I just found your channel omg I love this style of content 😭😭😭 thank you so much

as a victim myself and whos life for some reason keeps getting worse as if i was cursed, i have to admit that book made me burst out laughing when i read it

I know this is ab A Little Life but I truly feel bad for the backlash Janet Jackson received.

Thank you so so much for giving the full review with spoilers as well. I was told this book was so so sad, and then those who said it was trauma corn. And so you did well enough to not have waisted my time. Thank you Sir.

If you hate the book so much, please feel free to move on with your life. It wasn’t for you in the first place. Yawn.

Ah thanks Contance Grady, Vox, for explaining it succinctly. I was wondering about characters who is so perfect at things despite their messed up past. Like, at some point, wouldn't that decrease your ability to learn things? I understand that it makes some strive for perfection to cover it all up (even then, if the story respects realism, they would show them struggling on those things behind the scenes), but when they're also good at things that they don't have to + relatively little time gap between their helpless past and successful self-made present, it starts to be very questionable. Like, why? Removed suspension of disbelief aside, you also remove both empathy immersion and awesomeness adoration for nothing? Now I know the thought process behind it.

reprehensible. I got through the first part of the book and wasn't very impressed (it definitely reminded me of a slice-of-life story I've read from friends...when I was in middle school...) and stopped; I knew very little about the book itself and just like reading bricks lol. I'm glad I stopped because her interview answers are seriously gross. It's also interesting to me that she's so emotionless in her responses? Speaking for myself but writing is very emotional for me; I think it requires insight and introspection and calling people connecting to your book "pussies" speaks volumes. Screams her perspective. She is out of her depth and I'm very happy I bought the book secondhand, god bless. I also have to comment that there is a line to writing about others, sorry! You cover it really well in this video but I just want to reiterate: research is important ???? I write poetry about wildlife I see in my city and I'm writing a biomythography about my childhood---I do research on all of that even though I am intimately aware of what an armadillo looks like and I know what San Antonio looked like when I was six. These are things are fundamentally know and yet, accuracy is different from precision for a REASON.

I'm sorry but while you were recounting all the trauma jude endured in his life, at some point i just started laughing because it was so absurd, so over the top, just misery for the sake of it. this whole book feels like a very long darkly comedic skit.

If anyone is confused why teens like dark stories I'll give you 13 reasons

okay but whens the coffee asmr video gonna be up??

cheers for the spolier in the video title, nice one :I

I’m in a book club at my high school and I keep seeing people in this club read it and give presentations and they all seemed to give positive reviews I’m so happy I saw this video and know now how harmful this book is thank you

"I wrote this poem for a friend" has defnite "I was just keeping these drugs for a friend!" vibes. Sus.

I wish I could watch this video when I was reading the book and save myself from the misery lol

Watching this when I absolutely adore the book 😭

It totally makes sense why Nabokov hated Dostoyefsky

Man. This just sounds like a miserable experience of a book. I'm not trying to be mean but why would someone read this? Constant negativity being thrown at you doesn't with no real substance doesn't seem. Worth it?

A Little Life being described as a "great gay novel" seems really strange to me. I'm not a gay man, but it's very weird for a book that seemingly describes every gay man as an empty shell of suicidal ideation, with a history of almost constant emotional, physical and sexual abuse, to be the great "gay" novel. As if this is the universal experience of all homosexual men. By this book's logic, there should only be about 10 gay men left in the world, and every 2nd human being is a homicidal pedophile.

I don't understand these comments. I think it's a very relevant piece of information: Nabokov was preoccupied with underage girls in sexual contexts. If he had only written Lolita? Understandable. If it's a major theme in his works? Worth knowing.

Seeing the smount of people crying while reading A Little Life makes me wonder how they would react to Naked Lunch.

"Edification porn" 😂😂😂❤❤❤ Excellent video. Thank you for your final message.

