Monday, February 24, 2025

Book 0 - Night Watch

Finished reading Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips. It took place during the civil war of America. Initially I had difficulty understanding some of the sentences and terms, but as I got further along and things revealed itself to me, it became very very interesting. The book begins with a girl and her mother being dropped by someone the girl called papa in a lunatic asylum. Then we found out what happened to the girl and her mother, how they ended up in that situation, how papa wasn't the girl's real father. The girl real's father was a soldier for the union who got badly injured that he lost all of his memory. I really had difficulty understanding some of the sentences that up to now I'm not sure if my understanding of the relation between the girl's father and mother is correct. So anyways, somehow they all ended up in the same asylum though they didn't know this yet or we thought they didn't know, we as the reader definitely know and I was getting excited. However, what's supposed to be a happy ending didn't really happen - at least in my opinion. I felt rather sad about the tragedy that happened towards the end, but the girl would say it's okay, she's okay and all was well in the end. It's not a very thick book, but I took a long time reading it. I wish I could read faster and better.

What else to share? In preparation to watch Severance season 2 which I'm really excited about, I've been re-watching season 1 and I found myself forgetting many points of the story. Like I forgot that Helly was so miserable. As I was rewatching the episodes, it kinda brought back to mind this thought that I have been having for some time. Can you accept suffering if it makes the other part of you be okay or happy? It's like a toss between how much you love yourself and how selfish you are. In my weird mind I ask myself, can you accept being miserable for the other you in the alternative universe to be happy? Can you sacrifice yourself for all of yous' good? This does not require science fiction actually, it happens a lot in our life. Decisions we make about our health for example, things we consume, things we don't want to do but do for our own good. A wiser person would say happiness and suffering are not permanent and you are one being, the happiness of the other part of you is the happiness of you. Taking it further, we're all one being as the the whole human race and even bigger as living things. The suffering of others should be seen as our own suffering too and hence we should try to make things better for all. Happiness in others shouldn't bring envy to us, we should also be happy when people are happy. Yeah that is sometimes hard. Well that's me and my weird mind and I need to stop writing.

:) eKa @ 8:52:00 PM •