I wanted to read Ishiguro's newest novel called The Buried Giant well before it was actually released. However, by the time it was available (November 2015) I didn't have enough time and money to hunt the book. Now, as we moved back to the James Court I found the book on the shelf so finally I had the chance to read it. Spoilers are coming!
The book has five main characters: an elderly couple, Beatrice and Axl, a warrior and his apprentice, Wistan and Edwin, and Arthur's knight, Gawain. The fiction is placed in a world where Christianity and ogres can well exist along with crooked monks and a dragon, and some curious mist that covers the past from the people's minds.
Axl and Beatrice go for a quest to find their son and on the journey they find out things about their past. At the end the mist is gone and they finally be able to recall what happened in earlier times. the buried giant is the past itself. When the mist is lifted from their minds by killing the she-dragon called Querig, the characters are allowed to remember. In one point in the story the elder of a Saxon city says that the forgetfulness of people strives from the fact that God wants to forget therefore the people cannot remember things that was forgotten by God. Leibniz in his philosophy says similar things stating that God needs to keep us in his mind in order to keep us in existence. So its interesting to see how to novel suggests that forgetting things may be a good way to deal with them.
No real forgiveness was found in the characters, so when the past came back to them they let one another go. They departed and turned on one another. The balance and peace that was once part of their world was gone.
God says he forgives us by throwing our sins behind his back as far as the East is from the West. The conclusion for me after reading the book is to cherish the moment over the past, stay in the present instead of looming over the things past. The other one was that forgiveness in its real form is essential and it does involve forgetfulness.
We need to forget others' sins so we may be free to love them now.
2016. december 13., kedd
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne
It is written in the form of theatre play.
For me, it is about over-parenting and loneliness. It emphasizes that no good fight is fought alone and friends are so important. Albus and Scorpius are the children of Potter, and Malfoy and they get along very well, but because of the tension between the families the friendship is not supported by the parents. They travel in time with a Time Turner. The basis of the story how reality of the present changes when certain bits are "removed" from the past. It shows that sacrifices are important even if it is not fair how these sacrifices are claimed. We may mourn over tough decisions of the past but we don't know how the present would look like without those decisions/sacrifices. In a couple of scenes people are sending messages through time to one another. These messages almost never reaches their intended recipients, however they are told. I was thinking why these lost messages are in the story. Maybe because saying those key statements about relationship, marriage, parenthood, friendship and so on should be told, but they are lost in time so many times. So, the authors encourage us to correct their story by saying those now to our own spouse, friends and family.
DELPHI
[...] You think you're stronger than me?
HARRY
No. I'm not. [...] But we are. [...] I've never fought alone, you see. And I never will.
For me, it is about over-parenting and loneliness. It emphasizes that no good fight is fought alone and friends are so important. Albus and Scorpius are the children of Potter, and Malfoy and they get along very well, but because of the tension between the families the friendship is not supported by the parents. They travel in time with a Time Turner. The basis of the story how reality of the present changes when certain bits are "removed" from the past. It shows that sacrifices are important even if it is not fair how these sacrifices are claimed. We may mourn over tough decisions of the past but we don't know how the present would look like without those decisions/sacrifices. In a couple of scenes people are sending messages through time to one another. These messages almost never reaches their intended recipients, however they are told. I was thinking why these lost messages are in the story. Maybe because saying those key statements about relationship, marriage, parenthood, friendship and so on should be told, but they are lost in time so many times. So, the authors encourage us to correct their story by saying those now to our own spouse, friends and family.
DELPHI
[...] You think you're stronger than me?
HARRY
No. I'm not. [...] But we are. [...] I've never fought alone, you see. And I never will.
The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen
We found another book on the bookshelf. I don't remember to read anything from Finnish authors, so most probably this is my very first novel of Finnish origins.
