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The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
5.0
TW, CW// Rape, pedophilia, racism
🔸I first read this in 2010-2011 for my 10th grade literature class. Since then I've been meaning to re-read it. It poignantly stuck with me. I knew my mom had a copy on the bookshelf. She signed her name in it, so I wonder when she first bought it.
🔸A refreshing use of figurative language immediately illustrates the attitude of the time period toward Black people and the unfortunate hostile nature of Black communities toward themselves.
🔸Parents don't seem to understand the lasting damage that hollering at their children has. I've been in Claudia's general position so many times that I suffer from dysphoric dreams. That screaming really hurts.
🔸Claudia is reflecting on her time as child. She says, "I do not know that she is not angry at me, but at my sickness" and that she "think[s] of somebody with hands who does not want me to die." I've read similar sentiments in James Baldwin's work. I think we place ourselves in an unfair position as children. We make excuses for the rough manner in which our parents handle us. They treat us cruelly in order to teach us lessons. Life is painful enough without your parents' inhospitable hands molding you like putty.
🔸Though their plights are serious, there's an air of humor around how the adults speak of one another. I like listening to 1930s Blues and it's a lot like that.
🔸Mr. Henry, who will be boarding with Claudia and her family, is immediately set up as a pedophile. It's very carefully done but those of us who have experience with pedos know the indicators. It's not the friendliness but the calculated manner in which hiding a coin encourages the girls to search his body, the way their mother reacts only with her eyes, and the last sentence absolving his memory of wrongdoing.
🔸Claudia dismembers white baby dolls because she doesn't understand society's fascination with them. Nowadays, it's pretty common for girls of any race to dismember their dolls (I did), and the popularity of games like The Sims has shown how we enjoy torturing fake people. However, in Claudia's case, there's something to be said about how white girls are status quo beauty standard and little girls are groomed for motherhood through toys. Until this day, white girls are given more media attention when they go missing or are harmed. When it comes to dolls, though, there's been much improvement in providing racial diversity to customers. Unfortunately, this doesn't stop parents from pushing dolls upon their daughters. Claudia doesn't want dolls, she wants to spend time with her family, but Christmas is highly commercialized even within devout Christian circles.
🔸Whether it's pressure from society, mental illness, or both, Black women have the unfortunate habit of ranting and raving over any inconvenience. Claudia's mother complains that Pecola has consumed all the milk. She has a paying tenant and she can't have someone go buy some more? She can't go without milk until the next pay day? There are plenty of things to eat that don't need milk. A word of advice to people looking to avoid stress: stop having kids.
🔸Black Parents Stop Traumatizing Your Kids Challenge (IMPOSSIBLE!!) Maybe if the adults in their lives were kinder, they wouldn't have felt the need to deal with Pecola's period by their own ignorant means.
🔸Pecola's house is not a home. Mrs. Breedlove (a name too on the nose, perhaps) is more concerned with waging the literal Crusades against Cholly than the safety of her children. This was hinted at earlier when Claudia's mother complained that neither of Pecola's parents had come to see if she was alright.
🔸Pecola identifies with the weeds and cracks in the ground because they are equally unwanted. Her only satisfaction is penny candy.
🔸The prostitutes are the only ones who welcome Pecola's presence (before she moves in with Claudia's family). If one considers their livelihoods ugly, then it's as though kind welcomes kind.
🔸Maureen Peal joins the girls at school. She's juxtaposed against the other students, her lighter skin and "wealth" making her more palatable. Claudia and Frieda's disgust of her are equally surface-level, as seen by their willingness to cease their hostilities when Maureen "befriends" Pecola. The realization that everyone is on their own arrives in the form of ice-cream, and despite Pecola being treated, the accidental sock in the face by Claudia shows how momentary happiness is for her compared to others. The shift from friends to enemies with Maureen mirrors racism's inexplicability, and Pecola's plight is too massive for Claudia and Frieda to know what to do about it but leave her there.
🔸There's a discussion about male nudity, and Pecola is distraught at the idea of having seen her father nude. Neither she nor others are prepared to think of their parents as natural organisms who may, at times, be naked. This is understandable, of course. They're children in American society. And from their childish musings thus far, there's little hope of proper sex education. Maureen is wiser than the other three girls, but whether it's because of her education or a predatory event, we don't know.
🔸Mr. Henry feels comfortable bringing sex workers FOR THEIR SERVICES into a house that has children... He's apparently decent enough to lure the girls out of their home first, but the audacity is astounding.
🔸Louis is another upsetting but typical image. His mother is necessarily love-less, emotionally and sexually. Despite prominently displaying a Bible within her home, she doesn't hesitate to call Pecola a bitch. She's found no enlightenment there. Black people are barely tolerable or niggers, and she projects this upon her own son, Louis. His evil actions are the consequences of her behavior and Pecola is the one who pays.
🔸Mr. Henry reveals himself as a predator, having violated Frieda. He tries to obfuscate his villainy by appealing to religion, but nearly gets shot for it. Claudia is too ignorant of sex to offer words of consultation, but the adults fair little better, one worried Frieda has been "ruined." Though their mother protests this, at no point do we see her explain to her daughters the consequences of what has happened. She's more concerned about her own nerves, obsessively cleaning as though she can scrub away the incident. This is the reality for people who disavow sex education, not that they are more susceptible to sexual assault (which may be true), but that they have no system for "de-briefing" and no healthy or effective way of healing.
🔸Miss Marie doesn't care who wrongs her, flinging a bottle at the kids when they parrot what their mother's said. There's no greater purpose in fighting the public's perception, especially not children who cannot understand why it is that Miss Marie is an outcast.
🔸While you understand the stakes of Pecola spilling the pie at Mrs. Breedlove's employment, it doesn't make her vicious attack upon Pecola any less painful to see.
🔸We get a glimpse of Mrs. Breedlove's past, and as you can figure, people aren't born evil. Slowly she turns bitter as life changes. Peer pressure and dissatisfaction with oneself. The realization that someone is falling out of love with you...
🔸Cholly is traumatized by a sexual act that begins consensual and turns into a performance as white men stumble across him and Darlene. After running away from home, he immediately discovers life's cruelty by being rejected by his potential father. He turns to work and womanizing instead.
🔸Intoxicated, Cholly remembers the good times he had with Mrs. Breedlove in the beginning. Seeing Pecola reminds him of what he used to have and he rapes her, making excuses of doing it out of love.
🔸According to hearsay, Mrs. Breedlove beat Pecola upon hearing of the assault. No one seems to have any sympathy for Pecola, which is the unfortunate norm for victims.
🔸Soaphead Church makes excuses for his pedophilia and abuse of children. Typical pedophile behavior. He writes a letter to God, explaining how pure he is to have helped Pecola without touching her.
🔸Pecola asks Soaphead to give her blue eyes, and he uses her in his plans to kill his landlady's dog.
🔸Pecola's so traumatized that she muses with an imaginary friend about how blue her eyes are. Claudia and Frieda don't know how to face her.
🔸The story has been juxtaposed against Dick and Jane excerpts, further illustrating how far from peace the characters are. Is it because they're Black that they must suffer in this manner?
🔸I first read this in 2010-2011 for my 10th grade literature class. Since then I've been meaning to re-read it. It poignantly stuck with me. I knew my mom had a copy on the bookshelf. She signed her name in it, so I wonder when she first bought it.
🔸A refreshing use of figurative language immediately illustrates the attitude of the time period toward Black people and the unfortunate hostile nature of Black communities toward themselves.
🔸Parents don't seem to understand the lasting damage that hollering at their children has. I've been in Claudia's general position so many times that I suffer from dysphoric dreams. That screaming really hurts.
🔸Claudia is reflecting on her time as child. She says, "I do not know that she is not angry at me, but at my sickness" and that she "think[s] of somebody with hands who does not want me to die." I've read similar sentiments in James Baldwin's work. I think we place ourselves in an unfair position as children. We make excuses for the rough manner in which our parents handle us. They treat us cruelly in order to teach us lessons. Life is painful enough without your parents' inhospitable hands molding you like putty.
🔸Though their plights are serious, there's an air of humor around how the adults speak of one another. I like listening to 1930s Blues and it's a lot like that.
🔸Mr. Henry, who will be boarding with Claudia and her family, is immediately set up as a pedophile. It's very carefully done but those of us who have experience with pedos know the indicators. It's not the friendliness but the calculated manner in which hiding a coin encourages the girls to search his body, the way their mother reacts only with her eyes, and the last sentence absolving his memory of wrongdoing.
🔸Claudia dismembers white baby dolls because she doesn't understand society's fascination with them. Nowadays, it's pretty common for girls of any race to dismember their dolls (I did), and the popularity of games like The Sims has shown how we enjoy torturing fake people. However, in Claudia's case, there's something to be said about how white girls are status quo beauty standard and little girls are groomed for motherhood through toys. Until this day, white girls are given more media attention when they go missing or are harmed. When it comes to dolls, though, there's been much improvement in providing racial diversity to customers. Unfortunately, this doesn't stop parents from pushing dolls upon their daughters. Claudia doesn't want dolls, she wants to spend time with her family, but Christmas is highly commercialized even within devout Christian circles.
🔸Whether it's pressure from society, mental illness, or both, Black women have the unfortunate habit of ranting and raving over any inconvenience. Claudia's mother complains that Pecola has consumed all the milk. She has a paying tenant and she can't have someone go buy some more? She can't go without milk until the next pay day? There are plenty of things to eat that don't need milk. A word of advice to people looking to avoid stress: stop having kids.
