Author: Emily St. John Mandel
notes
- The sci-fi tropes used were kind of bland. Living in a simulation, a life worth living anyways. Little moments, etc. These are all things I find beautiful, but somehow there was no emotional impact for me. The beauty only started shining through at the end of the novel, and by then, it was too late to touch me and get me invested.
- Too mundane where the mundane is bland. Would’ve been better if the mundane were described more beautifully, like through Rilke’s lens. I guess I’m just not a realist. Mandel’s writing feels “uptight”, whereas I enjoy more of a loose, vague, emotional component
- It’s not particularly moving or intriguing to me, but just interesting enough to keep me interested. Maybe I’ve only sticking with it because I spent money on it.
highlights
If there’s pleasure in action, there’s peace in stillness. – p. 23
My personal belief is that we turn to post apocalyptic fiction not because we’re drawn to disaster, per se, but because we’re drawn to what we imagine might come next. We long secretly for a world with less technology. – p. 191
Note: Do we really? is it less technology, or different technologies? I think what we long for is a deep-rooted connection