kn0tp0rk's reviews
185 reviews

dark lighthearted tense fast-paced

2.0

Lmao Absolute fever dream plot to show how strong and cool the characters are by having them locked up in ridiculous places and being ordered to death through out-of-date means because it's cool. Baki is just like, "wut." A lot more blood and gore here cuz why not???

James Baldwin: Later Novels (Loa #272): Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone / If Beale Street Could Talk / Just Above My Head by James Baldwin

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3.0

The text could have used a run-over once more as I encountered some errors here and there. I do not always agree with Baldwin's language or some of the anti-Semitism his characters display, but I was happy to read these works.

Just Above My Head by James Baldwin

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

🔸Hall's brother, Arthur, has died in a men's restroom in a pub in England. Hall is having a hard time processing the grief. Images repeat in his mind, he can't cry. He remembers how much he loves his brother. He finally experiences any emotion by having sex with his wife, Ruth.

🔸Hall's son, Tony, asks about his uncle, having hurt rumors that he was the f-slur. Hall tells Tony that Arthur loved many people, some of who were men. He says that he too has loved men. He tells Tony that Arthur can't be defined by those homophobic slurs. / I think it's really important here that Hall is not only truthful with Tony but also allows himself to be vulnerable. Not many people are willing to do that.

🔸Arthur was a gospel singer, but his attraction to men was also loudly rumored. He had some notoriety because of this. / At least he wasn't also someone who screamed about how homosexuality was a sin. It's unfortunate that many gay Christians must choose to be silent about their love. It reminds me of Luther Vandross, for example.

🔸Julia was a popular child evangelist (age 7-14) among the Black community. She remembers a particular reverend who at one point decreed that wearing earrings was sinful, preventing an elderly patron from attending. She brought the woman to service anyway, and he didn't stop her because he needed her monetary assistance. / Funny how God's commands can bend when money is involved. Who is actually right and who is wrong?

🔸Arthur tells Hall a story about how he was sexually assaulted by a man as a thirteen-year-old. Hall doesn't know what to say but is disappointed in himself. / Yeah, unfortunately, a lot of kids back then were harmed because people didn't understand how prevalent predators were in their own communities.

🔸Hall recalls one of Julia's sermons. The church goes buckwild. Her family comes over to Hall's house and her mother slaps Jimmy like meat while visiting. Julia reports that God doesn't want them to stay for dinner, so they leave. / Julia seems like she's suffering from a mental disorder and her parents' religious beliefs are fueling her insanity. She was spewing total nonsense about David and Goliath during her sermon, but the patrons were eating it up.

🔸Amy is fatally ill, but because of Julia's fierce religiosity, Joel stops taking her to the doctor in favor of Julia's fasting and prayer. It's not working. Florence berates Joel, Paul has a talk with him. / I wish I could say that we know faith healing is fraudulent and dangerous, but so many people DON'T know. They fall victim to it again and again. No amount of prayers ever healed any serious ailment I had when I was Christian, nor did it heal my loved ones' diseases and disorders. It makes me want to laugh when I'm told by people who've lost loved ones to cancer that my genetic disorders can be lifted by God. I can sympathize with Florence. I think she's wrong to say that beating Julia would have solved the problem. Domestic violence is never the answer.

🔸Hall makes his first friend through this debacle in way of Sydney, the bartender at the bar Paul takes Joel to. / This was very wholesome.

Spoiler

🔸Amy accosts Julia about lying to God. She passes away shortly after. This breaks Julia's faith. / Sometimes it sucks when you become an unbeliever this way. There's no end to critics who will say you're just angry at God and still think he's real.

Spoiler

🔸Julia tells Joel she doesn't want to preach anymore. He's vehement about this, attributing her response to temporary grief. When it seems that she's serious, he sexually assaults her. / Another reminder that for all their insistence, the religious have no better morals or self-control than nonbelievers. Sipping a little wine doesn't make ME want to sexually assault grieving children.

🔸Arthur and Crunch fall in love. They have sex. / I thought the romance was very wholesome, but I could have done without the sexual details particularly because Arthur is still 16 here and Crunch is 19. I think the relationship is fine because they've known each other, but I'm not comfortable reading sex scenes involving anyone under 18, I don't care what age of consent laws technically are, it creeps me out. I think it can be mentioned that the sexual encounter was meaningful to Arthur without the details of semen, etc. IDK, it's not like the scene went full porno or something, but hopefully, you can understand what I mean?

🔸Julia tells Crunch in not so many words, that her father has been sexually assaulting her. She asks Crunch to have sex with her and he does. She finds this meaningful, but Crunch is worried. / This is a scene I had more trouble with. As stated above Crunch is 19, but Julia is only 14 here. I really don't think Crunch had any idea what he was supposed to do, and neither did Julia, so I'm not comfortable pointing to Crunch and calling him a predator because I really don't think he is. I don't think having sex with Julia was the right move. The right move was something totally foreign and inaccessible to them: therapy.

🔸Julia spends a night with the Montanas after revealing that she's having trouble with her father. She doesn't tell them it's sexual assault, is worried about staying, and just wants to entirely get out. When Arthur takes her home the next morning, they meet an intoxicated Joel, and he understands that Julia is really REALLY in a bad situation. / Victims of sexual assault often have a hard time saying what has really happened because not only are they traumatized, but culture demands their silence.

🔸Crunch tells Arthur about having had sex with Julia and Arthur feels his first pains of jealousy and confusion.

Spoiler

🔸Joel's abuse of Julia finally gets her pregnant (though we're also told that it's Crunch's baby?), and he beats her within an inch of her life. She loses the baby. He seems totally incoherent regarding what has happened and doesn't face any serious repercussions. She's taken away from him. Everyone is shocked. / I mean, when you're raised within a culture that tells you not to just say what is really going on, this tracks. This is what happens. The victim dies or almost dies.

🔸Martha and Sydney have hooked up and Sydney has joined the Nation of Islam. Hall isn't entirely shocked but is a little overwhelmed. As is customary, Sydney will stop drinking and smoking. / Though the Nation of Islam isn't named specifically, I could tell from what Martha and Sydney were saying and Baldwin's own autobiographical work, that it wasn't just Islam. I find the Nation of Islam to be cultish in its ways--I have no love for the institution, not in the way they shunned Malcolm X or in their odd behavior with Louis Theroux. It demands obedience, yet offers the same vapid promises of any other religion. Many Blacks may have found it an easy transition because Allah is the same familiar YHWH from Christianity. White people aren't Satan robot half breeds, they're human-beings like us, and the racist ones are making decisions on their own--no supernatural force required.

🔸Arthur is hurt by Crunch. Since returning from the Korean war, Crunch is reluctant to rekindle their relationship. It's not just war that has changed him, but the debacle concerning Julia, and perhaps the day's homophobic attitude. / It's sad to see someone who could benefit so much from therapy, not have access to it. Instead you watch them suffer or turn away so you don't suffer yourself.

