VJ's Reviews > Nightjohn

I'm reading my bookshelves in preparation of the purge. Thought I'd begin with something small and picked up Nightjohn.

It has been my regular reading experience to find the best reading in smaller texts. Ayn Rand was at her best in Anthem. Both Animal Farm and 1984 are brief, yet pack a punch.

Sarny lives in slavery and is, therefore, forbidden the knowledge of reading and writing. Nightjohn possesses this taboo knowledge, and insists that others in servitude should possess it as well, even though the penalty for possessing, exercising, or sharing such knowledge is, in this story, dismemberment.

When I think of the real generations descended from such as the likes of Nightjohn and Sarny, imagined as they are, who couldn't be bothered to read, write, or tell a story of their own making, I feel that people are a terrific disappointment, that they do not appreciate the sacrifices that came together to make their current existences reality in a country that once legally held their people as chattel.

Simple, straightforward, Nightjohn is moving and inspiring.