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peebee's review against another edition
3.0
A good enough book just for being different, but also nothing like the movie. I liked that the disease seemed mostly to spare people who were already nuts, or just estranged from themselves - disturbed kids, a stroke victim, a guy who was either a garbage man or a high school drama teacher or maybe both who definitely had a dissociative breakdown and was maybe also a junkie or maybe that was just his wife? Trying to get a sense of a societal/semiotic breakdown from people who are already not reliable narrators is a hard read but an interesting idea.
The whole book being about the breakdown of meaning and self identity without language, it makes sense that it's contradictory and sometimes gibberish. That said some stuff like the zombie baby is just straight up magical realism which, I dunno, seems like a well defined and recognizable enough genre move that it maybe shouldn't be in a book designed to disorient. Also, the edgelordy sex shit which I'm not really sure how any of that belongs or helps what he's trying to do. In both cases it's like the screenwriting maxim 'you get one miracle'.
Also it was never clear to me what kind of shape the stroke victim was in seeing as she drew a gun fast enough to kill her zombie husband, aimed well enough to blow his head off, and then successfully ran away from other zombies, then a little later is trapped in a field directly referencing Christina's World. I know she's young and you can recover but she had three fucking strokes.
This last is probably on me but I don't understand Canadian geography enough to understand how fast this is moving and how isolated the places are. In the second half they are apparently broadcasting TV shows specifically designed to distract zombies, so they're a large, well known issue that apparently capitalism is trying to manage? But then also it is later the usual existential crisis, martial law army indiscriminately killing infected and sane alike, wiping out whole cities. Like its weird that they have this 'settling in for a new normal long haul chronic problem' which to be fair is a novel idea for 1998 and exactly predicts what we actually did in 2020 and 2021, and then he chases it at the very end with rah rah guns and splosions cleansing fire Ops that are the cliche of the genre.
Also I don't understand how it took him ten years to realize French Canadians exist and work that in. Exactly one character, maybe the worst and craziest of all of them, has the bright idea to maybe shut the fuck up. Everyone else is literally going to encounter therapy groups to talk about whatever in large clusters or broadcasting their voice on the airwaves, it's never clear what people understand about this situation, it's never clear if we're on day one or month ten of the infection and it's never clear what's supposed to be not clear and what's just sloppy writing.
The whole book being about the breakdown of meaning and self identity without language, it makes sense that it's contradictory and sometimes gibberish. That said some stuff like the zombie baby is just straight up magical realism which, I dunno, seems like a well defined and recognizable enough genre move that it maybe shouldn't be in a book designed to disorient. Also, the edgelordy sex shit which I'm not really sure how any of that belongs or helps what he's trying to do. In both cases it's like the screenwriting maxim 'you get one miracle'.
Also it was never clear to me what kind of shape the stroke victim was in seeing as she drew a gun fast enough to kill her zombie husband, aimed well enough to blow his head off, and then successfully ran away from other zombies, then a little later is trapped in a field directly referencing Christina's World. I know she's young and you can recover but she had three fucking strokes.
This last is probably on me but I don't understand Canadian geography enough to understand how fast this is moving and how isolated the places are. In the second half they are apparently broadcasting TV shows specifically designed to distract zombies, so they're a large, well known issue that apparently capitalism is trying to manage? But then also it is later the usual existential crisis, martial law army indiscriminately killing infected and sane alike, wiping out whole cities. Like its weird that they have this 'settling in for a new normal long haul chronic problem' which to be fair is a novel idea for 1998 and exactly predicts what we actually did in 2020 and 2021, and then he chases it at the very end with rah rah guns and splosions cleansing fire Ops that are the cliche of the genre.
Also I don't understand how it took him ten years to realize French Canadians exist and work that in. Exactly one character, maybe the worst and craziest of all of them, has the bright idea to maybe shut the fuck up. Everyone else is literally going to encounter therapy groups to talk about whatever in large clusters or broadcasting their voice on the airwaves, it's never clear what people understand about this situation, it's never clear if we're on day one or month ten of the infection and it's never clear what's supposed to be not clear and what's just sloppy writing.
dezthereader's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
rjbs's review
I don't even know what to say about this. It was an interesting idea, and plenty of things in the book were interesting as ideas. In parts of the book, the interplay of the viewpoint and the book's theme fundamental breakdown in semantic processing was very well done.
But mostly I thought this was kind of a wreck, and parts of it felt like they were intended to scandalize.
I thought the film was good, though.
