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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   4054 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 14, 2024

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I finished up Beloved, which I thought was an astonishing work of literature. The main theme is about how slavery obliterates everything it comes into contact with, and specifically, the identity of the enslaved.

It’s a strange, metaphorical book. There is so much that is open to interpretation that a reader could spend hours thinking about the books true meaning. I see now why it was so popular in high school English classes; it’s an endless ocean for critique and analysis.

I’m onto King Rat by James Clavell. I tried reading Shogun a couple years ago, got about 50% of the way through it, and gave up. I found the plot very slow and the tendency of the Japanese to commit sepuku at the drop of a hat off-putting. King Rat seems much tighter and more interesting so far.

Did you ever finish Monte Cristo?

The main theme is about how slavery obliterates everything it comes into contact with, and specifically, the identity of the enslaved.

C. V. Gheorghiu's The 25th Hour, a whirlwind tour of European labor camps and concentration camps during World War II, also does a lot with this theme. It's fairly didactic though. His other book La Seconde Chance is a work of genius, and much better written; unfortunately it has not been translated to English.

Did you ever finish Monte Cristo?

Inching through, may take a while at this rate. Not much to add at this point. The prison part is just about over and it seems a lot smaller this time, perhaps because I'm older. Hoping to figure out what makes the Count tick when he resurfaces.

King Rat is fantastic. Btw, flight lieutenant = captain in the UK, which clarifies some of the dynamics in the story.

I re-read Shogun last year for the first time in 20 years. Is the plot slow? Well, I also read Crime & Punishment and Brothers Karamazov last year, and compared to those the plot is a rocketship.

I found the plot moved faster the second time because I was familiarised with all those aspects of foreign culture and language that are used. More importantly, on reflection the feudal Japanese culture is a critical plot mechanism; the extreme honour based social structure is exactly what the main character has to adapt to in order to understand and participate in the power struggle he finds himself caught in. And the more his understanding improves the more his agency develops giving the result that the plot is pushed along faster.

I won't say that it's a "great" book but it was good enough to make me think I should get around to reading the next book in Clavell's Asian Saga. On the other hand I won't be looking for any more Dostoevsky.

Perhaps slow is not the correct description. Bloated is probably more accurate. I thought it had a very Game of Thrones-esque style, that is, lots of characters, lots of side quests and plot tangents, while not clearly delineating the main plot.

The other issue I had, was the unrelenting machismo of the main character and the overdone honor-culture of the Japanese. I’m not saying it’s a bad book, it just didn’t suit my tastes.

I had a similar response to Shogun. I got halfway through (I have a two-volume set) and just didn't feel motivated to pick up the next volume. It wasn't boring per se, but there wasn't anything about it that particularly interested me.

Shogun is one of my all time favorite novels. My mother and I are extremely excited for the new miniseries. I think it is a layered novel, with a lot going on. I keep meaning to read King Rat, but I've also read Whirlwind (About the Iranian revolution) and Tai-Pan...honestly they both left me very flat, by comparison to Shogun.

A lot of Shogun's plot is autobiographical, Clavell was a POW in Singapore under the Japanese occupation. His experiences inform Blackthorn's narrative.

Oh nice, I didn't know about the new miniseries. I'll add it to the download queue.

I'm content to take a punt on Tai-Pan next seeing as it's the next chronological installment, hopefully it's okay even if it doesn't measure up to Shogun.

Tai-Pan wasn't terrible. Just meandered a lot more, compared to Shogun nothing really happens.

Tai-Pan is also imo quite inferior compared to its "sequel", Noble House

Having read all but Whirlwind - it’s all pretty good at least, though the posthumously published Gaijin suffers from awful proofreading.

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