Wow. The first time I read Virigina Woolf I was like... I was blown away. I couldn't believe anybody could write like that, I couldn't believe that eveWow. The first time I read Virigina Woolf I was like... I was blown away. I couldn't believe anybody could write like that, I couldn't believe that everybody didn't write like that--I mean, the shame of every writer who couldn't do that, the shame that they must all feel... Of course, these were passionate, ridiculous, exaggerated reactions. Emotion, and amazement, and love, fuelled them. Of course, Hemingway and Steinbeck do not write like that, and are, themselves, them, also, gods of words and language. Literature. Literature.
I read May Sinclair, then, many years later, and though, why is this woman not as known!? My god, what novels! The places she goes to, the things she says, the way she says them! And Elizabeth von Arnim... the fun I have had with her, the joy, the company, the precious, precious company of these women of words, these women who have fashioned understanding and passion and sadness and nostalgia and love and forlornness and loss and melancholy and frivolity and every human emotion, every female emotion, every feminine, every masculine, act, the brutal, the banal, the self-effacing... seldom, seldom the heroic... the heroic or the alien... which might be both the same thing...
And now Margaret Drabble. Again, the same awe, the same excited incredulity... who lives like this, with this novel inside of them? Who writes these words, these dialogues, these characters? Who sees these rooms, these streets, these people? Such things, such rooms, such people, such dialogues, such thoughts! Such lovely, lovely words! Luxury. Luxurious, luxurious literature. Literature, the golden....more
La historia que cuenta este libro es muy interesante. Yo no conozco el diccionario de Mar铆a Moliner: solo tras mudarme a Espa帽a hace 17 a帽os es que laLa historia que cuenta este libro es muy interesante. Yo no conozco el diccionario de Mar铆a Moliner: solo tras mudarme a Espa帽a hace 17 a帽os es que las frases "el diccionario Mar铆a Moliner" o "el Mar铆a Moliner" entraron en mi conciencia, y no penetraron demasiado, sino que se quedaron en los m谩rgenes de mi mente, de mi inter茅s.
A m铆 no me fascinan los diccionarios, la verdad. Ni las enciclopedias. No soy ese tipo de lectora ni lo fui jam谩s. Mi padre trat贸 de interesarme por la enciclpedia juvenil "Dime qu茅 es/Dime c贸mo funciona" y no logr贸 su cometido. Yo, desde que aprend铆 a leer a los 4 a帽os, he buscado la ficci贸n. Ha sido la 煤ltima d茅cada y media de mi vida la que ha hecho que despierte en m铆 el inter茅s por la no-ficci贸n, coincidiendo con mi maternidad. Quiz谩s pens茅 que deb铆a entender mejor la realidad material, porque hab铆a alguien que depend铆a de m铆 y yo deber铆a tener m谩s herramientas que pudieran orientarla. No lo s茅...
Las biograf铆as siguen sin ser un g茅nero que me interese. Prefiero ver documentales sobre personas de quienes quiera saber algo. Pero las biograf铆as noveladas son otra cosa. Pueden ser tan buenas como una novela buena. Pueden. O pueden ser tan buenas como una novela okay. Y, para m铆, este es el caso de Hasta que empieza a brillar.
Como novela, est谩 bien. Mi cr铆tica literaria interior, que no tiene educaci贸n literaria alguna, sino que opera por instinto, no ha quedado del todo satisfecha. Mi instinto no se ha movido en direcci贸n alguna. He le铆do el libro, con inter茅s, pero sin emociones. Las 煤nicas emociones generadas por la lectura ten铆an muy poco que ver con la escritura en s铆 (no hay met谩foras o p谩rrafos o oraciones que conmuevan, que te hagan subrayar el libro, nada que quieras releer hasta que empiece a brillar... solo esa cita, que es de Virginia Woolf, solo esa cita tiene ese poder de transportarte al mundo de las letras, las palabras, las oraciones, donde el alma es universo. Una cita ajena. En fin), y todo que ver con los horrores de la guerra, y no porque los retrate Neuman, que no los retrata y no tiene por qu茅 y bueno, decidi贸 no entrar en eso demasiado porque Mar铆a Moliner no los vivi贸 como los vivieron quienes los vivieron... pero quienes hemos le铆do mucho sobre ellos, le铆amos y ve铆amos y ol铆amos entre l铆neas la sangre y el miedo de cientos de miles de personas, ni帽as y ni帽os en la orfandad repentina de tener al padre muerto, desaparecido, y a la madre presa, y a los t铆os en la m谩s horrible miseria, y al peque帽o de la casa enterrado por hambre, y a la mayor sirviendo ya, con 9 a帽os... en fin...