But mostly I thought this was kind of a wreck, and parts of it felt like they were intended to scandalize.
I thought the film was good, though.
takecoverbooksptbo's review
5.0
Pontypool Changes Everyting defies definition in a lot of ways. One of the biggest complaints that gets leveed against it (at least by people that I know) is that it is supposed to be a book about a zombie outbreak and, yet, the zombies in the book are more conceptual than literal. It is difficult to feel afraid of the zombies. But the novel's abstraction is its greatest strength because, at its core, it is a indefatigably complex horror novel.
The scariness in Pontypool Changes Everything (which, especially in a book like this, should be separated from its horror elements) stems from the virus itself. The idea that a lethal contagion could spread through language is unbelievably terrifying, mostly because the virus can be spread through the act of telling somebody not to speak (and therefore spread the virus). The fright of a disease that cannot be cured because it disposes with communication is insurmountable in the novel. This is why the book immediately interrupts its own intelligibility. The book, through a great and absolutely-not-heavy-handed metafictional turn, is infected with the very disease that infects its subjects. It lacks the ability to communicate and rages at the reader because of that incommunicability. Consequently, the destruction that the virus produces is total, which brings to mind my second point.
The arbitrary violence that the disease produces in people is shocking. The fright may not come from the zombie attack, but the novel, through the ingenious device of giving the reader a glimpse into the mind of the infected, adds terror by showing how the infected people transform from relatively high-functioning individuals to snarling murderers. The manifestation of the violence in the novel is completely untempered. Once the first zombie enters the story, the gore piles up. This is, without a doubt, the most horrific book I have ever read. From images of patients being liquified under a crush of people at a local doctor's office to scenes where a father administering painkillers to his drug-addicted infant son to simply stop the boy from going into withdrawal, from passages depicting a TV news anchor engaging in forced pan-sexual intercourse with his interns to the dreamlike moments wherein a brother and sister subsist on zombie meat and eventually copulate and produce a zombie baby, the book is full of imagery and complex symbolism that is hauntingly disturbing and, sometimes, shockingly hilarious. The extremity of the horror in the novel never feels over-the-top, however, because the story is about what people do to one another and what people are capable of when their minds are pushed to the extremities of aphasic rage. The books is also not simple-minded, and does not make the zombies the solely evil presence in the story. People are equally responsible for horrific deeds, and it is the relentless depiction of human depravity that makes the book difficult to get through.
But just because it is difficult does not mean it is not worthwhile. The novel contains beautifully written passages that would be a wonder for anybody interested in the written word. Furthermore, Burgess makes the reader painfully aware of the beauty of Ontario's northern regions while, simultaneously, showing the depravity of the people who live there. Structurally, the novel is divided into two vexing parts: Autobiography and Novel. The play of fiction and nonfiction is difficult, especially because the events in both parts are unrealistic. The dipartite form gestures toward the complex nature of the human mind's ability to understand things. Basically, humans need to know whether something is real or fake. This fundamental categorization of events is the foundation for the rest of our understanding. By depriving readers of this basic understanding between factual and fictional, Burgess makes the story much more unsettling and destabilizing. Did language really cause people to kill and eat each other in Pontypool? The reader is left to decide.
Pontypool Changes Everything is complex to the core, but this makes it fun and unpredictable. Many of the shocks and scares are incredibly surprising, and the story also contains touching and heartbreaking moments of desperate intimacy between people that are simply going to die. The deadly fatalism of the story makes it one for contemplation. From the outset, it is known that many characters will not make it out of the book alive. Like viewers watching Hitchcock's "Psycho" for the first time and seeing Janet Leigh get killed in the first third of the film, the reader of Pontypool will desperately grasp for characters and subjectivities to latch on to. But there are none to be had. Instead, the reader looks for why humanity is killing itself and how a human invention such as language can infect the brain. It is a book that has especial relevance now, with the ever-present manipulation of images and events by news networks. The corruptibility of language and the human mind is the main focus of the story, which is both entertaining and enlightening.
I imagine a lot of readers will hear the concept of the book (Zombies are infected through language?!?!) and be put off by its apparent lack of believability. But to those readers who say that, I question the validity of any zombie virus -- can radiation REALLY produce the zombies that crop up in Romero's (and many of his imitator's) films? are the zombies in 28 Days Later REALLY just infected with rage? does the Necronomicon in Evil Dead REALLY just raise the dead through the utterance of its ritualistic passages? By bringing these works up, I do not mean to disparage the efforts of their creators. Instead, I intend to point out the intrinsic flimsiness of the zombie-horror genre. And yet, the genre is thrilling and thought-provoking. If you cannot suspend your disbelief with this book, then you do not deserve Pontypool Changes Everything.
