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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
Barthes' diary as he mourned the death of his mother, aka one of the most significant deaths you can experience as an adult. Gorgeous reflections and definitely worht your time to read, especially if you have a parental death in your past.
I hadn't heard of this work by Barthes before hearing Ocean Vuong talk about it in a podcast as being an example of fragmentary writing that has inspired him as well as Maggie Nelson.
Barthes wrote thoughts on little notecards the two years after his mother passed away which were published as a collection in this book. We learn almost nothing about her, only getting a deeply painful look at how Barthes was (thinking) in the aftermath of her death. He himself dies about 6 months after the last card, presumably just as he is beginning to come to terms with his mother's death...
I think I'll be returning to it in times of mourning.
Barthes wrote thoughts on little notecards the two years after his mother passed away which were published as a collection in this book. We learn almost nothing about her, only getting a deeply painful look at how Barthes was (thinking) in the aftermath of her death. He himself dies about 6 months after the last card, presumably just as he is beginning to come to terms with his mother's death...
I think I'll be returning to it in times of mourning.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
It's not that it's not good or that it's poorly written, but it it just his notes and thoughts after the death of his beloved mother. Sometimes the academic language he uses is hard to cipher.
My favorite use of the book was to see that others suffer as I am, and to use the spongy pages (recycled paper?) to write my own notes, agreements, personal additions. The Bic pen I used felt very good on this paper. I won't read it again, and I've marked it up, so what now?
Also could not get it out of my head that Roland would so very soon be dead himself, hit by a laundry van on the streets of Paris while walking home. That made the theme of loss all the more poignant and meaningless at the same time.
My favorite use of the book was to see that others suffer as I am, and to use the spongy pages (recycled paper?) to write my own notes, agreements, personal additions. The Bic pen I used felt very good on this paper. I won't read it again, and I've marked it up, so what now?
Also could not get it out of my head that Roland would so very soon be dead himself, hit by a laundry van on the streets of Paris while walking home. That made the theme of loss all the more poignant and meaningless at the same time.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
hab mich teilweise sehr gesehen gefühlt
"In me, life struggles against death (the discontinuity and so to speak the ambiguity of mourning) (which will win?)—but for the moment a stupid life (trivial involvements, trivial interests, trivial encounters)."
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I’ll be thinking on this for the rest of my life probably and especially as I encounter grief. A good meditation and a reminder that grief is something universal.
dark
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I will never stop talking about how much I love this book and why everyone should read it.