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Yeah I read the first part and just am having trouble thinking of anything to say. To me, I think the reason he keeps thinking things are sad, or wasted, etc. is that the main character realizes he’s using this woman. He is so locked up inside his own head that he can’t really engage with anybody or anything. So he’s kind of sad about it. I’m enjoying it, but I couldn’t tell you why.
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Nov 9, 2022 22:48
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The copy I got has an intro that apparently spoils the entire novel so that was fun.
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Nov 12, 2022 14:47
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Finished in a Sunday and that is something else. The ending puzzles me but so does the beginning and the middle. If it comes to me, I'll let ya'll know.
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Nov 13, 2022 21:14
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Sometimes a book is just a vibe.
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Nov 13, 2022 21:18
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This is a serious vibe book. Finished it. Still not much to say. It seems like everyone enjoyed it, at least!
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Nov 14, 2022 06:52
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Sometimes a book is just a vibe. This is indeed such a book and honestly other than 1Q84, this seems to go for most of the Japanese literature I have encountered so far. They seem to be big on moods. It was a very enjoyable book to read and I thank the SA book club for introducing me to now three books that I would have never read without it.
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Nov 14, 2022 07:45
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Turns out there are a ton of social and societal nuances to 1900s Japanese culture that I have no understanding of.
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Nov 14, 2022 13:50
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https://twitter.com/alloy_dr/status/1592142754708078593?s=20&t=IIuIUHgWIjHAknV4mtGw_g
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Nov 14, 2022 14:15
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McSpankWich posted:Turns out there are a ton of social and societal nuances to 1900s Japanese culture that I have no understanding of. Same.
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Nov 14, 2022 23:04
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Snow Country is, definitely, a vibe so far. Gotta say that the line "the bud of her lips opened and closed smoothly, like a beautiful little circle of leeches" kind of took me aback a bit.
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Nov 20, 2022 14:01
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Chamberk posted:Snow Country is, definitely, a vibe so far. Noticed the same, chalked it up on Japanese weirdness.
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Nov 20, 2022 16:26
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It’s like reading a novel written in a parallel universe that is very close, but in many small ways different, from our own
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Nov 20, 2022 17:18
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I'm not all that much of the book club type but I wanted to drive-by post that Snow Country is one of the most memorable books I've ever read and one of my faves. I hope y'all get something out of it.
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Nov 20, 2022 17:27
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So is the main character sleeping with and/or having sex with, Komako? I initially just assumed that but some of the conversations they have make me question it entirely.
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Nov 20, 2022 20:33
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McSpankWich posted:So is the main character sleeping with and/or having sex with, Komako? I initially just assumed that but some of the conversations they have make me question it entirely. As I read it, they absolutely do but it is not mentioned at all. More where one scene they are dressed, she is drunk, it is the middle of the night. The next line it is morning, they are under blankets, or he is at least and she is dressed in some random kimono that she got brought in by some servant. It is almost like the lewd bits were cut out by a censor.
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Nov 20, 2022 20:38
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Yes. It does a kind of fade to black/elide over what they’re actually doing, but the first time is during the conversation where she comes to see him after drinking and complaining about her headache. She wants to stay but also knows there’s no future there so she’s trying to convince herself to go; the next day she ends up coming back again and it says something like how she stopped trying to sneak out before morning after that.
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Nov 20, 2022 20:39
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Just a few hours left to vote for next month! https://twitter.com/alloy_dr/status/1592142754708078593?s=20&t=PtveD_XobbalqT9Lg67v8Q
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Nov 21, 2022 00:59
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Just finished and I'm letting it simmer in my head, but like others said it's got a vibe I enjoyed overall. The characters who can't help but be drawn to each other, knowing there's no real future to be had and that they're prolonging the inevitable and maybe even compounding the eventual hurt they'll experience. Is it worth going into a relationship you know is doomed? Is there value in the experience itself even if it's "worthless", like with Komako's diaries or Shimamura's obsession with ballets he'll never see, or Yoko nursing the doomed man. There's a risk of the tipping point where you go too far and the pain is greater than the joy, though, such as both women wanting to go to Tokyo with Shimamura and all three knowing it's impossible. All against the background of the mountain in the changing seasons, notably the autumn and winter when things inevitably die before coming back in some form in the spring. The textiles that were woven in those cold months and which Shimamura believes will far outlive their creators, finding some kind of new life. Just a story that sort of ponders out these kinds of questions. I enjoyed it and it's not a book I would've picked up on my own, probably. Thanks, reading club.
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Nov 26, 2022 22:09
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Oh and yes, If On a Winter's Night a Traveler will be the Dec 2022 botm.
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Nov 28, 2022 19:31
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I've started If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, and his Italian Folktales did not prepare me for this.
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Nov 28, 2022 19:44
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Just placed a hold for a digital rental of the December book. 16 weeks wait, 1 copy available 7 people in line before me. What the hell is this. edit: There are physical copies available at all of the libraries close to my house. I'll just do that. The digital rental system is dumb as heck McSpankWich fucked around with this message at 16:04 on Nov 29, 2022 |
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Nov 29, 2022 16:00
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Oh and yes, If On a Winter's Night a Traveler will be the Dec 2022 botm. Waddayaknow, my library also has that one. Weird place, it seems very connected to L-space.