🔸Black Parents Stop Traumatizing Your Kids Challenge (IMPOSSIBLE!!) Maybe if the adults in their lives were kinder, they wouldn't have felt the need to deal with Pecola's period by their own ignorant means.
🔸Pecola's house is not a home. Mrs. Breedlove (a name too on the nose, perhaps) is more concerned with waging the literal Crusades against Cholly than the safety of her children. This was hinted at earlier when Claudia's mother complained that neither of Pecola's parents had come to see if she was alright.
🔸Pecola identifies with the weeds and cracks in the ground because they are equally unwanted. Her only satisfaction is penny candy.
🔸The prostitutes are the only ones who welcome Pecola's presence (before she moves in with Claudia's family). If one considers their livelihoods ugly, then it's as though kind welcomes kind.
🔸Maureen Peal joins the girls at school. She's juxtaposed against the other students, her lighter skin and "wealth" making her more palatable. Claudia and Frieda's disgust of her are equally surface-level, as seen by their willingness to cease their hostilities when Maureen "befriends" Pecola. The realization that everyone is on their own arrives in the form of ice-cream, and despite Pecola being treated, the accidental sock in the face by Claudia shows how momentary happiness is for her compared to others. The shift from friends to enemies with Maureen mirrors racism's inexplicability, and Pecola's plight is too massive for Claudia and Frieda to know what to do about it but leave her there.
🔸There's a discussion about male nudity, and Pecola is distraught at the idea of having seen her father nude. Neither she nor others are prepared to think of their parents as natural organisms who may, at times, be naked. This is understandable, of course. They're children in American society. And from their childish musings thus far, there's little hope of proper sex education. Maureen is wiser than the other three girls, but whether it's because of her education or a predatory event, we don't know.
🔸Mr. Henry feels comfortable bringing sex workers FOR THEIR SERVICES into a house that has children... He's apparently decent enough to lure the girls out of their home first, but the audacity is astounding.
🔸Louis is another upsetting but typical image. His mother is necessarily love-less, emotionally and sexually. Despite prominently displaying a Bible within her home, she doesn't hesitate to call Pecola a bitch. She's found no enlightenment there. Black people are barely tolerable or niggers, and she projects this upon her own son, Louis. His evil actions are the consequences of her behavior and Pecola is the one who pays.
🔸Mr. Henry reveals himself as a predator, having violated Frieda. He tries to obfuscate his villainy by appealing to religion, but nearly gets shot for it. Claudia is too ignorant of sex to offer words of consultation, but the adults fair little better, one worried Frieda has been "ruined." Though their mother protests this, at no point do we see her explain to her daughters the consequences of what has happened. She's more concerned about her own nerves, obsessively cleaning as though she can scrub away the incident. This is the reality for people who disavow sex education, not that they are more susceptible to sexual assault (which may be true), but that they have no system for "de-briefing" and no healthy or effective way of healing.
🔸Miss Marie doesn't care who wrongs her, flinging a bottle at the kids when they parrot what their mother's said. There's no greater purpose in fighting the public's perception, especially not children who cannot understand why it is that Miss Marie is an outcast.
🔸While you understand the stakes of Pecola spilling the pie at Mrs. Breedlove's employment, it doesn't make her vicious attack upon Pecola any less painful to see.
🔸We get a glimpse of Mrs. Breedlove's past, and as you can figure, people aren't born evil. Slowly she turns bitter as life changes. Peer pressure and dissatisfaction with oneself. The realization that someone is falling out of love with you...
🔸Cholly is traumatized by a sexual act that begins consensual and turns into a performance as white men stumble across him and Darlene. After running away from home, he immediately discovers life's cruelty by being rejected by his potential father. He turns to work and womanizing instead.
🔸Intoxicated, Cholly remembers the good times he had with Mrs. Breedlove in the beginning. Seeing Pecola reminds him of what he used to have and he rapes her, making excuses of doing it out of love.
🔸According to hearsay, Mrs. Breedlove beat Pecola upon hearing of the assault. No one seems to have any sympathy for Pecola, which is the unfortunate norm for victims.
🔸Soaphead Church makes excuses for his pedophilia and abuse of children. Typical pedophile behavior. He writes a letter to God, explaining how pure he is to have helped Pecola without touching her.
🔸Pecola asks Soaphead to give her blue eyes, and he uses her in his plans to kill his landlady's dog.
🔸Pecola's so traumatized that she muses with an imaginary friend about how blue her eyes are. Claudia and Frieda don't know how to face her.
🔸The story has been juxtaposed against Dick and Jane excerpts, further illustrating how far from peace the characters are. Is it because they're Black that they must suffer in this manner?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Racism, and Rape
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: The Alexander Text by William Shakespeare
3.0
As if I couldn't get any more pretentious, I've decided to mark my place using a goose feather. This becomes a narrative throughout my notes lol
I got this edition sometime around when it was first published in 2006. Borders bookstores were still a thing. I was in the 6th or 7th grade. My full name is haphazardly scrawled across the bottom: I ran out of space and my surname is squished. Much like with my edition of Moby Dick, at the time of purchase, I couldn't read this. I'm now 28 (26 when I started). I can read it without any trouble.
When I'd tell people that this is what I'd do in my free time, they'd seem bewildered. They ask for clarification. "All of it?" or "Which translation?" It wouldn't be unusual to get an "I can't understand any of that." I have my preferences but I'm not a snob. I'd tell them how I didn't get it either when I first tried and that I've spent lots of time in the dictionary because of it. And hey, if you WANT to read Shakespeare, get an edition that is easy for you to understand.
My main goals here were:
1. Read all of Shakespeare with this translation
2. Extract words I like
3. Learn about structuring figurative language
I still have to work on #2. I was doing this by hand, but it was slowing down my reading progress. I'll write a python script when I get around to it.
My main complaint is how these stories have brought along with them beliefs that negatively affect our societies. There's no shortage of racism, sexism, anti-semitism, and pro-capitalist language that remains with us today. The "good guys" still remain immoral or constrained products of their author's time.
A question I obviously get a lot is whether I like Shakespeare. I usually groan and shrug. The stories can be engaging but they're not "good". Characters are nonsensical stereotypes (ugly people are villains) and the plots/conclusions are unrealistic for their respective genres (villains confess and/or die). These traits are exactly what made them so work. The dialogue is witty and the rest is mostly the popular opinions of the time period, even when Shakespeare was being risqué.
My notes are over every story and poem and are too long to post here. Below is a OneDrive link you may visit to read the PDF. Be wary of my crude language and I apologize for any spelling/grammatical mistakes.
Enjoy your meal: https://1drv.ms/b/s!ApjsIm-ImQTOhc1e2UOEPW7yDS1Krw?e=LxaI3i
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
🔸While reading the 2014 forward by Coelho, I resonated with the struggling artist tale and appreciated that his work got a second chance. For many, this isn't the case. I disagree with other statements, like that the universe is helping us to our goals or that omens are real. I do not believe that the universe is conscious or that any supernatural claims are a reality. I don't believe that there are any gods. This may be a point of contention as I read The Alchemist. Already Coelho alludes to themes in the book, which I do not believe I'll agree with even if I can empathize with the characters or Coelho.
🔸This edition has line art illustrations done by James Noel Smith, however they're…vague. I realized that they couldn't be much more because of a certain amount of detail lacking in the writing. How can you do an interior shot or close-up portrait when the author hasn't provided this information? In this case, I do not see the point of the illustrations but as a marketing ploy. I can tell that Coelho wasn't working with Smith to explain how the illustrations should look. Look at the depth of notes Alan Moore, who wrote Watchmen, provided to his artists, for example.
🔸I don't really like Coelho's prose. It's flat and obvious. As noted above, the descriptions are lacking. It feels like he was so focused on an idea that he failed to take his time drawing scenes and people.
🔸Santiago was trained to become a priest but all he thinks about while traveling is the women he can meet and this girl he knew for a few hours. I'm surprised he doesn't have a body count. Something, something, religion doesn't absolve you of your human desires.
🔸Coelho does this thing where Santiago remembers a time and then we cut to a flashback of that time happening. The problem with this is that the flashbacks are so brief and they keep happening. You get the bare minimum insight into the people and situations that Santiago interacts with. It's underwhelming.
🔸We're given Santiago's name in the first sentence and then he's referred to as "the boy." Maybe this will have a payoff later, but he could have just remained unnamed, like in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man.
🔸It's obvious that the king of Salem, Melchizedek, is supposed to be God or an angel. I forgot of his actual mention IN THE BIBLE. Yes, he's a Bible character. He even gives Santiago the Urim and Thummim, which in the Bible were given to Aaron to decide yes/no questions. Melchizedek is wearing that same breastplate from the Bible as well.
🔸If Santiago studied to become a priest, why doesn't he comment on the Urim and Thummim or Melchizedek's breast plate OR NAME? Certainly these are details someone of his education would recognize. He doesn't put two and two together. He doesn't even utter a "Wait, hol' up, fam…." Must not have done well in his studies.
🔸The anti-Romani sentiments here are equally unsurprising given the track record so far. Any time I say Roma/Romani, remember that The Alchemist calls them the g-slur. There's no effort to understand their struggle. Santiago has been traveling far and wide as a shepherd and you're telling me he's still afraid of Roma?? Melchizedek says that Romani people "are just like that." Man, fuck off.
