Started in February 2024
Hi! Surprise! I'm early, not even an year has passed since I posted last. Who's handling their blog like a pro?
Who am I kidding. I'm shit at this.
Life Updates 😆
Anyway, hello? Remember we used to hang out. I have been thinking about starting this blog post for a month, finally heavens have heard your plea. Disappointment has rained on me because my life is pretty shit right this moment, and if I don't busy myself into books I'm basically sitting on the cliff ready to jump (again). Let's not go into the details, they're tedious. But just so you know, I've come to realise why people in their college graduation speeches say 'we survived it'. I'm not even talking about exams (which is an entirely different topic). It's the friendship part which affects me the most.
I've recently had a fall out with someone I really cared about, because some snitch at college has been spreading my chats with another friend, in which I was joking about something. This person interpreted it the wrong way and they're now spreading their narrative of my jokes, making me into some 'solid bitch bad guy'. The worst part is they're spreading it amongst my own few friends! Thus the fall out. Apparently there's someone literally so lifeless that they're just trying to ruin my friendships, like an actual job.
I thought stuff like this happened in sitcoms but the past week has actually been pretty 'what the fuck'. What even is my life SOTY? Well, aside from this unbelievable drama (because I'm still in a shock), I haven't been able to hang out with my friends. Today I was meeting some of them, it's weekend, I'm looking cute in the mirror, but they went out somewhere afterwards together and I couldn't join them because I had to be home early, so they left me in my misery to deal with my 'moaning and crying' alone. I don't mean they're bad friends, it's just.. this is college. This isn't my senior school when I had that one dependable friend for all my companionship needs. In college people have so many friends, so many people to have fun with, so that if you're having a bad day, they won't look back at you twice, they'll simply hang out with others whose plans align with theirs. And you can't do a thing about it . You don't claim people in college.
I'm so sick of this. It's so new to me. I suddenly feel like I've lived enough of this bullshit phase. There should be fast forward button so I can jump into adulthood and skip this adulting process. It's so heartbreaking! Either people are busy or they're too happy to bother. So my only way out of this pathetic situation is go into a book coma till I'm ready for the real world.
What's happening in this blog? 🤔
This semester I'm taking 4 literature papers; 2 of them are based on Indian literature, 1 on American, and the last on Dystopian. I want to read all my essential Dystopian readings in this post! And honey, ain't my current life just the perfect match for this theme. I have three texts to cover. Let's go!
[ Early alert: I don't finish this blog. I don't even finish the first book I begin. If you still want to read, be my guest. I'm posting this anyway, because for some reason, there's barely any content out there on the internet to talk about this book. I wanted to give this to the world as my literary contribution because I know someone out there, probably among my own juniors, is probably hate-reading it just like I was, and solidarity is important. Everyone deserves somebody to relate with them while going through a book like this. I got you.]
The Last Man by Mary Shelley
The first of the lot is The Last Man by the iconic Mary Shelley. Everyone knows about Frankenstein— who's even heard of this? Apparently it was written later in her life, when she was sadder, wiser, and clearly had way more time on her hands because this book is long and dense :)
Having studied it and done my research, I can now confidently tell you that it's very autobiographical as well. So if you care about Mary Shelley's personal life and the drama with her circle— P. B. Shelley, Lord Byron, her step-sister etc.— then you might try giving this a chance as a metaphor to how she felt about her own life after they all died.
Um, it's set in the future (and by future I mean 2073, but don’t get excited — there are no flying cars), this novel is technically one of the earliest attempts at a dystopian story. And it’s supposed to follow humanity collapsing slowly and painfully, hence the Last Man title.
But let me warn you: this isn’t your action-packed, page-turning, plot-driven apocalypse ride. It’s more like a really slow, emotional, old-school literary doom scroll. Big feelings, bigger monologues, and a ton of time spent setting up characters that may or may not matter later. Read at your own risk.