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Nov 30, 2022 14:19
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Based on Snow Country and now If on a winters’ night a traveler, I can conclude that all great literature must begin on a train. This is my first foray into meta-fiction, and the first time I've read anything in second person since "choose your own adventure" books as a kid, so this is going to be quite a ride. The book actually reminds me of Umberto Eco, specifically Foucalt’s Pendulum. Both authors are Italian, but I think that’s just an odd coincidence, since I’m certainly not well-read enough in Italian literature to pick up nuances in translation. Rather, it’s the sense of wandering befuddled through secret societies and bureaucracies, with a smattering of history and book publishing thrown in. Although maybe there’s some hallmark of Italian literature there that I just don’t know about.
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Dec 2, 2022 18:05
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Eco was pretty much guaranteed to have read the book so it could just be literary influence. But yeah, from what I've read so far I can definitely feel some similarities - maybe with a bit of Kafka thrown in?
anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Dec 2, 2022 |
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Dec 2, 2022 19:39
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Currently I am appreciating how no matter the location or genre the narrator shares the same horny self-obsession.
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Dec 8, 2022 00:10
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Yeah, I was occasionally interested in this book's comments on reading, but my most consistent reaction was "yeah, one of them heterosexuals definitely wrote this."
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Dec 9, 2022 04:01
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Rand Brittain posted:Yeah, I was occasionally interested in this book's comments on reading, but my most consistent reaction was "yeah, one of them heterosexuals definitely wrote this." Well is it that bad?
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Dec 9, 2022 04:13
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I don't think it's a bad book; it's a good book. That is just my gut impression after reading the bit it ends on.
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Dec 9, 2022 05:47
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I have been reading a few pages and have a lot of trouble getting into it. Does it get better?
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Dec 9, 2022 08:25
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Keetron posted:I have been reading a few pages and have a lot of trouble getting into it. Does it get better? I mean, it's not going to stop being several pages that begin an interesting story before yet another interruption prevents the second person narrator from ever finishing it, so if you don't like that, then no.
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Dec 9, 2022 20:25
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Honestly I think I’m done with meta- by this point
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Dec 9, 2022 22:22
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there's a bit near the end that brings up, categorizes, and ultimately discards as extremely silly the entire notion that underpins things like gpt-3 and generative art if that gives you incentive to carry on
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Dec 10, 2022 01:28
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This is pretty chaotic.
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Dec 13, 2022 19:46
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Still thinking about snow country. I think I finally get why him calling her a “good woman” was so pivotal in the book (in that it’s apparently the climactic event, although I didn’t know why). She was afraid he was laughing at the “women” that he used as prostitutes; in contrast to Yoko and the girls that were more formal geishas. When he called her a woman, she knew that he thought of her as a prostitute and not as a real person. By then, he’d started becoming infatuated with someone else, and the snow started really falling, and he was getting tired of the routine, because it was getting too close to real life. He liked the idea of things, but couldn’t commit to their reality. Once they get too real, he retreats.
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Dec 13, 2022 20:06
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I can buy that. I was hung up on thinking that referring to her as a “woman” was more treating her as a mature adult and dealing with her seriously, which seemed more likely that she would be with him forever (ignoring the impediment of his existing wife), while previously referring to her as a “girl” was treating her is a more frivolous manner. So it just seemed backwards to me. As to If on a winter’s night a traveller, once I got past the confusion of the first few chapters, this became one of my favorite books, although it wasn't Christmas-y at all. I think it even merits a second reading now that I know all of what was going on, so that I could match what was going on in the book chapters to the reader chapters (if they even do). It strikes me as a book that would especially appeal to writers, because in addition to the prescient criticism of generated text, it’s very much about the writing process. Plus one of the things I like doing is writing first chapters of books then discarding them, so I have to respect Calvino manages to build an actual novel out of them.
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Dec 13, 2022 22:00
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poisonpill posted:Honestly I think I’m done with meta- by this point Same, I put the book down with no intention of picking it back up. Returning it to the library next time I go there and mark me down as a DNF.
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Dec 14, 2022 13:50
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suggestions for new year, new book?
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Dec 14, 2022 14:01
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New year sounds like the perfect time for taking a fresh look at ourselves and those around us. That's why I recommend Carl Wilson, Let's Talk about Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste .
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Dec 14, 2022 18:00
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Surprised by the reaction to a Winter’s Night. By far my fave Calvino and I’ve always found the way each short folds into each other really imaginative
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Dec 15, 2022 19:43
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Holy poo poo, I haven’t ventured into this forum in ages, and I just happened to have finished this book and was checking to see if there was a Calvino thread. Wow I haven’t read everyone else’s posts yet, I just had to share this. I’m still chewing on what I just read - but I really enjoyed the puzzle box-y nature of the book. I kept noticing patterns that connected the various stories to each other or to the meta narrative. I’m also glad I went into it without knowing anything about the book - if someone had explained to me the structure of this book, I would’ve thought it too exhausting to read. But as I read it, I found myself super enthralled with each new story after only a page or so. I also looooved the very beginning - where the book was kinda describing the experience of buying and reading the book. It felt kinda like being reminded you’re manually blinking (sorry)
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Dec 16, 2022 00:52
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