Great criticism again.❤❤❤❤

Great criticism. Thanks ❤

😅😢 but i like the prose. 😅

While I disagree with your last point, because I don’t feel like that was the message, and calling the book disgusting feels a bit too much. However, I do agree with most of what you said. Jude’s life feels unrealistic in the sense that someone so damaged can have a life as a lawyer, and always be so good at his job, while dealing with all that trauma… I don’t see it as possible. Same with the amount of bad things that happen in his life. For me, when Jude was kidnapped by doctor Traylor, the sense of realism went out the window. I felt it forced, and didn’t make sense to me. Moreover, the fact how all of Jude’s friends are successful people feels unbelievable. Or how Jude at work never encounters situations similar to his childhood, not even gossip or conversations with his peers. As for the author, it is weird that she didn’t research basically anything. That’s the most basic thing you do as a writer, and not doing it feels off. And her opinions about mental health are very controversial. However, as someone who is mentally ill (depression), I don’t feel offended by what I read. The story of A Little Life is about how someone who has suffered a lot, tries to find meaning and happiness, but he just can’t. The level of pessimism on this book is not something unheard of. Books like No Longer Human also explore characters who suffer and find no meaning in life and end tragically. Sometimes that’s how lives are. That’s why the ending resonated with me, how Harold was left with his grieve, thinking about someone whom he loved and is no longer there. Is there a point to all this suffering? Is there a point to read for pages and pages about Jude’s awful life? The book could have easily been shorter and I think that’s an editorial issue. It went on for too long. Way too long. We get that Jude’s life was bad, but was it necessary to write hundreds and hundreds of pages for the reader to know that? I have mixed feelings with the book, because a part of me loved how beautifully written and poetic it was. I can easily quote amazing phrases I found there, and remember the many moments that I liked, but another part of me can’t stop criticizing it for the points I said before. I see A Little Life more than trauma porn, or a novel where the author hates the disabled, the mentally ill or gay people. I don’t really see those things. I see it as a way of showing of how trauma can absolutely destroy someone, and a meditation on misery and depression. How life throws shit at you, that you can no longer take it anymore. I’m not saying that people with illnesses should just give up, and I don’t see that message as well. However, you have to be in a good place to read it, because it can really affect you. Thank you for your insight and sharing your opinion 🙏

I'm not taking this seriously for my own sake. This is just a fetishistic, goofy booktok fanfic and the author is a bozo. I think it's telling that people engage with this by recording themselves crying - It's just voyeuristic shock content and that's why it's engaged as such. It's so inhumane it's ridiculous and needs to be judged very heavily if not mocked. I think it's a shame this is so popular, also considering there's no shortage of great Japanese authors that delve on topics such as suffering and mental health issues. I recommend Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki. Stay safe everyone.

To quote Hayao Miyazaki: "I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself."

I'm a so-called member of the whump community, and I cannot stand this book. It's not good whump, it's trauma pxrn. Most good whump is essentially character study, and a little life is certainly not that. It falls flat on its face, and completely misses the best part of whump which is exploring how a character acts in certain situations and seeing how they might change in those situations. Jude doesn't change or grow or anything, he's static and that does not good whump make

Nah this was a miss. I genuinely appreciated the entire video up until you tied it together at the end. I think making the claim that people can still read his novels but “you should know he’s a pervert and basically feels how humbert does” (paraphrased) is wrong. Basically a veiled way of pushing people away from an author you don’t personally like. I think it’s valuable to point out that Nabokov wasn’t the shining beacon of morality that people paint him as but I think spending an hour trying to discredit the man and making him seem like a ped is just not it. I also think you completely skimp over the nuances of people who have experienced trauma tending to reflect on that trauma in their work. Nabakov was more likely than not taken advantage of as a child and he ruminates on that in his work. But to say that because a topic comes up a couple times means he’s a ped in hiding when he never involved himself with children is foolish. Also plenty of your references were serious stretches. Like the pale fire one.

