A Tale of Four Creeps
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- In this video I discuss at length four very similar novels: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, The Collector by John Fowles, Perfume by Patrick Süskind, and The Dumb House by John Burnside.
Time Stamps: The Plots 1:15, The Creep 6:01, The Woman 10:24, Worst Crime 13:43, Best Book 15:15 (in my opinion…all of these are MY opinions…goes without saying...but let's say it anyways)
Do consider that there are some spoilers in this video, however I tried to discuss them in a way that important plot points, the endings, and “the way” it’s accomplished is not spoiled, but if you are sensitive to spoilers there is a warning in the video, and there is a second warning here now. To be fair, the full title of Perfume is “The Story of a Murderer”…so like…the author wasn’t even bothered to keep it spoiler free. #BookTube #BookDiscussion
P.S. Jean-Baptiste's most used name in the book is Grenouille but I struggle to pronounce that so I left it at Jean-Baptiste.
My Written Review of The Collector: infinitetext.b...
Books Mentieond:
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: www.goodreads....
The Collector by John Fowles: www.goodreads....
Perfume by Patrick Süskind: www.goodreads....
The Dumb House by John Burnside: www.goodreads....
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Where else can you find me?
📚 MY BLOG: infinitetext.b...
📱 MY TWITTER: In....
📸 MY INSTAGRAM: / infinite_text
📖 MY GOODREADS: / 6. . ...............................................................................................................
Really enjoyed this video thank you! My favourite was Lolita (so far) as the writing is amazing and I find it remarkable how Nabokov can enable me to see the humanity in Humbert. It would be easier for me to simply view him as evil. Next would be the collector, just horrifying. Perfume seemed very fantastical so not as scary. And the dumb house is on my TBR.
Have just finished Astounding and life less throw away which I really appreciated and would not have read without your channel.
Thanks again x
I'm so glad, thank you for watching, and for leaving a comment. Nabokov is quite crafty. Not a lot of people know this but he wrote a prototype for Humbert in a very short book called "The Enchanter"...so he really is supposed to be enchanting. The Dumb House is great! I think it's one of those gripping, one-sitting kind of books. I am so flattered that you read Astounding and Life Less Throw Away because of me....that's extremely flattering. Thank you for letting me be a part of your reading time :)
What a thoughtful, erudite comparison of the four books. I've only read The Collector and that was creepy enough for me. I agree with you about the second half.
Thank you so much! and for leaving a very nice comment. The Collector gave me the creeps the most. I love how you're one of the few people who thinks....one creepy was enough for me. Fair enough! Happy reading :)
I've only read Lolita and now I feel weird about wanting to read them all.
Don't feel weird!!! They are all great! I loved them very much.
Lunchtime! The clickbaity title fooled me, but this was even better! This was an excellent video. I really appreciated the structure, the insight, the comparisons & contrasts. Just so well done. I've only read the Collector & Lolita, but now I guess the other two will need to be in my future. It's bewildering how Nabokov can show what a creep Humbert is, while also creating (a bizarre) sympathy for him. Such a seduction. (Humbert would be a good name for a cat). I do think we got occasional glimpses & peeks into Dolores, some sense of her, tho always through Humbert's eyes of course. But it's Nabokov's talent to show how much she suffers, even through Humbert. If I ever reread it I'm going to highlight all the moments that Dolores gets to peek out from her imprisonment. She may not have agency, but she does exist. This was great -- you really outdid yourself.
OMG it's so funny that you said that because I just told someone yesterday I want to get a cat just to name him Humbert Humbert! This is so bizarre!!! Aw, thank you so much you flatter me so much. The other two are worth reading, I loved all four books. I think they all got five stars, and perfume got 4....if any of that means anything. I had this topic on my mind for quite some time. I feel like I got two videos out of the way this week that were on my mind for many months, so it feels pretty good. Also...is it click-batey? It's literally what it's about...four creepy guys lol
That's so odd, it just popped into my head. It's possible it was only click-baity in *my* imagination ... 😸
yes, I've read all 4.
perhaps that says more about me?
I read Lolita 30+ years ago so my memory of it is a little sketchy?
Perfume was also a long time ago, 20ish years and I was given it as a gift so holds "a special place" in my memory and because of that is the favourite of the 4.
I would say I prefer the Collector more than Dumb House, getting the girl's view and how she was "scheming" is a lesson to all us? ;-)
Yes! someone who read all four! I just read all of them at different times and realized I had the same "feeling" so I was trying to compare and see why. I loved all of them, honestly...I just got a little bored in Miranda's half in the Collector. Maybe if he didn't go back to the beginning? I don't know.. but I still gave it 5 stars. Thank you for leaving a comment and for watching!
I haven't watched it yet but I liked it right away! What an amazing idea!
Will be back here, hopefully soon.
sounds good! I remember our conversation on Fowles :)
Yay for creepy literary fiction (and what a great video)! I've read all but one (Perfume) which I have on my shelf waiting to be read. Hearing you talk about them, I think I might've liked The Collector the best - but it's also the one I read furthest ago so I should probably give it a reread. I really liked The Dumb House but unlike you, I actually found the way it tied it up unsatisfying - from what I remember, I didn't feel like the "parts" it was divided into came together fully but I could probably do with a reread of all three of these. I think the one I found the hardest to read is Lolita, because of a lot of the things you mentioned - worst crime, the planning and his playing with the narrative/truth so successfully that as a reader it's probably the most uncomfortable position of the three.
