Required Reading Fail: The Cave by Jose Saramago

[kellicat]

I liked most of the books that I had to read for school, but there was one book that I absolutely loathed and that was The Cave by Jose Saramago. Why do I loathe this book? Let me count the ways

Comments

[bittertea]

I used to hate stream-of-consciousness writing - Blind Meridian and To the Lighthouse being my introductions - and now it's my favorite kind. I don't know, I love being challenged like that. I think once you accept that sometimes writers are writers and and not necessarily storytellers, you can sit back and just listen to what they are doing with the language and enjoy it. I don't think it's about being pretentious or trying to impress the reader. To each her own though, of course! I admit I haven't read this one.

[kellicat]

I have enjoyed stream-of-consciousness writing in other books, annoying as I can find it at times. In this case, it was the combination of the stream-of-consciousness style with the heavy-handed moral that really made me hate it. I also did not think that he handled it well in this particular book. It just seemed gratuitous.

If you love stream-of-consciousness, you should definitely try Blindness. It has a much more assured use of the style and really works in telling a story that really can't be told any other way. It does have some problematic male-gaze elements (such as a a scene where women standing naked in the rain get described in the male gaze), but it's still worth reading.

[elettaria]

Although Blindness also has massive problems with disability fail, and there was a big outcry when the film came out for that reason.

[kellicat]

That's true. I knew I'd forgotten something. Is there anything specific you can recall?

[elettaria]

There's the matter of using blindness purely as a literary metaphor and forgetting that blind people actually exist, have lives and can be researched and portrayed with the slightest degree of accuracy. And then there's the really demeaning idea that blind people have no ability to adapt or cope and will end up stumbling around in their own shit. And now I am reading quite an interesting article about it here, but supper is ready and I really must go just now.

[elettaria]

*finishes supper and article* Yep, that was a good article, though rather on the forgiving side. I would also recommend this article which states matters more bluntly.

[bittertea]

It's been in my to-read pile for ages, I'll definitely move it up in the queue. :)