Following are my reading updates as usual:
Update 1 : Before starting the Last Man my mind had confirmed and stamped this, that we're reading a post-apocalyptic novel about the last man existing on earth after something huge has cleared out the rest of humanity. Imagine my disappointment when that wasn't the case. The only thing I have found so far 'dystopic' is that the novel is set in 2073.. and even after that Mary Shelley hasn't hinted at a technological advance, or whatever. Huh? This lady wrote Frankenstein which was set in normal present time (1818 then?) and it was about a scientist using electricity to create a living being out of dead bodies. I'm sure she can think, but she decided nahh...
I haven't read many pages btw, so I won't judge very harshly.. as of now. My expectations are 3 stars.
Update 2 : It's been 5 days since I last updated, and I've been reading this book for over 2 weeks now. I haven't even finished 1/3rd of it, but let me tell you, this book is DRAGGGING. Not in the sense that we've seen the end game and yet the pages don't end, but in the sense that nothing actually is happening. I've read 133 pages, and I have no sense so far how this book is a part of our 'Dystopian' paper. I'm simply too bored, and until yesterday night I thought the next update will probably just be after I've finished the book (because there's been zero interesting stuff), but ok.. now this book is serving relationship drama and there's nothing more I love to discuss. Hear out the tea. Ahem, ahem.
Right so, so far I've understood there are 6 main characters and it's a mess of love triangles, squares and idk whats. Adrian loved Evadne, Evadne breaks his heart and falls in love with Raymond, Raymond is engaged to Idris but falls in love with Predita but after their marriage and a daughter he cheats on her with Evadne. Predita only loved Raymond. Idris loved the main character Lionel but since she was engaged at that time to Raymond so she runs away with Lionel. Now they're all friends, except Evadne who's physically sick currently, and only Raymond who was having an affair with her is aware of her existence. Damn. Load of hallabulloo.
The writing style, although it flows well, makes it hard to read more than one chapter in a sitting without making me yawn a couple thousand times. Last night I was reading about this break up situation between Predita and Raymond, who're husband and wife and have a daughter. First, Raymond cheats on her with Evadne, and when Perdita feels like someone else is on her husband's mind, she confronts him with proof, in turn this man goes all wild on her ‘how dare you accuse me and mistrust your husband, I've literally loved no one else but you. But you know what? Enough is enough. We'll maintain this marriage for the show now but the love between us is over.’ He makes his wife cry rivers because when she accuses him of cheating, when she expresses her hurt, his ego gets hurt so he hurts her more and gets upset with her!
I'm not going through the same exact situation, but something very close. Like, you hurt me, and when I tell you I am hurt, it hurts your ego and you stop talking to me? Wtf? Anyway, so he lies to Predita and tells her there's no one but you. Doesn't see Evadne for a month, decides that he'll see her one last time for closure and then spend rest of his life loyally by his wife. When he's gone, a maid tells Predita everything that's been happening.
These maids I swear.
Drama🤡. You know I've trust issues because of this. You're actually the harami but you're so convincingly mad at them when they accuse you that they feel guilty that they're the bad guy for not having trust in you. *deep sighs.*
I've been motivated to read further only because of this drama.
Update 3 : Hello! This is year 2149, and guess what? I'm still reading The Last Man. Alfred Nobel (who's alive again thanks to brilliant scientific discovery of elixir potion) announced yesterday that whoever completes reading this book will actually recieve a special Nobel Prize. This book is impossible. I've many times contemplated just reading the summary and dnf'ing the book. I went on reddit 5 days ago and looked this book up there, some people commented that it's indeed a drudgery in the first half, after that mark the 'apocalypse' hits.
For real though, I can't wait for every character in this book to die, and I totally get it why all these people's death would be the 'good part'.
After gobbling down so many pages of this book over the last 100+ years, I still find it hard to comment on any storytelling aspect of the novel. I only have comments for the characters on the book. Last night, I read to the part where first Raymond, and later Predita dies. I can not be happier about that news. Which of the two I hated more, I can't decide. It was infuriating to me how after what Raymond did to Predita, this guy gets to go to Greece and fight as the commander of Greek army and gets to be called some kind of a 'war hero'! Suddenly everyone's chanting his praises. Like, do you guys remember, a few months back he was the Lord Protector of England and he abruptly left all his duties behind because of his personal relationships? Which only he was the cause of ruin? How can anyone like this guy? On top of that, the only reason he's fighting in war is because he wants fame! The whole war passes and we don't know why it was happening, except it was fought between Greeks (Christians) and Turks (Muslims). I don't see any noble causes. Which might as well be the point Shelley is trying to make, that war and war heroes are bullshit, but do you really have to rile me up like this for a silly aside?
