#severance ling ma | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wyvernsandwitches · 1 year

Text

Why don't you go and read a novel about the beauty of humanity juxtaposed against the brutality of the end of the world and maybe you'll calm down

#me @ me #feeling the need to reread station eleven again #i need some new ones to read #give me more in this genre pls #station eleven #severance ling ma

18 notes · View notes

ktae · 7 months

Text

me and who

#severance ling ma

6 notes · View notes

unhinged-and-wellread · 6 months

Text

2023 in Books: Severance, Ling Ma

Book: Severance by Ling Ma (2018)

Completed: January 14, 2023

My rating: 4.5/5

Summary: Meet Candace Chen. She's a 20-something who coordinates Bible production for a publishing company. She keeps the wheels turning — even when the world is literally coming to an end. When a pandemic causes the apocalypse, she stays her course until that's no longer an option. We follow Candace before, during, and after collapses. We watch what it means to survive through it all.

Capitalism in the End Times

Prescience. That's the most shocking part of Ling Ma's Severance. A pandemic story written in 2018, Ma's novel mirrors COVID-19's near-global experience.

When the pandemic starts in the novel, there's speculation over how brief lockdowns would be. We see characters get takeout and relish in the opportunity to get out of the office. Businesses start to shut down.

Through it all, young professional Candace Chen continues to labor. She takes a special assignment as the last one to physically work from her Manhattan office.

Why?

She needs the money, and the payout is too good to refuse.

Throughout the book, we see infrastructure collapse. Candace joins a survival group and deals with its power dynamics. One set of superiors is replaced by another. The world moves on but in a way much worse than before.

During the pandemic, I, like many other people, continued to work. The job provided stability and health care during an "unprecedented" time. I worked from home. This was a huge privilege.

But I started to notice something: My hours started creeping up. As members of my team were let go, I started working 10, 12, 13 hours a day. I worked weekends. If I wasn't watching television or cooking, I was at work. It became both my structure and my everything.

Those with a similar experience during the height of the pandemic will be able to empathize with Candace. Now we know, in a way more acute than before, that capitalism's demands continue and intensify in times of crisis.

As pandemic restrictions lifted, we witnessed a K-shaped economic recovery. The people who were already well off, especially those in less-impacted industries, continued to thrive. Those in worse economic conditions struggled.

In many ways, this is the aftermath we currently live in. Inflation went (and is still) through the roof. Housing is expensive. Global tensions are high, with conflict from Ukraine to Palestine.

And yet, I clock in and pay bills. I produce, in much greater volume than pre-pandemic. I look out at the world — often with hopelessness — still very aware of the material demands that must be met. So I work to meet them and do what I will with the trimmings.

Severance is a read that made me feel seen. If you're a burnt-out workaholic, feeling like a cog in the machine, this book will speak to you too.

#severance ling ma #severence #bookish #booklr #book review #book recommendations #reading #thoughts #ling ma

2 notes · View notes

ginkgotree · 2 years

Text

Just finished Severance by Ling Ma and I’m-

#thinking my thoughts thoughtfully………#severance #severance ling ma #I wish I was in a book club so that I could talk to someone abt it 😪

20 notes · View notes

sunriserollercoaster · 10 months

Text

severance, ling ma

#severance #ling ma #072023

15K notes · View notes

quotespile · 5 months

Quote

It is too depressing, too soul-crushingly sad, to reminisce. The past is a black hole, cut into the present day like a wound, and if you come too close, you can get sucked in. You have to keep moving.

Ling Ma, Severance

#literature #quotes #Ling Ma #Severance #quote #books #lit

424 notes · View notes

mummer · 1 year

Text

you know how resurrected people in asoiaf get singularly obsessed with like one thing they were doing before they died so beric is obsessed with defending smallfolk from invaders and stoneheart is obsessed with revenge against the freys. i think it would be funny if jon came back and he was just tirelessly devoted to the same bland nights watch management as before. just murdering anyone who tries to tear him away from drafting architectural plans for a greenhouse or writing pointless letters. can i dwell on what i scarce remember? sometimes i think i was born on the floor of that stock room, counting barrels of turnips

#i do think it would be kinda boring if he became obsessed with taking winterfell/killing boltons/etc. i guess thinking on it now it’s fairly #likely but idk it’s just not what interests me about jon i guess. Like obv the point is that resurrection does change you but i want it to #change him differently 😡 more melancholy/detached less rageful sorry!!!!#why does this give me severance by ling ma vibes. zombies not violent per se just endlessly mindlessly repeating their patterns #man that book is good #asoiaf

2K notes · View notes

llovelymoonn · 1 year

Text

on art

sheila heti pure colour \\ ray bradbury zen in the art of writing \\ sheila heti pure colour \\ marie howe interviewed by victoria redel for bomb magazine \\ ling ma severance

support me

210 notes · View notes

atissi · 6 months

Text

okay all of the reviews for "severance" by ling ma said it was a hilariously deadpan satire on the post-apocalypse — and maybe that was true in 2018 — but now that i've read it i can say i probably laughed Once and felt a bone-deep nihilistic dread Constantly. the bit about the protagonist's company gifting her a self-care kit of 2 N95 masks, a nutrient bar, and an expanded insurance plan in response to a worldwide pandemic isn't really funny post-2020, it's just realism.

#good novel i felt actually insane reading how many parts of the 2020 pandemic ling ma accidentally predicted #and then felt insane experiencing Everything Else #idk i just love works about corporate gothic and alienation and shame and isolation. and severance hit like every beat #also i think the way the protagonist's immigrant experience tied in with her behaviours and the plot was just really clever #that she is essentially saved by and doomed by her lack of home. her severance from society if you will. ba dum tss #i figured out i can check out books from my library through a phone app. and then stole all my friends' library card information. im balling #beepbeep.txt #literature

81 notes · View notes

failchild · 2 years

Photo

Severance by Ling Ma, 2018 / Severance by Dan Erickson, 2022

#severance #ling ma #severanceedit #long post #severance enjoyers read severance

692 notes · View notes

ktae · 7 months

Text

Before I thought about it too much, Jonathan picked up my hand and held it to his face as if examining it. Then, without warning, he bit the back of my hand, like it was an apple. "Ouch," I said, feeling the sting of his teeth. His eyes were on me, waiting to see what I was going to do. It was dark enough that he couldn't see me blush. So I bit him back, on the soft spot where his neck met his shoulder. And then he bit me again, this time on the soft inside of my arm, close enough to the ticklish pit that I burst out laughing. Then I bit him again. Everything hurt, but nothing broke skin. It continued this way.

ME AND WHO

#severance ling ma

1 note · View note

reverie-quotes · 8 months

Text

Just because you’re adequately good at something doesn’t mean that’s what you should do.

— Ling Ma, Severance