🔸While on tour down South, Arthur meets a girl who tells him how she wishes to be a teacher down South specifically, not in the North. She asks Arthur how many Black teachers he had and he realizes that he's only had a couple. / I went to school from 2001-2013 in Ohio and this still holds true. I never had a Black teacher. There was one at my elementary school and then she moved. I had a Black vice principal in middle school and my high school principal was Black, but teachers? No.

🔸Everyone comments on how Birmingham, Alabama makes them uncomfortable. / We make incest jokes about Alabama today, but sundown towns still exist. Is Birmingham one of them? I don't know, but it used to be. It's scary living in a country where your fellow citizens can have so much hatred for you that you become afraid of certain cities.

🔸While on the road, Peanut tells Arthur and Hall about his relationship with Red. After returning from the Korean war, Red acts distant and aggressive. It turns out, he's become addicted to heroin. Peanut recalls a significant sexual experience they had together as children, and details how hard it is for him to see Red come to such a dejected state. / It's no surprise that veterans are abandoned by the governments they fought for. Black veterans certainly had it tough during this time period. People turn to heroin because they are in pain, but it causes so much more.

🔸Hall, Arthur, and Peanut are confronted by three white men who tell them, in their tactless fashion, to go back home. They get into a physical altercation, but the Black people living nearby come out to the street and save them. Their hosts tell Hall and co. that many of their phones have been tapped, that Hall, Arthur, and Peanut were probably anticipated. / I am once again thankful for the work of people like James Baldwin, that I do not have to live so horrifying a life. Racism is still alive, of course, there are many problems regarding racism that need fixing, but I don't have to deal with THIS.

Spoiler

🔸While going to the outhouse, Peanut is kidnapped. He is never seen again. / This was also terrifying because of how true it was for so many people. You just get plucked from existence, probably in the cruelest way, and you are never found. Your loved ones get no closure. There's no justice.

🔸Hall reflects upon gospel music's poignancy in the Black community. He says the songs reflect a pain Black people in America have personally gone through due to slavery and racism, which is why Christianity is so appealing to them. / I can agree and sympathize with this. It's why I'm a minority of atheists who are Black American women.

🔸While in France, Arthur hooks up with a white man named Guy. They're quickly enamored by each other. Guy tries to explain how he detests his roots. Arthur retorts that he is white to him all the same, that trying to distinguish oneself from the flock is nearly disrespectful. / I can agree with this. I don't particularly care for tales from white people about how their family is so racist and they're so embarrassed and yadda yadda. It is a sob story I'm uninterested in. Racism must be actively unlearned by all of us, and we don't get points for doing so.

🔸I will segue into saying that I do not like Baldwin's use of "oriental" to describe Asian features in people and things.

🔸I appreciate that several times throughout there is mention of involuntary reaction from the penis and confusion/fear in the character. Another reason I'm happy not to have a penis. A throbbing clitoris, while a stronger sensation, isn't always noticeable (not ever on me anyways LOL).

🔸Julia returns to New York from Abidjan. She talks to Hall and confesses profound respect and sisterly love. Hall is relieved to have Julia in his life. / I think this is wholesome. Too often men and women are told by society that they cannot be great friends, not even really in marriage.

🔸Arthur and Jimmy become boyfriends. They are in the greatest love with each other. Hall and Julia are relieved.

🔸When Hall gets involved with Ruth, who he later marries, he, she, Julia, Jimmy, and Arthur all come together as a wonderful family.

Spoiler

🔸As Hall finishes reflecting upon the trials of his life, his friends' lives, and Arthur's life, he discovers that Arthur was not murdered in the London pub, but died from a heart attack while descending the stairs.

Content Warnings

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

If Beale Street Could Talk is one that ends on a cliffhanger, and I think that appropriately mirrors reality. Those dealing with falsely accused loved ones in jail/prison don't know if they'll get them out, just like we don't really know what will become of the characters in Beale Street. There's some excessive use of the f-slur in this work, and I have a feeling that advocates of the fictionalized "buck breaking" phenomenon may latch onto things written of here. It's very true that M/M sexual assault happens in jails/prisons. But some of the commentary about Officer Bell such as "I'm going to fuck you, boy" may be read in a sexual manner alongside Tish saying she feels as though he wishes to sexually assault her. That may have been Baldwin's intentions, but let's not go accusing the gays (a violently oppressed minority) of wanting to sexually assault all of society.

🔸Fonny is jailed, and Tish feels as though she can't speak to anyone, that no one can understand her. / Yeah, I think young people who have lovers incarcerated are often called foolish. Maybe they are foolish sometimes, but that can't always be the case. There are prejudices thrown at women who are pregnant or have children and also have significant others incarcerated.

🔸Tish and Fonny become friends after fighting. People don't believe in their friendship. / It's unfortunate that boys and girls can't just be good friends. That everything is seen as sexual. I've experienced this prejudice even around my lesbian, bisexual, pansexual friends. A mistrust from others. We must be trying to have sex!

🔸Fonny describes how his mother's faith in God turned into a fetish with her husband. She would cry out about saving his soul and they'd have sex like it was all just a game. It shows how performative some believers are.

🔸Mrs. Hunt is a colorist. She and her daughters benefit from being light-skinned. She looks down on Fonny for being darker and Tish for being even moreso.

🔸I like that Tish's family is happy about her pregnancy. They were very wholesome and supportive.

🔸Mrs. Hunt says she hopes Fonny's jail time turns him to Jesus. Sharon answers sarcastically that the Lord works in mysterious ways. / Always looking on the bright side is one thing that disgusts me about Christianity in particular. You can't ever have any time that is bad. You always have to think about the good. That is toxic positivity and not healthy. Sometimes life is shit and you don't need to be thankful that you're still breathing. God needing to force you into unspeakable turmoils to convert you should make you question the validity of God's power and existence.

🔸Mrs. Hunt and her daughters inveigh against the news of Tish's pregnancy. Mrs. Hunt hides behind her religion to criticize Tish and the unborn child. Frank slaps Mrs. Hunt. / I don't condone domestic violence, but even Mrs. Hunt's behavior is a form of emotional domestic violence. Using your religion to say that everyone is sinning when they do something you dislike is nasty and exhausting.

🔸Tish is weary of the lawyer's, Hayward, intention, because he is white and asking for more money, but she softens up when she notices how he gently speaks to her and how he has a distaste for racism. / I like that the lawyer was humanized. All too often we are quick to think that lawyers are vain disgusting people.

🔸Man, Sharon's mission in Puerto Rico really failed and I wasn't ready for that emotional impact.

🔸Sharon is shook from her trip. She realizes that POC in North America have it bad no matter where they are. / This has its truths, but let's not hold onto this believing that it's pointless to try to escape any nation's hardships. I have designs to leave the States myself, and I'm often met with this criticism. No, there really are other countries that have it more together. Even Baldwin recognized that life had its improvements when he moved to Paris (obviously not North America, though).

