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the book Του Λύκου - The Wolf's by Katerina Nikolaou is a book with much about it. i certainly cannot do it justice, you need to read it for yourself, but then again there is no translation from greek. but translating would not do it justice either; not in a fluid way like it is presently. so here we are, i suppose...
for some context:
the book follows one Ρεντ - Red. she is deeply in love with a fella named Μπραντ - Brad. to him, she is just an affair of his, stringing her along and being lovey, but in the end of the day just using her. Red meanwhile is struggling - she knows he is a prick but she also can't help it. all she wants is to actually sleep, just one night together. they, in essence, only ever meet for 90 minutes at a time. same as a football game. eventually when she tells him- one of those many yet so few moments together- that she wants to sleep one whole night with him, that that's her new year's wish, he loses it. they stop talking, quarantine comes around, she is thriving, starting to get over him. but, of course, as things loosen she sees him out and about a few times. those old conflicting thoughts come back around. she consults her best friend, who she calls Μπουμπού - Booboo (who has been around the whole time, as i will soon explain), and she writes him a long message, a long one, of how she cannot do this anymore, and says one final goodbye.
but, that doesn't make the book about love, or lack thereof. the book is actually more of a commentary about love and lack thereof. about the emotions that arise in such a situation. most of the book is a monologue. the few times it isn't is when Booboo is around. she is the outside opinion, the second voice of the book. of course, in the moments with Brad, or in the opening couple of chapters (which kind of give context to how love is to be understood here).
if the book isn't a monologue, it is written like a screenplay, or a set of texts, or some long third-person perspective upon what is happening in Red's life. it sometimes breaks into a fairytale story. where Red is Red Ridinghood and Brad is the Big Bad Wolf. but the Wolf here isn't going to eat her grandmother, nor will he eat her in one bite. the Wolf tears her apart with time, all the while fooling her and sometimes himself that he loves her.
the other times it isn't quite a monologue is the opening.
the book opens with some context on how Red processes love. her aunt has taught her everything she knows about love through long-winded stories and harsh advice. advice that Red fails to follow. it gives the basis of the philosophy of the book. the main idea is that a man won't love a woman like a woman will love the man. they are different, and don't imagine you (the woman) can have him see it your way. don't ask questions that will break your heart, don't ask for something he doesn't want to provide. he won't accommodate for you emotions. you asked him a question; he will either give excuses or tell you the truth. both feel awful. so just don't ask. and that is where Red fails. she, as we have explored, doesn't follow her aunt's advice.
i have read many books about love, like this one. but none thus far have been from a woman's perspective. i often wish that that statement wouldn't mean anything- that to be a woman isn't inherently different from being a man and vice versa. but unfortunately, we have thousands of years of culture holding our psyches in place in specific roles. to put it elseways, being either gender is not inherently different from the other in a vacuum, they are inherently different in our atmosphere- in our particle-rich air that we all share. so at that point, one ought to accept that the two are inherently different- at least practically inherently- and to actually learn about the other's way of thought. it of course won't apply to everyone who is a woman- to be inherently different doesn't mean to be strictly different after all; nor does it mean everyone will be inherently different in the same way- people with different types of particles in their air will breathe differently from each other.
with that thought, i should now declare that to gain a full picture i should read more books written by women with women protagonists about love. and i might... but probably not much more. because at the end of the day, the window that was provided to me was- in my mind- a bonus. i bought the book for entertainment, and i sure was. it is a wonderful story written in a fantastic way. but it also provided me an unexpected window. i will probably stick to books from men's perspective though as i find those more entertaining and more introspective. the art i consume in general tends to be introspective. this book was an extrospective break from the constant introspection for me. when the time comes to extrospect a bit, i will go find such a book...
or, if you would like, you could recommend me one.
thanks
Comments
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scientist_axolotl
fuck brad
go red
also the book seems quite good from the things you wrote, didnt dissapoint
i concur with both statements
by iason; ; Report
Fawkes
https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Flynt_Coal
yeah so true!!
by iason; ; Report
weapon trumpet
by Fawkes; ; Report
but also not the correct book (though it is a nice coincidence that the book i read prior to the one with everyone but the protagonist having colourful names has only the protagonist have a colourful name)
by iason; ; Report
"to put it elseways, being either gender is not inherently different from the other in a vacuum, they are inherently different in our atmosphere"
Well put
by DogGrease; ; Report
yeah, that's what it came down to in a long discussion i had with an aunt that's a sociology academic. that because of unavoidable cultural influence, there will be some (at least mental) disparity between men and women. physical disparity is unfortunately impossible to counteract (short of intervening with natural balance), but if you were to grow a pair of people in an isolated world, we may see a different hierarchy (if any).... but that'd be a cruel experiment. so alas, we can only guess that the two are separated by culture.
granted there's a couple more effects, such as the way puberty affects behaviour, and also the brain growth patterns inherent in each sex, but those are secondary conditions in this theoretical thought. the parasitic effects, to put it into our vocabulary
by iason; ; Report