Ship of Theseus (edição 2013)

Quattro stelle al libro come oggetto da collezione, perchè è veramente molto bello.
Tre stelle alla storia/storie contenute nel libro: questo voto è dato dal fatto che, per quanto concerne la lettura, io sono fondamentalmente una persona pigra: leggo per il piacere di leggere e non per dovermi ritrovare ad indagare su ogni minimo indizio che gli ideatori hanno disseminato nel libro, per riuscire a capirci qualcosa. Le storie sono architettate su più piani di lettura e mai completamente concluse, con una marea di riferimenti da scoprire, con una montagna di indizi da svelare, collegamenti da ripristinare e via di questo passo. Io preferisco decisamente delle trame con un andamento più lineare, mentre per le persone a cui piace estrapolare significati reconditi dal testo, questo libro è una manna dal cielo e in merito a questo ringrazio sentitamente tutti i lettori che si sono presi la briga di investigare per mesi (!!) questo testo e per aver messo on line, alla fine delle loro ricerche, le (svariate) deduzioni sul romanzo: alcune sono veramente intriganti e molto approfondite ed è stato interessante leggerle, io non sarei mai riuscita a dedicarmi a tutta questa ricerca, pur rimanendo curiosa di sapere a chi o a cosa si riferivano tutti quegli indizi. ( )

ne possiedo n.2 copie, si pensava il suo valore crescesse e invece no

WOW. I'm completely overwhelmed by S. All three story layers interwoven by this absolute masterpiece made an impact on me.

To start, I really liked Ship of Theseus by the infamous Straka. The story was intriguing, and more than once I was annoyed I had to interrupt my reading of it to catch up on a few pages worth of marginal notes by Jen and Eric.

Which brings me to the second layer: Jen and Eric's. I find it amazing how one can capture so much essence of love, identity, relationships and dreams into what in the end amounts to really just a few pages worth of notes made by the two protagonists of this layer.

And finally, perhaps the most incredible layer for me in this piece of ergodic literature was the love (?) story between FXC and VMS uncovered by another metanalysis of the same book.

I enjoyed everything related to this book. The opening of the cover box, the first investigation of its content, the concentrated reading, the nightly contemplation it entices, the tangibility of the inserts and, again, the slow unravelling of the different layers and storylines.

Brilliant idea, stunningly executed and a real big recommend for everyone seeking to explore the boundaries of narration.

Enjoy! ( )

I've finished the base story, but not the footnotes, handwritten notes, and inserts (which I've started). I'll possibly review when I finish the bonuses. More importantly, I think I'd like to reread sometime when I have better concentration (not after >6 months in isolation and during multiple pivotal crises beyond the pandemic). ( )

I don’t recall ever wanting to love a book as much as I wanted to love S. by Doug Dorst and J.J. Abrams. Marginalia, ephemera, mysteries of provenance; a celebration of the physicality of the printed page, of the book as an object - I don’t think any book has ever been so perfectly calibrated to appeal to a librarian / archivist.

The narrative concept behind S. is brilliant. It’s hugely inventive, clever, and exciting. As a concept, I utterly love it.

S. is not an easy book to read. This isn’t leisure reading - as entertaining as it is, it’s not mindless entertainment. The way the narrative in is structured, it requires the reader to pay a great deal of attention - this is a book that needs to be carefully unpacked (both literally and metaphorically). You continually need to decide how and in what order to read the text, the marginalia, and the ephemera; there are multiple narrative lines presented asynchronously and fractured, and you need to track and make sense of them as you go, fit them together and reassess them on the fly; like any mystery novel, there are clues to the mystery that you need to search out and remember.

Because the marginalia and ephemera constantly interrupt the text on the page, you can’t get into a flow reading this book – you can’t ever go on autopilot.

Moreover, S. requires a lot more time to get through than a normal book – it took me more than twice as long to read as I usually need for books of this length. Most of the pages are so dense with information that reading one is the equivalent of reading two or three pages in a normal book. Some of the inserted ephemeral materials are even more so.

These effects are all purposeful and exceptionally well executed. They all work to enhance the story and enrich the experience. I can’t overstate how well the narrative of this book is structured. I can only be in awe of how much work went into it.

If a book is going to demand this level of commitment from me, though, it had better be worth it.

A book can’t just be a clever concept – the story still has to be good. Without a good story, the concept is just a gimmick. And gimmicks aren’t enough to engage a reader or make a book worthwhile.

S. completely captured me. Jen and Eric became my friends - people I genuinely care about; the characters of S. and Sola, and their world-that’s-not-quite-of-this-world, a cipher I needed to see solved. I couldn’t wait to discover what the ending would reveal.

Some of the events that happen outside of the pages are never completely revealed. This is actually one of my favorite things about the book - it would be entirely antithetical to the rest of the narrative to wrap everything up into a neat little bow. By leaving unresolved threads, the reader can continue to engage with the book even after they’ve read the last line and put it down, to decide how they want to fill in the blanks - to continue creating the rest of the story even after the book is over.

S. is a wonderful reading experience. I love this book.

I must admit that I didn’t feel this way at the beginning. For the first couple of chapters, I mostly just found myself frustrated by how long it took to read. Every time I’d look up at the clock to see that another hour gone by and I hadn’t gotten as far as I felt I should have...

To be honest, through the "Forward" and the first two chapters, I resented how much the book was asking of me.

I very nearly gave up on this book in the beginning. The reason I kept going at that point was my innate stubbornness - I’ve never in my life allowed a book to beat me. I make a point to finish every book I start.

My reading pace never got a whole lot faster the farther along I went, but at some point I stopped being frustrated by it. I stopped resenting the time it demanded. I discovered that I no longer read just to be stubborn - I read because I wanted to know what came next. I wanted to keep reading.

S. completely won me over.

Even now, though, I still have some reservation* about the time and attention it demands of the reader. My reading pace on this book is equivalent to the pace I normally reserve for works of philosophy, the greatest works of literature, the definitive scholarly histories, etc. - the most important works of human culture.

As wonderful as S. is, as much as I love it, I won’t delude myself into believing that it’s an important book in the sense of Tolstoy or Kafka or Shakespeare. It’s not a defining work of the age, future generations won’t study it.

I hope that I would never be so petty as to criticize a book for being ambitious - it’s the sheer ambition of this novel that impresses me most! - but there’s a part of my mind that rejects the idea that S. deserves the same level of commitment as some of our culture’s most important works.

Then again - I ended up quite happy that I gave it the time and attention it needed. So obviously this isn’t too much of an issue.

In any case, the story and the characters are good enough to win me over, and the non-traditional narrative structure makes this one of the most unique, challenging, and refreshing reading experiences I’ve had.

I’m grateful that I put in the time and attention to have it.

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* I actually have a second - and rather significant - source of concern about the book, but it’s too esoteric to be relevant to this review. I’m worried about the book’s binding. My copy is brand new but it already feels like the binding is beginning to give - it noticeably loosened as I read it. The addition of all the inserts between the pages is stretching it, putting too much pressure on it. I don’t know how long the book can last before it falls apart.

I understand that binding the book differently than a normal hardcover (binding it with extra room for the inserts) would detract from the verisimilitude of the experience. I understand that the loose binding actually adds to the experience, makes the book feel old.

But if it got looser as I read it then I’m not entirely confident that the binding is fully designed to hold up to the extra volume of the ephemera.

This book isn’t cheap. When I spend this much money on a book, made with materials of this quality - I expect it to last. If it falls apart as quickly as I'm afraid it might, then I’m going to feel like I was ripped off. ( )