I think this book is quite clever. From what I understood, only read it once, there are at least three levels to this book and stories, all focussing on the aspects of identity, just like the Ship of Theseus paradox. My overarching summary below is very vague so apologies for it being long and vague and also may not even be correct ha ha. Level one, most abstract level, ship of Theseus book focuses on S who is trying to found out who he is/was as he has amnesia, during of which his alliances are mainly killed off by agents of Vevoda. And S’s role is to kill off these agents and lead him to Vevoda (the bad guy). There is this Sola character that happened to be around wherever he goes and he wants to find her and be with her. She wants him to understand it doesn’t matter who you were but it is about who you are now, so focus on what you are suppose to do and be. Leave the past to the past. So in the end they did (I think). This is metaphorically the ideal ending of what Filomela, the book’s translator, wanted with Straka in their lives. Level 2, Filomela indicated, and what Eric and Jen deduced, this book is a metaphor of Straka’s life. Many of his friends/acquaintances are dead (linked to Bouchard’s; Vevoda metaphor) as Straka was accused of many bad things that happened and no one really knew who he is hence leading to death of various S-associated members. In the book of Theseus these S members have names relating to birds and Eric and Jen pieced them together to figure out who in Straka’s real world is which Bird character. Here, the translator and Straka wanted to be together and communicated indirectly by publishing books but they’d chosen their paths and never ended up being together hence the way final chapter 10 ended ie opposite to what really happened between them. Level 3, Eric and Jen. They are a bit like Straka and Filomela, however they communicated directly and unlike Straka and Filomela, they ended up together. Eric and Jen tried to find the true identity of Straka and has all the drama of Moody and sponsors and the threat they were put under just because they were involved in identifying who Straka really was and the issues of ownership of his findings that were taken from him by Moody. Eric and Jen also had their own past and identities that they wanted to forget and move on (leave the past to the past) and in the end they chose love as it is more important than anything else going on in their lives; to stop fighting what others are doing to proof who Straka was and let their research be whether or not they ever get concrete answers to who Straka was. This is my rough take on the book which I did enjoy because these three levels made the whole reading experience and finding links fun and I will read it again to try to understand it better.
I've just finished reading the book and I had to look for videos online to find out if I wasn't the only one who didn't really enjoy it.I think it is visually beautiful but the book itself? Ugh... The author mystery was very hard to follow, ngl I have NO IDEA how they found out who the author actually is. The whole Moody and Ilsa trying to sabotage Eric and Jen was very confusing too... how did it end? why was he actually doing that? And yes, I feel like The ship of Theseus didn't make much sense either. I liked how the ship represented the evolution of men but i felt like, by the end I had lots of questions and very few answers... About S., about Sola, about the ship and the people on it, Maelstrom (who was speaking some weird mix of French, portoguese and spanish???? why?????)... Idk, this book kinda felt like a waste of time in some way. Anyways I loved your review and I'm glad I found someone who feels the same way as me about it.
thanks for watching! yes, from what I remember about it, it created more questions than it answered, and not in a good way. It almost felt like a dream where it just jumps from one piece to another. very difficult to get through. and really pricy too! can't believe it was $40. there were times where I thought I'd go back and read only the Ship of Theseus section, because I read one page of SoT and then read all of Jen and Eric's comments which really slowed me down. great idea for a book with the annotations but honestly wasn't realistic and hard to follow. "simpler" comments would've been better rather than the whole author mystery nonsense.
I think the sewing the lips shut is a code of silence, that they will not speak up or spill the beans about what they're about, and the fact that they only really take breaks by writing stuff down, means to me that the Ship of Theseus is the S. and the different sailors are different authors who are part of the S. but keep the ship sailing to fight the good fight against Vervoda, like how the real S. were fighting against Bouchard.
