StJust
Knitting, singing, language nerding, but mostly reading. Looking for historical fiction, fantasy and diverse author recs
7958 points
StJust commented on a post
In the beginning of the book, I felt like we were starting to get some exploration of how Austen would define and differentiate “sense” and “sensibility,” but I realized that at the end, while it is very clear which sister’s character is intended to be lauded, I don’t really know which is meant to represent “sense” and which “sensibility” or even what the difference is, for Austen. I would love to hear your thoughts about this!!
12StJust commented on StJust's review of Noli Me Tángere (Touch Me Not).
This book is really hard to review because it has such an enormous social and political impact, and is still so significant to Filipino culture. If there were a category for “legacy/lasting impact/did this book achieve the goals it hoped for”, this book would get a 6/5. This book and its sequel are government-mandated reading for every child in the Filipino education system.
As an outsider looking in who has absolutely no connection with the Philippines, it’s really hard for me to truly understand that impact or include it in my overall experience with the book, so I’m just going to judge it as a book.
I should also mention that I read it in Spanish and consulted the Augenbraum translation for footnotes and such.
I was surprised to find this book really quite approachable and even funny at many points! The writing was really engaging throughout: poignant, beautiful and wry at different points. It mostly doesn’t have the convoluted style that’s sometimes associated with English language classics of this time period, so anyone who dislikes that would be happier reading this book.
Rizal’s writing is also extremely pointed: he’s taking aim at certain issues and doesn’t hold back much in depicting them, choosing by turns to be satirical, solemn, nostalgic, critical and even (I imagine for the time) shocking.
His satire and criticism for the church, lower-level government officials and the bourgeois was truly funny and biting, especially in the cases of Doña Victorina and the church ceremonies. But he’s also able to really portray the arbitrariness and cruelty of these institutions through scenes such as with Sisi’s family.
His criticisms of the church were by far the most cutting to me, and really go for the jugular on a wide range of topics. I have a feeling that part was extremely effective during its time.
So, overall I loved the writing and style, and his ability to change tones and approaches is impressive. I thought the characters and plot, however, were a bit more lacking. Firstly, Ibarra is pretty wooden and uninteresting as far as main characters go. He’s a stand in for educated Filipinos reading this book who may have an awakening about all the issues around them, so I understand what’s happening there, it just wasn’t particularly interesting to read about him. We get glimpses of real character from María Clara, and I wish we came to know her more as a person. Everyone else was kind of a stock character or a point of satire. That’s fine for this type of novel, but again not really that interesting.
EXCEPT for my beloved Elías: the smartest guy in this whole region, apparently; master of disguise, philosopher, political thinker and revolutionary, trauma survivor, justice minded… Give me a whole book about Elías please!! Wow I loved that guy. He got a whole star on the “character” rating by himself.
Okay now we get to the actual bad: predictably, this book has some pretty glaring problems with misogyny. I’m going to mostly leave María Clara to the side here, because at different times she switches between some of these other stereotypes in between real character moments.
All the other female characters fall into a few categories: martyrs to be pitied (Sisi, some assorted dead mothers), religious hypocrites (various old women side characters), harpies (Doña Consolación, Doña Victorina), flighty young girls (María Clara’s friends).
Abuse of women is horrible when it’s directed at someone “worthy” (Sisi) but played for laughs when it’s someone we don’t like (Doña Consolación, whose husband beats her on their honeymoon for mispronouncing a word). A controlling, overbearing, hypocritical and stupid husband is fine, but a wife with the same traits is lampooned and portrayed as disgusting (Doña Victorina). Wives in general, especially of the higher classes, are exclusively portrayed as greedy harridans who are nothing but burdens for their husbands (with the exception of María Clara’s dead mother, who has a different set of issues). Women are all around weak, both in body and in character.
I’m sorry for the super long review, but I felt like this book deserved an in-depth look! I really enjoyed it overall, although there were definitely some character and plotting issues. It deserves to be more well known outside of the Philippines!
4StJust commented on a post
I figured I would post this to help others who, like me, had no real context for the title in the way it was apparently intended, because I never would have known anything about it!
The most obvious reference is the biblical verse, which I was puzzled about through the whole book and I couldn’t quite make it fully fit: immediately after Jesus is resurrected, he says this to Mary Magdalene. “Noli me tangere” is Latin and means “touch me not”. In this context, he is telling her not to touch him because he’s no longer of this world; their relationship now only exists in the spiritual sense.
Okay, I thought, perhaps the title is referencing Ibarra’s journey and transition from a bourgeois man who is rather blind to the problems in the Philippines to another perspective? Or perhaps the transition of his relationship with María Clara?