I found The Dumb house to have more "closure" than the rest only because it sort of "ends" rather than giving the illusion that like Frederick the guy will keep doing this again and again. I think about parts of Lolita a lot, and since it was the first I read from the bunch, when I was reading the others I kept thinking back to Lolita, that's why I thought there was something there with comparison value. I am really curious how you will find Perfume. I am getting ready to invest in The Salt Path. I was waiting for the softcover to come out.
This was so interesting, especially when you talk about how the victims are often not given any characterisation whatsoever, thereby literally making them objects in the story not only in the eyes of the creep but also for the reader. I've only read one of the books you talk about, The Perfume. I read that as a teenager and was soooo creeped out by it (later saw the film too, which didn't help :P )The Dumb House sounds very interesting too though.
The Dumb House is worth reading. You will love it I just know it. It weirdly has storytelling elements encountered in A Little Princess which we both loved there are many allusions to fairy tales/folklore and language and then it's also creepy to every level. It oddly reminded me of the video you made with Bill on sex workers too... :) and thanks for watching!
This video was amazing! I loved Perfume and think Lolita is a great novel but I have yet to read the other two. I have The Dumb House on my shelf and definitely want to pick it up this year. I recently saw Olivia Pope praise The Collector as well and I definitely want to get to it eventually too. I only have The French Lieutenant's Woman by Fowles but haven't read it yet... Have you ever heard of Brother of Sleep by Robert Schneider? You might like it. It doesn't necessarily share the creepiness factor but it is weird and it is about hearing in a similar manner that Perfume deals with smelling.
Thank you so much! The Dumb House was wonderful, I hope you read it and enjoy it, I most certainly did. The Collector is just downright creepy. It's good to save it for a cold November. I have not read Brother of Sleep but I'll look into it now, thank you for the recommendation
currently reading the collector and dumb house is up next, fantastic vid
Hope you enjoy!!!
So interesting :)
(Dickensian title bonus points?)
I think if you substitute the men in these books for the modern 'State' you may find interesting and perhaps even more disturbing answers to some of your questions. Perhaps you and many other women are a victim of a system, a sort of social engineering experiment, that wants to keep you in some ways a child, locked in a room away from so called 'male predators' for reasons you've yet to workout. Who gives you so much help and asks for nothing in return, provided you're single, of course? Perhaps The State is the creep.
Excellent, thought provoking reviews.
Excellent video. I like your structure of the discussion. I read Perfume and really enjoyed it (also saw the movie afterwards). I'm currently reading The Collector and I hate Frederick so much
Hello there, I found this video while I was looking up stuff on Lolita, which was my favorite novel for the longest time. I came here and saw your video and became very curious about The Collecter, which I bought immediately after you shared your thoughts on it. I'll share something with you, this is very public, and I know I'm going on a limb here, but I enjoyed Frederick at the start of the novel -- entranced by him since I felt for him. It could come from the fact that I am somewhat of a recluse. Still, anyhow, at the end of the novel I felt great disgust towards him and felt for Miranda tremendously although I didn't like some aspects of her personality, I felt she was authentic in her approach to life. A great desire to live and feel and experience. I felt so much for her. I just finished the novel -- I'm a mess. I hope you are well.
Thank you for the lovely comment. I really enjoyed Frederick too especially at the beginning. There were many elements of disgust near the end, and at first Miranda was oddly "special" and felt like a unique case but the end left it in an open ended way where it's implied he does it again and again and everything becomes kind of ...serial psychopath where nothing is sacred/special if that makes sense....or at least that's how I saw it. The odd comparisons to The Tempest were fun too. I did find it interesting how he even pat himself on the back for the many times he COULD have done worse, but putting myself in Miranda's shoes I was always wondering like what could she possibly do to get out, she couldn't give him anything and it didn't seem like he wanted company....like he didn't have a why other than to trap and ....well...collect. I was a mess after this book too but it was my favourite of 2017. I hope you are well too
@@InfiniteText It does make sense. Since Frederick continues with "collecting" or at least it appears that way. To me, that reduces Frederick so much when before, at the start of the novel, there was a strange and dark complexity to him. It vanished with that act, of collecting more, and that final part of how he sees Miranda being part of that la-di-da crowd -- I was so furious when he said that about her. I agree with you. There was oddness, and Miranda did appear to be indeed unique and special. That all disappears at the end for me. In my mind, I think, I'm not certain with him. I think he wanted the ideal of Miranda -- the mythology he carved in the privacy of his mind when he would observe her. If she was that in person, that myth, maybe they could have gone to bed and break his views on sexuality, but I don't know. Perhaps he wanted to go to bed with perfection, and little by little, his silent anger about things boiled over covering everything within him, even Miranda. I was amazed by Miranda's observations and how she acknowledges the sadness in him. There's a specific line somewhere where she states that directly. Another line that gripped me, and I'll end it there or else I'll just keep going on and on, is when she wrote on page 265, " I could never cure him. Because I am his disease." I want to thank you for taking the time to reply and share your thoughts with me. I think this just became my favorite book.
Fantastic video! Thank you!
Thank you so much, (and thanks for watching)