Good theatre suspends you in reality. Good theatre captures a moment in time that could be now. And The Pillowman does this superbly. This is, indeed,Good theatre suspends you in reality. Good theatre captures a moment in time that could be now. And The Pillowman does this superbly. This is, indeed, a deeply disturbing play, chiefly because it could be real.
It all begins with some dark stories. A writer has written some brutal pieces about child murder and butchery. Someone has read his work and has decided to carry out the deeds within them. The writer, Katurian, has been brought in for questioning. The opening scene is reminiscent of Kafka’s The Trial. The protagonist is being investigated and put on trial for events he has no understanding of. Kafkaesque is a word that is on the tip of the performers tongue all through the scene, but it never is actually spoken despite the blatant allusions: it doesn’t quite need to be said. This effect is later removed as the situation becomes clearer.
What replaces it is a relationship straight out of Of Mice and Men. Katurian has a younger brother, one who is strikingly similar to Lenny. His concept of right and wrong is vague, though pure of heart; he will do anything he is told to do. The two brothers have a darker past, an abusive childhood that has bound them together out of survival and mutual affection. The investigators of the crime are certain it was one, or perhaps both, of them that carried out the killings. The questions begin as does the torture, though central to Katurian’s mind is what’s going to happen to his writing if he is found guilty.
“It isn't about being or not being dead, it's about what you leave behind”
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So the play questions the legacy of writing, and the responsibly of its content. Who is to blame in such a situation? Can the writer be held accountable for someone else’s obsessions and misconceptions over his work? This play may all sound terribly bleak, but running through it is a string of irony and self-reflexive moments. The characters draw attention to their own stupidity and the limitedness from the position in which they operate; thus, tragedy is infused with dark comedy making the play a true enjoyment to watch.
If you get the chance, I highly recommend watching a version of this after reading it.
Merged review:
Good theatre suspends you in reality. Good theatre captures a moment in time that could be now. And The Pillowman does this superbly. This is, indeed, a deeply disturbing play, chiefly because it could be real.
It all begins with some dark stories. A writer has written some brutal pieces about child murder and butchery. Someone has read his work and has decided to carry out the deeds within them. The writer, Katurian, has been brought in for questioning. The opening scene is reminiscent of Kafka’s The Trial. The protagonist is being investigated and put on trial for events he has no understanding of. Kafkaesque is a word that is on the tip of the performers tongue all through the scene, but it never is actually spoken despite the blatant allusions: it doesn’t quite need to be said. This effect is later removed as the situation becomes clearer.
What replaces it is a relationship straight out of Of Mice and Men. Katurian has a younger brother, one who is strikingly similar to Lenny. His concept of right and wrong is vague, though pure of heart; he will do anything he is told to do. The two brothers have a darker past, an abusive childhood that has bound them together out of survival and mutual affection. The investigators of the crime are certain it was one, or perhaps both, of them that carried out the killings. The questions begin as does the torture, though central to Katurian’s mind is what’s going to happen to his writing if he is found guilty.
“It isn't about being or not being dead, it's about what you leave behind”
[image]
So the play questions the legacy of writing, and the responsibly of its content. Who is to blame in such a situation? Can the writer be held accountable for someone else’s obsessions and misconceptions over his work? This play may all sound terribly bleak, but running through it is a string of irony and self-reflexive moments. The characters draw attention to their own stupidity and the limitedness from the position in which they operate; thus, tragedy is infused with dark comedy making the play a true enjoyment to watch.
If you get the chance, I highly recommend watching a version of this after reading it....more
“Stories are the single most powerful weapon any leader can arm themselves with – they are the currency of humanity. Those who tell captivating, inspi“Stories are the single most powerful weapon any leader can arm themselves with – they are the currency of humanity. Those who tell captivating, inspiring, emotional stories rule the world.”
I’m slowly playing catch-up on all the books I’ve read this year and adding them to Goodreads. I’ve been neglecting my account for a little while, though this was the first book I read in 2024 and it felt like a great way to start the year. I liked this quote in particular and it applies well to Steven’s own story.
