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A review by cleo_reads
The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei
4.0
Genuinely surprising 1990s queer Taiwanese cyber punk. This is a deeply weird, philosophically interesting and at times disturbing book.
The pacing was a little off. Initially I was put off by the repetitive writing but I relaxed into it and the writing style made sense when I got to the end.
There are a lot of references, from Buddhism to Derrida to Ingmar Bergman and probably a lot that I missed. One of the most disturbing sequences in the book turned out to be a reference to the life and death of the Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini. (I had no idea reading it but learned it from a review).
The pacing was a little off. Initially I was put off by the repetitive writing but I relaxed into it and the writing style made sense when I got to the end.
There are a lot of references, from Buddhism to Derrida to Ingmar Bergman and probably a lot that I missed. One of the most disturbing sequences in the book turned out to be a reference to the life and death of the Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini. (I had no idea reading it but learned it from a review).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment
Moderate: Medical content and Medical trauma
Minor: Child abuse and War