🔸Melchizedek is named once and afterward referred to as "the old man." We're given identities but our real identity is our actions. That's what this means, I'm not taking critique.
🔸Uuugh, I know the theme is "things happen for a reason", but a friend literally buys Santiago's sheep so that he's no longer inhibited from traveling to Egypt AND THEN a butterfly appears.😭😭And each time something lucky happens, it's commented on like THUS SAID THE OMEN. It happens so suddenly, I can't buy in. While it's true that we derive meaning from things, this presentation is specific to those who have religious or supernatural beliefs. Why can't I see a butterfly and it just be beautiful? Why does it have to mean that I need to pack up or discard my things (like Jesus intended) and follow a recurring dream I had? How do dreams reflect reality outside of potentially being a visual comment on your subconscious (for example, I was abused, and my dreams reflect that abuse's damage to my mind)? I have dreams about going on adventures, too. This doesn't mean I'm destined to go on an adventure to become rich. And posthumously applying the dream to fit the description of something that's happened to you is bogus. That's not a prophecy, that's the human desire to find meaning. Good and bad are matters of perception. Good and bad will happen to anyone regardless of their dreams. So far, the theme in The Alchemist teaches us to be gullible using situations crafted by an author. If all this works out for Santiago, it's because Coelho wanted it that way. He's a fictional character in a book. I can't apply these themes to my life if I'm concerned with my ability to stay alive. I mean, but hey, plenty of people have demonstrated through their actions that they don't care about that.
🔸I thought this story was supposed to be fantasy but it's not. That's partially why I'm raising these objections. You're destined to defeat the Digimon that's been terrorizing the Digital World? I'm totally on board. A Roma woman tells you that you're going to actually find treasure in Egypt. Eh, you gotta approach it differently than Coelho is. I could buy in if it was a tale about not being gullible or quick to make decisions but NOPE!!!
🔸I will not ignore that I just brought up Digimon because I believe the series do an excellent job at approaching concepts of destiny, fate, relationships, power, happiness, and pain in a reasonable manner while still employing fantasy. Season 3 (Tamers) is the best at this, but I recommend watching the first 4 seasons (The Japanese dub keeps the serious elements intact).
🔸The reason I can't really call this fantasy despite Melchizedek's obvious powers is Coelho's own worldview. There are actually people who believe that angels (or demons) can come to earth and take the shape of humans to guide us. It's not a fairytale to them. In their eyes, Melchizedek's ability isn't a fantasy because many people can do this in 100% real life because they're not human but supernatural beings. To me, this is unsubstantiated fantasy, to someone like Coelho, this is just real life.
🔸I want to comment on Melchizedek helping a man who was unsuccessfully emerald mining. The practice of mining is dangerous to people and the environment. It's a practice I feel confident calling immoral. But because this character was following his dreams, we're meant to be sympathetic toward him? Fuck you and fuck the damage you caused. Emeralds only have value because human beings have assigned them value. But what's an emerald to me? A pretty rock not worth causing destruction over. And the pursuit of wealth above all the rest of society is not admirable.
🔸One decent story Melchizedek tells is of a man seeking wisdom. This story is actually good because it reminds us not to lose ourselves as we seek beauty/adventure. Of course, one downside is that the wise man of the story is insanely rich and popular. Wisdom=/=Wealth, please, I'm begging you…
🔸I just did a once-over of Goodreads reviews for this work because of how taken aback I am so far. I'm so glad that there are a significant amount of negative reviews, though not in the sense that I'm rooting for Coelho to fail. At the time of writing this bullet point, there are 240,727 2-star reviews, and 136,204 1-star reviews. I do not believe my prospects for this book are going to look up, but I'll try to be open-minded…
🔸So, uh, is Melchizedek cursed or something? Why hasn't he died? He is literally the Bible character who interacted with Abraham. Why must he roam around helping people achieve their "Personal Legends"?
🔸How has Santiago made such an impression on Melchizedek, that he regrets not being more memorable? What exactly is it about Santiago? Why is this story about SANTIAGO?
🔸No, this book is bad. Suddenly Santiago is in Africa, and despite brief comments about how it wasn't so far from Andalusia, there's no explanation of his trip. He's just there. And immediately we're treated to his Islamophobia, calling the praying people infidels, saying that they all look scary, and likening them to worker ants.
🔸It's hard to follow along with who's speaking when everyone is a "he" and Coelho refuses to address Santiago by his name.
🔸How does Santiago not have enough street smarts to not know that he shouldn't give his money to randos he just met?? I mean, hell, I guess he gave away his sheep in the blink of an eye. Though if "the universe is conspiring" why would he ever experience loss to begin with?? It becomes arbitrary. Whatever.
🔸End of Part One. I am not impressed. So far The Alchemist is preachy, sophomoric, and hateful. I keep reading because I'm just so amazed at how bad it is.
🔸Where does Santiago sleep? What does he do besides selling crystals (vague)? Why aren't these details that we're treated to? He spends over a year (?) in Tangier and I've barely learned anything except that he's luCKY!!!
🔸Ugh, the characters always know exactly how to explain their thoughts.
🔸So Santiago becomes a business partner with a Muslim man, but I don't know that this really absolves him of his Islamophobia. He doesn't reflect on how it was wrong to think bad things about them. It's not addressed.
🔸Please tell a story and stop focusing so hard on giving "wise" one-liners, I'm begging you, Coelho, pls...
🔸Third person omniscient...driving me crazy...the head-hopping is insane.
🔸As I suspected, being with the crystal merchant had to do with the practice of crystal purification🙄Again, pretty minerals do not control your destiny lmfao
🔸THE ALCHEMIST IS FINALLY MENTIONED
🔸Is Coelho really suggesting that every legend is true? I mean, he avoids explicitly naming polytheism despite pushing a strangely polytheistic idea of the universe. There's no mention of Brahma or Jupiter, just God/Allah.
🔸Love at first sight is real if you're tapped into the Soul of the World.
🔸Fatima is immediately written as subservient. She has no dreams outside of catering to Santiago's desires. Girl, you JUST met him and you're already content to go back to the kitchen????
🔸Santiago can foresee the future also, I guess.
🔸So he's just hanging out with and befriending Muslims, but there's still no reflection about why his earlier beliefs were mistaken and cruel. Okay.
🔸There's discussion about how Abrahamic divination behaves, but much like prayer, I find this unconvincing. Of course because we're reading a work of fiction, the divinations are accurate.
🔸Santiago is compared to Joseph from the Bible and we even get a "TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO--" line. Then he's made the Oasis' counselor...
🔸The alchemist tells Santiago to forget that hoe, Fatima, because women know to wait on their men.
🔸If Santiago doesn't go to the pyramids right now, the Soul of ze World will abandon him after 4 years and he'll never have another chance because remember kids, you can only have one main desire in life and it's dictated by your actual fucking bedtime dreams.
🔸Santiago has reached fucking Nirvana or something because he's capable of discovering life with only his heart.
🔸The alchemist reaches into the sand, pulls out a cobra, and confines it to a circle, all without it biting him. Also, yes, the circle is literally just drawn with a stick and the snake stays there. Damn, get this guy on stage!!
🔸Santiago is asking questions a mile a minute, boy, shut yo ass up!!!!
🔸Coelho loves beating dead horses. The amount of repetition here is insane and I've literally read the Qu'ran and the (abridged) Mahabharata.
🔸If you're happy, it's because you know God. Except...what about people who experience happiness and do not believe in God?? What about people who claim to know God but are sad? I can see the retorts now because I've literally heard them before: you're not really happy; you know God exists but you're lying; you don't really know God.
🔸Every time Coelho mentions listening to one's heart, I can't help but think he means literally, and not, like, for health reasons LMFAO He seems like the sort who really believes the heart is where our emotions come from rather than this being figurative language.
🔸I was reading this while waiting at the doctor's office. My nurse practitioner asked how it was because she'd heard of it. She frowned when I explained the reasons for disliking it. But then I said that a good fable-like story was Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn and she was like, "THAT'S MY FAVORITE BOOK!!!!"
🔸I was telling my older Christian friend about how I disliked this book and she said that she'd read it before and didn't remember anything except also disliking it LOL
🔸Santiago discovers The Circle of Life, except it's nowhere near as profound as The Lion King.
🔸There's this entire debacle about Santiago becoming the wind in three days?? (Get it, three days??) He DOES NOT BECOME THE WIND but his captors and the alchemist concede. It just gets super windy and he walks to another location. I HATE THIS I HATE IT
🔸I already mentioned this briefly but I hate that aspects of nature are anthropomorphic but that this is still…not a polytheistic story lmfao It's bogus.
🔸No humility allowed. When the monk says the alchemist's offering of gold is too great for him to accept, he gets scolded.
🔸The treasure was underneath your feet the whole time!!!!!!!!!
🔸This is not as charming as a nursery rhyme and not as insightful as an epic poem. This isn't a work of poetry, but you can tell that Coelho desperately wants to match their influence. He fails miserably by my estimation.
🔸Others have compared The Alchemist to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead. I have read and reviewed both of those works, and you know what, I agree. While Rand obviously rejects religion, she, like Coelho, gives us a reasonable premise, "follow through with your aspirations", and twists the surrounding narrative into something ridiculous. At least The Alchemist is a fraction of the length of Rand's works.
