Hello, folks! This is my first post here (and in the great, wide, still-confusing world of Lemmy). So stoked to find a new book community!
To answer the question, mine is “The Future of Nostalgia” by Svetlana Boym. I stumbled upon this book when I read a quote from it in a different book and I immediately went to track down a copy. A truly happy accident.
The most fascinating thing about this book was how universal it felt. Here was someone writing about post-Soviet Russia in the nineties, yet it felt strangely familiar. The commercialization of nostalgia, the unchecked rewriting of history, and the rose-tinted delusion of “The Golden Age”; it felt like she was talking about my own country. I’m a Lebanese expat, so nostalgia is a big part of my life and my relationship with my country (which is very much a love/hate relationshit), and this book completely redefined my understanding of nostalgia, nationality and collective identity, heritage, and even food. It helped me understand the survivor’s guilt, the PTSD, the resentment, and the stubborn fondness. It’s been so long since a book scooped out my soul and shook off the dust like this.
So, yeah. What’s the last book that made you go, “Holy shit, I think that just rewired my brain”?
I can totally relate to this. We had to read it in school (American system school) and there was no mention of the historical context. When I had to read it again in college, it broke my brain and made me want to revisit so many books I’d read in the past in search of whatever deeper context I might have missed or wasn’t made aware of back in school. Same thing happened to me with Ulysses and Finnegans Wake after I reread them with added guides. Those rereads made me fall in love with James Joyce. Literature never ceases to amaze me with its ability to short-circuit our brains.
Yes! This experience has made me question a lot about what I think I ‘know’ and to really have an open mind towards new (to me) information.
All context, or lack of it, aside, the writing in Heart of Darkness is phenomenal. It’s prose poetically dense and I find myself lingering on each sentence to experience it fully.
I need to give Finnegan’s Wake a try! Years ago one of my friends composed a ‘sonic micro opera’ of Finnegan’s Wake. It was experimental theater in the extreme and made me curious to give it a read. Thanks for reminding me of this novel.
It’s like finally getting a good pair glasses after years of blurry vision and blindspots.
And holy shit, “sonic micro opera” of Finnegans Wake sounds bloody amazing.
As for the book, it’s one of my favorites. It’s both a mind trip and a literary feast. It’s playful and odd and musical and wild and confusing all at once. There’s also a couple recordings of Joyce reading excerpts of Finnegans Wake and Ulysses on ye olde youtubes, which are pretty interesting, because it’s like getting to hear Beethoven play the piano in person, through time. Plus, his accent is hella fun.