Ah, existentialism. The word conjures images of French cafes, cigarettes and black and white photos, but what is it really?
Tag: Classics
I first discovered Albert Camus’s philosophy when I was 17, pretty depressed and desperate for something to replace the “hope” that hitherto had been provided by religious faith.
Play It As It Lays is one of those books I’ve always seen on recommendation lists with titles like “POV: you’re hot and sad.” So, of course, I decided to give it a read.
Franz Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony” is a surreal and disturbing short story set in an unnamed penal colony. The narrative explores questions of punishment and societal justification, revolving around an elaborate torture/execution device that etches the condemned’s sentence into their skin over twelve hours. The reviewer appreciates Kafka’s ability to create a unique Kafkaesque atmosphere. The book receives 4/5 stars.
Fight Club is one of those famous books I hadn’t yet read but felt immense pressure to read due to its seemingly universal presence in pop culture.
I had been procrastinating reading this book for a while, because I was honestly too scared to read it.
When I was reading this book I just kept thinking about the thought that comes into my head sometimes, about how I can just tell that my life is not going to amount to anything all that interesting or happy.
There’s a lot to unpack in this book.
Does anyone remember that time when the government put us on semi house arrest for like a year because of a disease? And it sucked?
This play was surprisingly clever and hilarious– though I suppose I should not have been surprised as it is Oscar Wilde.
This isn’t my favorite of Vonnegut’s books, but it was still an interesting read.
The Metamorphosis is a very weird little book which is just one long extended metaphor. And I’m going to go ahead and interpret the hell out of it now because we all know I am very very knowledgeable about Literature.
So, the narrator of this book is utterly unhinged.
2001: A Space Odyssey is by far the most disturbing movie I have ever watched. So what about the book?
My very first PKD. A rite of passage, perhaps? That was really… weird, but interesting.
This book really messed with my head.
Short stories are CRIMINALLY underrated. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever written about short stories on this blog. I do read them sometimes, but definitely not as often as I read full-length novels. But I don’t think they get enough appreciation.
This book has some of the most long-winded and sesquipedalian (I wanted to use that word so badly) prose I’ve ever read, but I somehow managed to finish it in one afternoon, glued to my Kindle the entire time.
I haven’t really been feeling the holiday atmosphere this year. Possibly because of quarantine, possibly because of how busy I’ve been, possibly because of a combination of factors I haven’t even considered. But the fact remains that it’s over halfway through December, Christmas is in 6 days, and 2020 is, at long last, nearly over.
Nursery rhymes have always been creepy, but this book took it to another level…
Frappes and Fiction 