REVIEW: The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)

 

I finally got to read this classic and finished it in two hours. What a ride.

It seems like there is not much to the story about an old man who gets and loses a fish, but there is a lot to unpack, and to me, they are sad and depressing but hopeful at the same time.

Reading this, it brings me back to my memory of the sea (Damn you, Covid!). I have spent a fair amount of time, not as a fisherman, thankfully. 

Like the old man, I also love flying fish on the sides of the boats, that would be the highlight, especially when I was on the low boat and could touch the water by just stretching my hand out, sometimes that silvery creatures would fly so near to the sides, and you wonder when they would get the ability to walk and then they would master the three worlds.

I can feel the breeze of wind, the nauseating movement of the boat, the harshness of the sun and the thin line slicing my hands (good heavens, old man! Use something as gloves! Fabric, anything!) Line-cut is one of the worst, and I don't know what that old man says, but from my personal experience, wounds hardly dry when you continue to expose them to the saltwater. I could have the same wound for a week, and every time it looks better on the land, it would be wet and spread and gets ugly again if you are back to the water in a short period of time. 

The old man mentions the silence at sea, and that is very true in many cases, especially when you observe wild lives like a pod of dolphins or when it's downtime between activities, or when you are waiting for the wind to pick up and move you. Those who love the sea for what it truly is would prefer the silence, but indeed after a while, there could be a need for humming, and in the old man's case, he starts to speak to himself.

He is a lonely old man, and barely has anything but his perseverance and optimism to keep him going, despite the odds and unfortunate luck in his life. He doesn't have anybody except the caring and kind boy. He is no longer young and goes for a very long period of no-fish time. Some people laugh at him, and some look at him with pity. But I wish I had this old man's attitude when I am down and face all life's difficulties. He never breaks his cool. He goes through everything with his experience, foresees what would happen, prepares for them, and he is almost always right. But he is also overconfident and maybe, too phlegmatic? For a seasoned fisherman, he only brings limited water for his trip (although it's arguable that maybe he can't afford anything), but again, gloves, hand band, anything.

A sailor friend told me a tale about them going fishing and met with a fisherman holding on to the line. My friend was in a bigger motorized 'proper fishing boat (not commercial kind), and they agreed to buy the 'almost catch' from that fisherman, who had been holding on for ten hours. Just like the old man, it is a delicate fight just between that fisherman and the fish, at the end of the line was a 90 kilograms tuna. It's probably not easy to understand why sometimes we risk everything to get the prize that we might or might not be able to secure, but I believe something would kick in when you have worked so hard for it. It's almost there. Never give up. We need that. We have sacrificed so much. It's a good mantra, but sometimes it's risky and borderline dangerous as well.

The one in the story is a much bigger marlin, and even though I love sharks, it pains me to read how it is snatched bit by bit by them. Eventually, after all the fights, nights and days, the old man gives up, but he still manages to bring home the remains of his journey, pay his gratitude and prove that he is still worthy. It is not only the boy who misses him, but a lot of people have searched for him and are curious about his welfare. I don't know what to make about the ending, but I would just conclude that as a happy one, I refuse any other endings. 

Rating: 4 Lions out of 5 Beaches

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REVIEW: Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

I really don't know how to rate this book. It is written under very specific circumstances, and the author didn't even know that one day, it would be out there as a witness of such a dark history.

Can you imagine living in Anne Frank's world? Unfortunately, there are people who experience it, even in this modern time. Robbed from your right to exist and constantly living in fear, hiding like hunted preys with the very little thing you have.

When the world went into quarantine in 2020, people were bitching about being in 'jail,' not getting their haircuts and crying about rights. There are real depression and loneliness out there, but for many, it was just a circus to show how privileged and how common sense is actually not that common. 

It was disappointing, and as I read somewhere, we need to apologize to those ridiculous horror movie creators when we berate them for making their characters so dumb in certain situations because apparently, it is realistic.

Back to Anna Frank, I can't imagine her life. I'm an introvert, and I do quarantine and social distancing before it is necessary. I live in my head, and there are a lot of entertainments there, but I can't imagine living in such a confined place and in fear that way without a good justification about why my right to live is not the same as yours and why human beings, who look like me, can be so destructive and cruel. 

Those few pages that we read are probably a couple of pieces of paper that kept her sanity. And the most frustrating situation out there is that even though it exists under different 'brands', genocide still happens, on small or bigger scales. That slogan 'Never Again', not everyone gets the memo as long as it doesn't fit their agenda.

Humans are exhausting.

REVIEW: Animal Farm (George Orwell)

I finally got to read Animal Farm after accidentally reading 1984 a couple of days earlier.

