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Just realized people are skipping the author's note in A Little Life
I keep seeing posts about how devastating this book is, but everyone's missing something important. If you read the author's note at the very end, Hanya Yanagihara explains she wrote it as a reaction to trauma porn in media. She literally says she wanted to confront why we consume suffering in stories. But almost every review I see treats it like a straightforward tragedy instead of a meta commentary. I caught this on my second read after someone pointed it out in a forum comment. It changes the whole meaning of the book when you realize the misery is supposed to make you uncomfortable with yourself, not just sad for the characters. Has anyone else noticed readers ignoring the author's stated intent like this?
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felixb251d ago
Oh man, that's such a good point - it's like people are so focused on crying over the story that they completely miss the whole point of why she wrote it that way in the first place.
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hayden7201d ago
Waiting for someone to explain my own reading comprehension to me too, @felixb25.
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