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couuboy's review against another edition
5.0
I think this is close to the perfect novel.
In Spinoza’s Ethics, the path towards liberation comes from what he terms the ‘Intellectual love of God’. Now this may seem a bit passé to us in the 21st century where theology holds far less stake in terms of our implicit metaphysics (all hail empiricism!), but in fact Spinoza’s conception of God was far more radical than that of the major organised religions in both his time and ours. I’ll skip the ontology lesson for now and just say that by pursuing human liberation through the ‘intellectual love of God’ Spinoza is suggesting that the path of wisdom and happiness is through the enjoyment of intellectual activity and is signified by the pleasure taken in the deployment of physical and mental powers – for me personally, this is often felt through that empowering sense you feel often accompanied by an internal monologue saying, “My god, I’m really stretching my mind!”
I used the phrase empowering because power is the, so to speak, unit of measurement which Spinoza identifies for measuring one’s progress towards perfection (read: self-enhancement). You are more powerful if you are more capable of acting upon your capacity for reason/desire for improvement, and in turn, you are also more powerful if you are capable of reducing the extent to which you are acted upon by harmful external objects (example; I am happier the more I am able to concentrate on reading an edifying book and able to resist the impulse to pick up my phone).
You’re thinking: Now Tom, that’s nice but what bearing does this have on Helen Dewitt’s so-called close-to-perfect novel? Well, um– I uh…
So anyway, Spinoza understands that we are in fact always going to be subject to some external objects and certain things are not within our control, but that nevertheless you are still capable of striving towards enhancement and that by following intellectual reasoning you can and will orient yourself towards situations that facilitate increased power and joy.
Okay, I see that your eyes are glazing over so how about I just scrap this exposition and do a traditional review until something happens?
The Last Samurai follows a single mother, Sibylla, and her young son Ludo in fin-de-siècle London. Sibylla understands the value of hyperovereducation and the espousal of rational thought and Ludo has the intellectual curiosity to match. As a result, Ludo as a young child receives the degree of pedagogical scaffolding required for a child to learn Ancient Greek and Latin and higher mathematics all that other good stuff at a very young age.
Alongside wanting to outstrip previous prodigies, Ludo also wants to learn who his dad is, and in fact this is an endeavour which serves to fuel his intellectual desires, including learning Icelandic in the hopes that his dad is a great explorer who might take him on a trip there. All the while, Sibylla believes she can substitute Ludo's need for a materially-existing paternal role model with the characters from Kurosawa’s ‘Seven Samurai’, a film they both re-watch habitually.
As the book progresses, Ludo continues a mostly self-directed education alongside searching for a father figure while Sibylla tries to juggle child-rearing, life learning, and money earning in her stultifying job transcribing texts such as ‘Practical Caravanning’ & ‘Carpworld’.
Spinoza says in IIIP55 (part 3, proposition 55) that, ‘When the mind imagines its own lack of power, it is saddened by it’. This is a quote which Sibylla attempts to recite to Ludo near the end of the novel, except she can’t quite remember it, Ludo is struck by the fact that his mum is treading water in a deadening job, that she is the mind saddened by its own lack of power. Ludo decides he must find that which can apply CPR to his mum’s desire for self-enhancement, he must help her re-identify the joy in learning, the joy in becoming.
This is close to a perfect novel because of how it fosters intellectual curiosity within the reader while simultaneously positing many of the pitfalls (micro or macro) that prevent an individual from pursuing the path towards wisdom and happiness. DeWitt deftly demonstrates to us all that we can be better, that a little Ludo lives within us all.
In Spinoza’s Ethics, the path towards liberation comes from what he terms the ‘Intellectual love of God’. Now this may seem a bit passé to us in the 21st century where theology holds far less stake in terms of our implicit metaphysics (all hail empiricism!), but in fact Spinoza’s conception of God was far more radical than that of the major organised religions in both his time and ours. I’ll skip the ontology lesson for now and just say that by pursuing human liberation through the ‘intellectual love of God’ Spinoza is suggesting that the path of wisdom and happiness is through the enjoyment of intellectual activity and is signified by the pleasure taken in the deployment of physical and mental powers – for me personally, this is often felt through that empowering sense you feel often accompanied by an internal monologue saying, “My god, I’m really stretching my mind!”
I used the phrase empowering because power is the, so to speak, unit of measurement which Spinoza identifies for measuring one’s progress towards perfection (read: self-enhancement). You are more powerful if you are more capable of acting upon your capacity for reason/desire for improvement, and in turn, you are also more powerful if you are capable of reducing the extent to which you are acted upon by harmful external objects (example; I am happier the more I am able to concentrate on reading an edifying book and able to resist the impulse to pick up my phone).
