• Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    The most boring story ever. A guy wakes up, notices he is a beetle for whatever reason, and is afraid his family might notice. That’s it. Why anyone would waste paper on printing this shit is incomprehendable.

    • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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      3 hours ago

      I saw a really neat video a while ago that talked about this book, and he interpreted the story to be about disability. You go from being the breadwinner supporting your entire family to suddenly you can’t work nor enjoy your hobbies, people don’t want to look at you and you feel yourself to be a burden upon everyone. Your loved ones take care of you through a sense of guilt and because to not would be neglectful but the level of care might never actually be as much as it should be. The author of the video (I wish I could remember the name of the channel because he had a wonderful voice, writing style and art style) also proceeded to point out that everyone will either die young or themselves experience disability, so it’s also a story about what you will become some day. One day you too will turn into a beatle, struggling to get out of bed, unable to work and relying on others to cook and clean and care for you

      Edit: aha I found it! Metamorphosis: The Horror of Disability by Tale Foundry (they’re also on Nebula if you subscribe)

      • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        It always amazes me how much people hallucinate into a bland and witless story like that.

        • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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          3 hours ago

          Classical Literature tends to be about interpretation more than anything. If you read classical literature and don’t try to interpret the message it’s trying to tell, you’re going to feel that way

    • pumpkinseedoil@mander.xyz
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      7 hours ago

      The guy who’s partly responsible for feeding his family can’t do that very thing anymore and notices that he basically lost all value to them (they start treating him like shit until he dies). If you want you can say its a book about failing to fulfill gender expectations and about why a patriarchy also is bad for men. About people loving him for what he’s doing, not for who he is, and that love eroding as soon as he can’t do that anymore.

      • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        Of course you can hallucinate about everything into that story, but that still does not change the fact that it is boring like hell.

    • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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      5 hours ago

      It reads way better in German, and by that I mean that the boringness of it feels more like a bleak anti-joke observational humour comedy bit.