Yeah, I know it’s supposed to be Silenus telling the story. But with an author who is already oddly sex-obsessed writing a character even more sex-obsessed, who has the emotional intelligence and vocabulary of a middle school boy at times, it becomes quite a difficult read. Is it possible to execute it well? Certainly. Do I think it was in Hyperion? Not really, no.
Has this author ever met a woman in real life
This was my primary issue with Hyperion and largely the reason I struggled to enjoy it. I feel like if I were a student of classical literature, it would have resonated differently. But there were so many sexual scenes, and they felt so out of place with the narrative and characters that it frequently broke my suspension of disbelief. Martin Silenius’s story was particularly bad for this. Throughout the whole book, I counted only 2 women (Sarai and the CEO) who were not sexualized in some way.
Arrival the movie is much better than Story of Your Name, the short story upon which it is based.
The short story isn’t bad, it just feels like a story that’s better experienced through cinema, and not through literature. The movie is also just so good. Dennis has been absolutely killing it.