🔸Even though the jail/prison system is rife with sexual assault and violence, Fonny learns to humanize the detainees around him. Some of them are in his same position, after all.

🔸Adrienne, one of Fonny's sisters, doesn't have the best attitude, but she's not a one-dimensional hateful husk. Frank hates her because she looks like her spiteful mother, and she resents this. She's very worried when Frank goes missing. / Adrienne's situation is unfortunate. She can only learn from those around her. She and her sister have been damaged by society and their parents, and I feel bad for them both.

Content Warnings

Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone by James Baldwin

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challenging emotional reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Definitely felt like a rehash of some of Baldwin's older works, though perhaps angrier. There are race relations, jabs at Christianity without making the leap into agnosticism/atheism, a scrawny Black boy, Harlem, New York, music. The way the story is told mostly works for me, that is, I understand the choice to tell it the way it's told. The ending doesn't have any astounding resolution because the story is basically about people Leo's met and situations he's remembered while he's out of commission due to a heart attack. That may be my biggest complaint with this type of tale, one that wishes to overview a character's entire life in so short a space. It may have been to the book's benefit to have Leo feud with Caleb as the final boss battle or something LOL

🔸Leo makes a comment about how his mother warned him of changing his underwear, and the fear of being discovered in dirty underwear during an accident. I've had similar horrors, which says something pretty sad about my mental state.

🔸Leo describes where a lot of anti-semitism comes from in Black communities. Their landlords were Jewish and treated them poorly--didn't fix broken windows or falling ceilings, kicked them out over late rent. / This isn't some inherently Jewish trait, of course. Most landlords are bad people regardless of religious heritage.

🔸Leo reflects on part of his childhood. I got super nervous when he spoke of wandering the streets to the movie theater alone. Back then it was frowned upon, but normal for kids to do this. Now we know that children need responsible adult supervision at all times because there are predators in even our own neighborhoods.

🔸Speaking of predators, he and his older brother, Caleb, get stopped by white cops. They're terrified during the debacle but afterward laugh about it. They talk about why white people act so viciously toward Blacks. Leo thinks about his white school teacher, who is very kind. He's confused and has many questions. Indeed, the question of racial hostility in the US is a confusing one to confront.

🔸Caleb curses God for their situation. Leo wonders how God could have made white people so cruel. Leo has a hard time buying into the idea that a god would make life so unfair. / The subject of an amusing The Boondocks episode, white Christian racists literally think they're going to a whites-only heaven, some believe Blacks have no souls or even go to hell just because they're Black. It involves a lot of reconciliation and interpretation on part of the believer. I'm happier an atheist.

🔸Baldwin does that unfortunate thing: describes women's breasts and buttocks unnecessarily. The problem, of course, isn't just that he does this, but that the breast and buttocks of men aren't also described so that one feels the women are inherently sexual creatures. Sometimes the penis is talked of, but certainly not in the same casual manner.

🔸Leo sleeps with Madeleine and gets a scolding from the cops because some white old folks tattled on him. Madeleine throws a fit, but it's obviously Leo who is hurt the most. The next day Leo and Barbara are chased through town by violent racists, who thankfully don't get hold of them. / Yes, racists love to wax poetic about blood purity. Of course, anyone who understands homo sapiens and genes realizes that 1) we're all the same species, and 2) lack of genetic diversity leads to extinction.

🔸Jerry is asked if he misses church. He says sometimes, but he thinks of his mother, who is a devout believer and yet also a loud anti-semite and racist. / Yeah, when I was in church, the popular group to renounce was LGBT+ people. I couldn't be someone who supported that hatred.

🔸Saul is one of those racists who doesn't call you racist slurs, but instead insists that you need to work harder and longer than everyone else.

🔸Caleb is a pastor. Leo thinks he's preying upon the ignorant to make a living. / Some Christian leaders are draining their communities ignorantly, others are entirely malicious. Either way, I share the opinion that living off tithes from a congregation is villainous. The sermons are repetitive, exhausting, not worth MY money.

🔸Leo's mother is angry that he has feelings for Barbara, who is white. Leo gets hurt. / While it may be an unfortunate phenomenon that Black men often have superficial preferences for white women, you can't stop yourself from falling in love with someone.

🔸Caleb makes Leo feel bad about trying to become an actor. He likens artwork to alcohol consumption (conveniently ignoring the addictive qualities of caffeine in coffee, which he prefers) and talks about how all the artists he's heard of are depressed or crazy. Then he uses some extra manipulation power to say that we should be creating for God, not ourselves. / Look, idk what the deal is with artists getting depressed. It could be a lot of things, like people wanting art, but not wishing to place value on it. But until you can demonstrate that it's possible for your specific god to exist, I have no reason to believe that I'm supposed to be doing anything for its benefit.

🔸Caleb converted to Christianity after an understandably shocking experience on the battlefield during WWII. / Okay, what about the non-believers who faced those same turmoils but are still non-believers?? No one seems to want to talk about them.

🔸Leo comments to himself that it looks like their father is very disappointed in Caleb's becoming a pastor. Indeed, he commented earlier that their father didn't raise them in the church and thought poorly of it. Their father gets on much better with Leo's friend/lover Christopher, who is very loud about his opinion that Christianity was forced upon Blacks by whites to make them complacent in slavery and their position in life. / Really can't blame their dad for this one LOL

🔸I don't like that Pete is referred to as looking "oriental." Very outdated, but this was published in 1968.

🔸Barbara, Christopher, and Leo have her Kentucky family over for dinner and wring their ignorant necks about the current situation of racism and wealth inequality in America. / It's still the same today, 54 years after the publication of this book.

🔸A reporter asks Leo about his role in films and says that it must be very important to the Black race. He comments that it's not helping pay their rents. The reporter doubles down, but so does he. / Honestly, yeah. Black celebrities can be inspiring, that's true, but the rest of us are just trying to put food on the table. We're not necessarily trying to be celebrities or "make it."

Content Warnings

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.5

🔸I'm amused by Dostoevsky's author's note telling readers that they can stop reading if they don't like it. It's not self-pitying, but an understanding "yeah, i feel u."

🔸There are some sus comments about Jewish people in regards to money and media creation. 🙄 Also some slurs against Romani people. Lise repeats an anti-semitic tale about a Jewish person crucifying a toddler.

🔸Disabled people are called idiots 🙄 I fail to see how epilepsy makes a person stupid.

🔸The Liberals are atheists. Dimitri and Ivan are atheists (initially?????). Alyosha is Christian. Their father? Religion: tomfoolery.

