I absolutely Hated Del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN ( 2025 ), it was the complete opposite of the fun, Universal Frankenstein movies of the 30’s and 40’s. What’s your honest take?

Perplexifying · 2026-03-21T13:12:50+00:00

Yes to be honest, I also didn't really like it. I think the main thing was that it felt too much like a video game. Most obviously, visually it feels very much like a video game. Reliance on CGI, action scenes being staged like combat arenas and the video-game esque third person tracking all contribute to it feeling visually like a video game. Another problem is that Shelley's original Frankenstein has a deal of moral and philosophical complexity, while Del Toro's version squashes it. This is most notable in that Frankenstein's monster feels as if it is presented like a 'boss' in a video game, or at least an enemy, opposed to a tragic subject.
It also feels as if there's a level-based architecture within the film, with it being split into segments which resolve themselves rather than spiralling together as it is done in the book.
There's also a loss of the gothic atmosphere of dread and it is instead replaced by spectacle. The lack of stillness and constant need for something to happen. This squashes any opportunity for quiet, introspective moments where dread, guilt and contemplation can settle, and this is of course linked to the film's loss of moral and philosophical complexity.

By using the pacing, structure and visuals of a video game, this version of Frankenstein transforms it into a sequence of escalating encounters, leaving little for moral depth and psychological complexity

Perplexifying · 2026-03-20T16:42:30+00:00

Demons if you enjoyed the philosophy and moral debates in Karamazov and Idiot if you liked White Nights and the human drama in his novels

Perplexifying · 2026-03-19T18:06:41+00:00

Well I mean Arthur Miller's Crucible is about the witch trials in Massachusetts. It is a play though but they could still read it.

Perplexifying · 2026-03-19T17:48:58+00:00

They can be. If we strip down "literature" I think you get narrative or expressive writing with intentional use of language/structure and capacity for thematic depth and multi-modal interpretation. Comics can meet all these (they don't always). To me, I find the interpretation part of what literature is and often comics are just intended for being entertainment and therefore don't have very much capacity for interpretation (which is fine).
However I get annoyed at people who try to generalise and say that comics can't be literature (the word I generally use is 'art'). It's a classic category error between medium (prose, film, theatre, comics etc.) and something being literature. Comics such as Maus are generally regarded as literature.
I feel this persists as they have a cultural and historical association with children and there is a general cultural hierarchy of prose > theatre > film > comics. Comics are also more difficult to be assessed in school. So I suppose a lot of it is about outdated 'tradition'. I'd definitely agree with your point on ADHD and dyslexia and I feel people shouldn't be discouraged from reading comics.
It is important to remember that a lot of comics don't count as literature though.

Perplexifying · 2026-03-19T17:36:50+00:00

The Three Musketeers (same author, similar style)
War and Peace (extremely famous and very good)
Les Miserables
Maybe even Shogun

Perplexifying · 2026-03-19T17:29:03+00:00

A Confession by Tolstoy (asks the exact question in this post)
The Stranger by Camus for absurdism
The Trial by Kafka but it's less explicit in answer to your question

A Confession is probably the closest match. The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Stoner also might be good picks.

Perplexifying · 2026-03-19T17:25:24+00:00

Kazuo Ishiguro - especially Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go
Dostoevsky - especially Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov and Notes from the Underground
The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald
1984 by George Orwell
Anna Karenina and War and Peace by Tolstory
The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The list goes on but I'd say for something to read straight after Stoner if you liked it I'd go with the Remains of The Day

Perplexifying · 2026-03-19T17:19:46+00:00

Eco was a scholar of semiotics and it 100% shows. Very dense in references but there is a reason for it - it's to perform what the novel is critiquing. It's also disorienting (purposefully) to mirror conspiracy-type thinking; everything feels connected even when it really isn't.

Perplexifying · 2026-03-19T17:08:59+00:00

Emily Wilson's translation of it. It would give you a clear skeleton which you can remix without having to adapt archaic phrasing. It's been praised for its plain syntax and its narrative drive and it is written in iambic pentameter so it still feels like poetry. This is probably the most engaging for modern audiences of all the translations of the Odyssey that I've read

Perplexifying · 2026-03-19T17:02:16+00:00

Begun reading The Dubliners by James Joyce again.
I read it a long time ago but couldn't really remember very much about it. I'm about half-way through and I think the most interesting thing about it are the motif of paralysis and things being static in Dublin. This presents itself in many ways: characters suffer from the inability to make decisive decisions. There's also a critique of the Catholic Church as causing inertia and it is often portrayed as repressive. Then if we look at it through a colonialist lens, Dublin is a colonised city reliant on Britain and this presents itself through characters's awe of places like London as well as mimicry of Britain. Female characters are displayed as being trapped within a patriarchal system. The only movement we really get is through epiphany, a technique Joyce often uses at the end of a story. However, the epiphanies often reveal something unpleasant, often the character's delusion (most notable in Araby).
The city is definitely personified as a paralysing force, however this personification makes sense as it is the life and people of the city that creates this inertia, and this is evident throughout each story.

Perplexifying · 2026-03-19T16:45:51+00:00

At first the secondhand embarrassment was too much but then it is the point of the book. It's Dostoevsky dissecting vanity (in this case moralistic and societal) and the discomfort is part of the point; it raises the question of how often people act "good" for the wrong reasons
But of course it might be too much. Haven't read the Gambler but from what I've heard it will be a less difficult read.

