i think it actually depressed me. it made feelings feel fake and made me afraid i was like duroy. it's a book about all the good things that happen to this super evil fellow. not even evil; he's like felix krull, the protagonist of the thomas mann book. he made me remember a quote from that book: "happiness is sated pride." that's all duroy is. not evil as much as empty of anything beyond callow desires for "wealth" "power" "fame." evil doesn't exist, anyway, there's just ambition without thought. aha! that's it!
notable in this book: passion for a woman is tantamount to rape. there are like a dozen scenes in this book where he straight up sexually assaults people, but it's okay because the women are only TRYING TO FIGHT HIM OFF because of their modesty and desperate self restraint. the book's super relevant for the modern world on that front—she wants it, she just doesn't know it, is holding herself back, etc.
apart from that, there's insider trading, newspapers as mouthpieces for financial interests, journalism as sex stories sprinkled with politics.
it's also that same thing that's in every story about the world from that time: spicy feudalism. everything's inherited, and people are what they're born, but "the prostitutes are the way to the top" and a night looking good in some rented evening dress and being able to drop the name tiberius and you can be a king. also, debts. always have so many debts. also having a fantastic mustache; 100% of the sensuality in this book centers on duroy's upper lip hair.
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