🔸Socialism is inherently atheistic, meant "to set up Heaven on earth." / I can't say I agree with that? This statement makes it seem like equity/equality is a fantasy unachievable by human effort. It makes it seem as though theists have no place within Socialism, which I would certainly fight against as an atheist. I don't see what Socialism by itself has to do with the god question. I understand historically that oppression has happened. Certainly, Socialism can be bundled with other beliefs, but by itself the statement presented doesn't hold for me.

🔸Fyodor Pavlovich goes buckwild Diderot style in front of Father Zossima. Pyotr Alexandrovitch is pissed. Alyosha has a silent panic attack because everyone is kinda embarrassing.

🔸Father Zossima emotionally manipulates some distraught peasant women. He calms them, though I find his theistic doctrine illogical and unintentionally cruel. A discussion is made about "possessed" people that I feel is worth having. Zossima calms down one such woman, though it's noted that she'll have a fit again. Why wouldn't God immediately heal these people? How and why would the next woman's baby be an angel--using facts, how would you convince another Christian sect that this is what happens? Why would he feel sorrow in Heaven, a perfect place? Why should the other woman repent for wishing her abusive husband dead? Why should she forgive him?

🔸A lady™ asks Father Zossima how she can know there's life after death and he tells her that if she follows love, God will reveal all. This is how you get theists throwing around the word "love" until it loses all meaning, saying it even when you can see their disgust of you in their eyes--hear it in their voices.

🔸Ivan argues for basically a theocracy and Father Zossima and Father Païssy agree that this would be great because only God makes people feel regret for crimes. Poytr says he met a Frenchman who said, "The socialist who is a Christian is more to be dreaded than a socialist who is an atheist." Zossima tells Pyotr that no torture or cruelty would happen to criminals under this structure because the Church is all about love and redemption, man. / Press X to doubt.

🔸Dostoevsky has either read the Marquis de Sade, or is, at least, familiar with that author's colorful material. Ivan believes that if there's no immortal soul then any cruel action must be permitted. / This is the "no objective absolute standard" argument I've heard ten thousand times that makes no sense. What does immortality have to do with understanding that suffering hurts and is detrimental to human survival (given that we want to survive)? Why must we believe what God says is right or wrong? Because he's strong?? That's a dictatorship and also opens up more plot holes. The Marquis de Sade believed it was the atheist's duty to behave as ill as possible. Dmitri asks for clarification and simply responds, "I'll remember it." 😭

🔸Fyodor Pavlovich calls the monks out for BS, saying that they're preying upon the vulnerable peasant people and not struggling as much as they pretend. / Honestly, yeah.

🔸Fyodor Pavlovich may or may not have sexually assaulted a disabled woman who dies in his garden while giving birth. He takes the child, Smerdyakov, in as a servant. 😬

🔸Dmitri confesses to Alyosha that he's a bit of a vice-lover. Alyosha blushes and says, "Bro...me too." 🤯

🔸Uh, Smerdyakov likes to torture cats to death and criticizes the Bible's scientific accuracy. He hates people and has epilepsy. 🥴 Fyodor Pavlovich is fond of him.

🔸Smerdyakov makes an argument against a story Grigory has told. He says there's no great sin in renouncing Christianity to heathen tormentors because God knows it before you declare it and you won't be tried as a Christian. He says further that if your faith was really there, you should be able to move mountains to crush your assailants, but because the mountains won't move, surely God won't punish you so severely, and surely you'll start to really doubt your beliefs. Grigory is exasperated. / I think many Christians today would take the Bible verse in question (Matt 17:20) as figurative, but let's not assume there aren't extremists. Smerdyakov has a point with this argument. Grigory represents a type of aggressive extremist, unable to handle criticism. I can't say Smerdyakov is supposed to be looked upon favorably here, though, given his other...traits.

🔸Despite Ivan's article about theocracy, he says that God and immortality aren't real. So he believes the Church should be the state if these were true, but because they are false, he doesn't believe so.

🔸Alyosha and Ivan shortly discuss thought crime. Ivan doesn't see what it matters if you wish death upon someone. / Personally, I wouldn't let those thoughts consume you, but yeah, I also don't see an issue with wishing someone dead. Telling someone to kill themselves is another matter that I do take issue with. But keeping it in your head as a short passing thought isn't outright bad. I think it's worth examining why you want that person to die. If it's a petty reason (they get more attention than me) vs something significant (they're my abuser). I think dwelling on this may be a sign that a person needs therapy/help.

🔸Bruh, Katerina Ivanovna tries to defend Grushenka, but the latter says, "You thought I wasn't that bitch, but I am that bitch. 💅"

🔸Uh, Father Ferapont might be on hallucinogenic mushrooms. 😭 He's fasting, battling demons, meditating. Inquires a visiting monk about MUSHROOM CONSUMPTION.

🔸Ivan explains to Alyosha that he believes in God's existence, but disagrees with how he's made the world. He says man can only conceptualize in three dimensions, so why attempt to disprove God? / I would say if we can only think in three dimensions, why claim to know all these attributes of God? Why not be agnostic? Of course, I'm an atheist myself and accept the burden of proof. I don't think one has to know all there is to say there is no god as conceptualized by humanity's many existent and deceased religions.

🔸Ivan says he takes particular issue with children's suffering "to enrich the soil for the harmony of the future" and lists several real-world examples of war crimes and violence against infants and children. He says he cares slightly less about adult suffering because "they've already bitten the 'apple' of knowledge of good and evil." He says if he believes in God, he must disagree with the state he's created. Alyosha doesn't have much defense against this argument. / This is the "question of evil." Personally, I don't find suffering congruent with an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good being (necessarily all three of those traits) despite what arguments believers have tossed at me.

🔸Ivan tells Alyosha about a poem he'd been thinking up. It's about a 90-year-old Inquisitor taking a figure meant to be Jesus captive and accusing him. The Inquisitor represents a twisted sentiment trying to bring order to people while concealing the absence of a God he initially gave everything for. Ivan suggests many people are like his fictional Inquisitor, but Alyosha is once again dumbfounded.

🔸Father Zossima had an older brother. He liked philosophy and was a vulgar atheist, but he fell ill with consumption. In his dying days, he was convinced to convert to Christianity. His irritable nature faded, and he suddenly had a profound appreciation for God. / This story is the familiar horror tale. Don't be an atheist because God will strike you. As someone with multiple illnesses, I don't appreciate it. YHWH doesn't exist just because atheists get sick and die. Christians get sick and die, too.

🔸Father Zossima expresses his love of the Bible. He especially appreciates Job. He counters some common arguments against the story. "The greatness of it lies just in the fact that it is a mystery" and "old grief passes gradually into quiet tender joy." / I think these counters are weak when looking at the implications of Job more closely. They don't dissipate the immorality of the story.