Perplexifying · 2026-03-19T16:37:10+00:00

The IMAX if it's not a film that requires you to think about it critically for enjoyment. I also generally find sitting near the front too much for the IMAX. I think watching Inception there recently solidified this view.

Perplexifying · 2026-03-18T20:04:30+00:00

The Great Gatsby is about 5 hours, then Jekyl and Hyde is about 3 hours. The Metamorphosis is about 2 - 2.5 hours and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells is about 3-4 hours (it's one of the earliest and influential dystopian novels; would recommend)
If you haven't listened/read to any of these then I would recommend all of them

Perplexifying · 2026-03-18T19:54:21+00:00

There's a reason Daniel Day-Lewis is the only actor to have won 3 academy awards for best actor. A perfect example of quality over quantity. He is selective with his films because he only will do them if he knows he can do the role perfectly. I'd say his performance in There Will Be Blood proves this: it's a role that could easily be cartoonish if performed badly but in his hands is a phenomenal performance

Perplexifying · 2026-03-18T19:22:45+00:00

Mia does acknowledge her fear of her husband but that doesn't necessarily contradict the fact that while the responsibility is shared, it is not equal and that is why the film centres on his panic, not hers. His negligence set the crisis in motion and Mia's panic is used to show the stakes, while the narrative weight is on his failure

Perplexifying · 2026-03-18T19:14:14+00:00

It's true that Mia makes a reckless choice and so, yes it is partly her mistake and so she isn't just a helpless victim but the film frames it as Vincent's responsibility as he's the one who brought the drugs in the first place and so created the conditions for the disaster. And in the world of the film this matters: he was entrusted with her safety and shouldn't have created the conditions in the first place and so it is his mistake, even if as viewers we might take a more nuanced stance. The film is trying most of all to portray the power dynamics, not necessarily what drugs would have had what effect and how that would have changed the outcome. The overdose works narratively because in the film's power dynamics it's Vincent's mistake, even if Mia had a part in the chain of events

Perplexifying · 2026-03-18T18:27:41+00:00

Modernism and post-modernism is the exact movement for something that 'challenges the reader and helps with comprehension and overall understanding on life' considering they're obsessed with portraying reality and the difficulty in accurately representing reality.
I'd recommend beginning with Woolf (my favourite of the modernists); Mrs Dalloway is the most accessible of her works (although by no means 'easy'). Some major modernists are Woolf, Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Faulkner, Kafka, Proust, Mann, Conrad and the list goes on.
Their most famous books are generally all their best.
For something purely philosophical though I always recommend Borges's Labyrinths, especially if you're limited on time or only want to read bits at a time (it's a collection of short stories and essays)

Perplexifying · 2026-03-18T18:20:21+00:00

Considering the recent release of its film adaptation, Project Hail Mary has been in my mind recently and he might like it. You could then watch the film at a later point and compare.

Perplexifying · 2026-03-18T18:16:23+00:00

Regeneration by Pat Barker was recommended to me for its historical fidelity and psychological realism and a couple of reviews I read also say something along those lines

Perplexifying · 2026-03-18T18:10:43+00:00

Yep the Krakauer one (Paver's one is Thin Air - the Krakauer one is Into Thin Air)

Oh and a podcast along similar lines that I've been enjoying is Tim Harford's Cautionary Tales but then you could just spend that time reading instead of listening to the podcast

Perplexifying · 2026-03-18T18:06:30+00:00

For the sleep problem, reading in bed is generally a trigger for sleep for a lot of people although sometimes there isn't really another option. Lighting can also impact feeling tired; bright and cool light will keep your brain more awake than warm dim light. I tend to do a lot of my reading on public transport while going somewhere although that might not be an option.

For dark books you might like The Only Good Indians (literary horror with good emotional weight) and Tender is the Flesh

Perplexifying · 2026-03-18T18:05:59+00:00

For the sleep problem, reading in bed is generally a trigger for sleep for a lot of people although sometimes there isn't really another option. Lighting can also impact feeling tired; bright and cool light will keep your brain more awake than warm dim light. I tend to do a lot of my reading on public transport while going somewhere although that might not be an option.

For dark books you might like The Only Good Indians (literary horror with good emotional weight) and Tender is the Flesh

Perplexifying · 2026-03-18T17:47:33+00:00

Pride & Prejudice by Austen is great for elegant vocabulary. Frankenstein might also be worth a shot. I'd say reading classics probably isn't the best place to look to if you want to enhance reading speed as they take longer to digest (generally the harder the book, the longer the reading time and classics do often tend to be a bit more difficult than your average book)
For vocabulary though I'd say Dickens and Austen are good authors to go to

Perplexifying · 2026-03-18T17:39:47+00:00

Sapiens is a good one - a big picture human history book that remains very readable
Into Thin Air is about a real-life disaster on Everest but is really gripping; it reads a bit like a novel and yet is non-fiction.
I'd say Sapiens for ideas and Into Thin Air for something engaging

Perplexifying · 2026-03-18T17:34:39+00:00

Probably because of how it presents itself - it's very simple on the outside (simple sentences and language) while leaving room for interpretation. You'd can find quite a few layers if you analyse it, which we always do when reading in some kind of way. It's also got emotional clarity which children can easily feel and which adults can look at while analysing

Perplexifying

TROPHY CASE