Possibly, but I discovered something much more on the nose and fitting: apparently at the time and place Rizal wrote this, “Noli me tangere” was a euphemistic way of referring to cancers of the face, particularly eye cancers. These cancers are especially painful when touched.
In this book, Rizal is purposefully probing areas that are painful for his fellow Filipinos and citizens of the Spanish empire. He’s poking at these sores that people tried to avoid because they needed to be addressed, despite the discomfort.
The first English translation of the book was “The Social Cancer”, referencing this idea as well.
I hope this helps someone!
3StJust wrote a review...
This book is really hard to review because it has such an enormous social and political impact, and is still so significant to Filipino culture. If there were a category for “legacy/lasting impact/did this book achieve the goals it hoped for”, this book would get a 6/5. This book and its sequel are government-mandated reading for every child in the Filipino education system.
As an outsider looking in who has absolutely no connection with the Philippines, it’s really hard for me to truly understand that impact or include it in my overall experience with the book, so I’m just going to judge it as a book.
I should also mention that I read it in Spanish and consulted the Augenbraum translation for footnotes and such.
I was surprised to find this book really quite approachable and even funny at many points! The writing was really engaging throughout: poignant, beautiful and wry at different points. It mostly doesn’t have the convoluted style that’s sometimes associated with English language classics of this time period, so anyone who dislikes that would be happier reading this book.
Rizal’s writing is also extremely pointed: he’s taking aim at certain issues and doesn’t hold back much in depicting them, choosing by turns to be satirical, solemn, nostalgic, critical and even (I imagine for the time) shocking.
His satire and criticism for the church, lower-level government officials and the bourgeois was truly funny and biting, especially in the cases of Doña Victorina and the church ceremonies. But he’s also able to really portray the arbitrariness and cruelty of these institutions through scenes such as with Sisi’s family.
His criticisms of the church were by far the most cutting to me, and really go for the jugular on a wide range of topics. I have a feeling that part was extremely effective during its time.
So, overall I loved the writing and style, and his ability to change tones and approaches is impressive. I thought the characters and plot, however, were a bit more lacking. Firstly, Ibarra is pretty wooden and uninteresting as far as main characters go. He’s a stand in for educated Filipinos reading this book who may have an awakening about all the issues around them, so I understand what’s happening there, it just wasn’t particularly interesting to read about him. We get glimpses of real character from María Clara, and I wish we came to know her more as a person. Everyone else was kind of a stock character or a point of satire. That’s fine for this type of novel, but again not really that interesting.
EXCEPT for my beloved Elías: the smartest guy in this whole region, apparently; master of disguise, philosopher, political thinker and revolutionary, trauma survivor, justice minded… Give me a whole book about Elías please!! Wow I loved that guy. He got a whole star on the “character” rating by himself.
Okay now we get to the actual bad: predictably, this book has some pretty glaring problems with misogyny. I’m going to mostly leave María Clara to the side here, because at different times she switches between some of these other stereotypes in between real character moments.
All the other female characters fall into a few categories: martyrs to be pitied (Sisi, some assorted dead mothers), religious hypocrites (various old women side characters), harpies (Doña Consolación, Doña Victorina), flighty young girls (María Clara’s friends).
Abuse of women is horrible when it’s directed at someone “worthy” (Sisi) but played for laughs when it’s someone we don’t like (Doña Consolación, whose husband beats her on their honeymoon for mispronouncing a word). A controlling, overbearing, hypocritical and stupid husband is fine, but a wife with the same traits is lampooned and portrayed as disgusting (Doña Victorina). Wives in general, especially of the higher classes, are exclusively portrayed as greedy harridans who are nothing but burdens for their husbands (with the exception of María Clara’s dead mother, who has a different set of issues). Women are all around weak, both in body and in character.
I’m sorry for the super long review, but I felt like this book deserved an in-depth look! I really enjoyed it overall, although there were definitely some character and plotting issues. It deserves to be more well known outside of the Philippines!
4Post from the Noli Me Tángere (Touch Me Not). forum
I figured I would post this to help others who, like me, had no real context for the title in the way it was apparently intended, because I never would have known anything about it!
The most obvious reference is the biblical verse, which I was puzzled about through the whole book and I couldn’t quite make it fully fit: immediately after Jesus is resurrected, he says this to Mary Magdalene. “Noli me tangere” is Latin and means “touch me not”. In this context, he is telling her not to touch him because he’s no longer of this world; their relationship now only exists in the spiritual sense.
Okay, I thought, perhaps the title is referencing Ibarra’s journey and transition from a bourgeois man who is rather blind to the problems in the Philippines to another perspective? Or perhaps the transition of his relationship with María Clara?
