Keaster posted a comment on this image
3 years, 1 month ago
Keaster added 1 item to Read in '21 list
Good old Freddie rambles on about the past and its (also non-)utility with a fascinatingly (post-)modern frame of mind, considering this was written in the late 19th century when the whole field was almost completely dominated by Rankean (in our eyes) conservativist and relatively straightforward approach to sources, and the general view about times past regarded them as self-evidently factual, to be brought to the light of universal Truth via rigorous scientific method. Nietzsche is funny because he has humor and honest enthusiasm and passion which he isn't afraid of showing, and, as the title implies, in its pure essence a humanistic message (at least in this particular work) regardless of what later commentators would like to make of him.
3 years, 1 month ago
Keaster added 1 item to Read in '21 list
I hadn't read Bukowski in years when I stumbled upon this posthumous collection of his poems in the library and decided to pick it up to be read in the shitter, which is a very good environment for reading the man I must say.
I was a tad surprised to find that from all the poems I've read from him, this collection included easily some of his best. No surprises here of course for anybody who's read even a bit of him, but the poems are well-composed, they flow well in their honest simplicity, and have a good sense of humor and sympathy in them for all of those who haven't had it that easy โ a sympathy that by rule absolutely never escalates to pity. Bukowski's reflections and meditations about his upcoming death are worth paying attention to, and it's beautiful to see how it often moves even the man himself in trying his wings in a bit more abstract, lyrical expression, that generally works well also. Even though his style is like the bedrock itself in its staticness, not that it wouldn't flow but in the sense that it certainly doesn't change, the collection still stays surprisingly fresh and unrepetitive throughout.
3 years, 1 month ago
3 years, 1 month ago
Keaster added 1 item to Read in '21 list
Historically an interesting piece that reads easily, but the plot and the characters are somewhat rigid, often a bit hollow or overly simple, and they do unbelievably lot of melodramatic hence stupid things.
3 years, 1 month ago