Pero he aprendido mucho sobre el diccionario, el proceso, la vida de esta se帽ora que fue interesant铆sima, las bibliotecas, todo lo que describe y escribe el autor de manera correcta. Correct铆sima.
Y he pensado que me encantar铆a consultar ese, y no otro, diccionario. Qu茅 malo es el de la RAE, de verdad. Qu茅 malo es......more
Perhaps it's because of the state of the world, the war in Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza, Trump's policies, the rise of the ultra-right in Europe, thePerhaps it's because of the state of the world, the war in Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza, Trump's policies, the rise of the ultra-right in Europe, the erasure of sex in policy and sports, etc. Perhaps it's because I am very stressed by my work and my work is depressing (it has to do with the people killed by the Francoist army, his followers, and the authorities, in the Spanish Civil War). But this book brought such joy to me, such, such joy, that I cannot but give it 5 stars....more
this book was great. i loved it. i have to run to my yoga class so i cannot write a proper review but if i don't write something now i will forget to this book was great. i loved it. i have to run to my yoga class so i cannot write a proper review but if i don't write something now i will forget to write anything.
i learned a lot reading this book; it is very enlightening (and by that, i mean the proper kind of enlightenment and not the historical kind); it is very objective, which is pretty difficult with a subject such as the one it tackles; and it is very necessary, too.
this was as fun as the previous instalment and hopefully as fun as the next (fingers crossed that it will come soon!).
jasper fforde is great: his worlthis was as fun as the previous instalment and hopefully as fun as the next (fingers crossed that it will come soon!).
jasper fforde is great: his world-building is as good as any of the serious fantasy writers, and as good as the funny ones (although terry pratchett is beyond comparison). his stories are funny and entertaining and his characters are, good. relatable, sometimes. a bit... they're not great characters, because they're sort of all of them, somehow, the same. it's like deep down he is a follower of the upanishadic shift from the vedic religion, and he believes in the oneness of life and the soul, all lives and all souls, and that each living being is but the temporal embodiment of the One, of life, and, therefore, ultimately, part of this sameness. So each character is like an element of a greater more complex character that forms The Character, or, All Characters. I am reading The constant rabbit and it feels the same as the Thursday Next series and the Shades of Grey trilogy (wink wink): there is a sameness to ALL of the characters, even the bad guys. All of the main, good characters, are versions of each other, some more complex than others; all of the bad guys are versions of each other, too. I have never left the Thursday Next universe because it's the first i read: if you start with this trilogy (please please), you will feel that the Thursday Next books are all in this universe...
BUT that does not bother me because it is what it is: i do not come to Jasper Fforde for Anthony Trollope or some other character-driven writer who writes character-driven literature. I come for highly creative, interesting, entertaining, lovely, funny, cool, did i say creative, fantasy that is real-life-adjacent. Not in Narnia, or Discworld, or outer space, but adjacent to the UK, that drab and dreary universe of great literature.
at least during the first two thirds of the book, i felt that i was reading a book written shortly after shades of grey, which was as awesome and hilarious as that one. then it became clear that it was a different book, and i don't mean that as a compliment. some plot-holes and storylines of the first book were abandoned, for no reason and without explanation (like, greens and reds weren't supposed to be seen talking together... that was a terrible taboo... but oh well, that won't work in this book so let's forget that that was ever said in book one...)...
but that's because i'm very nitpicky and because i started book 2 a day after finishing book 1 and was like, wait, hello, why is this happening!!?!? they cannot talk to each other in broad daylight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! also, what happened to the spork factory!!?!??!?!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!?!?!??!...more
this was a fun read and very interesting as an allegory... but, as far as allegories go, it was a bit too simplistic.
there is not even a minimal explthis was a fun read and very interesting as an allegory... but, as far as allegories go, it was a bit too simplistic.
there is not even a minimal exploration of "leporiphobia"--how did the word become a slur, while the actual general sentiment is, in fact, leporiphobic (or so it seems); and why are so many people scared of the rabbits or doubtful about a future in which humans and rabbits (and foxes and weasels) live in a multi-species world.
it would have made a better political statement and a more profound philosophical allegory if the many aspects of the issue were addresed, with humor and hilarity, as is Jasper Fforde's specialty.
Loading...
