2021-08-04 4:56:19 ¶ ● ⬈

edettethegreat:

> I’m getting a little bored of Shakespeare, so what non-Shakespeare classic lit should I read next?

@altgregory​

Alright let me tell you about my epic journey with trying to google this author and his works-

So I’ve never heard of Machado de Assis (blame the American school system for that- we only learn about British and American authors), so I had no idea what to expect from his work/ what genre he writes.

So I google it and go to Wikipedia

I probably should have read the earlier sections on his Wikipedia page, but my attention span is short enough as it is and so I scrolled straight to the list of his works

Unfortunately the list’s not in English, so it wasn’t very helpful to me personally

BUT luckily I scrolled down a bit further, and found a section titled something like “English translations of his works”

So I was like Oh cool! Let’s see what this guy wrote!

So I scroll and decide to search up whichever one my finger stops on. Which happens to be one called “Philosopher or Dog”

Keep in mind I’ve never heard of this guy and had no idea what sort of works he wrote. So when I read the title my first thought was “huh nice sounds like a fun story that’s probably about some guy learning philosophy/ life lessons from his dog”

But nooooooo it just had to be about some guy who, due to a series of events, dies. and the dog dies too.

The philosopher also died but that part seems to be more of a plot device than an important event.

Anyway that’s what I get for taking advice from tumblr

(Jk jk I’m sure his other works are less depressing with fewer dying dogs in them)

BUT ANYWAY new rule for recommending books to me- the number of dead dogs has to be 0 or fewer (that’s right it can have negative one dead dog (a zombie dog? Idk))