Literature

Germinal: A Book Review

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gloomy miners

Do you know what it is like to be unemployed at 21? And then, when you finally find employment, you realize you’re overworked and underpaid. You barely make ends meet because you have bills to pay. You bite your tongue and go to work anyway. By the end of the day, you are so exhausted. Rinse, repeat, and start all over again the next day. It’s a recipe for depression when you don’t have time to improve your skills and take care of yourself. It also doesn’t help when social media amplify how far behind you are compared to your peers. Some people are just more luckier in life than others. It’s a different type of stress. But can you imagine being broke, cold, and starving?

Homeless and out of work, he had only one thing on his vacant mind: the hope that the cold would be less severe once day had broken (Chapter 1).

In this book, Germinal by Émile Zola, we follow the journey of a young miner named Étienne Lantier. He leads a protest for a better quality of life for his coal-mine comrades.

Synopsis

Étienne is a former mechanic who found work at the Le Voreux mine in Northern France as a miner. He became exceptionally skilled at his job, but he was not content. All around him, he saw the horrendous, poor working conditions of his comrades. It wasn’t just working conditions that were awful. There was no future or hope for a better standard of living. Many families worked in the coal mines for generations. When the mining company starts to cut wages, the miners begin to feel the blow. How can anyone work with an empty belly? It makes sense to revolt.

What Stood Out to Me from this Book

Certain events don’t just happen randomly or overnight. It’s something that has been germinating underground. When it can no longer contain itself, it erupts. The miners are cold and starving. All they want is some bread. However, Mme Hennebeau, the spouse of the coal mine owner, fails to understand their situation. She said, “So they’re on strike. Well, what’s that to us?… We’ve still got to eat, haven’t we (P.202)?” Of course, there is something to do with her. The miners toil in the coal mines with empty stomachs. They can no longer work to provide the bourgeoisie (their employer) with a luxurious lifestyle. How can the upper class be so delusional? This book reminds me of the film Parasite by Bong Joon Ho. It’s a powerful film that highlights the contrast between the working class and the wealthy.

Final Thoughts

Of course, there is more to this book, but I want to keep it light and nonpolitical. The writing style isn’t flowery, but romantic enough to lighten up the prose. It is a dramatic book filled with human compassion and love. It’s also a book about hope and, at the same time, hypocrisy. Étienne leads a protest to revolt against the bourgeoisie. Along the way, he realizes he is becoming one of them. He starts to see himself above the miners. This poses a lot of questions. Revolution is not an easy task, and the aftermath is not always as pretty as envisioned.

Rediscovering White Fang: A Review

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I am feeling nostalgia for simpler days. So, I purchased a used copy of White Fang by Jack London at the local bookstore. I found it while I was browsing books for fun. It’s one of the books my 4th-grade teacher read to us. At the time, I couldn’t appreciate it like every other coming-of-age book. I remember thinking why is our teacher reading this boring book to us? Most of us fell asleep at our desk. Me? I was staring outside the window. Now that I am around her age, I think I understand why she picked this book. She was trying to civilize us wild schoolchildren and it worked like magic!

Anyway, the book is so good. It fell apart midway through as I was reading it. Okay, I confess, that’s half the truth. The book was already in poor condition when I bought it. On the back of the book, there is a coffee stain! But for $1.50, I cannot resist. I also like the book’s cover. It looks old-fashioned. The large print is also appealing. After all, a book is less valuable if it’s just on the bookshelf as decor. Books are meant to be explored and read.

White Fang on top of other books and pink pen next to it

Synoposis

White Fang is a wolf, but is also a quarter dog. This makes him a special creature. He is wild but also domesticated. Thus he has an advantage over purebred dogs and wolves. His hybrid breeding enables him to navigate the harsh Yukon environment, and the brutality of the man-gods (humans) he encounters.  As he goes through different man-gods, White Fang comes to civilization once he meets the rightful one. The rightful one is just, fair, compassionate, and strong.

Writing Style

I was instantly captivated by the writing style. The prose is so poetic. The first paragraph of the book throws me into the cold wilderness. I feel it:

The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness.

I also like how the author describes the wild as a frozen-hearted savage. It’s the perfect stage where dog eats dog to survive. The writing is so intense that I felt as if I were in the book!

