jobinsonlis's review against another edition
2.0
I didn’t care much for this one. I like a satirical novel and I thought the premise was clever but near the middle it felt like the book was jabbing me in the back and going “Do you get it?” over and over. And yeah, man, I get it. Calm down. You’re super-smart and cool. Basically this book is that annoying guy at a party who wants to have a Real Conversation and you’re struggling to remember who you know who knows him because you’ve never met him before in your whole life.
wasiakolga's review against another edition
dark
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
carlaribeiro's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
aliteracja's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Cannibalism and Violence
laurenguydan's review against another edition
2.0
Can't categorize this as a must read, but it was interesting. It helped to keep in mind the context of the writer; 1920s in newly formed Czechoslovakia, and that it is meant to be political satire. Certainly the main premise could be just as relevant now. An entity, an all powerful spirit is released into the world, having all the characteristics of God. Of course every religion wants it to be their God only, and war ensues. I wish the translation to English was better, I felt like there were a lot of nuances I was missing.
antananarywa's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
stewreads's review against another edition
4.0
"You know, the greater the things are in which a man believes, the more fiercely he despises those who do not believe in them. And yet the greatest of all beliefs would be belief in one's fellow-men."
Plotwise, this book follows a similar trajectory to Capek's later work, War With the Newts, which, in my opinion, is the better of the two. However, The Absolute at Large is an interesting novel in its own right, and should not be missed. As I mentioned in my last Capek review, the author's cynical humanism is so clearly a huge inspiration for Vonnegut that it's hard not to compare the two. Compared to Vonnegut's charmingly plotless books, Capek seems more concerned with ideas than characters, going as fourth-wall-breakingly far as to lament the fact that he cannot stay with his characters longer because he needs move the story forward.
The Absolute at Large isn't essential, but it's recommended reading for people like myself who pretend that we like science fiction, but really want something more personal.
Plotwise, this book follows a similar trajectory to Capek's later work, War With the Newts, which, in my opinion, is the better of the two. However, The Absolute at Large is an interesting novel in its own right, and should not be missed. As I mentioned in my last Capek review, the author's cynical humanism is so clearly a huge inspiration for Vonnegut that it's hard not to compare the two. Compared to Vonnegut's charmingly plotless books, Capek seems more concerned with ideas than characters, going as fourth-wall-breakingly far as to lament the fact that he cannot stay with his characters longer because he needs move the story forward.
The Absolute at Large isn't essential, but it's recommended reading for people like myself who pretend that we like science fiction, but really want something more personal.
akemi_666's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting premise, sloppy middle, (strangely) affecting ending.
An engineer invents an (atomic) machine that ruptures matter into energy. Theorises that God began as unbounded energy, who bounded themselves as matter, into the world we live in today. God, as pure creative excess can only (ironically? dialectically?) enact itself as creativity by binding itself into stable matter, the death of becoming. Dionysian chaos structured into Apollonian form.
The irony comes quickly. It is an engineer, the apotheosis of Enlightenment reason, that unleashes holy fervour. As the (atomic) machine spreads worldwide, miracles occur; the most interesting of which are the factories that become driven by God's infinite drive, both rendering the working class obsolete and producing a glut of commodities no one desires. Enlightenment reason as instrumental rationality as capitalist efficiency is depicted as totally irrational, a holy fervour without purpose or end.
However, this narrative is quickly dropped, for a hot mess of a middle section, where Capek tries to explain the sociological impact of God, without really understanding politics nor economics that well. He makes the mistake of assuming that, because overproduction has rendered commodities worthless, people would no longer work (i.e. distribute such commodities to the people who need them in other countries). Despite being a humanist, he seems to have little faith in the development of mutual aid during crises.
By the end, Capek states that the idea of God is always partial. We grasp God in fragments through our spiritual experiences. Only the totality of everyone's experiences then, is truly God. It's really quite an amazing and poignant point, but Capek kinda loses his cosmic and (initially) materialist explorations of God, for an idealist humanism (why can't we all just get along?). While that's a nice sentiment, I'm pretty sure most wars and (authoritarian) religions arise from material loss, whose truth (i.e. God) is developed afterwards, as an explanation and motivation towards imperialism, fascism and terrorism.
