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bishboschblosh's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
ciraabi's review
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
sawilugo's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
mgreer56's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
tony_from_work's review
5.0
This is a great book about the limitations of diplomacy and the doomed nature of colonialism. It's the perfect counterpoint to a lot of the colonial fiction most English-speaking audiences read in high school, like Conrad or Kipling. It has an amusing, darkly satirical tone, peppered with timeless insights into the impossibility of ethically and practically imposing one culture upon another.
adam613's review
5.0
"The jungle, the terrible, devastating, impulsive jungle is like man's life. For years, it patiently nurses the majesty of the trees, and alongside that majesty, the very source of its own its destruction. And so comes the day on which all that majesty falls back down to the earth and returns to dust and ash - and not by chance, but from the very devastating seed of destruction, that majesty created by the jungle itself. So is man, so was I, like the jungle: I destroyed my majesty; I, with the very hands with which I am writing these words, case my monumental dreams to the ground."
Disillusioned by society, the main protagonist of His Name was Death escapes to the jungle to live amongst the native tribes. Shortly after the shaman ails his alcoholic tendencies, he is renamed Wise Owl by the indigenous peoples. Wise Owl's curiosity around the language of the mosquitoes then takes over his entire being. After years, he has mastered Mosquil and his ego believes its own hype and his hubris leads to dire consequences far reaching beyond his human capacity of foresight.
"The world was the same as it had always been: humans were beyond salvation. They would have to be annihilated or so thoroughly dominated that they would live like livestock forevermore. Only then would they walk the straight path. Only as slaves of a superior species could they be freed of the burden of their evil."
In less than 150 pages, Rafael Bernal (in 1947 I may add) has made a literary impact that deserving of more attention and increased readership in the English speaking world. It is full of complex yet accessible political, philosophical and spiritual ideas, about our relationship to our environment that are as impactful today as when they were first written. I picked His Name was Death at the bookstore, came home and read it in one sitting. Grippingly mixing magical realism, science fiction, fantasy and literary fiction, I can't say enough about this book. Wise Owl represents the inevitable fallability of humankind and our diseased need to control to environment.
I know there is no way I can properly describe how awesome this book is, so just give it a read. I am speechless and still have the themes and topics swirling around inside my head. And no, I will never look at mosquitoes the same way and wonder if they really do organize themselves as they do in His Name was Death.
"Yes, those were the happiest days of my life. I see it now, and I weep for having ruined it all, for how my crazed ambition for power overcame the kindness that was only just beginning to dwell in my heart, that new, marvelous and selfless love the Lacandon had placed in my soul. And now with death closing in on me as I write this, the book I had wanted to write for the benefit of my friends, I realize that I am still filled with hatred and motivated only by the fear of total annihilation, and I see that those days of poverty, nothingness, were the only happy ones of my life. But it's too late now. I can't turn back and regrets are good for nothing."
"Often I was assaulted by thoughts of God, but I did everything I possibly could to reject them. This was no time to think about God - it was a time to act, and yet I was not acting. I was lying in my hammock, letting the hours meander by, while outside, in the sunlit clearings and the jungle's shadows, the future of the entire human race was at stake."
"We have learned, that many men claim to prefer death, that your poets sing the praises of the few who have died in the pursuit of liberty; but we also know the majority of humans already live in a kind of slavery, often much harsher than the kind we would impose. Keep in mind that wealth and poverty would come to an end under our regime, since we would feed and clothe equally, limiting the population to what can be properly maintained in each region."
Disillusioned by society, the main protagonist of His Name was Death escapes to the jungle to live amongst the native tribes. Shortly after the shaman ails his alcoholic tendencies, he is renamed Wise Owl by the indigenous peoples. Wise Owl's curiosity around the language of the mosquitoes then takes over his entire being. After years, he has mastered Mosquil and his ego believes its own hype and his hubris leads to dire consequences far reaching beyond his human capacity of foresight.
"The world was the same as it had always been: humans were beyond salvation. They would have to be annihilated or so thoroughly dominated that they would live like livestock forevermore. Only then would they walk the straight path. Only as slaves of a superior species could they be freed of the burden of their evil."
In less than 150 pages, Rafael Bernal (in 1947 I may add) has made a literary impact that deserving of more attention and increased readership in the English speaking world. It is full of complex yet accessible political, philosophical and spiritual ideas, about our relationship to our environment that are as impactful today as when they were first written. I picked His Name was Death at the bookstore, came home and read it in one sitting. Grippingly mixing magical realism, science fiction, fantasy and literary fiction, I can't say enough about this book. Wise Owl represents the inevitable fallability of humankind and our diseased need to control to environment.
I know there is no way I can properly describe how awesome this book is, so just give it a read. I am speechless and still have the themes and topics swirling around inside my head. And no, I will never look at mosquitoes the same way and wonder if they really do organize themselves as they do in His Name was Death.
"Yes, those were the happiest days of my life. I see it now, and I weep for having ruined it all, for how my crazed ambition for power overcame the kindness that was only just beginning to dwell in my heart, that new, marvelous and selfless love the Lacandon had placed in my soul. And now with death closing in on me as I write this, the book I had wanted to write for the benefit of my friends, I realize that I am still filled with hatred and motivated only by the fear of total annihilation, and I see that those days of poverty, nothingness, were the only happy ones of my life. But it's too late now. I can't turn back and regrets are good for nothing."
"Often I was assaulted by thoughts of God, but I did everything I possibly could to reject them. This was no time to think about God - it was a time to act, and yet I was not acting. I was lying in my hammock, letting the hours meander by, while outside, in the sunlit clearings and the jungle's shadows, the future of the entire human race was at stake."
"We have learned, that many men claim to prefer death, that your poets sing the praises of the few who have died in the pursuit of liberty; but we also know the majority of humans already live in a kind of slavery, often much harsher than the kind we would impose. Keep in mind that wealth and poverty would come to an end under our regime, since we would feed and clothe equally, limiting the population to what can be properly maintained in each region."
elmst13's review
dark
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0