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menschmaschine's reviews
35 reviews
Księgi Jakubowe by Olga Tokarczuk
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.
too busy with other reading; will revisit later in the year
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Did not finish book. Stopped at 34%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 34%.
too busy with other reading; will revisit later in the year
No Longer Human by Junji Ito
3.0
The original No Longer Human is probably my favourite novel of all time. I've read it several times and its impact on me never wanes. Sadly, Ito's adaptation is painfully disappointing.
Adapting the original text into manga requires a number of artistic liberties that work to its detriment. The prose is simplified, introspection is sacrificed in the name of action and internal monologue is sacrificed in the name of dialogue simple enough to be placed into neat little bubbles that don't make up much of the panel. Of course, these are necessary given the medium and Ito's art is beautiful enough to make the reader forget about it for most of the time.
The liberties taken by Ito in regards to the story itself are something else entirely. By welcoming the novel into Ito's preferred genre (because although No Longer Human is a horrifying tale one can't exactly call it a horror), full of recurring ghostly figures and waking terrors (I'm sure Ito saw at least a bit of himself in Yozo, the protagonist - an artist who, even when painting his lovers, can only produce images of horror), the tone of the text shifts from cold and unforgiving realism to that of yet another ghost story. Perhaps I expected something more avantgarde - perhaps my expectations were misguided and I had simply hoped to read the original novel again with the occasional illustration by Ito - either way, the work didn't deliver.
Adapting the original text into manga requires a number of artistic liberties that work to its detriment. The prose is simplified, introspection is sacrificed in the name of action and internal monologue is sacrificed in the name of dialogue simple enough to be placed into neat little bubbles that don't make up much of the panel. Of course, these are necessary given the medium and Ito's art is beautiful enough to make the reader forget about it for most of the time.
The liberties taken by Ito in regards to the story itself are something else entirely. By welcoming the novel into Ito's preferred genre (because although No Longer Human is a horrifying tale one can't exactly call it a horror), full of recurring ghostly figures and waking terrors (I'm sure Ito saw at least a bit of himself in Yozo, the protagonist - an artist who, even when painting his lovers, can only produce images of horror), the tone of the text shifts from cold and unforgiving realism to that of yet another ghost story. Perhaps I expected something more avantgarde - perhaps my expectations were misguided and I had simply hoped to read the original novel again with the occasional illustration by Ito - either way, the work didn't deliver.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
challenging
dark
tense
4.0
quick reread (first read Spring 2022). planning to read it yet again this year after i purchase a physical copy that i can annotate and desecrate at will and give a proper review. for now i'll say this. at the heart of it, House of Leaves is not as complicated as it makes itself out to be, but that's okay.
Kill the Mall by Pasha Malla
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.25
prose: detail-oriented, neurotic and obssessive, delightfully true; a first person stream of consciousness from the mind of a true freak (meant affectionately). not sure whether the protagonist was intended to come off as autistic but one can easily interpret them as such
themes/plot: the novel is more so a collection of ideas than a coherent narrative. bullshit jobs, customer service, consumerism, what it feels like to shop as someone who also works in retail, love of the product and alienation from the other (and its causal relationship under capitalism). it's also a love story with a hopeful ending.
if you want a story in which the haunted building is a character, this might disappoint you. the mall is a setting, upsettingly captured and made static, then reproduced and extrapolated to absurd ends, as if one had fed DALL-E a hundred children's descriptions of what a mall is and asked it to draw a coherent image.
the cover of the novel features a quote by ian williams, claiming "malla writes like a reincarnated kafka". don't believe him too much. the protagonist of kill the mall would find themselves inconsolably out of place in the metamorphosis or the trial but completely at home in the stanley parable.
i encourage any prospective reader to try and engage with the novel on its level. go with its flow and don't overthink whether it's 'too absurd'. it has some interesting things to say, but in the end it's just a fun, light read. classifying it as 'horror' really baffles me.
verdict: i was shocked to see how low the novel was rated here, but in the end i couldn't rate it much higher than that myself. this should tell you enough.
themes/plot: the novel is more so a collection of ideas than a coherent narrative. bullshit jobs, customer service, consumerism, what it feels like to shop as someone who also works in retail, love of the product and alienation from the other (and its causal relationship under capitalism). it's also a love story with a hopeful ending.
if you want a story in which the haunted building is a character, this might disappoint you. the mall is a setting, upsettingly captured and made static, then reproduced and extrapolated to absurd ends, as if one had fed DALL-E a hundred children's descriptions of what a mall is and asked it to draw a coherent image.
the cover of the novel features a quote by ian williams, claiming "malla writes like a reincarnated kafka". don't believe him too much. the protagonist of kill the mall would find themselves inconsolably out of place in the metamorphosis or the trial but completely at home in the stanley parable.
i encourage any prospective reader to try and engage with the novel on its level. go with its flow and don't overthink whether it's 'too absurd'. it has some interesting things to say, but in the end it's just a fun, light read. classifying it as 'horror' really baffles me.
verdict: i was shocked to see how low the novel was rated here, but in the end i couldn't rate it much higher than that myself. this should tell you enough.