Thank you for talking about lispector. What I realised from my own love towards her books and your review is that her self-indulgence doesn't make sense. She writes about people with rich inner life as a product of their isolation from the world so it doesn't make sense why these characters are content when objectively the life is depressing. She has a clever way of romantising melancholy as if it's the best thing in world. People who tend to that (me included) can relate to her writing so much, she speaks the language we don't know how to word. So I completely understand where you're coming from. For some it works for some it doesn't, like I can't for the life of me read books of Plath, Woolf or even Austen i always end up feeling "just get over it shut up" 😂 art is so subjective that's the most endearing part about it.
this is so interesting because what you describe 'people with rich inner life as a product of their isolation from the world' is something I feel I can relate to... I am sad a lot of the time for little reason & there were some references to this that really struck a chord in me & moved me... I think the problem was that I couldn't make head or tail of a lot of sentences because they were just that bit too vague and elusive. this could be something to do with my form of dyslexia or something else but it did feel a lot like I was attempting to read english as a non-native english speaker. I so wish I could've read the portugeuse because something might've been lost in translation. I don't know... I wonder if you could tell me whether you understood EVERYTHING in this book (or if you're even meant to?) because I was made to feel quite alone in how little I understood - like I was of a lesser human than the ones who "get it".
English isn't my 1st language nor am I a lit student so I'm sorry for not being able to help you dissect why I find her writings so eloquent. It just makes me feel heard as in she makes me articulate the language I don't have any words for. If you wish to retry then I vote for hour of the star. But still if you think she is blabbering, then that's completely fine. Preferences matter, also I don't find her translations poor but I've disliked many popular ones like the prophet cuz of it, so definitely agree on that. Lastly I don't have dyslexia but I'm a slow reader ( long time to complete romance too 😂), so on one hand i experience books more enrichingly but sometimes I feel too stupid to call myself a reader. But that mindset has only stifled my growth instead of objectively reading the books as they're. So don't be harsh on yourself, anyone who is doing this is just projecting on you. unabashedly talk about the authors who seem as edge lords to you 😂 passionately talking about what any piece of art emotes in us is half the fun!
thank you for your thoughts. I will definitely look into more of her work - I'm not quitting just yet!! I'll see how I get on & reassess then... I feel quite determined to understand tbh. 😂
13:03, I'm glad I'm not alone in finding writing about Jesus hit or miss, often I'll have to put something down because the writer has not thought it through, or is just missing the point completely. I like the way Bulgakov did it in "The Master and Margarita". That might be my favourite exploration of the theme outside of explicitly Christian books. I understand faith is difficult to write about, but when the tone comes through with disrespect it can be a turn off. I am reading "Midnight's Children" and Rushdie is really good at navigating the clash of beliefs, leaving space for the reader and remaining non-judgemental. It can be done. Back to the charity shop, from whence ye came! Cool vid! :) If you haven't read it already, I would recommend "East of Eden", Steinbeck is so good!
yes, this is so tricky! looking at Jesus through the lens of the Holy Spirit can be very different from how a non-believer sees Him but it does hurt me to witness some things... however, it is still easy enough to avoid material that leans that way! after all, it all comes from a lack of understanding of who He is & what He's done for us, not one of hatred. 😊 it makes me think of Luke 23:34. I'm so keen to read east of eden! it's been on my tbr for a while now & sounds like it could potentially be a new favourite!!
I really enjoyed this video, Turner is one of my favourite songwriters so this was a joy to hear! I shall pick up a copy of Despair, it sounds quite intriguing :) thank you
The Quality of your videos is unbelievable, the story telling , the subject matter, the editing and the passion you have for everything your talking about. Such a fan.
↓ good news!! ↓ whilst in the process of editing I found an article from UK esquire also from may 2014 (which was only ever released in print) entitled 'arctic monkeys in new york: the outtakes' which confirms alex's love for despair. 'he's just finished reading vladimir nabokov's despair. "it blew my head," he says. "I think it might be my favourite."' shoutout to my sweet friend (@alturners on instagram) who shared the interview in full. 🤍
I don't usually leave comments, but I just wanted to say how excited I am about this video (as an Artic Monkeys fan myself) Love your content Jemima! <3
omg absolutely breaking my heart that you didn't love Frieren, but I loved hearing your perspective! it's definitely a book that does focus a lot more of characters and has a bit of a meandering plot, so if that's not your vibe, it's probably good to just stop with the one volume! happy you at least gave it a chance! ❤❤
if you are eagle eyed you will notice that there are actually 9 books mentioned here. book 10 was six scorched roses by carissa broadbent; a little novella in a series I began this year. unfortunately, because I have it as an ebook, I forgot to mention it in the video!
It could be completely different, but Basic Black With Pearls is giving me similar vibes to Crossings by Alex Landragin, and you might really enjoy that one! It's magical realism and plays with structure because there are actually two ways to read the book.
