Receive House Of Stairs Edited By William Sleator Volume

the first dystopian novel I ever read, Because of this book, near the beginning of season one of LOST I was already predicting the cages and fishbiscuits that would show up in season three,

UPDATE: Reread inafter reading multiple times from ages, It has held up really well for a book written in the mids, besides some unfortunate stereotyping that was more common at the time, Peter. Lola. Blossom. Abigail. Oliver. Five sixteenyearold orphans. One by one, they are brought to a place that is unlike anything any of them has ever known, It's not a prison, not a hospital, It has no walls, no ceilings, no floor, Nothing but endless flights of stairs leading nowhere except back to the red machine, The five will learn to love the machine, will let it rule their lives, But will they let it kill their souls دقیقا همون منطقی که تو فیلمهایی مثل cube استفاده شده بود, شرطی سازی و انگیزه برای بقا. جالب بود. ولی تکراری.
حس میکنم خیلی سانسور داشت ترجمه. فقط حسه البته متن اصلی رو نخوندم. اول میخواستم بگم که کتاب چقدر الگوی کلیشهای داره بعد دیدم اینو سال هزار و نهصد و هفتاد و چهار نوشته! نوسنده چه ذهن خلاقی داشته
با مفاهیم کتاب عموما توی آثار دیگهی معروفتر آشنا شدیم مثلا این مورد که چند نفر رو توی فضایی بسته گیر بندازن که رفتارهاشون رو بررسی کنن منو یاد دوندهی هزارتو انداخت. یا مثلا این که بشر چقدر راحت بینظم و وحشی میشه شبیه سالار مگسهاست در کل با وجود پایان قابل پیشبینیش لذت بردم چون حجم کمی داشت و نمیذاشت تا تموم نکردی کنار بذاریش. This young adult novelreflects Cold War paranoia: apprehension that the government will brainwash unwilling subjects into perfectly controllable weapons of war, Five sixteenyearold orphans find themselves in a sterile mazelike environment, consisting entirely of stairs and landings, Wikipedia notes that the setting is based on Escherslithograph: Relativity: sitelink scottmcd. net/artanalysis/ . Besides one pool of water toilet, drinking water, and bath, a machine with flashing lights sporadically dispenses pellets of food in response to behaviors that, through trial and error, the children learn.
At first, the machine ejects food when the children engage in a stylized dance, As time goes by, however, the machine will only produce food if, in addition to the dance, the children act aggressively toward one another, When it becomes clear that they will be fed only by escalating cruelty, the children divide into two groups, Remaining near the machine, Oliver, Abigail, and Blossom create for themselves a kind of Lord of the Flies hierarchy, These three continue to eat by finding ways to inflict pain on one another, Peter and Lola, in contrast, remove themselves to a distant part of the maze, supporting one another in the decision to starve rather than become monsters,

Lola and Peter are emotionally engaging characters, A tough nonconformist, Lola smokes and

gleefully reminisces about tricks she played on the repressive keepers at her orphanage, She responds to an alien environment by exploring, seeking to learn the rules that govern it, and jogging to keep fit, Peter, a timid, insecure child, retreats into a dream “room”: a memory of an orphanage where his friend Jasper loved and cared for him, When Peter meets Oliver, he develops a crush on this handsome, narcissistic boy, Delicately, the book hints that Peters attraction to both boys is sexual, Peter and Lola, however, strengthen one another in resisting corruption,

A major weakness in HOUSE OF STAIRS, however, is its depiction of the villains, Oliver and Blossom, They do not change in any way because both are calculating, cruel, and selfabsorbed from the beginning, Though the machine rewards their cruel actions, it does not corrupt them: Oliver and Blosson are already monstrous, The privileged daughter of government officials, obese Blossom seeks only to make the machine produce as much food as possible and spitefully to turn the other children against one another.
At the beginning, Oliver sets out to shame and manipulate insecure, passive Abigail, alternately treating her seductively and indifferently, Because most of us justify evil actions with selfdeceptions and rationalizations, I found Oliver and Blossoms singlemindedness wooden and unbelievable,

Until the very end, the HOUSE OF STAIRS only hints obliquely at the dystopian world outside the environment in which the children are trapped, Only the most elite, like Blossoms family, live in singlefamily houses, The otherstruggle to subsist in an overpopulated world, where nourishing food is scarce, Because even children of rich parents end up in orphanages, the novel suggests human life has become so cheap that children are not cherished, HOUSE OF STAIRS reflects Cold War fears that the government was conducting dehumanizing experiments on human beings to advance the war effort,

Reading HOUSE OF STAIRS in, I found it a period piece, reflecting oldfashioned preoccupations and literary tropes, Of course, we DO face the problem of returning servicemen who, successfully conditioned to regard Arab opponents as nonhuman, do not undergo “unconditioning” before returning to civilian life, I was glad to be introduced to William Sleator, but do not think I shall seek out other novels,
۳. ۵ از ۵

خانهی پلههای یک نمونهی کامل از اون کتابهاییه که جدا از اینکه داری از خوندن کتاب لذت میبری یا نه اعتیاد آوره و تا تمومش نکنی یا حداقل نفهمی چه اتفاقی داره میافته نمیتونی ببندیش. راسیتش برای نوشتن ریویوی این کتاب چندین بار نوشتم و پاک کردم چون نمیدونم از کجا باید شروع کنم و راجع به چیا حرف بزنم و این برای منی که همیشه حرف برای زدن دارم کمی عجیبه. کتاب برای من به شدت اعتیادآور و کشنده بود ولی اجازه بدید قبل از اینکه از داستان و تجربهی خودم بگم چیزی رو راجع به خود کتاب بگم! در کمال ناباوری متوجه شدم این کتاب اثر یکی از نویسندگان معاصر علمی تخیلی که اصلا هم کم نیستن نیست. خانهی پلهها در سال ۱۹۷۴ نوشته شده و یه جورایی جزو ادبیات کلاسیک ما به حساب میاد و این چیزیه که حتی بیشتر از خود داستان کتاب شکهام کرد.

