Purple prose doesn’t just mean prose that is very descriptive and verbose, purple prose is when the prose is so verbose and flowery that it becomes impossible to actually understand what’s being said. The example you listed isn’t purple prose because it is not impossible to understand the story.

I thought it was a really good exploration into the ways trauma can completely derail your life, make you act in senseless ways, and leave you stuck in this hole that seems impossible to climb out of. We watch Theo go deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole with each traumatic event until he’s a completely different person, and on a path he most likely would’ve never gone done if him and his mother hadn’t decided to take a quick detour into the museum.

It shows how one split second decision can define your entire life, how it can mold you into a totally different person.

Nope, at least not in the way you mean. I have read books that were bad enough that I wanted to see my copy burned but I hate being wasteful so I put them in the little free library instead.

I’ve definitely never wanted to erase the entire existence of a book though.

Minneapolis is bookstore heaven! So many independent bookstores

My favorites: magers and Quinn (used book store), irreverent bookworm (used book store), and moon palace (new books).

They have personal experience with what the ‘blessings of civilization’ means, the first time an outsiders made contact with the tribe 6 of them (two elderly people and 4 children) were kidnapped. All 6 of them fell ill and died.

I don’t think contact with outsiders is possible for them, their immune systems can’t handle modern diseases and sickness. There’s a good chance somebody spreading a cold to them could wipe out the entire tribe.

For anybody who is interested in donating books to prisons, here is a list of charitable organizations that do that.

Every state has different rules, some a stricter than others. These organizations will have a better idea of how to properly distribute the books you are wanting to donate.

this essay is very interesting

this one is a little more simple, it mostly focuses on the love letters stoker sent to Walt Whitman

I strongly disagree with this take, authorial intent is not the end all be all. All art forms are subjective, and can have multiple interpretations.

I could go on and on but I think the essay ‘The Death of the Author’ by Roland Barthes explains it far better than I ever could.

And Bram Stoker was a gay man, so having symbolisms for homosexuality in his work is likely. It’s not like gay authors were allowed to write about it in an obvious way back in those days.

No problem!

It’s called convenience store woman

I think you’re on to something here, Almost all of these traits fit the character to a tee (the exception being secretiveness).

Yes that is mostly what I was responding to, you included it in your interpretation so I don’t think it should be surprising that somebody may have thoughts about that part of your interpretation.

>she also never cares about social norms, she only does those things to get people off her back so she can live quietly

That wasn’t my interpretation, if that was the case I don’t think Keiko would frequently seek out her sisters counsel which results in attracting more attention to her ‘weird’ habits. Regardless I don’t think social norms and rules can be considered the same thing. Of course everybody will look at things differently that’s just the nature of discussing books. I just don’t think she could be considered a sociopath, she doesn’t present the key symptoms (irritability, manipulation, risk taking behavior, arrogance, hostility, etc.) and that was my main point.

No, I wouldn’t consider traditional gender norms (oppression) to be the type of ‘rules’ (I don’t think that can even be considered a rule) that ASPD diagnostic criteria is referring to. If that was the case the entire feminist movement would check that box.

Even if those were the types of rules that the diagnostic criteria was referring to Keiko does not disregard those rules. She doesn’t understand them but she doesn’t disregard them either. she tries very hard to follow those rules. So hard she lets a random man take over her apartment in an attempt to follow those rules.

Japan is socially conservative especially in regards to gender roles. The world economic forum ranked Japan 120th (out of 156 countries) in gender equality. Sexual assault is also a big problem in Japan, it’s prevalent enough that they have women only train cars because sexual assault on the subways was so rampant.

Based on what I’ve read on the topic, Japanese youth are rejecting a lot of the traditional values that have been prevalent in Japanese society. I think that’s why so much Japanese fiction has started to question these ideals.

A lot of the people I’ve seen speculate that that Keiko is autistic are autistic themselves so I don’t know if saying people see her that way because of harmful stereotypes is a fair assessment. For whatever reason a lot of autistic people see themselves in the character.

Keiko definitely doesn’t strike me as a sociopath, one of the main symptoms of ASPD is a disregard for rules and Keiko’s main comfort in life is following rules she cares about rules deeply. So deeply she structures her whole life around rules, that would be incredibly out of character for a sociopath.

It’s my favorite book, but I get it may not be for everybody.

I do think the descriptions of college life are an important part of the story, but I can see how some people may find it tireless the book is definitely very slow.

No I just buy the books that look interesting to me. If you’re only buying books based on if you feel like there’s enough pages to “get your money’s worth” you’re gonna miss out on a lot of great books.

If you want to get the most bang for your buck buying used books is a much better way to do that.

Same, the whole time I was reading it all I could think was “how the fuck did this get published”

This honestly isn’t a problem for me, my enjoyment in the books I read doesn’t change just because I track them/don’t track them.

I mean I’m pretty sure Henry is supposed to be a horrible person, so it makes sense. I normally love unlikeable characters so this should’ve been right up my ally, but yeah I just could not get into it.

It actually really bothers me cause I can’t quite put my finger on why I didn’t like it, I think it’s the only book I’ve disliked without being able to come up with a reason for that dislike.