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.0
🔸This edition has line art illustrations done by James Noel Smith, however they're…vague. I realized that they couldn't be much more because of a certain amount of detail lacking in the writing. How can you do an interior shot or close-up portrait when the author hasn't provided this information? In this case, I do not see the point of the illustrations but as a marketing ploy. I can tell that Coelho wasn't working with Smith to explain how the illustrations should look. Look at the depth of notes Alan Moore, who wrote Watchmen, provided to his artists, for example.
🔸I don't really like Coelho's prose. It's flat and obvious. As noted above, the descriptions are lacking. It feels like he was so focused on an idea that he failed to take his time drawing scenes and people.
🔸Santiago was trained to become a priest but all he thinks about while traveling is the women he can meet and this girl he knew for a few hours. I'm surprised he doesn't have a body count. Something, something, religion doesn't absolve you of your human desires.
🔸Coelho does this thing where Santiago remembers a time and then we cut to a flashback of that time happening. The problem with this is that the flashbacks are so brief and they keep happening. You get the bare minimum insight into the people and situations that Santiago interacts with. It's underwhelming.
🔸We're given Santiago's name in the first sentence and then he's referred to as "the boy." Maybe this will have a payoff later, but he could have just remained unnamed, like in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man.
🔸It's obvious that the king of Salem, Melchizedek, is supposed to be God or an angel. I forgot of his actual mention IN THE BIBLE. Yes, he's a Bible character. He even gives Santiago the Urim and Thummim, which in the Bible were given to Aaron to decide yes/no questions. Melchizedek is wearing that same breastplate from the Bible as well.
🔸If Santiago studied to become a priest, why doesn't he comment on the Urim and Thummim or Melchizedek's breast plate OR NAME? Certainly these are details someone of his education would recognize. He doesn't put two and two together. He doesn't even utter a "Wait, hol' up, fam…." Must not have done well in his studies.
🔸The anti-Romani sentiments here are equally unsurprising given the track record so far. Any time I say Roma/Romani, remember that The Alchemist calls them the g-slur. There's no effort to understand their struggle. Santiago has been traveling far and wide as a shepherd and you're telling me he's still afraid of Roma?? Melchizedek says that Romani people "are just like that." Man, fuck off.
🔸Melchizedek is named once and afterward referred to as "the old man." We're given identities but our real identity is our actions. That's what this means, I'm not taking critique.
🔸Uuugh, I know the theme is "things happen for a reason", but a friend literally buys Santiago's sheep so that he's no longer inhibited from traveling to Egypt AND THEN a butterfly appears.😭😭And each time something lucky happens, it's commented on like THUS SAID THE OMEN. It happens so suddenly, I can't buy in. While it's true that we derive meaning from things, this presentation is specific to those who have religious or supernatural beliefs. Why can't I see a butterfly and it just be beautiful? Why does it have to mean that I need to pack up or discard my things (like Jesus intended) and follow a recurring dream I had? How do dreams reflect reality outside of potentially being a visual comment on your subconscious (for example, I was abused, and my dreams reflect that abuse's damage to my mind)? I have dreams about going on adventures, too. This doesn't mean I'm destined to go on an adventure to become rich. And posthumously applying the dream to fit the description of something that's happened to you is bogus. That's not a prophecy, that's the human desire to find meaning. Good and bad are matters of perception. Good and bad will happen to anyone regardless of their dreams. So far, the theme in The Alchemist teaches us to be gullible using situations crafted by an author. If all this works out for Santiago, it's because Coelho wanted it that way. He's a fictional character in a book. I can't apply these themes to my life if I'm concerned with my ability to stay alive. I mean, but hey, plenty of people have demonstrated through their actions that they don't care about that.
🔸I thought this story was supposed to be fantasy but it's not. That's partially why I'm raising these objections. You're destined to defeat the Digimon that's been terrorizing the Digital World? I'm totally on board. A Roma woman tells you that you're going to actually find treasure in Egypt. Eh, you gotta approach it differently than Coelho is. I could buy in if it was a tale about not being gullible or quick to make decisions but NOPE!!!
🔸I will not ignore that I just brought up Digimon because I believe the series do an excellent job at approaching concepts of destiny, fate, relationships, power, happiness, and pain in a reasonable manner while still employing fantasy. Season 3 (Tamers) is the best at this, but I recommend watching the first 4 seasons (The Japanese dub keeps the serious elements intact).
🔸The reason I can't really call this fantasy despite Melchizedek's obvious powers is Coelho's own worldview. There are actually people who believe that angels (or demons) can come to earth and take the shape of humans to guide us. It's not a fairytale to them. In their eyes, Melchizedek's ability isn't a fantasy because many people can do this in 100% real life because they're not human but supernatural beings. To me, this is unsubstantiated fantasy, to someone like Coelho, this is just real life.
🔸I want to comment on Melchizedek helping a man who was unsuccessfully emerald mining. The practice of mining is dangerous to people and the environment. It's a practice I feel confident calling immoral. But because this character was following his dreams, we're meant to be sympathetic toward him? Fuck you and fuck the damage you caused. Emeralds only have value because human beings have assigned them value. But what's an emerald to me? A pretty rock not worth causing destruction over. And the pursuit of wealth above all the rest of society is not admirable.
🔸One decent story Melchizedek tells is of a man seeking wisdom. This story is actually good because it reminds us not to lose ourselves as we seek beauty/adventure. Of course, one downside is that the wise man of the story is insanely rich and popular. Wisdom=/=Wealth, please, I'm begging you…
🔸I just did a once-over of Goodreads reviews for this work because of how taken aback I am so far. I'm so glad that there are a significant amount of negative reviews, though not in the sense that I'm rooting for Coelho to fail. At the time of writing this bullet point, there are 240,727 2-star reviews, and 136,204 1-star reviews. I do not believe my prospects for this book are going to look up, but I'll try to be open-minded…
🔸So, uh, is Melchizedek cursed or something? Why hasn't he died? He is literally the Bible character who interacted with Abraham. Why must he roam around helping people achieve their "Personal Legends"?
🔸How has Santiago made such an impression on Melchizedek, that he regrets not being more memorable? What exactly is it about Santiago? Why is this story about SANTIAGO?
🔸No, this book is bad. Suddenly Santiago is in Africa, and despite brief comments about how it wasn't so far from Andalusia, there's no explanation of his trip. He's just there. And immediately we're treated to his Islamophobia, calling the praying people infidels, saying that they all look scary, and likening them to worker ants.
🔸It's hard to follow along with who's speaking when everyone is a "he" and Coelho refuses to address Santiago by his name.
🔸How does Santiago not have enough street smarts to not know that he shouldn't give his money to randos he just met?? I mean, hell, I guess he gave away his sheep in the blink of an eye. Though if "the universe is conspiring" why would he ever experience loss to begin with?? It becomes arbitrary. Whatever.
🔸End of Part One. I am not impressed. So far The Alchemist is preachy, sophomoric, and hateful. I keep reading because I'm just so amazed at how bad it is.
🔸Where does Santiago sleep? What does he do besides selling crystals (vague)? Why aren't these details that we're treated to? He spends over a year (?) in Tangier and I've barely learned anything except that he's luCKY!!!
🔸Ugh, the characters always know exactly how to explain their thoughts.
🔸So Santiago becomes a business partner with a Muslim man, but I don't know that this really absolves him of his Islamophobia. He doesn't reflect on how it was wrong to think bad things about them. It's not addressed.
🔸Please tell a story and stop focusing so hard on giving "wise" one-liners, I'm begging you, Coelho, pls...
🔸Third person omniscient...driving me crazy...the head-hopping is insane.
🔸As I suspected, being with the crystal merchant had to do with the practice of crystal purification🙄Again, pretty minerals do not control your destiny lmfao
🔸THE ALCHEMIST IS FINALLY MENTIONED
🔸Is Coelho really suggesting that every legend is true? I mean, he avoids explicitly naming polytheism despite pushing a strangely polytheistic idea of the universe. There's no mention of Brahma or Jupiter, just God/Allah.
🔸Love at first sight is real if you're tapped into the Soul of the World.
🔸Fatima is immediately written as subservient. She has no dreams outside of catering to Santiago's desires. Girl, you JUST met him and you're already content to go back to the kitchen????
🔸Santiago can foresee the future also, I guess.
🔸So he's just hanging out with and befriending Muslims, but there's still no reflection about why his earlier beliefs were mistaken and cruel. Okay.
🔸There's discussion about how Abrahamic divination behaves, but much like prayer, I find this unconvincing. Of course because we're reading a work of fiction, the divinations are accurate.
🔸Santiago is compared to Joseph from the Bible and we even get a "TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO--" line. Then he's made the Oasis' counselor...
🔸The alchemist tells Santiago to forget that hoe, Fatima, because women know to wait on their men.
🔸If Santiago doesn't go to the pyramids right now, the Soul of ze World will abandon him after 4 years and he'll never have another chance because remember kids, you can only have one main desire in life and it's dictated by your actual fucking bedtime dreams.
🔸Santiago has reached fucking Nirvana or something because he's capable of discovering life with only his heart.
🔸The alchemist reaches into the sand, pulls out a cobra, and confines it to a circle, all without it biting him. Also, yes, the circle is literally just drawn with a stick and the snake stays there. Damn, get this guy on stage!!