While Raymond is fighting, Predita, who starts living with her brother after their seperation, finally starts her education. I was happy for her, and then Mary Shelley ruined even that. They hear the news of Raymond's capture and ill-health in Greece, so now Predita wants to go back to him and devote her life to him (Mary Wollstonecraft be twitching in her grave). After Raymond's self-brought death in the name of glory, she wants to stay in Greece in a cottage near his grave. And so, generation of 2149, this is how people used to live before self-respect was discovered! Predita issues her daughter to be taken away, so she herself can just rot where her husband rests. Her brother (the protagonist) mixes something in her drink, gets her on-board to England, but then she wakes up halfway through the journey and realises what happened, so she JUMPS OUT OF THE SHIP. She's dead. Her daughter is in the same ship.. and she had to see both her fucked up parents kill themselves entirely selfishly.
But at least they're dead.
There's one thing I can say about the writing style though, and I hate to say this about Mary Shelley, but it's so distancing! Where's the emotion? Significant characters died in the book impacting the lives of other remaining significant characters. When these other characters cry, I feel absolutely nothing. No remorse at all. If a writer can't draw emotions from it's readers, you've pretty much failed honey🙄
On the second note, the war description is making me want to re-read The Song of Achilles real bad.
Update 4 : Good news! Multiple of them.
1. I started reading The Song of Achilles! A.N.D. since my hardcover cover copy was so beautiful, I ordered one for Circe as well. I believe in retail therepy now. And, I like The Song of Achilles so much more than I remembered. I ended up writing a poem about it too, because I related so much to the feelings of Patroclus as somebody who hates to be in love with this person who's really just infuriating, but you still do.. and this tug of war is very tiring. Viola, a poem came out of this drudgery! Fun.
2. I have been hanging out with my friends.. more than I am used to. And it's amazing. I deleted my Instagram again (after 4-5 months of using it), and I am insanely glad. So Feburary began with me recieving roses, sweets, notes from random strangers and a cute guy asking my number too (always a pleasure). Then it tumbled head first into heartbreak, endless crying sessions, semi-depressed, detached state.. and now I'm just finding internal peace in hugging my friends. I had 2 galentine's dates, one of 14th, the other on weekend. Life is better than as it was at the beginning of this blog.
3. This book, FINALLY, became post-apocalyptic. FINALLY I like one character.. Adrian. And FINALLY this book produced some emotions out of me. This morning I finished Volume 2, surprisingly much of the prose in the last 2 chapters was touching. The descriptions were beautiful.
I divided one of the chapters into many short stories.. talking at times about a woman who goes to the hospital to see her husband who's taken by the plague and the hospital scenes that continue; about two lovers who couldn't unite while the girl's family lived because the boy was of low rank but then the girl's whole family died under plague so now they two support each other; about a grandmother of 100 who lives in a cottage near forest to stay away from diseased civilization, doesn't ask anybody's help and trods the forest everyday to gather food. One day she looses her way and when she wakes up a person lays beside her, pale and dead of the plague; about Merrival an an astronomer who doesn't care for anything else but writing about his book on stars, history and future. His wife is very supportive and loving, and later the whole family dies. The man who the plague couldn't shake, who everyone was amused with, starves himself to death near his family's graves.
And many other stories.. so to say simply, we have moved on from the central characters to look at the bigger picture. An apocalypse has shook the world and there's so less hope, and it's beautifully put into pictures within the prose.
It sucks how much time Shelley gave to the background of the characters when it doesn't really add any value to the latter volumes. The next time I come here, I would've finished.
11th October, 2024:
I never did. I didn't finish it. I gave the exams without ever finishing the book. And I didn't finish the blog. I read the other two books, both of them I liked so much better than the crap Shelley wrote. Maybe one day we'll talk about those two. Till then.
See ya soon (hopefully??)
xoxo