There were a few things, however, I did not enjoy about the book. It was more of a personal thing, though. After all, the book was published in 1906. Time has changed. Perhaps, not always for the better for some folks, but regardless, time has changed. I don’t know how I’d feel living inside a white picket fence governed by a self-righteous man-god. I would find it difficult, especially when he is unfairly transactional.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it’s a great book, but one that feels foreign to me now, and yet familiar. It’s a weird feeling that I cannot describe. It’s comforting; at the same time, alienating. I guess being an adult means learning how to think for oneself. We are all shaped by our environment.

Hunchback of Notre-Dame, the Collapsed Sanctuary

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All of the characters except for Master Pierre Gringoire met their tragic end because of love. Quasimodo died from a broken heart when he failed to protect La Esmeralda who was the only person who showed him genuine kindness when he needed most; La Esmeralda died for loving the false savior, the King’s Archer Phoebus de Châteaupers who could care less if she died in captivity for being framed as his murderer; Captain Phoebus died (mentally) when he got married because that means no more night out at the brothel;  the recluse from the rat-hole died from trying to protect her daughter from being captured by the King’s guards; and lastly, the Archdeacon Claude Frollo died under God’s will for he was a priest who can never pursue La Esmeralda like a normal man. Only Gringoire, the poet, escaped death because he found love in stones:

First, I love women, then animals. Now I love stones. They are quite as amusing as women and animals and less treacherous.

-Gringoire (p.477)

I find that quote quite amusing because there is some truth to it, although I would have crossed out the ‘women’ part in the quote and inserted ‘men’ instead. Joke aside. In literature, we call characters like Gringoire, a comic relief because the subject of this story is quite serious. I don’t think I would like the book as much if Gringoire had not made me laugh. He was the only character I felt safe around La Esmeralda, because he wasn’t interested in deflowering her. But why is this important? No pun intended, because no one wants to get screwed! Indeed, she did get trapped in a web like a fly:

“A bewildered fly, which was seeking the March sun, flung itself through the net and became entangled there. On the agitation of his web, the enormous spider made an abrupt move from his central cell, then one bound rushed upon the fly, which he folded together with his fore antennae, while his hideous proboscis dug into the victim’s head (p.338)”

This passage is about La Esmeralda. She was like the bewildered fly trapped in a big spider web (Notre-Dame) and was later sentenced to death by the King (the big spider) because he is the protector of Notre-Dame. The King under God’s absolute authority was too deaf and blind to grant clemency to La Esmeralda, who was accused of murdering Captain Phoebus (he wasn’t even dead, btw). And Archdeacon Frollo allowed fate to take its course by not saving La Esmeralda when she rejected his love. If he cannot have her, then no one can. That was his logic (p.574). Do you see why I said jokingly that men are treacherous? How could she love an assassin who forces her to follow him and make him her master, her savior? We cannot force people to be with us. That’s imprisonment.

Minus the love drama, the book is about how human thoughts and beliefs change the structure of society over time.   The invention of the printing press killed the architecture because each book is each person’s thoughts and when you add them all up together, it’s bigger than one architecture that represented millions of people (p.227). That is how the architecture loses its authoritative voice in the society. That is why Victor Hugo the author, introduces the reader to the Feast of Fools in the first chapter to forewarn the reader on what is yet to come by making a mockery out of the elected Pope by having him switch places with Quasimodo, the hunchback, one-eyed, deaf bellringer of Notre-Dame. He may be a “one-eyed man [but he] is far less complete than a blind man. He knows what he lacks (p.66), unlike the Pope, the King, and the rest of the aristocrats. Because “[without clemency,] they are but blind men groping after God in the dark (p.540).”  It made sense to me why La Esmeralda and her goat were mocking the captain of the city’s pistoleers and the king’s procurator in the ecclesiastical court during their street performance in the earlier part of the book. These high officials don’t provide justice; they are just aristocratic clowns on public display. Not only did she captivate the crowd, but she also bewitched the Archdeacon to the point that he attempted to kidnap her with Quasimodo so that she would stop polluting his mind with impure thoughts with the little pout she always made. The truth is something within her has awakened his soul. Was it love, or was it the eternal life he was searching for that he couldn’t find it in science or alchemy? In the end, it was the vagabonds and Quasimodo who tried to save Esmeralda from the power grip of evil men. They were the real savior. The introduction of the Feast of Fools was indeed a mockery of the failed belief system in Paris during 1482.