🔸Heaven is in all of us, waiting to be unlocked once we abandon individuality and private property and begin serving and loving each other. Mankind must undergo a psychological transformation. This wisdom comes from an unconvicted murderer who can't decide whether to confess his crime 14 years later. / WELL, I don't think heaven has anything to do with it, but we've seen prosperous indigenous societies with this structure. Problem is, there are so many of us now. I agree that some kind of transformation has to take place in us, but I don't know what that looks like. Do we need to be conquered and ruled by an outside higher intelligence? Does a disaster have to wipe out the majority of us? Do homo sapiens have to evolve into another species? I dunno, this better society is probably just not going to happen during my lifespan, unfortunately. Each and every one of us are capable of kindness as well as cruelty, though some of us are more heinous than others, and this is possibly what holds us back.

🔸Science is trying to destroy God. / There are Christian scientists, so this makes no sense. A paranoid argument made by people who see their totalitarian authority fading.

🔸Serve your servants. / I don't think anyone needs a "servant" unless they're disabled, in which case, how much they can give back to the "servant" will depend on their disabilities. Be kind, at least.

🔸Russian peasants are quick to sin but know God in their hearts. / Sounds like a way to keep Russian commoners under religious tyranny.

🔸"The people will meet the atheist and overcome him." / We're not barbarous crazy people by definition, please calm down.

🔸We all share sin and should be humble. / Sin isn't real. I'm not responsible for the actions of others unless I coerced them (especially while they were vulnerable). Humility is a decent virtue.

🔸Treat animals right. Treat children right. 👍

🔸I internally cackled when Dmitri went to Madame Hohlakov for money.

🔸Dmitri and Grushenka's wild ravings remind me of when my sister stopped taking her bipolar medication and had a manic-depression fit. These people are not healthy.

🔸Dmitri getting himself into more and more of a pickle as he talks to the popo is the prime example of why you always ask for a lawyer and remain silent whether guilty or innocent LMFAO

🔸Kolya Krassotkin is a nasty boy who talks like an adult 🙄 He thinks the medical field is fraudulent and he believes himself a Socialist. He mocks peasants to their faces but assents if they say something he thinks is clever. He calls his servant "FEMALE." He's not all bad though as he shows he has some heart for the sick boy Ilusha.

🔸For any of this book's faults, Dostoevsky is great at writing troubled, mentally ill characters.

🔸Really tired of all the atheist or undecided characters having the most repugnant traits until they start repenting. Okay, I get it, Alyosha is the holy God-fearing beacon of hope and everyone else fails to compare. Atheism bad hurr durr

🔸So Smerdyakov can't just say anything plainly and always talks in clicks and whistles, and thought Ivan was telling him to kill Fyodor Pavlovich and use Dmitri as a scapegoat. Ivan is like, "What in the sweet fuck????" and Smerdyakov is like, "Oh, damn, I thought you were subliminally telling me something cuz of the theocracy article and the no god no virtue stuff lol my bad." / This seems like it's meant to show how atheist philosophers come up with evil ideas and even baser atheists will act on their bad ideas. 🥴 So after all we need God to dictate morality and the Church to keep us to that standard!!1

🔸While Ivan is having a dysphoric dream, his devil apparition again repeats some anti-science, anti-medical field, pro-homeopathy nonsense. / Yes, the medical field is overwhelming, no your special tea didn't just cure you of disease lmfao

🔸Ivan's sickly raving to Alyosha is an example of why religious extremists aren't equipped to get the mentally ill the help they need. Obviously during this time, help was scarce, but still, Ivan's rant shouldn't be attributed to supernatural forces. His ideas of religion and morality are tormenting him.

🔸Dmitri says that men can't just apologize to women because it shows a weakness that women will pounce on. 🥴 No. Stop that. None of this is healthy. Learn how to behave, for fuck's sake. You have the power to reason with each other so fucking do so. If anyone is pouncing on you for apologizing, you may need to reflect on the situation you're apologizing about (Celebrity YouTuber apologies come to mind lol), or reflect on that person's position in your life.

🔸Dmitri's lawyer tells the jury to appeal to their Christianity in judging the facts because Christianity is necessarily humane, rational, and philanthropic. I disagree. Christianity is interpreted in any manner by Christians, you won't necessarily get the same answers about a subject if you ask two different sects of Christians. It's not based on rationality, but emotion and superstition. Some Christians are humane and philanthropic, others are violent and greedy, some are a mix.

🔸As if reading my mind, the prosecutor accuses Dmitri's lawyer of heresy LOL

🔸So I guess the moral of the story is that even the most troubled people can't help but admit that God might exist. Russia knows God, dammit!!! / The troubled characters were vulnerable and fed the religion present in their society so that they couldn't help circling back to Christianity in their distress. I don't see a god proven or even maybe proven. I don't see YHWH proven.

The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

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adventurous reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I picked this up in a thrift store, remembering how some of my peers in elementary school had been assigned to read it. I never got that chance, so I'm reading it now, mostly curious about whether it is actually good or if it fails my morals in any way.

I will begin by saying that I wish stories like this were presented from the Native's point of view instead. It will always be a shame that White audiences won't question their own biases unless they're led into it by White protagonists (see To Kill a Mockingbird, Dances with Wolves).

I think it was a good choice to have Matt's father have reserved respect for Native Americans. In this way, I think Matt can be challeged without the Native Americans entirely being race relations test subjects. I'm reminded of a scene from James Baldwin's Another Country, where Ida says she doesn't want to be Vivaldo's racist family's first "positive" encounter with a Black person.

I like that Matt questions his favorite book, Robinson Crusoe, after Attean protests Friday's slavery, and even starts to see that parts of it don't make sense, like Friday's ignorance of his own native land. I also like that Matt has questions about the Bible after Attean tells him about his tribe's flood myth. This doesn't really go anywhere, though?? He doesn't go on to think about the applicability or truthfulness of his religion, even when Attean tells him of his spiritual beliefs or when Marie says she was baptized.

Freeing Attean's mangled dog from a trap was used as emotional leverage. That's what it took for Attean's grandmother to accept Matt? It felt bogus. She's probably seen her people slaughtered in front of her eyes.

I didn't like how the Beaver tribe had a familiar patriarchal structure with Attean even looking down upon the women's work. It's to my understanding that many tribes had matriarchies and respect was evenly given. So though I'm sure tribes like Attean's existed, I would have liked the viewpoint of a different social structure. Matt is already coming from this kind of society, even if Attean thinks his farming work is for women. I don't know why Attean has so much disdain for women or why they're called squaw. Pls stop.

