how i love this story... I read this 2 years ago, and I still think about it from time to time.

I started reading the story with a smile on my face but ended up staring out of the window thinking about society lol

The core plot is simple: a man, named Ivan, goes to see a crocodile put on display as an attraction by his owner. The crocodile swallows Ivan, who survives & then starts living inside the crocodile, talking to people from within it.

From this moment on, the satire begins. Everyone starts treating the situation as a financial opportunity & a spectacle for the public, instead of a human emergency. Ivan himself starts enjoying the attention and imagines himself becoming an important figure.

What makes this story so interesting to me is the relevance of the message behind it to this day: economy > morals, money/reputation > person.

All the people involved saw the monetary value and how they could profit first, and humanity second. Ivan himself being one of these people is the peak of the situation. How can someone consent to his own dehumanization? So ridiculous, but so sad.

My favorite quote from the book: "...the emptier a man’s head is, for instance, the less he feels the thirst to fill it, and that is the one exception to the general rule". This quote alone is enough to leave you pondering for hours, even outside the context of the story.

Does it remind you of anything? Because it reminds me way too much (sadly) of people who are too comfortable with their ignorance and vanity - common phenomenon nowadays.

"Ignorance is bliss", and being unaware of your own ignorance is even more blissful. The hunger for knowledge, growth, and asking uncomfortable (but necessary) questions is numbed as long as the satisfaction/external validation of seeming smart and confident is there. There's no curiousity if you proudly believe you are right all the time, or you know enough.

Noise is confused with depth. And that's how we, as a society, lose sight of what truly matters and engage in the illusion - or better said, live inside it, like Ivan does inside the crocodile ;)

So much more I could say about this but I think I've yapped enough or else I'll start spiralling and stop making sense lol. I hope to see more people talk about this on Pagebound in the future 🫶