for me both Ship of Theseus, V. M Straka, and Jen and Eric's relationship is about the relations between labourers and capitalism. S is shanghaied into the S. with there being 19 sailors, and 19 is the number of S in the alphabet and how he gets caught up in these battles of labour unions against Vervoda the capitalist arms dealer. He even could be a story of V. M. Straka surviving his suicide attempt, and his name becoming used by the group of S. to help write their agendas of labourers against the capitalist arms dealer Bouchard. Jen and Eric are labourers whose work is being used by capitalists like Moody and Ilsa to try and make their own fame. The relationship between S and Sola, F.X Caldiera and V.M Straka and Eric and Jen are echoes of labourers finding love within their battle of labour versus capitalists, and how whether such relationships can be maintained with these battles of left wing versus right wing. Basically these stories are echoes of each other, the three layers being "character" with Ship of Theseus, "author" with V.M Straka, and "reader" with Eric and Jen, talking about layers of reality and repeating conflict between workers and employers, or labourers versus capitalists.
I was very confused as well. I've thought about going back to only read the Ship of Theseus part, because I was reading the hand-written notes on every page after reading each page of SoT, which really seemed to confuse me. I liked the idea of the hand written notes, but after reading the book I think they are more of a hinderence than an asset. There were too many
I agree, I’ve just finished it and I still don’t know what happened. It’s too confusing going back and forth between the novel and the notes and back and forth in time of the notes, and it took too long to read!
yes! believe it or not I've actually had a slight desire to go back and only read the Ship of Theseus story, only so that I could get an uninterrupted visual of the story. I probably won't, but it's crossed my mind haha
thanks for watching! I'm also looking for similar books and I haven't quite found anything as similar - though from other people I've heard the book Raw Shark Texts is good, and also Night Film by Marisha Pessl!
Just finished it and ohhh my god,,,, so many questions. Loved house of leaves but this just wasn't a touch on that. Just subscribed as your review is just what I thought!
I just finished it and I like it but I must to confess that it was difficult for me to follow both stories. It is supposed that is possible to read it all at once but not for me because the notes in the margins distracted me all the time, they took me completely out of the story of S and there was times I did not what to read first, the notes or the novel. I have to admit that I lack information, I lack history and depth of the characters. Jen and Eric get tedious at times, just trying to figure something out and it seems like they are never going to get it because they are talking about it instead of taking action. The novel as a project is incredibly cool but the inserts are a toothache if they are falling all the time and you do not know exactly where they belong, it is really unconfortable.
I agree with everything you've said. If I were recommending it to someone, I would suggest to read Ship of Theseus in it's entirety and then go back to the notes, because I did the same thing of reading one page then reading the notes, etc. It had terrible flow for me. Plus the whole concept of them trading notes back and forth after they've met each other in real life? That was so strange to me. Did they have to search through the entire book each time for new notes?? So weird. Plus this book was $40!!
@@jeffreyscottreadsalot8854 Exactly, I think the best option is to read "Ship of Theseus" then the notes because otherwise it confuses the reader, takes him/her out of the stories and eventually causes a loss of interest to keep reading the novel. Sometimes I wonder if it would not have been better to Eric and Jen to meet in person and talk and exchange ideas and I also wonder if the library would not have made them pay for mishandling public property... I mean ... WOW the book is handwritten all over the pages and I imagine that the book ends up a bit damaged and almost shapeless because of the inserts.
@@yeraybetancort That would've been so much better of an exchange! In between chapters of Ship of Theseus real life discussions could take place. Love it!
Think it might have been better to read the ship of Theseus first then read the notes after. I read a page at a time, reading both book and margin notes simultaneously. Took a week to read but actually find it quite fun. Need to read the whole thing again as timeline of their notes are all over the place so nice to read again to understand ‘earlier’ notes better and understand their chronological communication, research, deduction and discussion better.
I think this book is quite clever. From what I understood, only read it once, there are at least three levels to this book and stories, all focussing on the aspects of identity, just like the Ship of Theseus paradox. My overarching summary below is very vague so apologies for it being long and vague and also may not even be correct ha ha.