apologies for the colouring in this video! it was a sunny day so the clip was very yellow & the only way I could fix it was from desaturating the whole clip. 🥺
I just finished reading "Love and Other Words" too and I agree with your view, but I personally couldn't really find the 'breaking point issue' in "Every Summer After" forgivable. I don't know anyone irl who have read these books, so prepare for a rant on them. SPOILERS below for both these books: "Every Summer After" I'm sorry, but if you sleep with my sibling since you suspected me of cheating, but didn't confirm nor break up with me.... that's unforgivable to me personally. I'd love to hear more of your thoughts and take on it since you said how it could potentially be more forgivable. At the same time, the male love interest was crappy in his communication too. I enjoyed this book slightly more since it was set in Canada (where I live), so I'm biased. "Love and Other Words" This 'breaking point issue' wasn't forgivable either, but I am really confused as to whether or not Eliot cheated or not. After reading some Goodreads comments, people are torn on whether he cheated or was actually r*ped by Emma since he was really drunk, but I was given to understand she was the same level of intoxicated as him, so I don't know where that leaves this issue. What are your thoughts on this? Also, after Macy shared the entire side of her story with Eliot, he reacted, threw up, and then the next day... seemed to be decently fine and quickly accepted the fact that his actions led to Macy's dad dying?? I know they are not directly connected, but.... I mean, come on, I would feel SO guilty and would take so long to process the grief and guilt of it all. Also, throughout the teenage timeline, I was SO annoyed at how Macy kept on not wanting to date Eliot for fear of ruining their friendship. I wanted her to realize that if she didn't date him and only remained friends with him, I believe their friendship would still be ruined because sooner or later one of them would start dating someone else, which would lead to jealousy or a 'I just can't stand to see you date anyone but me, but I still don't wanna date you' attitude. That's just a big pet peeve of mine, so Idk how many others felt that way about Macy's personality. Also, great video and I'm glad you are on the mend :))
wow! thank you for your comment!! here is my (equally large!) response to it: I think it's more that the conflict in ESA was comparatively better for me to comprehend resolving. I thought sam was treating percy badly & had said a break but it read more like he didn't want to be with her. obviously, if I were sam I would be very hurt by what percy did but the surrounding circumstances seemed kinder & more generous to her than L&OW. unlike ESA, to me macy seemed entirely innocent so that combined with the death of her dad who was the most wonderful, gentle, quiet but steady presence in her life was just beyond for me. there is a level of trauma from the event of finding the love of your life naked with a girl on top of him to then having your father diie in front of your eyes because he came out to help you with said love of your life that doesn't exist even slightly in ESA. I wanted to mention the thing about the possible r*pe but I didn't know how to without spoiling the book for those who might be still interested in reading it. it's tricky because if it was just a result of eliot losing his ability to not give into lust or whatever then I think it's absolutely unacceptable in my mind to get drunk like that. he should've known his limits & to me there's no excuse for behaviour like that. on the other hand, if he was assaulted then the fact he wasn't sober would be irrelevant to the way he was treated in terms of whether he should have been or not - taking advantage of someone is wrong whether they are under the influence or not. I would've then had more understanding. I still however, like you, would've disliked how he handled discovering what happened to macy's dad. her level of suffering was so extreme, she deserved more care either way. however, I do have a strong feeling that if christina lauen wanted to suggest what happened to eliot was assault then they would've made a bigger deal out of driving that narrative. especially opening up the conversation of male r*pe which is rarely discussed, specifically so in media. also, it is just devastating to me how eliot told macy repeatedly that that girl was nothing to worry about & then something actually DID happen. like macy I find it difficult to trust people deeply so finding out I wasn't just delusional despite being told I was for literal years would've been very damaging for me - & I'm sure for her too. as for your last point: I see where you are coming from but I do think coming to a conclusion like that goes along with maturity. there have been several times I haven't wanted to ruin friendships because I've had feelings & it took me a long while to realise that the relationship had changed the second I felt those feelings despite not having confessed them yet. I hope this helped to explain things a little... 🤍🤍🤍
@@JemimaRose Thank you for your response!! That definitely helped me to see things better and from a different perspective that I hadn't thought of before. I totally forgot that Sam and Percy were on a break when she slept with his brother. I read ESA in December of 2023 so I definitely forgot some things about it. After hearing your points and explanations, I def agree with you that L&OW would be so much harder to forgive and resolve since there's so many more layers of hurt and trauma from it. Christina Lauren couldn't have written a better father for Macy and I was fighting tears when he died :(( I agree with your thoughts on the discussion of r*pe in L&OW. It would have been SO impactful for the story to have opened up this conversation if it was indeed what happened in the story. A potentially lost opportunity, but I suppose the book would have been much longer and more emotionally-heavy (for lack of better words) so I guess it depends on what the author was going for. About your last point, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts. I forget that it is Macy and Eliot's first relationship and that they are young. It was hard for me to see the complexity of the feelings and that prob stems from a lack of a friendship to lovers/relationship experience lol. My own thought process has always been that "now that I like you more than a friend, we shall be more than friends immediately if you feel the same", so it's hard for me to grasp other ways since I haven't even had friends who share Macy's view in relationships to my knowledge. It still frustrates me a bit, but it's mainly cuz it wasn't the way I wanted their teen relationship to pan out (basically I wanted more 'screen time' of them in a relationship before the eventual split happens). Also I forgot to mention this in my original comment, but THANK YOU for mentioning in ur vid the emotional cheating that Macy does on her fiancé cuz it also annoyed me so bad. I am glad I read these books because it has made me realize that I really don't enjoy reading the tropes of cheating or emotional cheating etc... I just get too annoyed on behalf of the characters that I just can't learn to chill out lol. Do you have any romance recs that don't involve cheating by any chance? I feel like I wanna adjust my Goodreads ratings on these books now after reflection and discussion, but idek what I'd give them at this point haha
Glad you got Oscar Wilde' s Short Stories. Or is it Fairytale? My copy is the best in hardcover from late '40s possibly. I was 2 or 3 when my Uncle sent it. I've treasured it always. He is a beautiful writer!
they’re short stories but they’re fable-like & contain some little fairytales too. I love Oscar Wilde. I possess the unpopular opinion that I prefer his shorter work & his plays over his novel!
