Rat 🛸
Fluctuated between thinking that this was brilliant and that it was extremely shallow. I think I landed towards the latter, but I did find it a really interesting read, and thought it had interesting things to say about acceptable seeing suffering as noble, and praising people rather than actually helping them. I thought a lot about Sarah Z's new videoessay on 'misery memoirs', where she talks about how feeling strong emotions from reading about 'noble' suffering can absolve people from feeling guilt.
I found both Pannonique and Zdena to be interesting characters but I'm not sure what to make of Zdena's arc and her predatory desire for Pannonique.
The book seems concerned with asking questions about what makes a person good and evil, and whether someone can be redeemed. I don't think it tackles this with much insight, and not much insight about concentration camps either. I wish Nothomb could have told this story in a way that just centred media/public response to horrors, because I think that was what was most interesting about this book.
Fluctuated between thinking that this was brilliant and that it was extremely shallow. I think I landed towards the latter, but I did find it a really interesting read, and thought it had interesting things to say about acceptable seeing suffering as noble, and praising people rather than actually helping them. I thought a lot about Sarah Z's new videoessay on 'misery memoirs', where she talks about how feeling strong emotions from reading about 'noble' suffering can absolve people from feeling guilt.
I found both Pannonique and Zdena to be interesting characters but I'm not sure what to make of Zdena's arc and her predatory desire for Pannonique.
The book seems concerned with asking questions about what makes a person good and evil, and whether someone can be redeemed. I don't think it tackles this with much insight, and not much insight about concentration camps either. I wish Nothomb could have told this story in a way that just centred media/public response to horrors, because I think that was what was most interesting about this book.