Level one, most abstract level, ship of Theseus book focuses on S who is trying to found out who he is/was as he has amnesia, during of which his alliances are mainly killed off by agents of Vevoda. And S’s role is to kill off these agents and lead him to Vevoda (the bad guy). There is this Sola character that happened to be around wherever he goes and he wants to find her and be with her. She wants him to understand it doesn’t matter who you were but it is about who you are now, so focus on what you are suppose to do and be. Leave the past to the past. So in the end they did (I think). This is metaphorically the ideal ending of what Filomela, the book’s translator, wanted with Straka in their lives.
Level 2, Filomela indicated, and what Eric and Jen deduced, this book is a metaphor of Straka’s life. Many of his friends/acquaintances are dead (linked to Bouchard’s; Vevoda metaphor) as Straka was accused of many bad things that happened and no one really knew who he is hence leading to death of various S-associated members. In the book of Theseus these S members have names relating to birds and Eric and Jen pieced them together to figure out who in Straka’s real world is which Bird character. Here, the translator and Straka wanted to be together and communicated indirectly by publishing books but they’d chosen their paths and never ended up being together hence the way final chapter 10 ended ie opposite to what really happened between them.
Level 3, Eric and Jen. They are a bit like Straka and Filomela, however they communicated directly and unlike Straka and Filomela, they ended up together. Eric and Jen tried to find the true identity of Straka and has all the drama of Moody and sponsors and the threat they were put under just because they were involved in identifying who Straka really was and the issues of ownership of his findings that were taken from him by Moody. Eric and Jen also had their own past and identities that they wanted to forget and move on (leave the past to the past) and in the end they chose love as it is more important than anything else going on in their lives; to stop fighting what others are doing to proof who Straka was and let their research be whether or not they ever get concrete answers to who Straka was.
This is my rough take on the book which I did enjoy because these three levels made the whole reading experience and finding links fun and I will read it again to try to understand it better.
Very insightful! If I did ever read it again, I think I'd only read the Ship of Theseus section. Eric and Jen's comments slowed down the flow for me.
I've just finished reading the book and I had to look for videos online to find out if I wasn't the only one who didn't really enjoy it.I think it is visually beautiful but the book itself? Ugh... The author mystery was very hard to follow, ngl I have NO IDEA how they found out who the author actually is. The whole Moody and Ilsa trying to sabotage Eric and Jen was very confusing too... how did it end? why was he actually doing that? And yes, I feel like The ship of Theseus didn't make much sense either. I liked how the ship represented the evolution of men but i felt like, by the end I had lots of questions and very few answers... About S., about Sola, about the ship and the people on it, Maelstrom (who was speaking some weird mix of French, portoguese and spanish???? why?????)... Idk, this book kinda felt like a waste of time in some way. Anyways I loved your review and I'm glad I found someone who feels the same way as me about it.
thanks for watching! yes, from what I remember about it, it created more questions than it answered, and not in a good way. It almost felt like a dream where it just jumps from one piece to another. very difficult to get through. and really pricy too! can't believe it was $40. there were times where I thought I'd go back and read only the Ship of Theseus section, because I read one page of SoT and then read all of Jen and Eric's comments which really slowed me down. great idea for a book with the annotations but honestly wasn't realistic and hard to follow. "simpler" comments would've been better rather than the whole author mystery nonsense.
Even just hearing you reiterate some of the plot is really helpful🙃
you're welcome! and i also think reading it in a group would have helped me, if i'd known more about online groups
I think the sewing the lips shut is a code of silence, that they will not speak up or spill the beans about what they're about, and the fact that they only really take breaks by writing stuff down, means to me that the Ship of Theseus is the S. and the different sailors are different authors who are part of the S. but keep the ship sailing to fight the good fight against Vervoda, like how the real S. were fighting against Bouchard.
for me both Ship of Theseus, V. M Straka, and Jen and Eric's relationship is about the relations between labourers and capitalism.
S is shanghaied into the S. with there being 19 sailors, and 19 is the number of S in the alphabet and how he gets caught up in these battles of labour unions against Vervoda the capitalist arms dealer.
He even could be a story of V. M. Straka surviving his suicide attempt, and his name becoming used by the group of S. to help write their agendas of labourers against the capitalist arms dealer Bouchard.
