letturine_agnes's review against another edition
4.0
{3,5}
Ao golpear a terra, elas aceleram o próprio movimento.
Ao golpear a terra, elas aceleram o próprio movimento.
cmoffe's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
inspiring
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.5
dreamereternal's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
Weird and poetic and absolutely fascinating! I read this mostly for class, but it was still a deeply interesting read and had a lot to say on gender, violence (cultural, mental and social), the disruption and overthrow of the patriarchal order and just language and culture in general. (Not surprising since this was a French lesbian feminist writing in the 1960s/70s but neat all the same!)
I really love how non-linear and almost vignette like this was in its storytelling, the lack of a singular voice or protagonist and the many allusions to myths surrounding goddesses and female warrior figures. Also just the imagery and descriptions of this half made up all women culture were stunning and vivid. It was a short novella but not a short read and could be confusing if reading too quickly through it. I enjoyed it though!
I really love how non-linear and almost vignette like this was in its storytelling, the lack of a singular voice or protagonist and the many allusions to myths surrounding goddesses and female warrior figures. Also just the imagery and descriptions of this half made up all women culture were stunning and vivid. It was a short novella but not a short read and could be confusing if reading too quickly through it. I enjoyed it though!
virginiawoolfloveletter's review
4.0
subtracted a star for the depiction of cat torture… not very lesbian utopia of her.
ryuutchi's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
xoskelet's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
khetsia's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
Bittersweetness has never felt so necessary... It was a magical experience to be continuously assaulted with proofs of the insidious nature of misogyny. From that exposé, I am now more convinced than before that there is only one course of action that offers itself to us: the war on truth. All we know and consider as factual, real, sensible and especially logical is to be revised before people, no longer oppressed, can finally start breathing, living…
“They say that there is no reality before it has been given shape by words rules regulations. They say that in what concerns them everything has to be remade starting from basic principles. They say that in the first place the vocabulary of every language is to be examined, modified, turned upside down, that every word must be screened.”
For now, here are some longer excerpts I didn’t have enough characters to share before!
“The women say, the men have kept you at a distance, they have supported you, they have put you on a pedestal, constructed with an essential difference. They say, men in their way have adored you like a goddess or else burned you at their stakes or else relegated you to their service in their back-yards. They say, so doing they have always in their speech dragged you in the dirt. They say, in speaking they have possessed violated taken subdued humiliated you to their hearts' content. They say, oddly enough what they have exalted in their words as an essential difference is a biological variation. They say, they have described you as they described the races they called inferior. They say, yes~ these are the same domineering oppressors, the same masters who have said that niggers and females do not have spleen and liver at the same place as their own, that difference of sex difference of colour signify inferiority, their own right to domination and appropriation. They say, yes, these are the same domineering oppressors who have written of niggers and female that they are universally cheats hypocrites tricksters liars shallow greedy faint-hearted, that their thinking is intuitive and illogical, that nature is what speaks most loudly in them, et cetera. They say, yes, these are the same domineering oppressors who sleep crouched over their money-bags to protect their wealth and who tremble with fear when night comes.”
•
•
•
“The women say with an oath, it was by a trick that he expelled you from the earthly paradise, cringing he insinuated himself next to you, he robbed you of that passion for knowledge of which it is written that it has the wings of the eagle, the eyes of the owl, the feet of the dragon. He has enslaved you by trickery, you who were great strong valiant. He has •stolen your wisdom from you, he has closed your memory to what you were, he
has made of you that which is not which does not speak which does not possess which does not write, he has made of you a vile and fallen creature, he has gagged abused betrayed you. By means of stratagems he has stultified your understanding, he has woven around you a long list of defects that he declares essential to your wellbeing, to your nature. He has invented your history. But the time approaches when you shall crush the serpent under your heel, the time approaches when you can cry, erect, filled with ardour and courage, Paradise exists in the shadow of the sword.”