His story is one of success. I like to start a year by reading a book like this because it feels refreshing and uplifting. Last year’s was Atomic Habbits, which Steven quotes here and uses the framework in his own journey. The impression I got of Steven here is that he is a driven and disciplined individual who has worked hard to gain his position, money and influence. I first became aware of his content after seeing him on Dragon’s Den, so I listened to his Podcast which I really enjoyed.
In the book, Steven mentions that he knows some people will skim several of the chapters. This suggests that he knows some of them are a little weak. Some of the laws are really great, though there’s a few that felt like mere page fillers and Steven clearly knows this. Sometimes less is more. Perhaps Steven had a word count to hit? If so, I think this book would have worked better if it focused on the stronger laws and expanded on them and strengthened them with examples.
Overall, it's great it parts and there's some really strong quotes in here though there are some weak parts....more
“This was, I would later realise, a planet of things wrapped inside things. Food inside wrappers. Bodies inside clothes. Contempt inside smile
“This was, I would later realise, a planet of things wrapped inside things. Food inside wrappers. Bodies inside clothes. Contempt inside smiles. Everything was hidden away.”
This book made me laugh out loud, and that doesn’t happen very often. I wasn’t expecting it to be quite this good. The plot is a bit of a joke, the characters are all a bit ordinary and boring, but it is the irony and the dry wit that makes it all so brilliant.
Perspective can be an extraordinary humorous thing when the world is viewed through the eyes of an emotionless and uncaring alien. He arrives on earth and takes over the body of a maths professor, Andrew Martin. The alien is unaware of human social rules and basic etiquette and walks around campus completely naked at Cambridge University. He is quickly arrested, taken away, and finds himself having to explain his actions to the authorities. He doesn’t understand the world and is all a bit lost.
Ironically, the family of Andrew begins to prefer the alien to the original version. He is far more interesting and attentive to their needs in his efforts to conform to human social norms. He was sent to Earth to erase a big mathematical discovery that the original Andrew made, to halt the progress of humanity and to restore balance to their development. His mission is to also erase everyone who may also know about Andrew’s discovery, so it remains a permanent secret. However, the alien begins to like his newfound humanity and struggles with his task. He quite likes having a wife and a son and seeks an alternative life, a human life.
“Make sure, as often as possible, you are doing something you’d be happy to die doing.”
And that’s important advice and the book is full of it. Matt Haig is a self-help author as well as a novelist, and that does shine through the narrative. I feel like his books are always written with the intention of helping people in some way shape or form. This is the first novel I’ve read in several months because my reading time has been taken up by academic books, so I’m glad I chose wisely and had so much fun reading this. I hope you do too.
On another important note about the author and the book, I recently realised he’s a vegan. I didn’t know going into this but came across this quote:
“A cow is an Earth-dwelling animal, a domesticated and multi-purpose ungulate, which humans treat as a one-stop shop for food, liquid refreshment, fertiliser and designer footwear. The humans farm it and cut its throat and then cut it up and package it and refrigerate it and sell it and cook it. By doing this, apparently they have earned the right to change its name to beef, which is the monosyllable furthest away from cow, because the last thing a human wants to think about when eating cow is an actual cow.”
The alien is horrified by the ways in which we treat animals, and how we hide behind this façade of renaming them to make the notion more attractive to us. Things are hidden from the human eye behind wrappers, false names and distance. And this is certainly a great point to take away from this book and to close my book review with.
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This is a beautiful book that combines exquisite illustrations with poetry for the purpose of restoring lost language, that captures our declining natThis is a beautiful book that combines exquisite illustrations with poetry for the purpose of restoring lost language, that captures our declining natural world, and placing it back into our lexicons.
It’s marketed as a children’s book, but this is important for everyone to read and to remember what has been lost. We all need to read these words and to fight for their survival and their usage because it is so important that we don’t lose our natural world and the words used to describe it.
This is strikingly educational; it’s a book we should give to our children and to our adults to help them see the sense of wonder that is outside, and it’s captured perfectly though the power of words and illustrations. Let us not forget these words, let us make an effort to keep them (and the natural world they represent) alive.