Possibly, but I discovered something much more on the nose and fitting: apparently at the time and place Rizal wrote this, “Noli me tangere” was a euphemistic way of referring to cancers of the face, particularly eye cancers. These cancers are especially painful when touched.
In this book, Rizal is purposefully probing areas that are painful for his fellow Filipinos and citizens of the Spanish empire. He’s poking at these sores that people tried to avoid because they needed to be addressed, despite the discomfort.
The first English translation of the book was “The Social Cancer”, referencing this idea as well.
I hope this helps someone!
3StJust made progress on...
Circulating Jim Crow: The Saturday Evening Post and the War Against Black Modernity (Modernist Latitudes)
Adam McKible
0Post from the Circulating Jim Crow: The Saturday Evening Post and the War Against Black Modernity (Modernist Latitudes) forum
Oh how things never change! The parallels between how white supremacists today and in past times try to justify themselves are just hitting us over the head here.
When Lorimer is criticized for his blatant racism and refusal to expand his perspective, he says “We think that our critics really do not want equality of treatment but preferential treatment,” and goes on to call those critics “over sensitive”. I can’t roll my eyes hard enough.
0Post from the Circulating Jim Crow: The Saturday Evening Post and the War Against Black Modernity (Modernist Latitudes) forum
The only reason to remember Post writers…is that they contextualize and underscore the achievements of the African American authors who challenged and subverted the images of Black life that dominated American print culture for much of the twentieth century… We are far more likely to remember [Langston Hughes’] words than anything written by Cohen, notwithstanding his prominence and success - and this is decidedly a good thing.
There is SO much to talk about in this chapter, but I feel like this is the crux of it. A hundred years later, and no one has heard of these Post writers, and if they have, it’s most likely for negative reasons. Meanwhile lots of Harlem Renaissance writers have been household names for decades, and well deserve that distinction.
I loved seeing how the Harlem Renaissance community was in conversation with and pushing back against the ultra popular Post writers: calling them out both in editorials and in their own literary works. It really helps to contextualize a lot of what they were trying to do when you know more about the popular print culture of the time.
And their work is recognized as much higher quality, as noted here (talking about issues with writing that we still talk about a lot on PB!)
…you can read the first page of any Cohen story and predict the story’s conclusion and you will then plod through a written dialect that was never spoken by any actual human beings but contrarily lived for decades only in the pages of Lorimer’s magazine and in popular culture more broadly.
0StJust commented on d_nicolas's update
StJust commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum
Yes, I am always looking for reccs. What's the best book you've read this March and why? Are you close to your yearly book/pages goal?
My standouts were the everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. It's a book about everlasting love story, it involves a woman knight and a bard. Also everyone is queer. PLEASE READ IT!!! I beg you. It also has a surprisingly active forum. (Most books I read have 20 posts or so)
Also mask of mirrors was good. It's about a con artist comiting identity theft. A lot of politics and complicated characters. Writting... leaves a lot to be desired though.
Upd. I didn't expect such an excited response. Thank you all. I am trying to respond but I don't have much free time. ❤️
95StJust commented on amanda_the_tangerine's update
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90StJust commented on a post
Okay. So I’m a little confused: are we doing some kind of pan-East-Asian thing here? I was under the impression that this book was pretty exclusively based on Korean folklore and ethos, so it took me a second to process that the first imugi we meet is called Ryugi.
That name is very clearly from Japanese - probably 龍義 (the first character means “dragon” and is pronounced ryū), “righteous/honorable dragon”.
I know zero Korean but looked this up, and the word for dragon is nothing like ryū. I’m not a scholar of Korean or Japanese language or folklore or anything, but this made me do a double take.
Maybe it’s a clue to the background of this group of beings? But imugi are pretty specifically Korean. Or maybe it’s just because it rhymes with imugi?? I’m trying to give the benefit of the doubt here. Hmm.
6StJust commented on sourpunked's review of The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop
View spoiler
9StJust commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum
Hi my fellow readers! 😁 Anyone else here that loves to read and has knitting as a hobby? 🫶 How are your reading and knitting wip working out with the first three months of the year all gone?
What is your current book read and knitting wip? 🥰 I would love to know about your progress!
I am currently reading The Dictionary for Lost Words and working on an autumn dress to wear for an occasion. 😉
Happy April everyone!
EDIT: Thank you everyone for taking the time to share your projects and current reads. 🫶 You guys are so talented.
94StJust commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum
I was thinking the other day, and while I understand the word is fitting, but the word "bookish" alone to me just hits my ears wrong. Same with the titles BookTube and Bookstagram...BookTok not so much because at least Tik ends with a K. I know it's dumb, but I need to speak my truth.
What is something, anything book-related (see what I didn't say there?) that is completely normal but for no reason gets you? No judgements today, there are no wrong answers.
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