For my final thoughts, out of all the characters, I pitied Archdeacon Frollo the most even though Quasimodo is just as unfortunate. Being a learned man had turned him into a rigid priest and a very sad one (p.194). When you are always seeking knowledge, you leave yourself with no room to connect with other humans. It’s a lonely place to feel like you are above everyone. Lastly, I find the passage about writers are the new masons (p.230) quite interesting. What would Victor Hugo think about the internet?! He would say the programmers are the new writers! You see, the “Architecture is the great book of humanity, the principal expression of man in his different stages of development, either as a force or as an intelligence (p.216).” When the printing press came into existence in the mid-1400s, humans transferred their beliefs from stones to books, and so the architectures no longer have the tyrannical authority over society’s beliefs; it became art or a symbol of the past, just like Notre-Dame of Paris. Now books are becoming a symbol of the past as digital contents are more popular among the mass. The human mind is indeed the architecture of humanity. So yeah, “All civilization begins in theocracy and ends in democracy (p.218).”

Note:  I read the unabridged version published by Fingerprint. Also, the featured image for the blog post is by AI. Pardon me if it looks kind of odd. I believe it’s because it lacks a human soul.

Four Books by Asian Authors I Enjoyed Reading

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Although I wrote a lot about video games, at the core of this blog, it is my passion for metaphors.  I  have been diverting my attention from gaming to reading books instead! Reading is quite relaxing for a change. 

In no particular order, I present my list

Books #1 How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

I saw a book vlogger review The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet, and she dissuaded me from reading the book due to its rape scenes. I haven’t gone far enough in the book to put the book down or come across the icky section, but I dread it. So I watched her other book recommendations from her and discovered How to Pronounce Knife.  The book comprises short stories broken into chapters about the lives of Lao refugees attempting to assimilate into Western culture.  The book was enjoyable and easy to read.

Do I recommend the book?

Absolutely. It’s interesting to learn about how culture assimilates and the difficulties they face. It makes us readers a bit more empathetic to different ethnic groups.

Book #2 The Chronicle of a Blood Merchant by Yu Hua

If you like one book, most likely you want to read more from the same author. That’s why I picked up the Chronicle of a Blood Merchant. I’m a big fan of To Live because I strive to live a quiet, simple life. Something about the prose resonates with me on a spiritual level. This book did not fail to entertain and teach me something about the human heart. What does blood have to do with family? Plenty. It’s a story about a father who goes the extra length to feed his family by selling his blood.   What I learned is that there’s a difference between sweat money and blood money. Sweat money is earned for things you need to get by, but blood money is earned at the cost of your life for another life ( I may write an essay on the blood metaphor at a later time).

Do I recommend the book?

Yes. If you are looking for a feel good story about a father and son relationship, I highly recommend this book.

Book#3 The Last Empress by Anchee Min

I picked up this book accidentally at the second-hand bookstore while browsing books for fun. I was attracted to the yellow book cover, which depicts a woman wearing an elaborate hairdo. Little did I know it’s a book about the “evil concubine” that I often see in Cantonese drama series. From what I remember throughout my childhood, Lady Yehonala (Empress Cixi) was portrayed as an evil old lady. After reading this book, my opinion of her changed.   When Guang-hsu asked her whether she preferred an antique Han vase over the English gifts of toothbrush and paste, she responded: “I am more pleased with the toothbrush and paste…Now I get to protect my teeth from falling out and can also contemplate how to prevent the country from its own decay (p.144,).” Empress Dowager knew that China was dying and acknowledged that foreigners had the upper hand regarding military technology.   Her willingness to face foreign threats made her a better leader than the emperor who was too fixated on outdated ideals and traditions.

Do I recommend the book?

I highly recommend this book if you enjoy reading about Empress Dowager Cixi, and I also recommend this book for those who enjoy poetry. I love the imagery in this book.

Book#4 Empress Orchid by Anchee Min

I liked The Last Empress so much that I picked up the first book in the series!  Yep, I did not read the books in order. To be honest, I prefer reading about her when she became a mature woman more than when she was a young naive girl whose dream was to marry the emperor and bring fortune to her family, which unfortunately did not end in a fairy tale. The main reason why I prefer the second book is because I didn’t care much about the romance between her and the emperor.  However, what I found most fascinating about the book was the depiction of the Forbidden City. It’s like a glamorous cage where everyone is restricted to customs and traditions.

The book goes into more detail about her survival in the Forbidden City and her personality. She methodically weaved her way into the heart of the emperor to prevent herself from becoming among one of the many thousands of abandoned crazy old nuns who were left unloved by the emperor. With her wit in navigating the imperial government, she became a great politician, assisting and advising the emperor on many political matters.

If had been a man and been able to set foot outside the palace, I would have gone to the frontier and come back with my own strategies(p.154).