And finally, there are pigs.

In many ways, Animal Farm sends similar messages to 1984, although it is presented differently and emphasized from different angles. They are both depressing. While 1984 is overwhelmingly a world I wouldn't survive for even a day, Animal Farm is sort of limited by the characters, although they are adequate enough to represent many. The slacker and sneaky cats, the loyal dogs, intelligent pigs, hardworking horses, and the sheep! Holy carbonara, the sheep! From now on, if I want to quiet someone annoying who talks too much without a brake, I will bleat for fifteen minutes.

And that is the moral of the story, no? NO!

I am aware it was a controversial book at its time, it was rejected even though there was a book shortage, I quote, "which ensures that anything describable as a book will "sell" (hey, every cloud has a silver lining, sounds like a much better time to be an author!).

The book starts with wisdom, a rebellion idea from a pig named Major, who has made intelligent observations that animals would be better off without humans. The animals rebel and take control of the farm. They manage to come up with seven commandments, and of course, suspension of disbelief is needed: everything is working well.

Until the power struggle.

The story has everything: power struggle, unfairness, cheating, dictatorship, social division, hypocrisy, political bullshit, lies, lies, lies. It is great to send ideas in the form of an entertaining and simple story, yet it packs a lot of meaning into them.

One of the best scenes is the pig parade, I imagine spooky music with a dark background against the moon when the parade of two-legged pigs happens and the bright house casts long shadows as they walk by.

Like 1984, this book reminds me a lot of the current situation in North Korea. No freedom of speech, fact manipulations, dictator figures that you have to worship (or die), dictator figures that invent 'everything', manufactured emotions, fabricated enemies, and rules with fear. The dumber the society, the better it is for them. The poorer the society, the easier they are to control.

Boxer breaks my heart as he not only represents the hardworking class in society but in more specific areas, he also represents corporate cultures.

While it's a great book, it's very predictable. Most can see the ending from miles away, and most character limitations, as I mentioned in the beginning, are very two-dimensional. The main villain is an alcoholic greedy, horny liar. The intellectual would rather shut up. The kind-hearted ones are easily manipulated. The manipulator is without conscience and soul. The sneaky one voted on two sides, and skimping works. The blind followers are easily brainwashed and provoked on demand. And the narcissist is selfish.

In many ways, some things don't change. This book and idea remain timeless, as we also see this a lot in modern society, which is ridden with corruption and hypocrisy. The rise and fall of heroes, causes, and movements in all factors of lives. It happens way too often.

The most accurate terms would be: you have become the very thing you swore to destroy.

Rating: 4 cock-a-doodle-doos out of 5 Clean Tails Leagues

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REVIEW: 1984 (George Orwell)

P.S. I am embarrassed to admit that I thought I was reading Animal Farm by the same author. I had some Kindle mix-up. 1984 was in my far TBR as I wanted to read something 'lighter' (OH how I was surprised!). I was only aware of this blatant mistake after already posting this review under Animal Farm and moving on to read others' reviews. Pig? What pig??? Wait a minute!

Almost a decade ago, I was in a 'debate' with a Professor in an online forum. A professor, or so she said. It sounds prestigious if our debate was about something intellectual, but not, it was, wait for it, about whether ducks are amphibians.

She believed that they were and insisted on it. You see, I was new at that time, definitely not a professor or whatever close to that, and this particular member chose to pick on me for my many differences. It was not fun, of course, especially because that was my only online social presence, but everyone else was great, so I decided to stay. After the dust was settled and I was well-integrated, we were civil as reasonable adults do. But things didn't always go well, as she also made many bigoted comments (not always aimed at me, fortunately, but it was not something I was happy to let go of as the ignorance level was up the roof), so once in a while, we would be on the opposite sides again. It was painful that someone with that attribute would blindly believe in something based on close-minded 'research'.

I don't have the energy for these craps but couldn't help it when it hit my nerves. Luckily, everyone else was great and as appalled as me, but of course, it didn't get me into her good side, especially when I questioned her credibility and the obvious danger of someone who was in the education system and probably responsible for shaping young minds, could have this kind of blind judgments. It's my pet peeve. Harm yourself, go ahead, but not when you are in the position of educating and influencing others.

Again, clouds settled, and I was sort of ignoring her until the unfortunate duck comment and insistence. When she first mentioned it, no one thought it was serious until she repeated it multiple times and someone decided to ask. She firmly believed what she was saying because she insisted on reading it from a book. At this point, I was happy that she proved her own incredibility, even though most members had already doubted her. Yeah, right, go drown a duck. Wait, no!

