Doris Lessing: On Cats

Category: DNF

Nobel laureate Doris Lessing's book On Cats (affiliate link) is marketed as suitable for cat lovers, but it's not. It's really rare for me to leave a book unfinished, but this one had no other choice.

Already in the first pages, Doris tells how she shot a cat, and how her family systematically killed cats.

Those who read the book to the end have said that Doris probably felt like a cat lover, but she wasn't. Killing cats and kittens, and opposing cat sterilization made her a cat torturer.

I know times were different back then. I know my own grandmother drowned kittens. But I still can't or don't want to read about this topic.

Literally sickening work.

 

 

Margaret Mitchell: Gone with the Wind

Is Margaret Mitchell's classic novel Gone with the Wind (affiliate link) a "love letter to racism and slavery"?

I watched my favorite movie, Gone with the Wind, at Easter 2025, and then I was struck by the idea of ​​rereading the book. I can't remember how many times I've read it before.

Scarlett O'Hara is a Southern beauty whose secure life is upended by the American Civil War. Scarlett is a selfish and hard-hearted woman, some might even describe her as cruel. 16-year-old Scarlett's life falls apart when the man she loves, Ashley, marries his cousin Melanie. In revenge for this, Scarlett marries Melanie's brother Charles.

Modern readers find Gone with the Wind's depictions of racism terrible. I personally don't understand why people should lie and sweep history under the rug. It would be worse if they pretended that certain things never happened. That's what is done a lot these days, for example with covid vaccinations.