The Mahabharata by

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

TL;DR: While The Mahabharata is an interesting change of scenery from Western religious texts, it's still rife with many of the same problems. It's filled to the brim with contradictions as well as scientific inaccuracies, and its offering of morality isn't impressive. It's repetitive above all else.
🔸This is a story within a story. Ugrasravas is telling us what Vaisampayana is telling Janamejaya. Sometimes it goes several layers deeper.
🔸It's nice to know that merely hearing The Mahabharata will cleanse me of my sins and disease. I'll report back later to see if I'm disease and disorder free. Update: I still have Type-1 Diabetes and my other health issues. I'm sure someone will say it's because I read the abridged text or because I don't believe in the text lol
🔸Reincarnation still seems like a total headache, as apparently you can be plucked out of heaven for making simple mistakes. I still don't agree with the idea of lesser and higher beings, as I know a lot of people who would love to be animals and have 0 problems with this. Also apparently some animals can speak here so...that's a plus.
🔸There's still that all too familiar reliance on virginity (Draupadi's virginity gets restored five times!!) and women being the property of their fathers, BUT having sex freely isn't so frowned upon and women aren't demonized for expressing a want to have sex. They can also speak for themselves, which is refreshing.
🔸The Mahabharata looks favoritably upon polygamy, but there are instances that get incesty, like when Draupadi marries the five Pandava brothers.
🔸I don't agree with the caste system laid out here. I don't care how much emphasis is put on how everything is wonderful, or how you can be rebirthed into something better.
🔸Riches come to those who follow dharma and misfortune to those who don't? This isn't how real life works, sorry.
🔸Coveting another king's stuff because he has more than you is bad. I don't agree with monarchies in the first place, but okay, I guess, yeah.
🔸Gambling is sketchy 👍(But Yudhisthira still accepts the challenge because "fate"...don't do that 🤡)
🔸Slavery is fine 🥴
🔸Whores aren't worth respect 👎
🔸DON'T EXPOSE YOUR LONG, GIRTHY COCK TO THE QUEEN 🍆
🔸There's some discussion about it being wise to dismiss wrongdoings toward you, but not only do the characters not follow this advice, I don't particularly think it's great life advice, either? Not when the stakes are as high as what they are in The Mahabharata.
🔸Honestly, I'm here for Bhima. It's kinda hot how he talks about ripping out the organs of his enemies and drinking their blood. Bhima fan club. 🥴💦
🔸The story of Lopamudra, Agastya's wife?? Uh...this reads as child grooming AND incest. It's weird.
🔸King Yuvanasva learns what Mpreg is. First hand. 🤡
🔸Damn, kinda sucks that Brahma will grant boons indiscriminately, so that demons can take the gods' homes. But Arjuna gets it back for them.
🔸Talking snake ascends to heaven.
🔸If you know brahman or give cattle, you go to heaven, otherwise, you're immediately reborn--into what depends on how you lived.
🔸Flood myth!! This one is about a little fish who is cared for by Manu until it's released into the ocean. The fish tells Manu a flood will happen and to build a boat and collect "the seeds of all creatures". The fish moves the boat to the Himalayas, reveals that he's Brahma, and tells Manu to make all creatures.
🔸Ladies, you have difficult dharma--you have to obey your husband above all else! 🥴
🔸Your time in heaven is limited. Mugdala learns this and declines the offer to even go. I guess you can rack up more points if you choose to keep doing charity on Earth instead.
🔸"A dead man cannot know fame; fame can be enjoyed only by the living. The fame of a dead man is like the garland on a corpse." Bruh, the Sun dropping some🔥🔥👌👌
🔸🤡 The Sun sexually assaults Kunti but she remains a virgin and gives birth to a son who she sends down the river in basket. He's adopted and becomes a warrior. Hmm, I wonder where the Bible got that virgin Mary and Moses story??
🔸Citrasena and Indra think Arjuna's battle against the Kauravas is amusing and shower both sides with flowers 😂 They really don't take sides, huh?
🔸Dharma really muddies the waters on right and wrong. Krsna offers help to both Arjuna and Duryodhana because they're both his pals even though the two are about to battle each other. At least Balarama says he's gunna sit this one out. Who needs right or wrong so long as you're following your dharma (and give to Brahmins)? 🤷
🔸Vidura tells Dhrtarastra to give the Pandavas their land back despite his sons' attitudes, and that he's not being truthful or virtuous. Dhrtarastra is flakey and most of this book is his fault.
🔸Sanatsujata says, "Death results from passion" (😳), "the perfect Brahmin...makes no display of his religious practices or his learning" (none of them behave like that during this entire book), "The man who sees himself in all beings does not sorrow" (What if I see myself in a sorrowful being? Checkmate!!).
🔸Krsna tries to negotiate for peace and alliance with Dhrtarastra. He says Duryodhana is following adharma (so why bother sacrificing the lives of your soldiers to help him, Krsna?? 🥴)
🔸Krsna says that if Duryodhana won't change his mind, Dhrtarastra should throw him to the Pandavas to avoid war. I mean, yeah, tbh.
🔸Bruh, Krsna shows his true form and Duryodhana is still like, "no." ☠️☠️☠️ This boy is thick-headed on another level.
🔸Sikhandin faces some transphobia (or sexism) from Bhisma. 😔 Sikhandin was a woman before rebirth, but Bhisma fucked up her marriage, so she asked to be reborn as a man to become a warrior to kill him. Honestly, you go, Sikhandin, kill that MFer.
🔸Arjuna says he could wipe out the other side instantly with his weapon but that it'd be kinda rude so he doesn't ☠️
🔸I'M LAUGHING SO HARD DURYODHANA'S TROOPS AND ANIMALS "PISSED AND SHAT THEMSELVES" WHEN THEY HEARD THEIR OPPOSITION SOUND THE CONCHES
🔸They agree on war conduct that's honestly so polite, it's laughable. Eye for an eye, insult for an insult, don't attack anyone who's distracted, don't kill people who surrender, and DO NOT TOUCH THE MUSICIANS.
🔸The Bhagavadgita!! Give it up for the Bhagavadgita everybody!!! Arjuna's like, "Man, I don't think I should fight, I feel bad for all this." Krsna says, "There's no beginning or end for life. Just kill them, they'll go to heaven or be reborn, it's chill. The perfect act with detachment." Okay, now I know why Krsna didn't have any qualms offering his army to Duryodhana 🤡 This is terrible psychological manipulation to excuse almost anything????
🔸Krsna tells Arjuna that after several high rebirths, people realize he's the supreme being. After they sacrifice to him, they no longer go through rebirths. All other gods were created by him and he supports the universe. Krsna has also been reborn many times.
🔸Krsna clarifies that he creates beings through Brahma. I guess that's a clarification.
🔸Yudhisthira walks to the enemy side to ask the elders for permission to fight them and if they have any weaknesses. His elders praise him and say he's going to win, but that they're still going to fulfill their duty to the Kauravas. Wild.
