Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - La Nausea

Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

La Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre

11 reviews

roskoff's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

sometimes this book perfectly described what living feels like and sometimes this book really overuses the word “negress” and has some very strange very jarring (not in the good way, though there’s also jarring in the good way) moments

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codifyy's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Before this book, I had struggled to finish any book that I was reading but I did finish this one. Although it was challenging and I found it difficult to understand at times, it made me think and reflect and it was a nice introductory book for me into existentialism. Some parts made me uncomfortable when I read them and even though that may have been the purpose, it still wasn't nice to read. It gave me a different perspective on existence but the ending was a little boring. However, I did like how it was slightly optimistic and didn't end in complete fatalistic despair. At the moment, I couldn't imagine myself reading it twice.

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cami7's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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brite_girl's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated

4.75

Beautiful insights on phenomenology and existentialism. He paints a picture of the fear of simply having a consciousness—this “nausea” is relatable, dark, grieving, and ubiquitous. He somehow puts into words the ineffable substance of love and fear that living beings are forced to terms with. It’s fucking brilliant.

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gabedon's review against another edition

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dark reflective

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Content Warnings

spicycheesecake's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Mid!!! *slaps the back of Sartre's head*

Yeah. This book was not my cup of tea, not in the slightest. I guess it kind of reminded me of 1984, which I also was not a fan of. It's the books where they go on and on and on about the least exciting of things. Roquentin talks of his hands a lot, his face, other people's faces and body structures. Like, okay... so what? Would not recommend reading this book at face-value, or "for the fun of it". It is not fun.

However, from the philosophical perspective, it definitely feels like a good portrayal of someone who is first-handedly experiencing and converting to the concept that "existence precedes essence". I was lucky enough to not have to go through these realizations myself. Thank God for philosophy class. I think to read this book, you already need to understand some of Sartre's ideas, because it is so, so, so hard to read this book without knowing anything about the author. I would not recommend this book to someone who doesn't already know Sartre's take on existentialism. Maybe watch a couple YouTube videos first.

Spoiler

I found a lot of the story to be forgettable. I think the only few scenes I remember were 1) The Self-Taught man is exposed as a pedophile, 2) The Self-Taught man and Antoine go out for a meal together and the S-T man talks of his humanist ideas, 3) Antoine reads the letter from Anny, 4) Antoine meets Anny and they "argue".

Oh yeah, I didn't like Anny and Antoine's relationship. It felt like your usual least-favourite-married-couple quarrels. Ugh.

While I didn't like any of the characters - not even Antoine - I still think all their differing personalities were required for Antoine to dig a little deeper into himself. Antoine seems borderline judgmental, in the way that he will notice a lot of things about people, but he's very neutral when talking about it. Which is a good setup for when he talks about his own features. I felt like it implies that Antoine isn't necessarily critiquing himself, but rather he just notices what his body is like. He doesn't think it's good or bad, it's just there (Except his hair. I think he's proud of his hair. I liked his hair hehehehe). But this all plays in to how he notices non-facial features too. There's a lot of talk about his hands and the items he holds.

Now that I've finished the book, I see now that a lot of the story was about mere existence (this should've been obvious to me lolololol). I still relate this book to 1984, because I don't like how relatively important topics are approached in SUCH a boring way. But I can't help but think that Nausea was a pretty good depiction of someone who is realizing that life IS meaningless. I think the ending was well done. Antoine goes on his own way to discover France and all that jazz, he is looking for his essence. Nice!

I think Sartre has a habit of using hard to understand language, but it wasn't as apparent in Nausea. The language in "Existentialism Is a Humanism" is a million times worse, so I'm glad that Nausea was relatively easy to keep up with.

OVERALL, boring! But feels like an accurate and in-depth representation of "Existence precedes essence".

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