The scariness in Pontypool Changes Everything (which, especially in a book like this, should be separated from its horror elements) stems from the virus itself. The idea that a lethal contagion could spread through language is unbelievably terrifying, mostly because the virus can be spread through the act of telling somebody not to speak (and therefore spread the virus). The fright of a disease that cannot be cured because it disposes with communication is insurmountable in the novel. This is why the book immediately interrupts its own intelligibility. The book, through a great and absolutely-not-heavy-handed metafictional turn, is infected with the very disease that infects its subjects. It lacks the ability to communicate and rages at the reader because of that incommunicability. Consequently, the destruction that the virus produces is total, which brings to mind my second point.
The arbitrary violence that the disease produces in people is shocking. The fright may not come from the zombie attack, but the novel, through the ingenious device of giving the reader a glimpse into the mind of the infected, adds terror by showing how the infected people transform from relatively high-functioning individuals to snarling murderers. The manifestation of the violence in the novel is completely untempered. Once the first zombie enters the story, the gore piles up. This is, without a doubt, the most horrific book I have ever read. From images of patients being liquified under a crush of people at a local doctor's office to scenes where a father administering painkillers to his drug-addicted infant son to simply stop the boy from going into withdrawal, from passages depicting a TV news anchor engaging in forced pan-sexual intercourse with his interns to the dreamlike moments wherein a brother and sister subsist on zombie meat and eventually copulate and produce a zombie baby, the book is full of imagery and complex symbolism that is hauntingly disturbing and, sometimes, shockingly hilarious. The extremity of the horror in the novel never feels over-the-top, however, because the story is about what people do to one another and what people are capable of when their minds are pushed to the extremities of aphasic rage. The books is also not simple-minded, and does not make the zombies the solely evil presence in the story. People are equally responsible for horrific deeds, and it is the relentless depiction of human depravity that makes the book difficult to get through.
But just because it is difficult does not mean it is not worthwhile. The novel contains beautifully written passages that would be a wonder for anybody interested in the written word. Furthermore, Burgess makes the reader painfully aware of the beauty of Ontario's northern regions while, simultaneously, showing the depravity of the people who live there. Structurally, the novel is divided into two vexing parts: Autobiography and Novel. The play of fiction and nonfiction is difficult, especially because the events in both parts are unrealistic. The dipartite form gestures toward the complex nature of the human mind's ability to understand things. Basically, humans need to know whether something is real or fake. This fundamental categorization of events is the foundation for the rest of our understanding. By depriving readers of this basic understanding between factual and fictional, Burgess makes the story much more unsettling and destabilizing. Did language really cause people to kill and eat each other in Pontypool? The reader is left to decide.
Pontypool Changes Everything is complex to the core, but this makes it fun and unpredictable. Many of the shocks and scares are incredibly surprising, and the story also contains touching and heartbreaking moments of desperate intimacy between people that are simply going to die. The deadly fatalism of the story makes it one for contemplation. From the outset, it is known that many characters will not make it out of the book alive. Like viewers watching Hitchcock's "Psycho" for the first time and seeing Janet Leigh get killed in the first third of the film, the reader of Pontypool will desperately grasp for characters and subjectivities to latch on to. But there are none to be had. Instead, the reader looks for why humanity is killing itself and how a human invention such as language can infect the brain. It is a book that has especial relevance now, with the ever-present manipulation of images and events by news networks. The corruptibility of language and the human mind is the main focus of the story, which is both entertaining and enlightening.
I imagine a lot of readers will hear the concept of the book (Zombies are infected through language?!?!) and be put off by its apparent lack of believability. But to those readers who say that, I question the validity of any zombie virus -- can radiation REALLY produce the zombies that crop up in Romero's (and many of his imitator's) films? are the zombies in 28 Days Later REALLY just infected with rage? does the Necronomicon in Evil Dead REALLY just raise the dead through the utterance of its ritualistic passages? By bringing these works up, I do not mean to disparage the efforts of their creators. Instead, I intend to point out the intrinsic flimsiness of the zombie-horror genre. And yet, the genre is thrilling and thought-provoking. If you cannot suspend your disbelief with this book, then you do not deserve Pontypool Changes Everything.
hisghoulfriday's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
2.0
lawacha's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
moonlit_shelves's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
melanie_page's review against another edition
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
5.0
I just loved it.