🔸This reads like a wild manga. Like Fist of the Northstar meets Dragonball Z meets Naruto meets Violence Jack. The characters are single-handedly taking down thousands of troops and also getting pierced by numerous arrows and just...sleeping it off and taking healing herbs.
🔸Your horses were killed? Here have some more. Charioteer killed? Have another. Warriors killed in the thousands? It's fine there are more. Need another weapon? It's here. Looney Tunes logic if I've ever seen it.
🔸Dhrtarastra keeps trying to blame fate for the situation, but Samjaya checks him every time, saying, "Nah, this is specifically you and your sons' faults."
🔸Arjuna and Yudhisthira have to convince Krsna to keep his word about not fighting cuz he gets hella pissed during the battle and was about throw hands with Bhisma.
🔸Duryodhana is wearing Drona's armor "like a woman". This is an insult, of course. 🥴
🔸I don't know what the difference between heaven, Yama's realm, and reincarnation is. I think the warriors are all going to heaven because it's the highest honor to die on the battlefield? I don't understand the purpose of Yama's realm? Are you placed there in a queue to be reborn? Idk??
🔸Everyone feels uncomfortable when Satyaki cuts Bhurisravas' head off because he was dying anyway and a sage. Satyaki explains himself and they get it but don't say anything LOL
🔸One cannot simply cut off Jayadratha's head as their own head will explode when it hits the ground due to a curse from Vrddhaksatra. So Arjuna's arrow carries Jayadratha's head to Vrddhaksatra's lap. Homeboy stands up, Jayadratha's head falls to the ground and he gets fucked by his own curse.
🔸Dhrstadyumna decapitates Drona, and once again, everyone feels salty. Dhrstadyumna and Satyaki get into an argument about who's major feat was dishonorable. They threaten to kill each other, but the boys pull them apart and tell them to chill.
🔸Salya gives Karna the baddest diss track of his life and Karna is salty af. "Boy, you a rabbit before lions, sit down." 💀💀💀
🔸If a Brahmin says something bad will happen to you because you fucked up, don't bother asking forgiveness because Brahmins can't say false things and forgiving you would make their original statement false. 💀
🔸Yudhisthira finds out that Arjuna hasn't killed Karna yet and is like, "Boy, your useless ass--you should have given Gandiva to Krsna. Nah, better yet, you should have been aborted." Then Arjuna tells him to square up, but Krsna shows Arjuna how to deferentiate between wise violence and ignorance for dharma. (The parables here actually weren't too bad. If you have to lie to save a life, then lie. If you have to kill a tyrant to save lives, then kill.) The brothers apologize. So beautiful.
🔸Duryodhana is nearly defeated but our story within a story is interrupted when Janamejaya wants Vaisampayana to tell him what Balarama's been up to. He's been walking around and bathing at holy sites. Continue with Vaisampayana telling Janamejaya what Samjaya is telling Dhrtarastra.
🔸Krsna says Bhima won't be able to win against Duryodhana if he fights fairly, but he does fight fairly and wins, so??
🔸Duryodhana truly was the final boss, cuz once Bhima strikes him down zombies march around, people cross-dress, wells spew blood, and lakes run backwards 👻
🔸Bhima stomps on Duryodhana's head but Yudhisthira starts crying and is like, "Bro stop, the deed is done."
🔸Balarama gets fucking pissed at Bhima and curses him for kicking around Duryodhana. Krsna tells him to chill then asks Yudhisthira what he thinks about it. Krsna pardons Bhima for his behavior.
🔸Their warriors cheer about the defeat, but Krsna says, "He's dead, it's not even worth talking about it." Then Duryodhana (who isn't actually dead, just unable to fight anymore) starts talking trash about how it's not fair. Krsna tells him to shut up, basically. 💀💀💀
🔸Even though Duryodhana is dying he tells his bros to go fuck up the Pancalas one last time.
🔸Asvatthaman watches an owl kill all the crows sleeping on a tree at night and is inspired to strike while everyone is sleeping, which is against the rules, but he doesn't care. Neither does Siva, apparently, (it's fate to balance adharma or something) because Asvatthaman gives him a sacrifice to gain beast mode powers before going to the enemy camp. He sends several warriors, like Dhrstadyumna, to Yama's realm by throat-stomping them. 💀💀💀 Then he, Krpa, and Krtavarman kill everyone else. Monsters start eating the dead. It's crazy.
🔸They go back to Duryodhana to tell him what happened and he dies with peace of mind. 🤡🤡🤡
🔸Yudhisthira and de boys find out what has happened and they rush to find Asvatthaman. They take the jewel on his head and he gets cursed for three thousand years.
🔸Krsna explains why Siva helped Asvatthaman. He had some beef with the other gods because they were being rude af and now he does what he wants, basically LMFAO
🔸Grieving is pointless. The wise don't grieve. 🤡
🔸The destruction of the Kurus was preordained, but it's still Dhrtarastra's fault and his sons were wicked even though they're in heaven now (because this heaven isn't attained by good or bad behavior). Previous lives or something, idk lol
🔸Yudhisthira and co. meet up with Dhrtarastra, who strangles Bhima, but just kidding, it was a substitution jutsu that Krsna had made out of iron in the shape of Bhima because he knew Dhrtarastra was going to try to wring him out.
🔸🤡🤡🤡 Gandhari accosts Bhima about drinking Duhsasana's blood, but hE'S LIKE, "I DIDN'T DRINK IT, I JUST HAD IT IN MY MOUTH." I'M FUCKING SCREAMING
🔸The 18-day war claimed 1,660,020,000 lives with 24,165 MIA 💀💀💀
🔸Despite those wild numbers and the fact the corpses are being EATEN BEFORE THEIR VERY EYES, they uh, PERFORM BURIAL RITES???
🔸Yudhisthira's had enough. He tells everyone he wants to go to the forest and be a Brahmin. Everyone gets pissed and tries to persuade him otherwise by telling him parables.
🔸Renunciation is only appropriate in old age and in times of trouble. I think there's importance in keeping your word, but there's also value in re-assessing the circumstances and deciding on a different course of action. This line of wisdom is rubbish.
🔸No king attains royal glory without killing enemies. Every act involves both right and wrong. I have to question the real world benefit of absolute monarchies on citizens, and why "glory" for a king is necessary. I wouldn't say that every act involves both right and wrong, but that everyone will have a different perspective on an act.
🔸Anyway, Yudhisthira gets consecrated as king.
🔸Uh?? Bhisma is still alive where he fell on the battlefield and he's about to drop some wisdom for Yudhisthira about dharma for kings.
🔸There necessarily has to be a king to uphold dharma or else the Vedas and the four classes would disappear. Okay? Let them. 🤡
🔸A king shares the dharma of his subjects. This isn't a fairytale world. Dharma isn't real.
🔸Be moderate levying taxes. Tax cattle herders mildly!! Don't over-tax merchants or farmers.
🔸All court cases should be public. Poor people should be killed or imprisoned and the ill-behaved should be beaten. Rich people? Just fine them. 🥴 I hate this.
🔸Suppress drinking dens, whores, pimps, and beggars because they're public nuisances. 💀
