(Plato was against books, on the grounds that if people could just look things up in a book they would no longer have any incentive to commit anything to memory.) They stimulate thought, but they can also congeal it. They can also be dreadful things, such as Mein Kampf or the works of the Marquis de Sade. It is the mother of revolution.” But it is clear that he does not see it as an unalloyed blessing.Īnd rightly so. “The invention of printing,” he writes, “is the greatest event in history. After Gutenberg, “human thought discovers a mode of perpetuating itself, not only more durable and more resisting than architecture, but still more simple and easy.” The building had given way before the power of the printed word, and other structures with it: religion, authority, hierarchy of all kinds. Before the invention of printing, he writes, architecture had been the book of its time, the supreme expression of the human mind. Hugo himself takes up the subject at some length. “This,” he says to a colleague, of the book on his desk, “will kill that,” gesturing at the cathedral outside his window. In an early scene, the villainous Archdeacon of Notre Dame, Claude Frollo, broods in his study over the coming of the printed book. One of the themes that preoccupied Victor Hugo in Notre-Dame de Paris was the enormous destructive power of the printing press. Overall, a very memorable journey that I doubt I’ll forget.Please log in to bookmark this story. The author definitely made me FEEL THINGS, that’s for sure.
It can be heartbreaking to read about a character struggling with their mental health being continually let down despite reaching out to those they love. I am thankful it ended on a hopeful note (seriously it made me so emo lol) but I do wish Cleo wasn’t done wrong and had more support. I think it was an interesting move, and showed how Cleo and Frank’s relationship impacted their friends at times, but some of them felt irrelevant and made me count the pages until I returned back to Cleo or Frank. I enjoyed but also struggled with the POVs of the side characters. The rest didn’t quite match that same energy, but was still great writing, albeit it, like I mentioned, extremely graphic at times.
I read it twice and want to read it again. The first chapter is the most stunning first chapter I’ve ever read. But it felt so believable and raw and realistic. It was graphic (in many ways) and required me to turn down the brightness on my Kindle while I read it on an airplane lol. Stream of consciousness conflicting thoughts: I loved it and I hated it.
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