🔸Santiago is asking questions a mile a minute, boy, shut yo ass up!!!!
🔸Coelho loves beating dead horses. The amount of repetition here is insane and I've literally read the Qu'ran and the (abridged) Mahabharata.
🔸If you're happy, it's because you know God. Except...what about people who experience happiness and do not believe in God?? What about people who claim to know God but are sad? I can see the retorts now because I've literally heard them before: you're not really happy; you know God exists but you're lying; you don't really know God.
🔸Every time Coelho mentions listening to one's heart, I can't help but think he means literally, and not, like, for health reasons LMFAO He seems like the sort who really believes the heart is where our emotions come from rather than this being figurative language.
🔸I was reading this while waiting at the doctor's office. My nurse practitioner asked how it was because she'd heard of it. She frowned when I explained the reasons for disliking it. But then I said that a good fable-like story was Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn and she was like, "THAT'S MY FAVORITE BOOK!!!!"
🔸I was telling my older Christian friend about how I disliked this book and she said that she'd read it before and didn't remember anything except also disliking it LOL
🔸Santiago discovers The Circle of Life, except it's nowhere near as profound as The Lion King.
🔸There's this entire debacle about Santiago becoming the wind in three days?? (Get it, three days??) He DOES NOT BECOME THE WIND but his captors and the alchemist concede. It just gets super windy and he walks to another location. I HATE THIS I HATE IT
🔸I already mentioned this briefly but I hate that aspects of nature are anthropomorphic but that this is still…not a polytheistic story lmfao It's bogus.
🔸No humility allowed. When the monk says the alchemist's offering of gold is too great for him to accept, he gets scolded.
🔸The treasure was underneath your feet the whole time!!!!!!!!!
🔸This is not as charming as a nursery rhyme and not as insightful as an epic poem. This isn't a work of poetry, but you can tell that Coelho desperately wants to match their influence. He fails miserably by my estimation.
🔸Others have compared The Alchemist to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead. I have read and reviewed both of those works, and you know what, I agree. While Rand obviously rejects religion, she, like Coelho, gives us a reasonable premise, "follow through with your aspirations", and twists the surrounding narrative into something ridiculous. At least The Alchemist is a fraction of the length of Rand's works.
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book on Novel Writing You'll Ever Need by Jessica Brody
fast-paced
1.0
My dear friend got this book for me when she attended her first writing conference. She signed it and I love her!!!!!
I don't shrug away the opportunity to gain knowledge, but I immediately found Save the Cat! juvenile and at times immoral. Brody uses so many exclamation marks!! Girl, stop!!! And while her quirky quips didn't bother me initially, they got on my nerves the more I read. Reinforced my distaste for contemporary.
Brody is correct when she says that writers must read but it's also important to reflect upon what you've read. If all you do is mindless consumption, your writing will be equally mindless. Take a course, join a book club? I take verbose notes about almost everything I read, which has greatly improved my media literacy and writing skills. Find what works for you.
Despite Brody mentioning philosophy several times, her lack of expertise in this area was telling.
Brody states that our character's plight at a certain point is their own fault. My main protagonist is suffering from domestic violence, so I find this disgusting to assert. While a person being abused has "choices", those aren't truly autonomous choices.
I didn't like Brody's analysis of Me Before You. I haven't read this work, but her assessment was disturbing. Disabled people don't exist for the character development of able-bodied people. Suicidal people don't exist for the character development of the non-suicidal. Please avoid doing this as a writer. Your characters are fictional, but there are real people in the world who are disabled or suicidal and the way you write them reflects your values.
Don't get me started on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. We've become too comfortable advertising this book when the title was something more sinister, and that racism is still apparent inside the book. Enough.
While Brody was explaining The Girl on the Train, I found the plot so obvious it was embarrassing. Surely, this isn't how you want people to write? Maybe the book is a better experience; I'll never know because I'm not going to read it.
I laughed when she insisted that Mark from The Martian was "a regular dude astronaut". Even if she was making a joke, her prior shortcomings make it difficult to believe she's self-aware.
She pounds you over the head with her structure to the point I wanted to gag. Her analysis of Misery by Stephen King felt shoehorned into her Save the Cat! structure. Like a high school essay that already has an agenda and has to work with what it's got.
I was annoyed with Brody's belief that success equates to wealth. She states a few times that all the best books are turned into movies and make a bunch of money, which is a concerning and foolish way to measure the literary worth of a work. Succeeding financially means little more than that you had good marketing. Imagine using The Grapes of Wrath as an example novel several times and then championing this hard for the capital market.🤪🤪Couldn't be me!!!
The Buddy Love chapter made my skin crawl as it encourages unhealthy dependence. No one needs another person "to make them whole." This is outdated language from a serenade. If you insist that your friend/lover is a requirement "to make you whole", a) I doubt that's what you really mean or even the reality, b) that's not healthy; consider what it is you're actually saying. I'll digress from a lecture, but while it's true that the ones we love can challenge us to be better and improve our lives, it's cruel to think so lowly of ourselves; abusive to insist that we cannot traverse life without this other (and perhaps it is they who convinced us of our dependence).
The most helpful piece of information Brody gives is using notecards to organize the scenes of your story. Chapter 14 and 15 are an okay starting point, though I grimaced at Brody's descriptions of her own novels. They were predictable and disrespectful toward the working class. All of this fits into place as I learn that Brody was a MGM exec...Movie studio executives kill creativity faster than an aneurysm.
If anything, don't be impressed by the amount of books Brody name-drops and analyzes. She lacks the skill to uncover the themes of more complex literature, which makes it difficult to take her seriously when she attempts to gives advice on theme.
This book will get you to churn out the bare minimum. You'll have another 3/10 Hallmark story indistinguishable from the heaps of content already available. Some people want that. Can't say I do.
BAKI Vol. 1 by Keisuke Itagaki
dark
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
2.0
Lmao Absolute fever dream plot to show how strong and cool the characters are by having them locked up in ridiculous places and being ordered to death through out-of-date means because it's cool. Baki is just like, "wut." A lot more blood and gore here cuz why not???
James Baldwin: Later Novels (Loa #272): Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone / If Beale Street Could Talk / Just Above My Head by James Baldwin
3.0
The text could have used a run-over once more as I encountered some errors here and there. I do not always agree with Baldwin's language or some of the anti-Semitism his characters display, but I was happy to read these works.
Just Above My Head by James Baldwin
🔸Amy accosts Julia about lying to God. She passes away shortly after. This breaks Julia's faith. / Sometimes it sucks when you become an unbeliever this way. There's no end to critics who will say you're just angry at God and still think he's real. 🔸Julia tells Joel she doesn't want to preach anymore. He's vehement about this, attributing her response to temporary grief. When it seems that she's serious, he sexually assaults her. / Another reminder that for all their insistence, the religious have no better morals or self-control than nonbelievers. Sipping a little wine doesn't make ME want to sexually assault grieving children. 🔸Joel's abuse of Julia finally gets her pregnant (though we're also told that it's Crunch's baby?), and he beats her within an inch of her life. She loses the baby. He seems totally incoherent regarding what has happened and doesn't face any serious repercussions. She's taken away from him. Everyone is shocked. / I mean, when you're raised within a culture that tells you not to just say what is really going on, this tracks. This is what happens. The victim dies or almost dies. 🔸While going to the outhouse, Peanut is kidnapped. He is never seen again. / This was also terrifying because of how true it was for so many people. You just get plucked from existence, probably in the cruelest way, and you are never found. Your loved ones get no closure. There's no justice. 🔸As Hall finishes reflecting upon the trials of his life, his friends' lives, and Arthur's life, he discovers that Arthur was not murdered in the London pub, but died from a heart attack while descending the stairs.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
🔸Hall's brother, Arthur, has died in a men's restroom in a pub in England. Hall is having a hard time processing the grief. Images repeat in his mind, he can't cry. He remembers how much he loves his brother. He finally experiences any emotion by having sex with his wife, Ruth.
🔸Hall's son, Tony, asks about his uncle, having hurt rumors that he was the f-slur. Hall tells Tony that Arthur loved many people, some of who were men. He says that he too has loved men. He tells Tony that Arthur can't be defined by those homophobic slurs. / I think it's really important here that Hall is not only truthful with Tony but also allows himself to be vulnerable. Not many people are willing to do that.
🔸Arthur was a gospel singer, but his attraction to men was also loudly rumored. He had some notoriety because of this. / At least he wasn't also someone who screamed about how homosexuality was a sin. It's unfortunate that many gay Christians must choose to be silent about their love. It reminds me of Luther Vandross, for example.
🔸Julia was a popular child evangelist (age 7-14) among the Black community. She remembers a particular reverend who at one point decreed that wearing earrings was sinful, preventing an elderly patron from attending. She brought the woman to service anyway, and he didn't stop her because he needed her monetary assistance. / Funny how God's commands can bend when money is involved. Who is actually right and who is wrong?
🔸Arthur tells Hall a story about how he was sexually assaulted by a man as a thirteen-year-old. Hall doesn't know what to say but is disappointed in himself. / Yeah, unfortunately, a lot of kids back then were harmed because people didn't understand how prevalent predators were in their own communities.