Some further issues: there are (I think) two unnamed women characters in a cast of two dozen named men, African peoples are just cannibals, and Asian peoples are mongols, yellow and wrinkled. Like ｙｉｋｅｓ dude.
An engineer invents an (atomic) machine that ruptures matter into energy. Theorises that God began as unbounded energy, who bounded themselves as matter, into the world we live in today. God, as pure creative excess can only (ironically? dialectically?) enact itself as creativity by binding itself into stable matter, the death of becoming. Dionysian chaos structured into Apollonian form.
The irony comes quickly. It is an engineer, the apotheosis of Enlightenment reason, that unleashes holy fervour. As the (atomic) machine spreads worldwide, miracles occur; the most interesting of which are the factories that become driven by God's infinite drive, both rendering the working class obsolete and producing a glut of commodities no one desires. Enlightenment reason as instrumental rationality as capitalist efficiency is depicted as totally irrational, a holy fervour without purpose or end.
However, this narrative is quickly dropped, for a hot mess of a middle section, where Capek tries to explain the sociological impact of God, without really understanding politics nor economics that well. He makes the mistake of assuming that, because overproduction has rendered commodities worthless, people would no longer work (i.e. distribute such commodities to the people who need them in other countries). Despite being a humanist, he seems to have little faith in the development of mutual aid during crises.
By the end, Capek states that the idea of God is always partial. We grasp God in fragments through our spiritual experiences. Only the totality of everyone's experiences then, is truly God. It's really quite an amazing and poignant point, but Capek kinda loses his cosmic and (initially) materialist explorations of God, for an idealist humanism (why can't we all just get along?). While that's a nice sentiment, I'm pretty sure most wars and (authoritarian) religions arise from material loss, whose truth (i.e. God) is developed afterwards, as an explanation and motivation towards imperialism, fascism and terrorism.
Some further issues: there are (I think) two unnamed women characters in a cast of two dozen named men, African peoples are just cannibals, and Asian peoples are mongols, yellow and wrinkled. Like ｙｉｋｅｓ dude.
leaton01's review against another edition
3.0
Capek's novel lands as an interesting thought experiment that falls a little bit flat in its execution; it's satire but not entirely satisfying. This makes sense given that it was his first novel. It doesn't have the finesse that comes with R.U.R. and from what I understand, is not as nearly as compelling as War of the Newts. Yet, it's a curious and fun novel all the same. The story focuses on the creation of a machine (the karburator) that is able to produce nearly infinite energy from a very limited amount of matter. It's set to revolutionize the world except that it has one significant side effect. When it abstracts the energy, it also puts out something else--a spiritual essence (the absolute). This absolute just hovers in the areas wherein the karburator is working and instantly inspires the people with an overwhelming sense of the spiritual. They experience a spiritual transformation that even sometimes, comes with miracles. Additionally, the karburator seems to make machines continue on with work, well after people are not longer working at them. As the karburator is deployed throughout the world, it also triggers a series of religious sects and eventually, all-out war. And that's where it's curiosity peaks. After that, it becomes a bit episodic as the narrator jumps about from different scenes and events, patching together how the events transpire over a decade or so. The plot itself starts to feel directionless, yet the writing has some interesting elements to it. Capek plays with a chronicler who is self-aware of his audience, delivers some biting commentary about capitalism, and shares some interesting insight about why "God" is so hard to understand. For instance, Capek spends some time on discussing how pins at a factory keep massively producing on their own and become meaningless when produced by a machine; this is both a nod and possible condemnation of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and emphasizing the division of later. It is a point that Capek will return to in R.U.R. when it is no longer an essence that overproduces but "robots" that come to replace and diminish human capacity and capabilities. So these glimmers of critiques are found throughout the novel, which makes it an interesting read from a critical perspective, if not from an entertaining one.
ediotsana's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0