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I am so impressed with Dale Vince and his story. I find success stories really inspiring, and this really is quite a remarkable one. Dale Vince went fI am so impressed with Dale Vince and his story. I find success stories really inspiring, and this really is quite a remarkable one. Dale Vince went from living in a van, to the owner and founder of a multi-million-pound green energy company as well as the chairman of a football club.
How did he achieve all this?
He did it through green principles and green politics; he did it by creating a green electricity company and building the foundation for clean and renewable energy in Britain. It started with one windmill, producing a small amount of power, to many windmill farms producing huge amounts and powering massive companies. So, this is a biographical piece that is inspiring and driven by powerful principles that have led to success. And nothing was harmed in the process!
"I reckon being vegan is the biggest single factor, biggest point of interest- even now, years later. It just doesn’t get old."
Dale Vince has done this in a clever way, he used his football club to bring his ideas to the masses. Forest Green Rovers have become a vehicle to create change. Eco-awareness through sport is a fantastic idea. The football club promotes the energy company on their shirts and eat a plant-based diet when they are at the stadium. The club only serves such food and demonstrates the need for change in the behavior of all consumers if we are to tackle the climate crisis (see what I did there!)
"We explain to our fans not just what we are doing but why, and we hope they take something home with them, that they become open to making changes themselves. We don’t preach, don’t tell people what to do – we just do the things we believe in. We lead by example. "
There’s a lot of history here too. A firsthand account of the battle of beanfield that I found quite shocking along with dealings with other industry giants. Behind it all though, there’s a drive to do good and to change the world. A drive to lead by example and to encourage others to act in a way that benefits others and the planet.
This is a great book, informative and knowledgeable, that presents a striking case for the need for green change in energy, transport and food. I was given the book for free by Ecotricity representatives at Vegan Camp Out festival here in the UK, and I am so glad of it. I learnt so much here and I recommend this book highly.
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The Children of Time is a fantastic piece of science fiction that addresses ecological concerns and explores terraforming on aMy top read of 2023!
The Children of Time is a fantastic piece of science fiction that addresses ecological concerns and explores terraforming on alien worlds. It considers the problems of colonization, empire, and the destruction of the natural world. All in all, it’s the absolute pinnacle of the genre and up there with science fiction greats such as Ursula Le Guin and Issac Asimov. I cannot recommend this book more highly or give it higher praise. It’s simply spectacular.
“Earth had been green in her day, though colors had faded since. Perhaps never as green as this new world though, where even the oceans glittered emerald.”
The imagination behind this book is incredible because the scale behind the story is so vast. It reminds me of a cross between Interstellar and Star Trek with giant spiders thrown into the mix. It’s a brilliant combination that weighs up societal progress with human folly. And it demonstrates that the human approach is not always the best one.
Indeed, the society the genetically modified spiders have created is far superior. Their society has learnt to be compassionate and would rather work with others than destroy them, and this is one of the main motifs of the book. We need to learn to get along rather than becoming tyrannical dictators or colonists. We must work together if we are not to repeat the mistakes of history. Earth in this universe has a bloody history that led to the destruction of its people and empire. The remainders became space explorers to find a new planet to live on whist the remnants of the old empire’s tech is scattered across the stars.
“Who knows what we might have achieved, had we not been so keen to recreate all their follies, he thought now. Could we have saved the earth? Would we be living there now on our own green planet?”
Naturally, this book has a strong environmental message as it demonstrates what excessive consumerism and war wreak on a planet. The survivors of humanity seek a new home across the stars as theirs has collapsed, and the novel focuses on their exploration across time. As the centuries pass, most of the race is asleep in chambers that preserve their age whilst a crew of key members wakes up during intermittent periods to keep the ship functioning. Centuries pass by and over time one of the key crew members makes a bid for control, to create a means to set himself up as the leader of humanity to dictate its progress (or lack thereof.)
“A life lived entirely at the whim of another is no life at all.”