🔸Hall recalls one of Julia's sermons. The church goes buckwild. Her family comes over to Hall's house and her mother slaps Jimmy like meat while visiting. Julia reports that God doesn't want them to stay for dinner, so they leave. / Julia seems like she's suffering from a mental disorder and her parents' religious beliefs are fueling her insanity. She was spewing total nonsense about David and Goliath during her sermon, but the patrons were eating it up.
🔸Amy is fatally ill, but because of Julia's fierce religiosity, Joel stops taking her to the doctor in favor of Julia's fasting and prayer. It's not working. Florence berates Joel, Paul has a talk with him. / I wish I could say that we know faith healing is fraudulent and dangerous, but so many people DON'T know. They fall victim to it again and again. No amount of prayers ever healed any serious ailment I had when I was Christian, nor did it heal my loved ones' diseases and disorders. It makes me want to laugh when I'm told by people who've lost loved ones to cancer that my genetic disorders can be lifted by God. I can sympathize with Florence. I think she's wrong to say that beating Julia would have solved the problem. Domestic violence is never the answer.
🔸Hall makes his first friend through this debacle in way of Sydney, the bartender at the bar Paul takes Joel to. / This was very wholesome.
🔸Arthur and Crunch fall in love. They have sex. / I thought the romance was very wholesome, but I could have done without the sexual details particularly because Arthur is still 16 here and Crunch is 19. I think the relationship is fine because they've known each other, but I'm not comfortable reading sex scenes involving anyone under 18, I don't care what age of consent laws technically are, it creeps me out. I think it can be mentioned that the sexual encounter was meaningful to Arthur without the details of semen, etc. IDK, it's not like the scene went full porno or something, but hopefully, you can understand what I mean?
🔸Julia tells Crunch in not so many words, that her father has been sexually assaulting her. She asks Crunch to have sex with her and he does. She finds this meaningful, but Crunch is worried. / This is a scene I had more trouble with. As stated above Crunch is 19, but Julia is only 14 here. I really don't think Crunch had any idea what he was supposed to do, and neither did Julia, so I'm not comfortable pointing to Crunch and calling him a predator because I really don't think he is. I don't think having sex with Julia was the right move. The right move was something totally foreign and inaccessible to them: therapy.
🔸Julia spends a night with the Montanas after revealing that she's having trouble with her father. She doesn't tell them it's sexual assault, is worried about staying, and just wants to entirely get out. When Arthur takes her home the next morning, they meet an intoxicated Joel, and he understands that Julia is really REALLY in a bad situation. / Victims of sexual assault often have a hard time saying what has really happened because not only are they traumatized, but culture demands their silence.
🔸Crunch tells Arthur about having had sex with Julia and Arthur feels his first pains of jealousy and confusion.
🔸Martha and Sydney have hooked up and Sydney has joined the Nation of Islam. Hall isn't entirely shocked but is a little overwhelmed. As is customary, Sydney will stop drinking and smoking. / Though the Nation of Islam isn't named specifically, I could tell from what Martha and Sydney were saying and Baldwin's own autobiographical work, that it wasn't just Islam. I find the Nation of Islam to be cultish in its ways--I have no love for the institution, not in the way they shunned Malcolm X or in their odd behavior with Louis Theroux. It demands obedience, yet offers the same vapid promises of any other religion. Many Blacks may have found it an easy transition because Allah is the same familiar YHWH from Christianity. White people aren't Satan robot half breeds, they're human-beings like us, and the racist ones are making decisions on their own--no supernatural force required.
🔸Arthur is hurt by Crunch. Since returning from the Korean war, Crunch is reluctant to rekindle their relationship. It's not just war that has changed him, but the debacle concerning Julia, and perhaps the day's homophobic attitude. / It's sad to see someone who could benefit so much from therapy, not have access to it. Instead you watch them suffer or turn away so you don't suffer yourself.
🔸While on tour down South, Arthur meets a girl who tells him how she wishes to be a teacher down South specifically, not in the North. She asks Arthur how many Black teachers he had and he realizes that he's only had a couple. / I went to school from 2001-2013 in Ohio and this still holds true. I never had a Black teacher. There was one at my elementary school and then she moved. I had a Black vice principal in middle school and my high school principal was Black, but teachers? No.
🔸Everyone comments on how Birmingham, Alabama makes them uncomfortable. / We make incest jokes about Alabama today, but sundown towns still exist. Is Birmingham one of them? I don't know, but it used to be. It's scary living in a country where your fellow citizens can have so much hatred for you that you become afraid of certain cities.
🔸While on the road, Peanut tells Arthur and Hall about his relationship with Red. After returning from the Korean war, Red acts distant and aggressive. It turns out, he's become addicted to heroin. Peanut recalls a significant sexual experience they had together as children, and details how hard it is for him to see Red come to such a dejected state. / It's no surprise that veterans are abandoned by the governments they fought for. Black veterans certainly had it tough during this time period. People turn to heroin because they are in pain, but it causes so much more.
🔸Hall, Arthur, and Peanut are confronted by three white men who tell them, in their tactless fashion, to go back home. They get into a physical altercation, but the Black people living nearby come out to the street and save them. Their hosts tell Hall and co. that many of their phones have been tapped, that Hall, Arthur, and Peanut were probably anticipated. / I am once again thankful for the work of people like James Baldwin, that I do not have to live so horrifying a life. Racism is still alive, of course, there are many problems regarding racism that need fixing, but I don't have to deal with THIS.
🔸Hall reflects upon gospel music's poignancy in the Black community. He says the songs reflect a pain Black people in America have personally gone through due to slavery and racism, which is why Christianity is so appealing to them. / I can agree and sympathize with this. It's why I'm a minority of atheists who are Black American women.
🔸While in France, Arthur hooks up with a white man named Guy. They're quickly enamored by each other. Guy tries to explain how he detests his roots. Arthur retorts that he is white to him all the same, that trying to distinguish oneself from the flock is nearly disrespectful. / I can agree with this. I don't particularly care for tales from white people about how their family is so racist and they're so embarrassed and yadda yadda. It is a sob story I'm uninterested in. Racism must be actively unlearned by all of us, and we don't get points for doing so.
🔸I will segue into saying that I do not like Baldwin's use of "oriental" to describe Asian features in people and things.
🔸I appreciate that several times throughout there is mention of involuntary reaction from the penis and confusion/fear in the character. Another reason I'm happy not to have a penis. A throbbing clitoris, while a stronger sensation, isn't always noticeable (not ever on me anyways LOL).
🔸Julia returns to New York from Abidjan. She talks to Hall and confesses profound respect and sisterly love. Hall is relieved to have Julia in his life. / I think this is wholesome. Too often men and women are told by society that they cannot be great friends, not even really in marriage.
🔸Arthur and Jimmy become boyfriends. They are in the greatest love with each other. Hall and Julia are relieved.
🔸When Hall gets involved with Ruth, who he later marries, he, she, Julia, Jimmy, and Arthur all come together as a wonderful family.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Incest, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, and Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and War
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
If Beale Street Could Talk is one that ends on a cliffhanger, and I think that appropriately mirrors reality. Those dealing with falsely accused loved ones in jail/prison don't know if they'll get them out, just like we don't really know what will become of the characters in Beale Street. There's some excessive use of the f-slur in this work, and I have a feeling that advocates of the fictionalized "buck breaking" phenomenon may latch onto things written of here. It's very true that M/M sexual assault happens in jails/prisons. But some of the commentary about Officer Bell such as "I'm going to fuck you, boy" may be read in a sexual manner alongside Tish saying she feels as though he wishes to sexually assault her. That may have been Baldwin's intentions, but let's not go accusing the gays (a violently oppressed minority) of wanting to sexually assault all of society.
🔸Fonny is jailed, and Tish feels as though she can't speak to anyone, that no one can understand her. / Yeah, I think young people who have lovers incarcerated are often called foolish. Maybe they are foolish sometimes, but that can't always be the case. There are prejudices thrown at women who are pregnant or have children and also have significant others incarcerated.
🔸Tish and Fonny become friends after fighting. People don't believe in their friendship. / It's unfortunate that boys and girls can't just be good friends. That everything is seen as sexual. I've experienced this prejudice even around my lesbian, bisexual, pansexual friends. A mistrust from others. We must be trying to have sex!
🔸Fonny describes how his mother's faith in God turned into a fetish with her husband. She would cry out about saving his soul and they'd have sex like it was all just a game. It shows how performative some believers are.
🔸Mrs. Hunt is a colorist. She and her daughters benefit from being light-skinned. She looks down on Fonny for being darker and Tish for being even moreso.
🔸I like that Tish's family is happy about her pregnancy. They were very wholesome and supportive.
🔸Mrs. Hunt says she hopes Fonny's jail time turns him to Jesus. Sharon answers sarcastically that the Lord works in mysterious ways. / Always looking on the bright side is one thing that disgusts me about Christianity in particular. You can't ever have any time that is bad. You always have to think about the good. That is toxic positivity and not healthy. Sometimes life is shit and you don't need to be thankful that you're still breathing. God needing to force you into unspeakable turmoils to convert you should make you question the validity of God's power and existence.
🔸Mrs. Hunt and her daughters inveigh against the news of Tish's pregnancy. Mrs. Hunt hides behind her religion to criticize Tish and the unborn child. Frank slaps Mrs. Hunt. / I don't condone domestic violence, but even Mrs. Hunt's behavior is a form of emotional domestic violence. Using your religion to say that everyone is sinning when they do something you dislike is nasty and exhausting.