What does it have to do with 1984 review? Oh, based on what I have read, I am thinking whether the book that this 'professor' read had been tweaked or rewritten, and maybe she was the right one.

Yeah, no, fat chance.

This book is terrifying, I have been reading terrifying and depressing books in successions that maybe I need to pick up something light after this.

I don't like this book, I am exhausted. This is probably one of the most exhausting books that I have ever read. However, it is brilliant. When I think it goes in a certain direction, it changes its gear and compass. The author takes something, a simple idea, and hammers it down, slices it open, makes it bleed and analyzes every single little thing, every cell and every froth out of it.

I admit that there are parts that make me feel the page count doesn't move at all. However, I can't help but be mesmerized by the complexity and the meticulous details he puts into it. The ideology, philosophy, theory, the level of complex thinking, expressions and the overall ability to weave them all into words that makes sense is extraordinary. The abundance of them exhausts me so much that I keep thinking about whether they are overwhelming, repetitive at times, maybe they can be simplified, but maybe not, everything seems to have its purpose, and the emphasis is needed. It's the art and the absurdness of (view spoiler). It's real.

I will never re-read this book again. But it's brilliant.

Rating: 5 Gorilla-faced guards out of 5 Room 101.

P.S. I won't survive a day in this world, as I was born with facecrime

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REVIEW: Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

*spoiler review

This book is...

I have mixed feelings about this book. I was borderline annoyed with the first half of it, fascinated with the second half, and found myself stroking my chin and scratching my forehead after reading it. It doesn't help that I took some time off between reading the two halves.
In short, I like the book, but many things are going through my mind, hoping that I understand this book the way it is meant to be understood.

There is a perfect quote that I think is fitting to what this book is about. I have seen this quote more and more often lately, said to be falsely attributed as Fyodor Dostoyevsky's.
Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles.

Fahrenheit 451 is set in the future where books have been banned, and whoever hoards them will be punished and burnt. This is, of course, a nightmare for authors and readers, and of course, I personally take offense to this regulation. Apparently, it is one of the ways to suppress people's intellectual thinking, to keep the citizen under the rock, brainwashing, and books are deemed to be something stupid, evil, misleading and damaging (they should look into social media for that, shouldn't they?)

The story follows a fireman (now they have a more relevant job with the name and actually burning things instead of saving them) who is being shown as open-minded enough to have an understanding relationship with other like-minded. The revelation that Montag has been hoarding books for some time is a good touch instead of making sharp character turns. Even though he is dull sometimes, there is a constant drive in him that it's believable enough for doing something drastic and on impulse. I like his frustration with Mildred, and if I have to repeat, I hate that character. And that is good (I think) because she is shown as someone I hope I would never be in such a situation. Her reactions, ways of thinking, actions, and everything she says make me want to walk into the wall and keep bumping it with my forehead. Sadly, this is actually a very realistic character, together with her equally annoying friends.

There are things that I think are implied but not confirmed, more on that later. And Mildred is one of them, imho. There is something very suspicious about her and Montag not remembering things and subtle indications that she is not the same. What is the blood washing or blood replacement procedure? Are they slowly drained into becoming a mere shell of their formal self? Montag doesn't seem to love her, but at the same time, he thinks about her almost endearingly sometimes. My theory is, Mildred is not what she used to be, it's either she changes because of the level of brainwashing that she receives, or there is something that alters her in the shape of chemicals? Treatment?

Another thing that is implied is the war. What war is it? From the level of their surveillance, manipulation, and capability to track down Montag, it looks too easy to annihilate them. Could it be rebels? Intellectual uprising? Insider uprising?

The other fiction the book reminds me of: I am a fan of the TV Series Black Mirror, it is a very intriguing series, and if you like speculative fiction, it's worth checking out. What makes it fascinating is that it's very realistic, some have even become realities. This book reminds me of the episode named 'Fifteen Million Merits' and 'Metalhead'. The parlor wall is Fifteen Million Merit. The Hound is Metalhead, and Metalhead already exists in Singapore and China during Covid lockdown.

Although I think this book can be downright confusing and frustrating in the first half (%#@%& Denham Dentifrice!) I like the overall content and conclusion. Not everything is explained, but it's implied quite clearly (unlike another book I reviewed earlier - The Giver) and whatever that is known is enough to form a complete story. After all, we are in Montag's shoes, and we are not always privileged to have answers for everything, just like real life.

I am very sure I will like this one much better on the second read sometime in the future, and please, if anybody knows a way to unlock my photographic memory...

4 Dunham Dentrifices out of 5 Burning Libraries

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