baww
So instead of feverishly studying, unlike the other med students who are all aiming for H1s, I ended up reading Let Dai all day....... I've been meaning to read it for years, but only at times of procrastination is there really time to.
After hearing all this amazing talk about this manhwa, I had pretty high expectations. I thought maybe the story was going to offer me some insight into the human condition and help me appreciate life through the eyes of characters I can relate to.
To my disappointment, I am fairly unimpressed. It's not even a good story. It's nauseating, and the protagonist's constant vomiting is testament to that! It's not a narrative on the decay of society and the psychology of youth like "A Clockwork Orange" was - though I guess comparing a somewhat incompetent girl manhwa catered to stifled teenage girls with little imagination to a masterpiece is a bit unfair - but a feeble allegory of suffering over a forbidden love that is just plain fucked up. I WRITE FUCKING LONG SENTENCES Actually I'm even sure it's love. It's more like 'I am a masochist and I like getting bashed till I am half dead from the pain so I've decided to ditch my normal life and prostrate myself at the feet of the person who makes me vomit from fear, even after he lets his cronies gang rape my girlfriend who kills herself oh and I am so lonely all the time because he keeps breaking my heart but I still want him to hurt me more YAY let's die together' and we don't really hear much from the other party. But I suspect it's something like guilt and playing demi god with a weaker person's life. These characters make me D: D? D| D< D: I mean if this is the only kind of love people can have now, isn't it better to not love at all?
How can it be a good read with 15 volumes depicting these bored selfish teenagers with nothing to do but find violent ways to entertain or harm themselves and those around them carrying a complete disregard and detachment that is frightening? Of course in the midst of all this the author throws random tidbits about what she thinks love should be. It's obvious she has no clue what she's on about. Actually, the entire way through I wanted some sensible person to herd them up and whisk them off to brat boot camp. Sometimes characters pop up to try and salvage what is left - represent the voice of morality and reason, but inevitably they are crushed by the teenage ego. Are all teenagers supposed to be like the way they are portrayed in this story? It's like nihilism is normal! Sure it's important to be an individual, but I'm not sure Dai is such a good example for these ideals, especially in a traditional Asian culture. Sometimes there is a reason for tradition and social guidelines. But this story reads like a shrine to him and what he represents.
What was really annoying was the way it's written. All the melodramatic poetic prose that made no inkling of sense (you know when you keep seeing metaphors about the sea or sky or some mystical thing it's going to be painful to comprehend), the abrupt pacing of the story that likes to go skipping through time, never-ending internal angst-ridden monologues that would put Hamlet to shame, and most of all the awkwardness of the script, the clumsy dialogues only a 14 year old could write. Even I can't pull out that much crap to fill 15 volumes. Which means it must be a rather large pile of crap.
This is one of those stories that doesn't really have a beginning, middle, or end. Nothing's come to fruition - all the characters are either dead, dying, or lost to the world, well except maybe a few whose futures seem to be just as bleak. You get the sense somewhere in vol 4 that the rest is going to consist of the same, that the ending is going to be predictably vague, that you're going to be disappointed. If you want a self-help guide on how to live a good life, then throwing it all away, this is the manhwa for you.
This is why one should just keep to shounen manga about teenage boys who have goals in life besides dying like misunderstood Shakespearean heroes O there is nothing worth living for but my beloved O why dost no one understand our tragic love........ OH SPARE ME!
After hearing all this amazing talk about this manhwa, I had pretty high expectations. I thought maybe the story was going to offer me some insight into the human condition and help me appreciate life through the eyes of characters I can relate to.
To my disappointment, I am fairly unimpressed. It's not even a good story. It's nauseating, and the protagonist's constant vomiting is testament to that! It's not a narrative on the decay of society and the psychology of youth like "A Clockwork Orange" was - though I guess comparing a somewhat incompetent girl manhwa catered to stifled teenage girls with little imagination to a masterpiece is a bit unfair - but a feeble allegory of suffering over a forbidden love that is just plain fucked up. I WRITE FUCKING LONG SENTENCES Actually I'm even sure it's love. It's more like 'I am a masochist and I like getting bashed till I am half dead from the pain so I've decided to ditch my normal life and prostrate myself at the feet of the person who makes me vomit from fear, even after he lets his cronies gang rape my girlfriend who kills herself oh and I am so lonely all the time because he keeps breaking my heart but I still want him to hurt me more YAY let's die together' and we don't really hear much from the other party. But I suspect it's something like guilt and playing demi god with a weaker person's life. These characters make me D: D? D| D< D: I mean if this is the only kind of love people can have now, isn't it better to not love at all?
How can it be a good read with 15 volumes depicting these bored selfish teenagers with nothing to do but find violent ways to entertain or harm themselves and those around them carrying a complete disregard and detachment that is frightening? Of course in the midst of all this the author throws random tidbits about what she thinks love should be. It's obvious she has no clue what she's on about. Actually, the entire way through I wanted some sensible person to herd them up and whisk them off to brat boot camp. Sometimes characters pop up to try and salvage what is left - represent the voice of morality and reason, but inevitably they are crushed by the teenage ego. Are all teenagers supposed to be like the way they are portrayed in this story? It's like nihilism is normal! Sure it's important to be an individual, but I'm not sure Dai is such a good example for these ideals, especially in a traditional Asian culture. Sometimes there is a reason for tradition and social guidelines. But this story reads like a shrine to him and what he represents.
What was really annoying was the way it's written. All the melodramatic poetic prose that made no inkling of sense (you know when you keep seeing metaphors about the sea or sky or some mystical thing it's going to be painful to comprehend), the abrupt pacing of the story that likes to go skipping through time, never-ending internal angst-ridden monologues that would put Hamlet to shame, and most of all the awkwardness of the script, the clumsy dialogues only a 14 year old could write. Even I can't pull out that much crap to fill 15 volumes. Which means it must be a rather large pile of crap.
This is one of those stories that doesn't really have a beginning, middle, or end. Nothing's come to fruition - all the characters are either dead, dying, or lost to the world, well except maybe a few whose futures seem to be just as bleak. You get the sense somewhere in vol 4 that the rest is going to consist of the same, that the ending is going to be predictably vague, that you're going to be disappointed. If you want a self-help guide on how to live a good life, then throwing it all away, this is the manhwa for you.
This is why one should just keep to shounen manga about teenage boys who have goals in life besides dying like misunderstood Shakespearean heroes O there is nothing worth living for but my beloved O why dost no one understand our tragic love........ OH SPARE ME!