🔸Keep out thieves and the mighty preying on the weak. 🤙
🔸Spy on your citizens to see if they like you 😂 That's not going to backfire!
🔸Fear the weak because they'll destroy you if not well-cared for. How about not letting anyone be "weak"? Too progressive? Okay, I'll leave.
🔸When you're king make sure you only half trust people cuz these niggas be saying anything. 🧐
🔸Instructions on how to conquer territories. Can't you fuckers be happy with your own prospering land??? At least it specifies to be kind to the conquered citizens...
🔸Cast off hope. Don't have that. 😭
🔸Dharma is impossible without wealth. Steal from the wicked and give to good. Not, like, in a Robin Hood way, but so you can give sacrifices. Dharma, ya heard.
🔸The man who plans ahead fares best. I mean, it's definitely good to have a plan, but that's doesn't mean you'll fare better. Sometimes things cannot be planned for.
🔸Neither foes nor friends are permanent. Not because they'll die, but because you're going to change sides depending on what's best for you!! Embrace your mean girl!!!1
🔸Be mistrustful of everyone. For fuck's sake, this advice is wild.
🔸Killed some cows?? Offer refuge to those who seek it. That'll cleanse your sins.
🔸Okay, so you know how this is a story within a story within a story? Well, our author got a bit confused because Bhisma starts telling Yudhisthira about Janamejaya...the person Vaisampayana is reciting the Pandavas' story to?? He hasn't been born yet...
🔸A weak man shouldn't antagonize and strong man, a fool shouldn't antagonize an intelligent man. That's fine, I guess.
🔸Never harm your friends, even though this contradicts an earlier piece of wisdom about changing sides based on its benefit to you. 🙄
🔸Time controls all things. You aren't the doer. Everything is preordained by Time. Thinly veiled manipulation to get you to be okay with anything you're told. All things are Krsna, man, be chill, let me continue punching your teeth in.
🔸Brahma created all things. When his day ends the universe will burst into flames and seven suns will shine and the earth will suck everything up!!! 😱😱😱 Have no fear, it all returns to brahman.
🔸🤯 The mind is percievable, but the self is hidden. Once you discover your self, you'll be enlightened and free from grief.
🔸Suka wants some contradictions explained concerning this whole "do stuff but actually don't do stuff" rule. You're supposed to do stuff in the beginning and then as you get old you stop doing stuff or whatever.
🔸Yudhisthira says, "Hold up, there isn't an objective standard for virtue." Bhisma tells him a tale about vegetarianism. Checkmate. 😏
🔸Sentence 👏 people 👏 to 👏 death. Look, you just have to. Times have changed lol I love how the "peaceful" alternative was to torture them, though. Fuck. 😂
🔸Why does Siva keep getting done dirty by the other gods? They don't invite him to sacrifices, they ask him to do things then don't wait for him to finish. Like, damn. Press F to pay respects to Siva.
🔸Shit, if you practice Yoga you can enter into people, animals, gods, moUNTAINS.
🔸Narayana is the ultimate. Vsnu is the ultimate. Krsna is the ultimate. They're all the same. Rebirths. Holy trinity? Maybe.
🔸Time controls everything, also everything that happens to you is because of your past deeds, no there's not a conflict there and this definitely isn't disgusting manipulation, haha!!
🔸Offer your wife to your guests. She might not like it, but it's virtuous!!!
🔸If you're a sterile man, you're striving in vain. Fucking weak, pun intended.
🔸Scavenger animals are pathetic and lowly, and you'll be reborn as one if you insult a Brahmin.
🔸It's bad to instruct people of inferior birth. Yay, discrimination!!
🔸Women get more pleasure out of sex 😏 Of course, only cis M/F sex is happening in Mahabharata land and men are just so good at fucking, am I right?
🔸Everything is Krsna, everything is Siva, everything is everything, man. Fuck.
🔸An animal can't be reborn as a Brahmin.
🔸Women are false. They cause sin and lack restraint. Brahma created women to prevent men from going to heaven. Only one woman has ever been safeguarded from wrongdoing. You have to treat them well, though. But watch out.
🔸Give money and gifts to Brahmins. Do whatever they say. You are getting very sleepy!
🔸If you're of higher class and have children with a Sudra man, your children will be mixed breed scum! Sudra women can marry one class up, but that's it!!
🔸You know what? Cows. Yeah. 🐄 Best gift ever. If you kill or eat one, you will suffer in hell for as many years as the cow had hairs. 🥴 But you can use beef in a sraddha ceremony, so I'm confused LOL
🔸Frogs don't have tongues, elephants' tongues are bent backwards, and parrots can't make bird noises because Fire cursed them for being snitches. 😂
🔸Plant trees 🤙
🔸Put food out for the lower classes at least twice a day. Yes, please do some charity, your moral track record (as judged by me) thus far isn't looking great.
🔸There are different levels of heaven and different levels of hell. Dante is pleased.
🔸The good die old and the wicked die young.
>looks at a list of criminals.
Hm...😬
🔸Vegetarians are going to heaven 😏 But it's not sinful to eat animals consecrated during sacrifices or killed during hunting. Uh?? Well, how else were you getting the fucking meat??? 😱
🔸After 50 more days, Bhisma finally dies forreal.
🔸Krsna revives Uttara's stillborn and names him Pariksit. This is Janamejaya's father.
🔸The horse sacrifice is performed. First the horse runs around the world and Arjuna battles the kings. When they return, a bunch of animals are burned up and gold is distributed to everyone based on class and merit.
🔸A half gold mongoose talks shit about Yudhisthira's horse sacrifice. Nothing comes of it but some conjecturing between Janamejaya and Vaisampayana about what to sacrifice and if it's better than performing austerities.
🔸After all Samjaya's insistence that Dhrtarastra's actions caused his suffering, not fate, now a Brahmin named Samba says it wasn't his actions but fate. For fuck's sake. 😂
🔸Vidura fuses his spirit with Yudhisthira ✨
🔸Samba gets dressed up as a woman to prank some seers, but then they curse him and he gives birth to an iron club the next day🤡 Anyway, all the Andhakas and Vrsnis are going to kill each other.
🔸Krsna's mortal body fucking dies because of the curse
🔸The Pandava bros, Draupadi, and a random dog leave the kingdom. As they're passing an ocean, they each fall down and die until only Yudhisthira and the dog remain. Indra congratulates Yudhisthira and says it's time to go to heaven, but Yudhisthira doesn't want to abandon the dog. The dog turns out to be Dharma. You passed the test, man.
🔸Yudhisthira asks where his family is after being taken to heaven and seeing Duryodhana doing great. Narada takes him to hell where Yudhisthira hears his family crying out. He doesn't understand why they're there, but says he's going to stay if this is the truth. The gods appear and hell dissipates. It was another test, bro!!! Everybody's in heaven.
🔸When everyone's (from this story) heaven-granting karma runs out, they fuse with the gods or become purified or whatever.

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kn0tp0rk's reviews 185 reviews

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