Meanwhile an old empire experiment to breed a new race of humanoids goes wrong with the result being a colony of giant, yet intelligent and developed, spiders. The cultural clash and value clash between them and the remainder of humanity is fascinating to watch. And I can’t quite express how developed and well written this new species is. Tchaikovsky has a true talent for anthropomorphizing spiders and giving them a distinct character and culture. It’s brilliant! It works far better than it sounds. And I look forward to reading more of his books to see how he handles it with other animals as this seems to be a frequent theme throughout his work.
I’ve tried very hard not give any spoilers here, though this is a hard book to talk about without mentioning its ending and the future it sets up. So, I won’t say anymore on that, other than I’m very excited to read the rest of the series to see where this goes. I’m going to end here by saying this is a fantastic book that I think you should go read.
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I feel like I haven’t read a book quite this good in a long time.
There’s a certain sense of unfeeling, of numbness, in this work; it captures a woI feel like I haven’t read a book quite this good in a long time.
There’s a certain sense of unfeeling, of numbness, in this work; it captures a world viewed through a grey and colorless lens. Depression is often confused with profound sadness but, in reality, it is profound nothingness. It is a life without joy or sorrow: it’s just numbness and blankness. The Bell Jar captures this state incredibly well.
“To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is a bad dream.”
The narrative is fragmented and retrospective; it is confusing and distorted: it captures a dark element of the human mind that is looking back at life without any sense of meaning or purpose. There is regret here and failed dreams, as the novel captures the crushing mundane reality that exists in their failure. It also captures a person who has not lived up to the expectations society has placed on her, and who cannot quite come to terms with who she is or who she wants actually be. It is told through the first person revealing a cold and depressed mind. It is intimate and direct.
In some ways the book highlights the dangers (and brilliance) of first-person narration. Sometimes it’s hard to know where Esther begins and Sylvia Plath ends. There are strong parallels between character, narrator, and author. I don’t want to get too much into the history of Plath’s life, but it’s plain to see when you read up on her biography.
"My heroine would be myself, only in disguise. She would be called Elaine. Elaine. I counted the letters on my fingers. There were six letters in Esther, too. It seemed a lucky thing."
Esther writes these words because she is also an author and I cannot help but see Plath here expressing this sentiment. The novel also focuses on Esther’s experience with men, none of which are positive and none of the relationships she does manage to have are particularly normal or healthy. They are superficial. There’s a lack of emotion in the writing and with her experiences. She just doesn’t seem to care, focusing only on direct perception rather than feelings because there is no feeling here.
“because wherever I sat—on the deck of a ship or at a street café in Paris or Bangkok—I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.”
Nothing changes, nothing changes the mood no matter the location or experience. It is pure indifference. And it is sad to read about, to get a glimpse at a person this far gone and this unmovable that they think that suicide is the answer.
So, it is a tough read but an important one. It is a fantastic piece of writing, and one that we should all give a try.
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This is like a Jane Austen novel but without the substance, class, character and plot.
I’ll happily admit that I’ve struggled with Forster in the pastThis is like a Jane Austen novel but without the substance, class, character and plot.
I’ll happily admit that I’ve struggled with Forster in the past. A Passage to India was dramatically underwhelming in my estimation. I did, however, quite like Howard’s End but I think that may have been because of Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, a fantastic piece of writing that paid literary homage to Forster and made his novel seem better than it actually was.
I feel like I should really like Forster. I should like the way he writes and the themes he plays with. I feel like I ought to appreciate what he does, but I just can’t because I find the writing so dull. Nothing happens! Now I am no stranger to slow writing, but this is something else entirely. Even the premise of the novel, the desire for a room with a view, felt a little lackluster and was in no way worthy of naming the book after.
I’ve been scrolling through the reviews here on Goodreads to see if I can find any critical ones. All the negative ones amount to the same point: it was boring. And I very much agree. This one failed to engage me in any way. So why two stars? I liked some of the descriptions and the dialogue. Forster can certainly write well on the surface, he just can’t create plots. At least, not ones I enjoy.
So I struggled to keep reading, I had to force myself to do so and this seemingly short novel felt much longer than it was. I was glad to finish.
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