Welcome to Litsy!

This was not the book for me. It‘s a strange, dark story with repetitive scenes from the perspective of a narrator frequently in an opium haze. At least that‘s how it seemed to me. I also think I missed aspects due to differences of culture & translation. I feel there‘s much more symbolism than I‘m aware of.

📷: Gandalf kept me company during my #HammockReading this evening.

#translated #1001books #Reading1001 #TBRTakedown April 2025

This absolutely unreliable narrator is a blend of that from Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart", Dostoevsky's Underground Man and Raskolnikov from "Crime and Punishment", and Meyrink's Pernath from "The Golem". He utterly objectifies his whole perceptual world: things have significance only in how they relate to him, and those relationships are a repetitive cycling of elements in varying but finite combinations.
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"Apparently, each person has several faces. Some constantly wear only one of these masks, which naturally becomes stained and furrowed. This group is frugal. Some reserve their masks only for their own affairs. Others constantly change their faces but as soon as they get old, they realise they are wearing their last mask, which soon becomes frayed and broken, then their true faces emerge from underneath the final mask.”

“There are people whose agony of death starts in their twenties, whereas many others, at the moment of death, gently, slowly, snuff out, like a tallow-burning lamp that has run out of oil.”

Apologies for a somewhat grim Saturday-morning quote, though, I guess, depending on your engagement with mortality, it's possibly comforting.

"In life there are wounds that like termites, slowly bore into and eat away at the isolated soul."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

This was an impulse buy - it's got "Owl" in the title and I'm a bit of a strigiphile, so...???
Also, it's surrealist, psychological and was banned by the Shah of Persia, unbanned by the succeeding Iranian government, who then banned it again, presumably after reading it themselves and thinking, "Oh, shit! No!" It's short, so worth a bit of time. ?

#Haunted Day 30: #Treats one and all - from the creepy book, to french-pressed coffee, and lotus crumble cake.

Oh my God! When you read this novel, you feel like you go on a journey through LSD!
Magical...Haunting...Mysterious...At times erotic!

Written/published in 1936 Tehran, Iran, it's an experience of opium-induced madness. There's a lot of literary analysis on GR but I feel like my first read isn't enough to comment, really. It's tough to wade through much of the chaos because you're aware this guy's state of mind is self-inflicted, and yet you want to empathize with the devastation of addiction.

At least I finished the book before the new year as planned.

Thanks for the tag, Danielle ( @MoonWitch94 )!

1. One of my first big crochet projects is a rather plain but durable throw blanket that my cat uses to keep her jelly beans warm throughout the fall/winter.

2. Yes! The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat -- added to my TBR in undergrad about five years ago, finally got my copy last week. 💛📚

Tagging: @RamsFan1963 @Reggie

#Two4Tuesday
@TheSpineView

In my research for my year of focus on the Middle East, I discovered a book that is considered a classic from Iran that is not allowed in Iran. I will admit I found it quite impenetrable albeit mercifully short. The narrator appears to encounter a dead body that reminds him of another story and then there is a shift to all italics for 2/3 of the book while he describes opium dreams with a lot of repetition.

And this one, too!!

Sadegh is like the Edgar Allen Poe of Iran, which felt accurate! The book was creepy, but not totally nightmarish. The only reason I gave it a so-so is because of overt symbolism & several repetitive images that weren't really ever revealed. It's possible I don't know them because I'm not Iranian, but I was hoping for some footnotes about the cultural aspects that western readers might not understand since they'd translated it into English anyway.

Wow, this clip on reading light is worthless! I normally use a headlamp (seriously, they're the best), but we just recently moved and I can't find it. I found an old reading light, but I seriously can't see a thing. This is particularly ironic considering I'm reading a book called The Blind Owl. It'd sure be nice to have some nocturnal animal night vision to go with this insomnia! 🦉💡

This might sound weird but over the past 20 years I have read this amazing piece of art more than 6 or 7 times each time telling myself ahaaa I understood everything now. A philosophical look into humans life and loneliness. An account of pure love versus conventional likings. The book simply hurts and mesmerizes. Not a beach reading unless the sea is dark and rough.

1001 list read #159. Creepy like a bad dream. Is the unreliable narrator mentally ill? Physically ill? Or is it all the opium he is smoking? Is this daydreams or nightmares? Too casually violent for me.

This book is so weird, I need a drink.