lassen. Immerhin ist es das höchst ausgezeichnete unter all den Werken von Philip K. Dick. Eine Alternativweltgeschichte? Nun, nicht das erste Mal, dass ich dieses Thema vor mir habe. Da habe ich schon gelesen "The Plot Against America" von Philip Roth, "Fatherland" von Robert Harris und dann noch ein Werk über das man besser den Mantel des Stillschweigens breitet.
Nun muss man Dick natürlich zu Gute halten, dass er lange vor den anderen geschrieben hat und dass sich Literatur im Allgemeinen und das Genre im Speziellen natürlich weiter entwickelt haben. Ich konnte dem Roman dennoch nicht allzu viel abgewinnen.
Die ganze Geschichte hat kaum einen Spannungsbogen, es sind viele Hauptpersonen und die Einblicke in deren Leben ist einfach zu flach, um sie wirklich zu charakterisieren. Der auktoriale Erzählstil ist prinzipiell ja keine schlechte Sache, aber die nur blitzlichthaften Einblicke in die Gedankenwelten der handelnden Personen sind alles andere als mitreißend.
Aber das Hauptproblem ist das Fehlen eines Konfliktes für die handelnden Personen. Jeder hat sein Thema, jeder hat seine Schwierigkeiten, es wird de fakto eine Welt durch die Augen der verschiedenen Personen erzählt. Gegen Ende hin, dringt der auktoriale Erzähle immer mehr in die einzelnen Personen ein, wird beinahe zum wechselnden Icherzähle, der verschiedene hysterische Persönlichkeiten schildert. Aber es kommt keine Spannung auf. Man fragt sich nie, wie wird das weitergehen, sondern bloß, wann wird es zu Ende gehen. Man hat keine Zweifel darüber was passieren wird, oder vielleicht hat man auch gar keine Annahmen dazu, weil es egal scheint.
Ja, man muss das Buch als etwas erkennen, das vor mehr als fünfzig Jahren entstanden ist. Aber auch damals gab es besser geschilderte Dystopien. Ja, man kann den Roman durchaus als experimentell deuten, aber deshalb muss er noch lange nicht gefallen.
Das Buch wollte ich mir dennoch nicht entgehen lassen. Immerhin ist es das höchst ausgezeichnete unter all den Werken von Philip K. Dick. Eine Alternativweltgeschichte? Nun, nicht das erste Mal, dass ich dieses Thema vor mir habe. Da habe ich schon gelesen "The Plot Against America" von Philip Roth, "Fatherland" von Robert Harris und dann noch ein Werk über das man besser den Mantel des Stillschweigens breitet.
Nun muss man Dick natürlich zu Gute halten, dass er lange vor den anderen geschrieben hat und dass sich Literatur im Allgemeinen und das Genre im Speziellen natürlich weiter entwickelt haben. Ich konnte dem Roman dennoch nicht allzu viel abgewinnen.
Die ganze Geschichte hat kaum einen Spannungsbogen, es sind viele Hauptpersonen und die Einblicke in deren Leben ist einfach zu flach, um sie wirklich zu charakterisieren. Der auktoriale Erzählstil ist prinzipiell ja keine schlechte Sache, aber die nur blitzlichthaften Einblicke in die Gedankenwelten der handelnden Personen sind alles andere als mitreißend.
Aber das Hauptproblem ist das Fehlen eines Konfliktes für die handelnden Personen. Jeder hat sein Thema, jeder hat seine Schwierigkeiten, es wird de fakto eine Welt durch die Augen der verschiedenen Personen erzählt. Gegen Ende hin, dringt der auktoriale Erzähle immer mehr in die einzelnen Personen ein, wird beinahe zum wechselnden Icherzähle, der verschiedene hysterische Persönlichkeiten schildert. Aber es kommt keine Spannung auf. Man fragt sich nie, wie wird das weitergehen, sondern bloß, wann wird es zu Ende gehen. Man hat keine Zweifel darüber was passieren wird, oder vielleicht hat man auch gar keine Annahmen dazu, weil es egal scheint.
Ja, man muss das Buch als etwas erkennen, das vor mehr als fünfzig Jahren entstanden ist. Aber auch damals gab es besser geschilderte Dystopien. Ja, man kann den Roman durchaus als experimentell deuten, aber deshalb muss er noch lange nicht gefallen.
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Uhhh...what did I just read? I thought I was embarking on an alternative history in which Japan and Germany won World War II but I don't think that's what this book is actually about. A chunk of it was philosophizing about art. What makes art valuable? What is the significance of historical works and renditions vs original creations? Does art need to have a practical purpose? And identity. At the outset I was like, are all these characters rabid racists? Maybe not exactly but they were all wearing so many masks. Like the art, what makes a person a rendition vs an original, authentic human being? Anyway I don't know where I'm going with this because I'm not sure where this book was going...but it was in a very different direction from my previous read (The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt) which was densely descriptive and completely immersive and just sucked me into its world, its characters, etc. The writing here was clipped, the characters felt flat. There was a plot but it was paper thin. And yet the sum of this book still felt greater than its parts. But it's a puzzle. It's a giant mirage metaphor.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A