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megfawthrop 's review for:
The End of Mr. Y
by Scarlett Thomas
You have one choice.
You...I can understand why many see this book as pretentious. Ariel Manto is a PhD student who really does seem to be very up herself. She spends a lot of time discussing philosophy and science (in an unscientific way) with those around her and this is... not how people talk. And I'm saying that as a philosophy graduate and teacher, so I do spend an inordinate amount of time talking about the things mentioned in this book.
So why four stars? Well, the way it is written is captivating. The ideas are genuinely interesting and the plot is well conceived. Of course, time travel, the multiverse, going inside the mind of others are not new ideas but Thomas has explored them in a way that I have not encountered before. What I found particularly interesting was her approach to religious stories. Without giving too much away this is really a prequel to The Fall and an explanation for human consciousness... of course entirely fictionalised and probably with a bit too much exegesis. But this is a book that I regularly come back to and always enjoy reading.
If you're a philosophy undergraduate who feels a bit special about being a philosophy undergraduate.. you'll love this.
You...I can understand why many see this book as pretentious. Ariel Manto is a PhD student who really does seem to be very up herself. She spends a lot of time discussing philosophy and science (in an unscientific way) with those around her and this is... not how people talk. And I'm saying that as a philosophy graduate and teacher, so I do spend an inordinate amount of time talking about the things mentioned in this book.
So why four stars? Well, the way it is written is captivating. The ideas are genuinely interesting and the plot is well conceived. Of course, time travel, the multiverse, going inside the mind of others are not new ideas but Thomas has explored them in a way that I have not encountered before. What I found particularly interesting was her approach to religious stories. Without giving too much away this is really a prequel to The Fall and an explanation for human consciousness... of course entirely fictionalised and probably with a bit too much exegesis. But this is a book that I regularly come back to and always enjoy reading.
If you're a philosophy undergraduate who feels a bit special about being a philosophy undergraduate.. you'll love this.