Curious to know whether anyone else here have read this, and their thoughts on it. I've just finished my first reading and found it entirely impossible to stop until I had read the whole thing. I've left a comment to kick off a discussion:

- There's an obvious symmetry with our own times, where stories and facts are smeared together. It's touching how clear it rings of "we see what we want to see" in the modern world of an infinitude of hot takes and narratives. Of course, even more recently, generative AI puts an even more literal spin in this direction.

- Desire and Will. In this book these two are differentiated in that desire cannot be changed, whereas you can will a desire into existence. I'm not sure about the philosophical basis of this - I've not read The World As Will and Representation - but I have a feeling it might strike some similar notes.

- In the interest of not spoiling the book, I'll say the carnal stuff is very in-your-face and deliberately so. The author was definitely shocking when she tried to be.