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williamzzengg's reviews
156 reviews
Baedan 1: Journal of Queer Nihilism by Various, Baedan
3.0
"when will be able to shatter the power of words by the movement of our skins?"
There are moments where this collection of words truly spoke to me: the fallibility of language, the domestication of all life by capital. Are we all dead, and is a new human being waiting to emerge from our corpses?
There are moments where I've learned things, but that's probably not the best relationship to have with this book: the embrace of pure negativity, being against society and all politics. Perhaps we should all live in the present and give up all hope in the future.
And finally, there are moments. LIKE WHAT THE HECK I DON'T UNDERSTAND TIME AT ALL. But maybe I'll understand it one day.
why don't we fear death?
There are moments where this collection of words truly spoke to me: the fallibility of language, the domestication of all life by capital. Are we all dead, and is a new human being waiting to emerge from our corpses?
There are moments where I've learned things, but that's probably not the best relationship to have with this book: the embrace of pure negativity, being against society and all politics. Perhaps we should all live in the present and give up all hope in the future.
And finally, there are moments. LIKE WHAT THE HECK I DON'T UNDERSTAND TIME AT ALL. But maybe I'll understand it one day.
why don't we fear death?
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
4.0
"I looked around, and I don't know why, but I assure you that never, never before, did this land, this river, this jungle, the very arch of this blazing sky, appear to me so hopeless and so dark, so impenetrable to human thought, so pitiless to human weakness."
This book started slowly, but the end was like riding a steamboat into the heart of an unexplored forest of Congo. As you read onward, Conrad pulls you deeper into a heart of darkness...or perhaps the darkness was within you all along?
I read this book for a class so maybe I should start thinking coherently...this book talks about some things. The search for meaning. The inability to find meaning (oh the absurd!) Human nature contrasted against modern civilization (and its resistance to a savagery that lies within all of us). There are also themes of colonialism and racism too, against the backdrop of a meaningless world, and civilizations built to honor such.
I am going to fail this class.
This book started slowly, but the end was like riding a steamboat into the heart of an unexplored forest of Congo. As you read onward, Conrad pulls you deeper into a heart of darkness...or perhaps the darkness was within you all along?
I read this book for a class so maybe I should start thinking coherently...this book talks about some things. The search for meaning. The inability to find meaning (oh the absurd!) Human nature contrasted against modern civilization (and its resistance to a savagery that lies within all of us). There are also themes of colonialism and racism too, against the backdrop of a meaningless world, and civilizations built to honor such.
I am going to fail this class.
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
4.0
To him now life seemed a shadow, day a white shadow, night, and death, and stillness, and inaction, this seemed like being. To be alive, to be urgent, and insistent, that was not-to-be. The highest of all was, to melt out into the darkness and sway there, identified with the great Being.
This book moved very slowly at times and there's a lot. There's so much that I don't know. There is a significance in nature, something greater than our individual selves. Colorful. And darkness. And there's love too, but that seems to be inconclusive so far...
someone pls help me
This book moved very slowly at times and there's a lot. There's so much that I don't know. There is a significance in nature, something greater than our individual selves. Colorful. And darkness. And there's love too, but that seems to be inconclusive so far...
someone pls help me
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
4.0
"Chambers never unsealed since the arrival of the gods...these exceed in number those that can be visited, as the dead exceed the living...Nothing is inside them...nothing, nothing would be added to the sum of good or evil...a bubble-shaped cave that has neither ceiling nor floor, and mirrors its own darkness in every direction infinitely."
And all the words I have ever written, they echo Borges, Borges, Borges. Perhaps we will be friends one day. Time and space. I only understood part of this book. But there can only be understanding when there is also not understanding, of course. God is God is God is God.
And all the words I have ever written, they echo Borges, Borges, Borges. Perhaps we will be friends one day. Time and space. I only understood part of this book. But there can only be understanding when there is also not understanding, of course. God is God is God is God.
Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael J. Sandel
4.0
wow this book wasn't that bad!
It offers an okay description of various theories of justice (utilitarian, libertarian, Rawlsian, Kantian, Aristotelian) and also provides a ton of examples (that I think were a bit extra, but whatever).
Ends with own theory of justice, interesting.
We are all story-telling beings or something.
It offers an okay description of various theories of justice (utilitarian, libertarian, Rawlsian, Kantian, Aristotelian) and also provides a ton of examples (that I think were a bit extra, but whatever).
Ends with own theory of justice, interesting.
We are all story-telling beings or something.
Poetry, Language, Thought by Martin Heidegger
3.0
In the shoes vibrates the silent call of the earth, its quiet gift of the ripening grain and its unexplained self-refusal in the fallow desolation of the wintry field.
Art is something something truth about things in themselves something
Art is something something truth about things in themselves something
Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys
4.0
"the candles crying wax tears...i had to go to the funeral... they said so young to die..."
sad sad sad stream of consciousness sad sad and it all starts over again....
sad sad sad stream of consciousness sad sad and it all starts over again....
The Genealogy of Morals (Translated by Horace B. Samuel with an Introduction by Willard Huntington Wright) by Friedrich Nietzsche
4.0
"They were reduced, were those unhappy creatures, to thinking, inferring, calculating, putting together causes and results, reduced to that poor and most erratic organ of theirs, their 'consciousness'"
A foundational work maybe? I hope so. Appears a bit fascist-y at times, but maybe that's just me.
A foundational work maybe? I hope so. Appears a bit fascist-y at times, but maybe that's just me.