What are you currently reading?

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[bune]

I'm cheating and listening to the audio book because trying to read the actual book with those massive paragraphs was putting me to sleep.

I am surprised how long it took me to realize there aren't any character names.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[bune]

it's a decent narrator.

I looked at the imdb for the movie and I don't approve of the casting for the doctor and his wife. terrible.

[Higgs]

About 25% of the way through Blindness. It's a weird part where there seems to be a narrator, even though the book to this point has not given any indication that there's a 'person' here. It's a strange move.

I hated this book and I think it's one of Joe's most beloved?

I found Saramago's writing style to be extremely obtuse, and I've read both American and Brazilian authors who employ the free-flowing approach to much better effect (and Saramago is Portuguese not Brazilian, I know).

Would be interested to hear where you fall on this spectrum, bune.

I feel this way to. I actively sought this book out as it was so hyped, got bored and distracted after about 100 pages and put it down, never to pick up again.

[Higgs]

Just finished

I'm reading this now.

It's an absolute joy!

This will be my next book I think. My daughter just read it for school, so I know there's a copy in the house.

[LetMeSleep]

Well that was a nice read.

[epilogue]

About 25% of the way through Blindness. It's a weird part where there seems to be a narrator, even though the book to this point has not given any indication that there's a 'person' here. It's a strange move.

I hated this book and I think it's one of Joe's most beloved?

I found Saramago's writing style to be extremely obtuse, and I've read both American and Brazilian authors who employ the free-flowing approach to much better effect (and Saramago is Portuguese not Brazilian, I know).

Would be interested to hear where you fall on this spectrum, bune.

I feel this way to. I actively sought this book out as it was so hyped, got bored and distracted after about 100 pages and put it down, never to pick up again.

I love it enough for all of us.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[epilogue]

I mean, it's pretty good.

[bune]

I see a lot of references to "the blindness is an allegory for communism" but - no pun intended - I don't see it. Is there a particular essay or review that will help with the underlying metaphor here?

[epilogue]

I see a lot of references to "the blindness is an allegory for communism" but - no pun intended - I don't see it. Is there a particular essay or review that will help with the underlying metaphor here?

Great question. I've never read any reviews or criticisms or discussions/dissections of the book. To me the book was so satisfying that I never felt the need to go beyond it.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[bune]

I am not sure what this book was supposed to be about but it just seemed too much like a book since there was no reason given for the blindness nor for the wife not going blind. It was a trope to move the story along, and didn't seem like much more. The back and forth between 'is there a narrator or is this a story' was even touched upon once or twice "who can know these things that are unknowable" and yet the story was not the better for it.

I wonder if this was an archtype of some sort and I have read the resultant books? Because it seemed derivative somehow. I've read books like this and so this did not bring anything new for me. Humanity is mostly shit, and the years since 2016 have not changed that worldview, so the book didn't bring much that I didn't already think of.

Yeah, I'll look for the follow-up just to see what came out of this event.

Also I had eye surgery a few days ago and was blind for a bit after. Kind of wild to listen to the audio book during that.

[epilogue]

Sorry you didn't like it.

[bune]

I didn't dislike it, for what that's worth. I'd give it a solid C.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[epilogue]

I didn't dislike it, for what that's worth. I'd give it a solid C.

Fair enough. I'm sorry you didn't connect with it the way I did. I really wish other people could feel what I felt when I read it. It's one of only a few truly transformative pieces of art I've encountered. I'd love to be able to give that to others.

But I think it's awesome that you "read" it and gave it a fair shot. I'm guessing you're not chomping at the bit for more Saramago, but if you ever decide you want to read more of his work, I'd be happy to recommend a few.

[bune]

The best part of the book was in the church near the end. The imagery evoked there was everything you talk about, and it elevated the story as a whole. The parts I didn't like was the needless repetition of sight gags (no pun intended, I think?) throughout and one part that was just needless repetition for I swear what had to be a whole written page.

The biggest failing of the story was that it was 12 hours and 35 minutes and literally in the last five to ten minutes everyone gets their sight back and they act like the catastrophe that they experienced is now over and it'll all be good. "We're going home" said the first blind man, "and I'm going to pick up some food on the way." No, that's not going to happen. You're going home but food? The stores that have been looted will suddenly have more food? On top of that, the hoodlums that can now see won't take advantage of the near-collapse of society and not loot some more? To be fair, I have the same "outside the story" problem with other books so it's probably a failing on my own of not taking the story as it is and instead adding real-world problems to it.

Again, the part in the church was amazing. That was a pinnacle of the book and the writing and themes.

[epilogue]