Jen and Eric are labourers whose work is being used by capitalists like Moody and Ilsa to try and make their own fame.
The relationship between S and Sola, F.X Caldiera and V.M Straka and Eric and Jen are echoes of labourers finding love within their battle of labour versus capitalists, and how whether such relationships can be maintained with these battles of left wing versus right wing.
Basically these stories are echoes of each other, the three layers being "character" with Ship of Theseus, "author" with V.M Straka, and "reader" with Eric and Jen, talking about layers of reality and repeating conflict between workers and employers, or labourers versus capitalists.
Just finished reading this book and I have all the same questions (and more) … desperately seeking spoilers 😮 for S and Ship of Theseus.
I was very confused as well. I've thought about going back to only read the Ship of Theseus part, because I was reading the hand-written notes on every page after reading each page of SoT, which really seemed to confuse me. I liked the idea of the hand written notes, but after reading the book I think they are more of a hinderence than an asset. There were too many
I agree, I’ve just finished it and I still don’t know what happened. It’s too confusing going back and forth between the novel and the notes and back and forth in time of the notes, and it took too long to read!
yes! believe it or not I've actually had a slight desire to go back and only read the Ship of Theseus story, only so that I could get an uninterrupted visual of the story. I probably won't, but it's crossed my mind haha
I definitely wish I'd read this in a group! I definitely missed some things. Like why was she fired from the library?
i'm afraid i've read this so long ago i can't remember :/ a lot of what happened escaped me even while reading it!
100% agree with your review
Thank you!
hello, thanks for the review. I had read house of leaves as well before reading S, i wanted to ask if you could recommend me books similar to these
thanks for watching! I'm also looking for similar books and I haven't quite found anything as similar - though from other people I've heard the book Raw Shark Texts is good, and also Night Film by Marisha Pessl!
Just finished it and ohhh my god,,,, so many questions. Loved house of leaves but this just wasn't a touch on that. Just subscribed as your review is just what I thought!
Thanks so much! I'm still scratching my head on this book all these years later!
Maelstrom’s pirate talk genuinely made me want to put the book down.
very difficult to understand!
So difficult! I understood half of that.
I just finished it and I like it but I must to confess that it was difficult for me to follow both stories. It is supposed that is possible to read it all at once but not for me because the notes in the margins distracted me all the time, they took me completely out of the story of S and there was times I did not what to read first, the notes or the novel. I have to admit that I lack information, I lack history and depth of the characters. Jen and Eric get tedious at times, just trying to figure something out and it seems like they are never going to get it because they are talking about it instead of taking action. The novel as a project is incredibly cool but the inserts are a toothache if they are falling all the time and you do not know exactly where they belong, it is really unconfortable.
I agree with everything you've said. If I were recommending it to someone, I would suggest to read Ship of Theseus in it's entirety and then go back to the notes, because I did the same thing of reading one page then reading the notes, etc. It had terrible flow for me. Plus the whole concept of them trading notes back and forth after they've met each other in real life? That was so strange to me. Did they have to search through the entire book each time for new notes?? So weird. Plus this book was $40!!
@@jeffreyscottreadsalot8854 Exactly, I think the best option is to read "Ship of Theseus" then the notes because otherwise it confuses the reader, takes him/her out of the stories and eventually causes a loss of interest to keep reading the novel. Sometimes I wonder if it would not have been better to Eric and Jen to meet in person and talk and exchange ideas and I also wonder if the library would not have made them pay for mishandling public property... I mean ... WOW the book is handwritten all over the pages and I imagine that the book ends up a bit damaged and almost shapeless because of the inserts.
@@yeraybetancort That would've been so much better of an exchange! In between chapters of Ship of Theseus real life discussions could take place. Love it!
I used little post it stickers on the inserts so I know where they go in case they fall out.
Think it might have been better to read the ship of Theseus first then read the notes after. I read a page at a time, reading both book and margin notes simultaneously. Took a week to read but actually find it quite fun. Need to read the whole thing again as timeline of their notes are all over the place so nice to read again to understand ‘earlier’ notes better and understand their chronological communication, research, deduction and discussion better.