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mark monday's Reviews > Ward No. 6
Ward No. 6
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review of the title story only
I wonder if I would give Plato's Allegory of the Cave 3 stars if I read it now. I remember being profoundly impacted by that one when reading it in junior high. maybe it's an age thing? these days I read mainly for enjoyment not edification, and ratings are funny when it comes to that. 3 stars is a fine rating by me: it means I liked it well enough and may even recommend it. but I'd never consider re-reading it. maybe if I had read this one but was a different person... say, if I wasn't the choir to whom this book preaches about mindless hypocrisy and the foolish cupidity of governmental systems or, to go deeper, if I was haunted by not finding a purpose in life... perhaps the novella's themes would have more impact? this is the third classic of existential dread and the shallowness of life (or certain lives) that I've read in the past year; the other two were Camus' "The Fall" and Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground". I really enjoyed the former because of its stylistic flair and subtle empathy; I despised the latter because of its repellent thesis that mankind is basically an insect colony. "Ward No. 6" questions the substance of lives frozen by inaction and that complacently pay more attention to form over meaning, despite knowing better. there was neither prose that sung nor a message that stung, although there was a cunningly characterized protagonist and a plot that read like a trap being slowly, inevitably sprung. I admired the design of the piece but could only shrug at the message. it must suck to have a meaningless life full of hypocrisy and to wind up stuck in a mental hospital as a living symbol of all such hypocrites who complacently let things happen to them and everyone around them, for sure.
6 of 16 in Sixteen Short Novels
I wonder if I would give Plato's Allegory of the Cave 3 stars if I read it now. I remember being profoundly impacted by that one when reading it in junior high. maybe it's an age thing? these days I read mainly for enjoyment not edification, and ratings are funny when it comes to that. 3 stars is a fine rating by me: it means I liked it well enough and may even recommend it. but I'd never consider re-reading it. maybe if I had read this one but was a different person... say, if I wasn't the choir to whom this book preaches about mindless hypocrisy and the foolish cupidity of governmental systems or, to go deeper, if I was haunted by not finding a purpose in life... perhaps the novella's themes would have more impact? this is the third classic of existential dread and the shallowness of life (or certain lives) that I've read in the past year; the other two were Camus' "The Fall" and Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground". I really enjoyed the former because of its stylistic flair and subtle empathy; I despised the latter because of its repellent thesis that mankind is basically an insect colony. "Ward No. 6" questions the substance of lives frozen by inaction and that complacently pay more attention to form over meaning, despite knowing better. there was neither prose that sung nor a message that stung, although there was a cunningly characterized protagonist and a plot that read like a trap being slowly, inevitably sprung. I admired the design of the piece but could only shrug at the message. it must suck to have a meaningless life full of hypocrisy and to wind up stuck in a mental hospital as a living symbol of all such hypocrites who complacently let things happen to them and everyone around them, for sure.
6 of 16 in Sixteen Short Novels
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Ward No. 6.
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Reading Progress
July 10, 2016
–
Started Reading
July 10, 2016
– Shelved
July 10, 2016
–
Finished Reading
December 16, 2018
– Shelved as:
masterpiece-theatre
December 16, 2018
– Shelved as:
world-of-insects
Comments Showing 1-5 of 5 (5 new)
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D.D.
(new)
Jul 11, 2016 12:41PM
That doctor had it coming for him. The author is pretty explicit about the fact that anybody can get thrown into the asylum and that there isn't much difference between the crazy people and those who are normal, so that made it sort of predictable. But I still thought it was immensely clever.
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Hammy72125 wrote: "I guess the question becomes when one becomes bored with both the story and the narrative style; what else entertains? ..."for me, story and how the narrative tells that story, prose style, characterization, and themes are all about equal. just has to be an interesting combination of more than one of those things. I can love something with a bland style and fascinating characters & challenging themes or cardboard characters and an exciting narrative & beautiful prose or challenging prose within a complex, exciting story that has banal themes.
I haven't read this book Mark and I'm not too sure that I want to but I have a wonderful framed print of Chekhov. I inititally saw this painting in a Russian Exhibition in London in March of this year and I was so taken with it that I had to make do with a print!