-Lady Yehonala

From the mid-1880s to the early 1900s, China faced many threats such as international imperialism and the Taiping Rebellion. It’s hard not to admire her bravery and her mental strength. 

Do I recommend the book?

I don’t think I have to recommend this book because it’s considered national bestseller.

There you have it! My reading list is small, but it’s pretty long for someone who reads a lot for work. I may go into details for each book at a later time. So how about you, have you read anything interesting as of late?

Note: Feature imaged is from the Eiyuden Chronicle Hundred Heroes

Book Review: To Live by Yu Hua

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I finally got a library card. The librarian asked me if I was older than eighteen-year-old when she handed me the library card application. She must be blind because if she would have looked a bit closer, she’d noticed I have a few white hair strands, which I like to think it’s the effect of gaining wisdom over time. Although, I did take her question as a compliment. It means I have a youthful aura! Who can say no to that? I do have the curiosity of a five-year-old when it comes to consuming knowledge.

The first book I checked out at the library is To Live by Yu Hua. It must be destiny because I accidentally found it browsing through the bookshelf. I watched the film version directed by Zhang Yimou many years ago. I believe I checked out a copy of the film from the library as well. The film is great, but I love the book more! The book is so good that I had a hard time putting it down, and now that I finished it, I am sad I don’t have anything else to read. Well, I do have things to read but none speak to me like this book:

It’s better to live an ordinary life. If you go on striving for this and that, you’ll end up paying with your life (p.231).”

-Fugui

Do you like the quote? There you go, my secret to eternal youth apart from eating fruits and drinking a lot of water for supple skin! I’m partially kidding. Of course, I bet you are here because you want to know my thoughts on the book and not listen to me rave on about my vanity. Well then, I am happy you are here! I will tell you why I love this book.

This book is poetic without convoluting the story. It’s about living and escaping death on many occasions. The story follows a man by the name of Fugui who comes from a rich family. Due to his negligence, he causes his family to fall from fortune into poverty because of his gambling addiction. But is it a fortune in disguise? This book is a page-turner. I was so engrossed in the lives of the characters that I took a moment to pause from reading whenever something bad happen to the characters. Fugui narrates his life in a way he does not turn it into an epic tale or dramatize it by asking for sympathy from his audience. There is no real-life hard lesson in this book. Instead, it paints a picture of people who have lived and endured severe hardships like that of an ox.

Another thing I enjoyed about the book is that the author doesn’t bluntly criticize a political system. However, in the Translator’s Afterword, the translator mentions Yu Hua’s reality of communism is more brutal in the book than in the film version (p.243). I agree. In the book, the National Army and Liberation Army appear the same when we compare them to the common, ordinary folks. For instance, there is a part when the Nationalist troop conscripts Fugui at gunpoint, which causes him to separate from his family for a few years until the Liberation Army sets him free. Initially, I thought the author is in favor of the Liberation Army until I learn about its political agenda. When Fugui and his family successfully smelt the iron just in time for National Day, I was just as shocked as Fugui to learn that the smelted iron is used to make bombs:

We’ll be able to make three bombs out of this iron, and all of them are going to be dropped on Taiwan…We’ll drop one on Chiang Kai-shek’s bed, one on his kitchen table, and one on his goat shed (p.118-9)!”

-The village’s Team Leader

As you can see, the seriousness of the plot is balanced well with humor. For one, Fugui and his family think they failed when the fire burned through the cauldron only because they didn’t know what and why they needed to smelt the iron in the first place. They just follow whoever is in charge. It made me wonder what difference does it make if the orders are coming from the Nationalist or the Liberation leader? Both political parties don’t have the common people’s best interests; people at the bottom are put to work like animals until there’s no more life in them. If humans drag their feet from time to time, it only makes sense that animals would do the same. A good leader empathizes with his followers and knows when to let them rest and when to make them work (p. 234), and I could not agree more with the author’s point of view.

Throughout the book, there was not one dull moment. Everything was intense. I felt all sorts of emotions. I caught myself with teary eyes, and at times, laughing from shock. What I saw was a grim picture of how everyone was caught up in a political mess. In the end, I finished the book feeling grateful that I am still alive. As my father said, I’m lucky that I wasn’t born in the middle of a war. The world can be a dark place, but there’s still warmth in it if you look hard enough. At least that’s what I take from this book.

Note: I tried not to go into detail about certain events in the story to support my arguments. I had to stop myself from attempting to write a full-blown essay. I hope I give enough information about the book to pique your interest. It’s my love for great books that prompted me to write this review.