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A review by aziraphale
Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) by José Rizal
3.0
before reading: i was supposed to read this for school last year, but i got lazy. my teacher was an excellent storyteller though, and so i feel inclined to read the book anyway.
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i would like to review noli objectively. i really do. but as a filipino, i can't ignore the significance of this book to my country. the events that happen in this novel are prime examples what i learned in my own history classes. to read about it involving characters you get attached to throughout the entire novel is nothing like reading about these through a textbook. it felt so vivid, so real. so you can say that i'm biased, i'm predisposed to liking this book because of my pinoy pride.
* i've always found ibarra's (crisostomo's?) and maría clara's romance to be a tragedy. we never really got to see them develop, just the obstacles keeping them apart the entire novel.
* it takes a lotta guts to call out pretty much everything that rizal did. catholicism, education, the government. and i'm glad for that, he sparked a revolution didn't he? it's almost prophetical in some passages, how much he wants to spark change, even the smallest idea, with his writing.
"Combat begins in the sphere of ideas, to descend into the arena, which will be covered in blood." - Elías
* i found the narrator to be very amusing, almost cheeky sometimes. i liked how they would keep you in the dark about something, only hinting at it with the tiniest bit of foreshadowing or dialogue, only for it to spark into something so much bigger later on. it also felt really meta (in a good way) when it felt like the narrator was guiding you along, into different conversations at a dinner party or to see another perspective of a situation.
* one gripe i had though: maybe it just went over my head (or it has something to do with the satirical nature of the book) but some of those philosophical tangents went on for way too long. i want to go back and cross out entire pages which i just found superfluous. i really liked some of what philosopher tasio had to say but it felt bogged down by pages and pages of flowery, roundabout writing, like i had to pan around for it like gold in a sieve.
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i would like to review noli objectively. i really do. but as a filipino, i can't ignore the significance of this book to my country. the events that happen in this novel are prime examples what i learned in my own history classes. to read about it involving characters you get attached to throughout the entire novel is nothing like reading about these through a textbook. it felt so vivid, so real. so you can say that i'm biased, i'm predisposed to liking this book because of my pinoy pride.
* i've always found ibarra's (crisostomo's?) and maría clara's romance to be a tragedy. we never really got to see them develop, just the obstacles keeping them apart the entire novel.
* it takes a lotta guts to call out pretty much everything that rizal did. catholicism, education, the government. and i'm glad for that, he sparked a revolution didn't he? it's almost prophetical in some passages, how much he wants to spark change, even the smallest idea, with his writing.
"Combat begins in the sphere of ideas, to descend into the arena, which will be covered in blood." - Elías
* i found the narrator to be very amusing, almost cheeky sometimes. i liked how they would keep you in the dark about something, only hinting at it with the tiniest bit of foreshadowing or dialogue, only for it to spark into something so much bigger later on. it also felt really meta (in a good way) when it felt like the narrator was guiding you along, into different conversations at a dinner party or to see another perspective of a situation.
* one gripe i had though: maybe it just went over my head (or it has something to do with the satirical nature of the book) but some of those philosophical tangents went on for way too long. i want to go back and cross out entire pages which i just found superfluous. i really liked some of what philosopher tasio had to say but it felt bogged down by pages and pages of flowery, roundabout writing, like i had to pan around for it like gold in a sieve.