#book #finishedread2023 # Stoner  [Author:: John Williams] [Status:: Finished] [Approximate_Start_Date:: 2023-10-09] [Finish_Date:: 2023-11-10] ## [Rating:: 96] never have I read a book (or listened to it) and felt such thoroughly complicated emotions. This book scared me, angered me, depressed me, made me feel pity, made me feel disgust, made me feel pride, in the way that *Stoner* does. It's so pragmatic and to the point, and yet it comes to a great crescendo and then ends with a period. # Reading Notes - Listening on Audible, read by Robin Field # My Thoughts - Stoner's initial story, coming from a farming family during the early 1900s and finding a fascination with the study of English literature rather than the farming life / Agricultural Engineering reminds me of both my Grandfather and my dad - What brings a person to so quickly change their path in life? What defines a calling? - Is it a lack of love and care? - The scene n the bar where Masters talks with Stoner and finch about their roles at the university and how each of them aren't made for the real world for one reason or another, and so they find solace in academia really hits differently as an academic myself, who has felt these sentiments as well. - Edith Co-opting grace's ashtray for stoner - Oooooooh I hate edith so much - I fucking hate Charles Walker so much and it reminds me that I am not faking it in my academics in the way he does. - Robin Field's best performance is here I think, though in general Robin Field is great. - "love is not an end, but a process through which one person attempts to know another" - Makima from [[Chainsaw Man - Part 1 - Manga|Chainsaw Man]]??????? - "he was glad she at least had alcohol" - Like, that's one of the most depressing things I think I've ever found in a book, wow. your daughter is an alcoholic, but at least she has that and isn't living an empty life? Fucking depressing as hell. - I don't want to be William Stoner ## Interpersonal Relationships reflected through Work - Stoner and his father have what I can only consider to be a "midwestern farmer" relationship. Theirs is based on the work they are conscribed to do, Stoner's father has to farm because he needs to support his family and Stoner works on the farm only because he has to because his father tells him to. His passion for farming is non-existent in the same way that the relationship he has with his father is little more than surface-level and shallow. He can't even look his father in the eye when he graduates college. - Stoner and his friends, Masters and finch are all drawn together only through their work. They don't share personal feelings or sentiments or fears with each other, but rather they are only are drawn together because they are all care to do work that is to study and teach English Literature. These relationships are shallow and out of circumstance. ## life and death through work People dying in their work - sloane dying while in his office and staring at his work, dead for two days. - stoner's father dying from passing out in his field after feeling as though his duty in life was to work - Horace Bostwick suicide because of financial ruin in his office - Stoner goes to his office on campus and then finally dies while also considering the singular book he wrote through his career. # Favorite Moments / Memories *This section may be in the form of a bulleted list or written paragraph. Mainly for recording favorite events.* # What were you doing when not reading this? *Can we tie the time you did this read to any real-world events?* # Relevant Links *Links to associated media.*