🔸Tish is weary of the lawyer's, Hayward, intention, because he is white and asking for more money, but she softens up when she notices how he gently speaks to her and how he has a distaste for racism. / I like that the lawyer was humanized. All too often we are quick to think that lawyers are vain disgusting people.
🔸Man, Sharon's mission in Puerto Rico really failed and I wasn't ready for that emotional impact.
🔸Sharon is shook from her trip. She realizes that POC in North America have it bad no matter where they are. / This has its truths, but let's not hold onto this believing that it's pointless to try to escape any nation's hardships. I have designs to leave the States myself, and I'm often met with this criticism. No, there really are other countries that have it more together. Even Baldwin recognized that life had its improvements when he moved to Paris (obviously not North America, though).
🔸Even though the jail/prison system is rife with sexual assault and violence, Fonny learns to humanize the detainees around him. Some of them are in his same position, after all.
🔸Adrienne, one of Fonny's sisters, doesn't have the best attitude, but she's not a one-dimensional hateful husk. Frank hates her because she looks like her spiteful mother, and she resents this. She's very worried when Frank goes missing. / Adrienne's situation is unfortunate. She can only learn from those around her. She and her sister have been damaged by society and their parents, and I feel bad for them both.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone by James Baldwin
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Definitely felt like a rehash of some of Baldwin's older works, though perhaps angrier. There are race relations, jabs at Christianity without making the leap into agnosticism/atheism, a scrawny Black boy, Harlem, New York, music. The way the story is told mostly works for me, that is, I understand the choice to tell it the way it's told. The ending doesn't have any astounding resolution because the story is basically about people Leo's met and situations he's remembered while he's out of commission due to a heart attack. That may be my biggest complaint with this type of tale, one that wishes to overview a character's entire life in so short a space. It may have been to the book's benefit to have Leo feud with Caleb as the final boss battle or something LOL
🔸Leo makes a comment about how his mother warned him of changing his underwear, and the fear of being discovered in dirty underwear during an accident. I've had similar horrors, which says something pretty sad about my mental state.
🔸Leo describes where a lot of anti-semitism comes from in Black communities. Their landlords were Jewish and treated them poorly--didn't fix broken windows or falling ceilings, kicked them out over late rent. / This isn't some inherently Jewish trait, of course. Most landlords are bad people regardless of religious heritage.
🔸Leo reflects on part of his childhood. I got super nervous when he spoke of wandering the streets to the movie theater alone. Back then it was frowned upon, but normal for kids to do this. Now we know that children need responsible adult supervision at all times because there are predators in even our own neighborhoods.
🔸Speaking of predators, he and his older brother, Caleb, get stopped by white cops. They're terrified during the debacle but afterward laugh about it. They talk about why white people act so viciously toward Blacks. Leo thinks about his white school teacher, who is very kind. He's confused and has many questions. Indeed, the question of racial hostility in the US is a confusing one to confront.
🔸Caleb curses God for their situation. Leo wonders how God could have made white people so cruel. Leo has a hard time buying into the idea that a god would make life so unfair. / The subject of an amusing The Boondocks episode, white Christian racists literally think they're going to a whites-only heaven, some believe Blacks have no souls or even go to hell just because they're Black. It involves a lot of reconciliation and interpretation on part of the believer. I'm happier an atheist.
🔸Baldwin does that unfortunate thing: describes women's breasts and buttocks unnecessarily. The problem, of course, isn't just that he does this, but that the breast and buttocks of men aren't also described so that one feels the women are inherently sexual creatures. Sometimes the penis is talked of, but certainly not in the same casual manner.
🔸Leo sleeps with Madeleine and gets a scolding from the cops because some white old folks tattled on him. Madeleine throws a fit, but it's obviously Leo who is hurt the most. The next day Leo and Barbara are chased through town by violent racists, who thankfully don't get hold of them. / Yes, racists love to wax poetic about blood purity. Of course, anyone who understands homo sapiens and genes realizes that 1) we're all the same species, and 2) lack of genetic diversity leads to extinction.
🔸Jerry is asked if he misses church. He says sometimes, but he thinks of his mother, who is a devout believer and yet also a loud anti-semite and racist. / Yeah, when I was in church, the popular group to renounce was LGBT+ people. I couldn't be someone who supported that hatred.
🔸Saul is one of those racists who doesn't call you racist slurs, but instead insists that you need to work harder and longer than everyone else.
🔸Caleb is a pastor. Leo thinks he's preying upon the ignorant to make a living. / Some Christian leaders are draining their communities ignorantly, others are entirely malicious. Either way, I share the opinion that living off tithes from a congregation is villainous. The sermons are repetitive, exhausting, not worth MY money.
🔸Leo's mother is angry that he has feelings for Barbara, who is white. Leo gets hurt. / While it may be an unfortunate phenomenon that Black men often have superficial preferences for white women, you can't stop yourself from falling in love with someone.
🔸Caleb makes Leo feel bad about trying to become an actor. He likens artwork to alcohol consumption (conveniently ignoring the addictive qualities of caffeine in coffee, which he prefers) and talks about how all the artists he's heard of are depressed or crazy. Then he uses some extra manipulation power to say that we should be creating for God, not ourselves. / Look, idk what the deal is with artists getting depressed. It could be a lot of things, like people wanting art, but not wishing to place value on it. But until you can demonstrate that it's possible for your specific god to exist, I have no reason to believe that I'm supposed to be doing anything for its benefit.
🔸Caleb converted to Christianity after an understandably shocking experience on the battlefield during WWII. / Okay, what about the non-believers who faced those same turmoils but are still non-believers?? No one seems to want to talk about them.
🔸Leo comments to himself that it looks like their father is very disappointed in Caleb's becoming a pastor. Indeed, he commented earlier that their father didn't raise them in the church and thought poorly of it. Their father gets on much better with Leo's friend/lover Christopher, who is very loud about his opinion that Christianity was forced upon Blacks by whites to make them complacent in slavery and their position in life. / Really can't blame their dad for this one LOL
🔸I don't like that Pete is referred to as looking "oriental." Very outdated, but this was published in 1968.
🔸Barbara, Christopher, and Leo have her Kentucky family over for dinner and wring their ignorant necks about the current situation of racism and wealth inequality in America. / It's still the same today, 54 years after the publication of this book.
🔸A reporter asks Leo about his role in films and says that it must be very important to the Black race. He comments that it's not helping pay their rents. The reporter doubles down, but so does he. / Honestly, yeah. Black celebrities can be inspiring, that's true, but the rest of us are just trying to put food on the table. We're not necessarily trying to be celebrities or "make it."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
Moderate: Cursing, Hate crime, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and War
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
2.5
🔸I'm amused by Dostoevsky's author's note telling readers that they can stop reading if they don't like it. It's not self-pitying, but an understanding "yeah, i feel u."
🔸There are some sus comments about Jewish people in regards to money and media creation. 🙄 Also some slurs against Romani people. Lise repeats an anti-semitic tale about a Jewish person crucifying a toddler.
🔸Disabled people are called idiots 🙄 I fail to see how epilepsy makes a person stupid.
🔸The Liberals are atheists. Dimitri and Ivan are atheists (initially?????). Alyosha is Christian. Their father? Religion: tomfoolery.
🔸Socialism is inherently atheistic, meant "to set up Heaven on earth." / I can't say I agree with that? This statement makes it seem like equity/equality is a fantasy unachievable by human effort. It makes it seem as though theists have no place within Socialism, which I would certainly fight against as an atheist. I don't see what Socialism by itself has to do with the god question. I understand historically that oppression has happened. Certainly, Socialism can be bundled with other beliefs, but by itself the statement presented doesn't hold for me.
🔸Fyodor Pavlovich goes buckwild Diderot style in front of Father Zossima. Pyotr Alexandrovitch is pissed. Alyosha has a silent panic attack because everyone is kinda embarrassing.
🔸Father Zossima emotionally manipulates some distraught peasant women. He calms them, though I find his theistic doctrine illogical and unintentionally cruel. A discussion is made about "possessed" people that I feel is worth having. Zossima calms down one such woman, though it's noted that she'll have a fit again. Why wouldn't God immediately heal these people? How and why would the next woman's baby be an angel--using facts, how would you convince another Christian sect that this is what happens? Why would he feel sorrow in Heaven, a perfect place? Why should the other woman repent for wishing her abusive husband dead? Why should she forgive him?
🔸A lady™ asks Father Zossima how she can know there's life after death and he tells her that if she follows love, God will reveal all. This is how you get theists throwing around the word "love" until it loses all meaning, saying it even when you can see their disgust of you in their eyes--hear it in their voices.
🔸Ivan argues for basically a theocracy and Father Zossima and Father Païssy agree that this would be great because only God makes people feel regret for crimes. Poytr says he met a Frenchman who said, "The socialist who is a Christian is more to be dreaded than a socialist who is an atheist." Zossima tells Pyotr that no torture or cruelty would happen to criminals under this structure because the Church is all about love and redemption, man. / Press X to doubt.