•
•
•
“They write, of their authority to accord names, that it goes back so far that the origin of language itself may be considered an act of authority emanating from those who dominate. Thus they say that they have said, this is such or such a thing, they have attached a particular word to an object or a fact and thereby consider themselves to have appropriated it. The women say, so doing the men have bawled shouted with all their might to reduce you to silence. The women say, the language you speak poisons your glottis tongue palate lips. They say, the language you speak is made up of words that are killing you. They say, the language you speak is made up of signs that rightly speaking designate what men have appropriated. Whatever they have not laid hands on, whatever they have not pounced on like many-eyed birds of prey, does not appear in the language you speak. This is apparent precisely in the intervals that your masters have not been able to fill with their words of proprietors and possessors, this can be found in the gaps, in all that which is not a continuation of their discourse, in the zero, the 0, the perfect circle that you invent to imprison them and to overthrow them.”
“They say that there is no reality before it has been given shape by words rules regulations. They say that in what concerns them everything has to be remade starting from basic principles. They say that in the first place the vocabulary of every language is to be examined, modified, turned upside down, that every word must be screened.”
For now, here are some longer excerpts I didn’t have enough characters to share before!
“The women say, the men have kept you at a distance, they have supported you, they have put you on a pedestal, constructed with an essential difference. They say, men in their way have adored you like a goddess or else burned you at their stakes or else relegated you to their service in their back-yards. They say, so doing they have always in their speech dragged you in the dirt. They say, in speaking they have possessed violated taken subdued humiliated you to their hearts' content. They say, oddly enough what they have exalted in their words as an essential difference is a biological variation. They say, they have described you as they described the races they called inferior. They say, yes~ these are the same domineering oppressors, the same masters who have said that niggers and females do not have spleen and liver at the same place as their own, that difference of sex difference of colour signify inferiority, their own right to domination and appropriation. They say, yes, these are the same domineering oppressors who have written of niggers and female that they are universally cheats hypocrites tricksters liars shallow greedy faint-hearted, that their thinking is intuitive and illogical, that nature is what speaks most loudly in them, et cetera. They say, yes, these are the same domineering oppressors who sleep crouched over their money-bags to protect their wealth and who tremble with fear when night comes.”
•
•
•
“The women say with an oath, it was by a trick that he expelled you from the earthly paradise, cringing he insinuated himself next to you, he robbed you of that passion for knowledge of which it is written that it has the wings of the eagle, the eyes of the owl, the feet of the dragon. He has enslaved you by trickery, you who were great strong valiant. He has •stolen your wisdom from you, he has closed your memory to what you were, he
has made of you that which is not which does not speak which does not possess which does not write, he has made of you a vile and fallen creature, he has gagged abused betrayed you. By means of stratagems he has stultified your understanding, he has woven around you a long list of defects that he declares essential to your wellbeing, to your nature. He has invented your history. But the time approaches when you shall crush the serpent under your heel, the time approaches when you can cry, erect, filled with ardour and courage, Paradise exists in the shadow of the sword.”
•
•
•
“They write, of their authority to accord names, that it goes back so far that the origin of language itself may be considered an act of authority emanating from those who dominate. Thus they say that they have said, this is such or such a thing, they have attached a particular word to an object or a fact and thereby consider themselves to have appropriated it. The women say, so doing the men have bawled shouted with all their might to reduce you to silence. The women say, the language you speak poisons your glottis tongue palate lips. They say, the language you speak is made up of words that are killing you. They say, the language you speak is made up of signs that rightly speaking designate what men have appropriated. Whatever they have not laid hands on, whatever they have not pounced on like many-eyed birds of prey, does not appear in the language you speak. This is apparent precisely in the intervals that your masters have not been able to fill with their words of proprietors and possessors, this can be found in the gaps, in all that which is not a continuation of their discourse, in the zero, the 0, the perfect circle that you invent to imprison them and to overthrow them.”