You’re thinking: Now Tom, that’s nice but what bearing does this have on Helen Dewitt’s so-called close-to-perfect novel? Well, um– I uh…
So anyway, Spinoza understands that we are in fact always going to be subject to some external objects and certain things are not within our control, but that nevertheless you are still capable of striving towards enhancement and that by following intellectual reasoning you can and will orient yourself towards situations that facilitate increased power and joy.
Okay, I see that your eyes are glazing over so how about I just scrap this exposition and do a traditional review until something happens?
The Last Samurai follows a single mother, Sibylla, and her young son Ludo in fin-de-siècle London. Sibylla understands the value of hyperovereducation and the espousal of rational thought and Ludo has the intellectual curiosity to match. As a result, Ludo as a young child receives the degree of pedagogical scaffolding required for a child to learn Ancient Greek and Latin and higher mathematics all that other good stuff at a very young age.
Alongside wanting to outstrip previous prodigies, Ludo also wants to learn who his dad is, and in fact this is an endeavour which serves to fuel his intellectual desires, including learning Icelandic in the hopes that his dad is a great explorer who might take him on a trip there. All the while, Sibylla believes she can substitute Ludo's need for a materially-existing paternal role model with the characters from Kurosawa’s ‘Seven Samurai’, a film they both re-watch habitually.
As the book progresses, Ludo continues a mostly self-directed education alongside searching for a father figure while Sibylla tries to juggle child-rearing, life learning, and money earning in her stultifying job transcribing texts such as ‘Practical Caravanning’ & ‘Carpworld’.
Spinoza says in IIIP55 (part 3, proposition 55) that, ‘When the mind imagines its own lack of power, it is saddened by it’. This is a quote which Sibylla attempts to recite to Ludo near the end of the novel, except she can’t quite remember it, Ludo is struck by the fact that his mum is treading water in a deadening job, that she is the mind saddened by its own lack of power. Ludo decides he must find that which can apply CPR to his mum’s desire for self-enhancement, he must help her re-identify the joy in learning, the joy in becoming.
This is close to a perfect novel because of how it fosters intellectual curiosity within the reader while simultaneously positing many of the pitfalls (micro or macro) that prevent an individual from pursuing the path towards wisdom and happiness. DeWitt deftly demonstrates to us all that we can be better, that a little Ludo lives within us all.
williamcompton's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
blankdjw's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
basicallylam's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
The Last Samurai is a monster of a book. I would go from gladly reading 100 pages of it at a time to needing to put it down for weeks on end after 5. Part of this is the brainpower some of it requires directly clashing with external commitments in life but a lot of it is just that sometimes it is a nightmare to read. The first half is much, much more up my alley and it seemed as if DeWitt gave up on her own extremely unique and engaging style halfway through as a result. That’s not to say the second half is even bad, it’s mostly great but some of it meanders too long and it’s extremely repetitive to the point where I couldn’t blame someone for throwing the book out a window. I’ve never read anything like this, for better or worse. It will live rent free in my head, whether that takes the form of longing for a second half that was more stylised or growing to appreciate what it went for I don’t know, but it will. Sibylla and Ludo are unsympathetic and inhuman protagonists in a way that I think is so exciting to read. Because of this, I couldn’t help but feel let down when it shifts focus away from that relationship and pivots more squarely to Ludo’s quest.
However, for as long as it took me to actually finish the thing, I never once entertained the idea of dropping the novel. There was always a reason to come back to it outside of the general curiosity towards how it would end. The writing is incredibly gripping when it clicks and I’d recommend it to anyone with an interest in languages, stories and the movie Seven Samurai. In short, Sibylla is the human embodiment of that meme where the woman is on the computer while a baby is on fire next to her and I want to watch Seven Samurai again now.
Also I read my girlfriend’s copy that she previously used for an essay so it was filled with little annotations mostly in the Greek sections because she’s on that classicist vibe which was nice❤️
Also I read my girlfriend’s copy that she previously used for an essay so it was filled with little annotations mostly in the Greek sections because she’s on that classicist vibe which was nice❤️
kthnlb's review against another edition
challenging
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
csgiansante's review against another edition
2.0
If you don't share the same level of intellect as the author, this book will make you feel dumb and hamper the reading experience
emloueez's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
brb getting back on duolingo
fktkaye's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
dlemmen's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.25