🔸Dostoevsky has either read the Marquis de Sade, or is, at least, familiar with that author's colorful material. Ivan believes that if there's no immortal soul then any cruel action must be permitted. / This is the "no objective absolute standard" argument I've heard ten thousand times that makes no sense. What does immortality have to do with understanding that suffering hurts and is detrimental to human survival (given that we want to survive)? Why must we believe what God says is right or wrong? Because he's strong?? That's a dictatorship and also opens up more plot holes. The Marquis de Sade believed it was the atheist's duty to behave as ill as possible. Dmitri asks for clarification and simply responds, "I'll remember it." 😭
🔸Fyodor Pavlovich calls the monks out for BS, saying that they're preying upon the vulnerable peasant people and not struggling as much as they pretend. / Honestly, yeah.
🔸Fyodor Pavlovich may or may not have sexually assaulted a disabled woman who dies in his garden while giving birth. He takes the child, Smerdyakov, in as a servant. 😬
🔸Dmitri confesses to Alyosha that he's a bit of a vice-lover. Alyosha blushes and says, "Bro...me too." 🤯
🔸Uh, Smerdyakov likes to torture cats to death and criticizes the Bible's scientific accuracy. He hates people and has epilepsy. 🥴 Fyodor Pavlovich is fond of him.
🔸Smerdyakov makes an argument against a story Grigory has told. He says there's no great sin in renouncing Christianity to heathen tormentors because God knows it before you declare it and you won't be tried as a Christian. He says further that if your faith was really there, you should be able to move mountains to crush your assailants, but because the mountains won't move, surely God won't punish you so severely, and surely you'll start to really doubt your beliefs. Grigory is exasperated. / I think many Christians today would take the Bible verse in question (Matt 17:20) as figurative, but let's not assume there aren't extremists. Smerdyakov has a point with this argument. Grigory represents a type of aggressive extremist, unable to handle criticism. I can't say Smerdyakov is supposed to be looked upon favorably here, though, given his other...traits.
🔸Despite Ivan's article about theocracy, he says that God and immortality aren't real. So he believes the Church should be the state if these were true, but because they are false, he doesn't believe so.
🔸Alyosha and Ivan shortly discuss thought crime. Ivan doesn't see what it matters if you wish death upon someone. / Personally, I wouldn't let those thoughts consume you, but yeah, I also don't see an issue with wishing someone dead. Telling someone to kill themselves is another matter that I do take issue with. But keeping it in your head as a short passing thought isn't outright bad. I think it's worth examining why you want that person to die. If it's a petty reason (they get more attention than me) vs something significant (they're my abuser). I think dwelling on this may be a sign that a person needs therapy/help.
🔸Bruh, Katerina Ivanovna tries to defend Grushenka, but the latter says, "You thought I wasn't that bitch, but I am that bitch. 💅"
🔸Uh, Father Ferapont might be on hallucinogenic mushrooms. 😭 He's fasting, battling demons, meditating. Inquires a visiting monk about MUSHROOM CONSUMPTION.
🔸Ivan explains to Alyosha that he believes in God's existence, but disagrees with how he's made the world. He says man can only conceptualize in three dimensions, so why attempt to disprove God? / I would say if we can only think in three dimensions, why claim to know all these attributes of God? Why not be agnostic? Of course, I'm an atheist myself and accept the burden of proof. I don't think one has to know all there is to say there is no god as conceptualized by humanity's many existent and deceased religions.
🔸Ivan says he takes particular issue with children's suffering "to enrich the soil for the harmony of the future" and lists several real-world examples of war crimes and violence against infants and children. He says he cares slightly less about adult suffering because "they've already bitten the 'apple' of knowledge of good and evil." He says if he believes in God, he must disagree with the state he's created. Alyosha doesn't have much defense against this argument. / This is the "question of evil." Personally, I don't find suffering congruent with an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good being (necessarily all three of those traits) despite what arguments believers have tossed at me.
🔸Ivan tells Alyosha about a poem he'd been thinking up. It's about a 90-year-old Inquisitor taking a figure meant to be Jesus captive and accusing him. The Inquisitor represents a twisted sentiment trying to bring order to people while concealing the absence of a God he initially gave everything for. Ivan suggests many people are like his fictional Inquisitor, but Alyosha is once again dumbfounded.
🔸Father Zossima had an older brother. He liked philosophy and was a vulgar atheist, but he fell ill with consumption. In his dying days, he was convinced to convert to Christianity. His irritable nature faded, and he suddenly had a profound appreciation for God. / This story is the familiar horror tale. Don't be an atheist because God will strike you. As someone with multiple illnesses, I don't appreciate it. YHWH doesn't exist just because atheists get sick and die. Christians get sick and die, too.
🔸Father Zossima expresses his love of the Bible. He especially appreciates Job. He counters some common arguments against the story. "The greatness of it lies just in the fact that it is a mystery" and "old grief passes gradually into quiet tender joy." / I think these counters are weak when looking at the implications of Job more closely. They don't dissipate the immorality of the story.
🔸Heaven is in all of us, waiting to be unlocked once we abandon individuality and private property and begin serving and loving each other. Mankind must undergo a psychological transformation. This wisdom comes from an unconvicted murderer who can't decide whether to confess his crime 14 years later. / WELL, I don't think heaven has anything to do with it, but we've seen prosperous indigenous societies with this structure. Problem is, there are so many of us now. I agree that some kind of transformation has to take place in us, but I don't know what that looks like. Do we need to be conquered and ruled by an outside higher intelligence? Does a disaster have to wipe out the majority of us? Do homo sapiens have to evolve into another species? I dunno, this better society is probably just not going to happen during my lifespan, unfortunately. Each and every one of us are capable of kindness as well as cruelty, though some of us are more heinous than others, and this is possibly what holds us back.
🔸Science is trying to destroy God. / There are Christian scientists, so this makes no sense. A paranoid argument made by people who see their totalitarian authority fading.
🔸Serve your servants. / I don't think anyone needs a "servant" unless they're disabled, in which case, how much they can give back to the "servant" will depend on their disabilities. Be kind, at least.
🔸Russian peasants are quick to sin but know God in their hearts. / Sounds like a way to keep Russian commoners under religious tyranny.
🔸"The people will meet the atheist and overcome him." / We're not barbarous crazy people by definition, please calm down.
🔸We all share sin and should be humble. / Sin isn't real. I'm not responsible for the actions of others unless I coerced them (especially while they were vulnerable). Humility is a decent virtue.
🔸Treat animals right. Treat children right. 👍
🔸I internally cackled when Dmitri went to Madame Hohlakov for money.
🔸Dmitri and Grushenka's wild ravings remind me of when my sister stopped taking her bipolar medication and had a manic-depression fit. These people are not healthy.
🔸Dmitri getting himself into more and more of a pickle as he talks to the popo is the prime example of why you always ask for a lawyer and remain silent whether guilty or innocent LMFAO
🔸Kolya Krassotkin is a nasty boy who talks like an adult 🙄 He thinks the medical field is fraudulent and he believes himself a Socialist. He mocks peasants to their faces but assents if they say something he thinks is clever. He calls his servant "FEMALE." He's not all bad though as he shows he has some heart for the sick boy Ilusha.
🔸For any of this book's faults, Dostoevsky is great at writing troubled, mentally ill characters.
🔸Really tired of all the atheist or undecided characters having the most repugnant traits until they start repenting. Okay, I get it, Alyosha is the holy God-fearing beacon of hope and everyone else fails to compare. Atheism bad hurr durr
🔸So Smerdyakov can't just say anything plainly and always talks in clicks and whistles, and thought Ivan was telling him to kill Fyodor Pavlovich and use Dmitri as a scapegoat. Ivan is like, "What in the sweet fuck????" and Smerdyakov is like, "Oh, damn, I thought you were subliminally telling me something cuz of the theocracy article and the no god no virtue stuff lol my bad." / This seems like it's meant to show how atheist philosophers come up with evil ideas and even baser atheists will act on their bad ideas. 🥴 So after all we need God to dictate morality and the Church to keep us to that standard!!1
🔸While Ivan is having a dysphoric dream, his devil apparition again repeats some anti-science, anti-medical field, pro-homeopathy nonsense. / Yes, the medical field is overwhelming, no your special tea didn't just cure you of disease lmfao
🔸Ivan's sickly raving to Alyosha is an example of why religious extremists aren't equipped to get the mentally ill the help they need. Obviously during this time, help was scarce, but still, Ivan's rant shouldn't be attributed to supernatural forces. His ideas of religion and morality are tormenting him.
🔸Dmitri says that men can't just apologize to women because it shows a weakness that women will pounce on. 🥴 No. Stop that. None of this is healthy. Learn how to behave, for fuck's sake. You have the power to reason with each other so fucking do so. If anyone is pouncing on you for apologizing, you may need to reflect on the situation you're apologizing about (Celebrity YouTuber apologies come to mind lol), or reflect on that person's position in your life.
🔸Dmitri's lawyer tells the jury to appeal to their Christianity in judging the facts because Christianity is necessarily humane, rational, and philanthropic. I disagree. Christianity is interpreted in any manner by Christians, you won't necessarily get the same answers about a subject if you ask two different sects of Christians. It's not based on rationality, but emotion and superstition. Some Christians are humane and philanthropic, others are violent and greedy, some are a mix.
🔸As if reading my mind, the prosecutor accuses Dmitri's lawyer of heresy LOL
🔸So I guess the moral of the story is that even the most troubled people can't help but admit that God might exist. Russia knows God, dammit!!! / The troubled characters were vulnerable and fed the religion present in their society so that they couldn't help circling back to Christianity in their distress. I don't see a god proven or even maybe proven. I don't see YHWH proven.