This is a somewhat spooky fantasy story about a the imaginary Rabbit Back Literature Society. The book has many different genres in it. One part is like a thriller, some other parts like fairy-tale and another part is philosophical or psychological pondering, at once I even felt some horror in the lines. The book starts with somewhat slow, but it was still enjoyable to be shown around in the novel's world. The main character Ella Milana is a literature teacher in the village called Rabbit Back. She gets chosen to be member of the famous Rabbit Back Literature Society and due to some spooky events she learns that the society might be wilder than she originally expected.
The members of the society are Martii Winter, Ingrid Katz, Helinä Oksala, Aura Jokinen (alias Arne C. Ahlqvist), Silja Saaristo, Elias Kangasniemi, Toivo Holm, Oona Kariniemi, Anna-Maija Seläntö and of course Ella Milana. We get some information about the members, but mainly four of them are interesting in in regards of the story: Martii, Ingrid and Aura. The Society was established the well known Finnish children book author Laura White who wrote the Creatureville series according to the facts of the book's reality.
Along the literary journey Ella learns from a society member how to swear when things go wrong, she also learns that sometimes people can tell their memories only from their world which may well be a completely different one than her.
The books are rearranging themselves in the library and on Laura's shelves and this property of the books is contagious, so other books can get the disease through physical contact. The sometimes quiet antagonists of the historical research that Ella makes on the past of the society are the dogs in front of Martii Winter's house. The number of those dogs are steadily increasing in the novel and peaks at thirty something. It turns out that there is a phantom in Martii's well-fenced back garden and it is a dangerous enemy of the truth.
The lost tenth member of the society turns out to be an important one, his name is Oscar Södergran and his role was to inspire the rest of the members through his extraordinary capabilities.
The message of the book for me was the following. There are events and facts in life that cannot be understood completely and that is all right as far as these don't frighten us. It is important not to live in fear of something that may hunt in the back garden, but instead go and find the truth and let the years (symbolized by dogs) clean up the rest. It's not allowed to be afraid and do nothing about it. Those that are the most fearful parts of life may not exists at all. We may realize this when we decide to visit those fearful places/parts/elements/questions and face with their reality.
This is a somewhat spooky fantasy story about a the imaginary Rabbit Back Literature Society. The book has many different genres in it. One part is like a thriller, some other parts like fairy-tale and another part is philosophical or psychological pondering, at once I even felt some horror in the lines. The book starts with somewhat slow, but it was still enjoyable to be shown around in the novel's world. The main character Ella Milana is a literature teacher in the village called Rabbit Back. She gets chosen to be member of the famous Rabbit Back Literature Society and due to some spooky events she learns that the society might be wilder than she originally expected.
The members of the society are Martii Winter, Ingrid Katz, Helinä Oksala, Aura Jokinen (alias Arne C. Ahlqvist), Silja Saaristo, Elias Kangasniemi, Toivo Holm, Oona Kariniemi, Anna-Maija Seläntö and of course Ella Milana. We get some information about the members, but mainly four of them are interesting in in regards of the story: Martii, Ingrid and Aura. The Society was established the well known Finnish children book author Laura White who wrote the Creatureville series according to the facts of the book's reality.
Along the literary journey Ella learns from a society member how to swear when things go wrong, she also learns that sometimes people can tell their memories only from their world which may well be a completely different one than her.
The books are rearranging themselves in the library and on Laura's shelves and this property of the books is contagious, so other books can get the disease through physical contact. The sometimes quiet antagonists of the historical research that Ella makes on the past of the society are the dogs in front of Martii Winter's house. The number of those dogs are steadily increasing in the novel and peaks at thirty something. It turns out that there is a phantom in Martii's well-fenced back garden and it is a dangerous enemy of the truth.
The lost tenth member of the society turns out to be an important one, his name is Oscar Södergran and his role was to inspire the rest of the members through his extraordinary capabilities.
The message of the book for me was the following. There are events and facts in life that cannot be understood completely and that is all right as far as these don't frighten us. It is important not to live in fear of something that may hunt in the back garden, but instead go and find the truth and let the years (symbolized by dogs) clean up the rest. It's not allowed to be afraid and do nothing about it. Those that are the most fearful parts of life may not exists at all. We may realize this when we decide to visit those fearful places/parts/elements/questions and face with their reality.
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