بذارید خودم رو تبرئه کنم! میدونم خیلیهاتون که این موضوع رو میدونستید یا سال دقیقش رو نمیدونستید ولی در کل جزو کتابهای قدیمی محسوبش میکردید پیش خودتون میگید که خب معلومه که این کتاب قدیمی بود تو باید از فضای کتاب این موضوع رو میفهمیدی! بذارید در دفاع خودم و تمام کسایی که با فهمیدن این موضوع شکه شدند بگم که من نمیدونم از کجا و چطور ولی کاملا و حقیقتا باور داشتم که این کتاب برای سال ۲۰۱۵ یا ۲۰۱۶ باشه و این چیزی بود که حتی قبل از اینکه بدون این کتاب چه موضوعی داره و توی چه ژانریه تصور میکردم پس توی ناخودآگاه ذهنم همه چیز رو با دنیای فعلی تطابق میدادم و تکنولوژیها رو کاملا مدرن و امروزی تصور میکردم. چیزی که میخوام بگم در واقع اینه: این کتاب زمان نداره! یعنی با گذر زمان کهنه یا قدیمی نشده و به نظر من این موضوع واقعا خارقالعاده و جذابه که کتابی که راجع به فطرت تغییر ناپذیر انسان بود درست مثل محتواش تغییر ناپذیر و سفت و سخت بوده. نمیدونم شاید زیادی دارم این موضوع رو بزرگ میکنم ولی بالاخره این برداشت من از کتاب بوده و قرار نیست همهی ما یک تجربهی یکسان از خوندن یه کتاب داشته باشیم و فکر میکنم این چیزیه که من رو عاشق کتابها کرده.

داستان خانهی پلهها یه داستان ترسناک ناراحتکننده و بینهایت جالبه. ابدا نمیخوام بگم که موضوع نویی داره هرچند احتمالا توی زمان خودش خیلی نو بوده اما یه داستان خوب لزوما یه داستان جدید نیست بعضی چیزا مثل سرکه هر چی بمونن غنی تر میشن!!! این کتاب برای منی که توی سال ۲۰۱۹ خوندمش قدری کلیشهای و قابل پیشبینی بود به گذشتهی شخصیتها اشارهای نشده بود و پایان جالبی هم نداشت ولی چند تا نکتهی مثبت داشت که بیانصافیه اگه بیاهمیت از کنارشون بگذریم اول اینکه نثر روون و خوبی داشت که به نظر من یکی از رکنهای اساسی برای انتخاب یه کتاب خوبه. دومیش مختصر و مفید بودن کتاب بود. هر جایی که حس میکردم روند کتاب کمی داره کند میشه و ممکنه خمیازهام بگیره سریع روند داستان عوض میشد و سرحال نگهام میداشت. سوم تعلیق معرکهی کتاب بود که انگار من خواننده رو توی یه حباب بزرگ ولی نازک نگه داشته هم همزمان که دارم کتاب رو میخونم ذهنم درگیر اینه که اگه این حباب بترکه چه اتفاقی میافته و یه جورایی استرسش رو دارم و در آخر هم باید بگم کتابی که بتونه حس ترس گرسنگی نگرانی خشم و بیچارگی رو اینقدر راحت به خواننده القا کنه کتاب خوبیه. I first read the synopsis for this a few years ago and the concept immediately caught my attention, Set in an unknown but clearly dystopian future, we follow five kids in their early teens who are suddenly dumped alone on a never ending room of stairs, There is a machine that spits out food but only when the group perform certain actions which they have to determine by trial and error, When the machine starts rewarding violence of the physical and psychological types the kids are pushed to either follow directions of take a stand for what they believe in.


Its pretty damn awesome, Peter, Lola, Blossom, Abigail and Oliver are our protagonists and they all clearly differ from one another with the five of them presenting a nice range of reactions and interactions to each other and the situation around them.
Peter is a follower and lacks confidence, Lola is a doer, confident and looks for a way out, Blossom is a fat spoiled girl who grew up with wealthy politicians and seems to have learnt to manipulate people by dividing them against each other.
Abigail is used to being looked at but lacks any real sense of herself and her value as a person outside others thoughts and Oliver is used to being in charge, used to having power and resents any competition to this position.


The worldbuilding is nice with just enough tidbits thrown in to make me want to know more, We learn the boys and girls are separated until they are adults and in a relationship supposedly to prevent sexual mishaps, That some of the wealthy and members of the government live behind a wall in large houses whilst the rest of the population are denied such a luxury and in many cases not even aware the sort of lifestyle even exists.
That the sitting President is a toady to his political advisors, Its random stuff that often has no bearing on the story but it gives us a glimpse of whats outside the room without ever actually letting us out,

The finale is done very well and provides a great deal of the horror as we do get to discover where the kids are, why they are there and who or what is pulling the strings.


Highly recommend picking this one up if you missed it during your childhood,
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