I kinda loved in the movie that Bella had a queer relationship and lived in a polycule with her and Mcandles at the end. She is in control. However, the epilogue is very good.

I think this author would like Scientology

This book was going great for me until we got to where Willem fell in love with Jude … with no real explanation or backstory. I was reading it like oh lovely a wonderful brotherly friendship and adopted family thats so nice, then I was like …. why are we in fanfic land.

oh! i have to outlive hanya yanagihara

the quote at 57:00 is chilling

5 minute inn and you're factually wrong about so many aspects of this story.

Absolutely despised this book when I read it and still do. But I'll watch an Owl video on anything any day❤

i must say that as soon as i heard “four friends” i IMMEDIATELY assumed it was marauders fic in some capacity

the fanfic section of this video was so flashback inducing that when you described whump i was reminded of this absolutely DEPRAVED fanfic that i read all the way through in middle school out of sheer boredom and the memories were so intense that i literally had to pull over my bike and touch grass

I was just looking into buying all of the graphic novels and then I found this, oh nooooo.

describing a book as "relentlessly horny" is rarely a good thing... unless its porn... or hentai... i guess

I bought the first three graphic novels I thought this one was the worst out of the three but in my opinion had the best imagery

this book makes me angry and depressed. when i read it a while ago it made feel me so actively suicidal that i actually needed a 1 month break before finishing it. its a shame it's mostly fetishizing pain and gay love from the perspective of a straight woman, because i really do love her writing style. your videos are amazing!

My experience to therapy was kinda similar to yours, therapy didn't work for me, it was trough the government so it was restrict, brief and quick sessions but even with my brief experience it did helped tremendously and do plan on coming back to it someday. I don't believe traditional therapy will serve everyone or even help but encourage people to not seek any professional help and just give up and love a miserable life until the day they kill themselves is so disgusting, it's almost unbelievable

Haven't read the book but the retelling of all those trauma and non eding suffering sounds a lot like when a beginner writer or artist make a character and doesn't jnow how to give them a backstory so they just pile up as much trauma as possible

As a student in the mental health area, a volunteer at a crisis hotline, and a person is still working on mental health issues for a few years - I was furiated when I knew Yanagihara's opinion on therapy and "better off dead". I agree that therapy isn't the ultimate answer to every problem in one's life, and therapists (of course) cannot fix every problem for you. Therapy is a mutual cooperation rather than receiving a treatment. The clients engaged and led by the therapists, the clients discuss their concerns and thoughts, the therapists give out responses/validations/resources, but the center of everything is still the clients. Sometimes people aren't in the mood for such "life is worth" talk, and to admit this kind of mood is a part of therapy. To admit you have feelings and they are valid, rather than the toxic positivity Yanagihara seems to depict for therapies. I can't imagine anyone would really tell others in their face that they are "better off dead because you're too traumatized". I mean, try saying these words to random people and not get punched in face.

I've personally never cared if a story is spoiled to me. My (nominal) favourite book, Watership Down by Richard Adams, I picked up for the first time after having the whole story (including conclusion) spoiled for me. I was still so drawn into the world and and the narrative that I could not put it down, and kept sneaking pages during breaks of our choir performance. I've re-read the book many times since then, in different languages, and I find something more to love every time. A great book cannot be spoiled. If a twist, or a conflict resolution, are the only enjoyable things about a book, that's not a great book, in my opinion.

I am in Eskew mentioned and thus you have gained not only a subscriber but also a friend

The radio plays were the original format for hitchhiker's guide! He turned them into books after the original radio plays were broadcast. My dad was in halls at uni when they were 1st on the radio! And I heard the radio plays before the books, I prefer to listen to the books as audiobooks (read by Douglas Adams himself). I think they are best as spoken stories, hearing the tone of voice is integral to the comedy!

Any filmmaker who feels "forced" to be more literal has a skill issue.

i can't believe the undertaker is british now