Books you hate

[Darth InSidious]

Also hated the Great Gatsby. Had to read it for grade 12 english and after the chapter that just lists everyone he invited to a party I told my teacher I couldn't read that tripe and to just fail me on that section of the class.

Too true. You might generously describe Gatsby as a mediocre book.

[Purkake]

Aww, but how else will we learn that the American Dream is a big lie and that endless fun is ultimately empty and meaningless?

[Calax]

I know Gatsby was on my reading list, as was TKM. I think the teacher had us read LOTR at one point (either that 1984 or something else, we got to pick), but beyond that I don't remember much else.

[Oblarg]

(Enymion and The Rise of Endymion)

 

For a second I read that as "Endyamon," and thought someone had written a book about the protagonist of Virgin Steele's

trilogy. I am now very disappointed. Edited July 19, 2011 by Oblarg

[Darth InSidious]

Aww, but how else will we learn that the American Dream is a big lie and that endless fun is ultimately empty and meaningless?

Read Vile Bodies instead?

[Slowtrain]

The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises are my two favorite novels.

 

Probably the wrong thread for that statement though.

[Purkake]

Aww, but how else will we learn that the American Dream is a big lie and that endless fun is ultimately empty and meaningless?

Read Vile Bodies instead?

Does it have flappers?

 

@Slowtrain: Hah, the Sun Also Rises is next on my reading list after I finish the Void trilogy.

Edited July 19, 2011 by Purkake

[Darth InSidious]

Aww, but how else will we learn that the American Dream is a big lie and that endless fun is ultimately empty and meaningless?

Read Vile Bodies instead?

Does it have flappers?

My dear, what a too, too laugh-making question.

 

Or to put it another way, most definitely.

Edited July 19, 2011 by Darth InSidious

[Hurlshort]

The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises are my two favorite novels.

 

Probably the wrong thread for that statement though.

 

I was pretty shocked by the Fitzgerald hate. I was also shocked that Tolkien was called a bad writer. I can understand being bored by a great writer's choice in subject matter, that is all about personal taste, but there are reasons these folks are legends of literature.

[Purkake]

Aww, but how else will we learn that the American Dream is a big lie and that endless fun is ultimately empty and meaningless?

Read Vile Bodies instead?

Does it have flappers?

My dear, what a too, too laugh-making question.

 

Or to put it another way, most definitely.

Sold!

 

The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises are my two favorite novels.

 

Probably the wrong thread for that statement though.

 

I was pretty shocked by the Fitzgerald hate. I was also shocked that Tolkien was called a bad writer. I can understand being bored by a great writer's choice in subject matter, that is all about personal taste, but there are reasons these folks are legends of literature.

It's just all those literary critics trying to maintain their status quo. You know, to subjugate the little people and stuff.

[Malcador]

Well, I dunno, this 'legend' label is applied to Joyce. I never really got it, having suffered through Ulysses and the ego-porn of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Maybe it's some kind of self-perpetuating belief. One book we had to read that I learned to hate was Fifth Business. All this pretentious Jungian nonsense, pah!

Edited July 19, 2011 by Malcador

[Purkake]

One book we had to read that I learned to hate was Fifth Business. All this pretentious Jungian nonsense, pah!

Nothing like playing a Jungian psychologist in a Call of Cthulhu game

[Slowtrain]

The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises are my two favorite novels.

 

Probably the wrong thread for that statement though.

 

I was pretty shocked by the Fitzgerald hate. I was also shocked that Tolkien was called a bad writer. I can understand being bored by a great writer's choice in subject matter, that is all about personal taste, but there are reasons these folks are legends of literature.

 

 

SOme of it I think is just the passing of time.

 

I think if people today were forced to read Henry James without any guidance or support they would find it a miserable experience and probably hate him as a writer. Not because he's a bad writer per se, but the gap in tiem is just too vast now.

 

I remember when I first read Moby ****, it was an impenetrable mass that I could barely comprehend. Now, many years, later, its one of my favorite novels. The only thing that really changed for me was time, compehension, awareness.

[Darth InSidious]

It's just all those literary critics trying to maintain their status quo. You know, to subjugate the little people and stuff.

Bourgeois literary criticism, oppression of the proletariat, perpetuation, oppression, class war, capitalist exploitation of the working left sock, &c.

 

the ego-porn of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Portait of the Artist is the textual equivalent of masturbation. It's also extremely effective in its use of style. Doesn't mean that it isn't an awful read, though.

[Calax]

The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises are my two favorite novels.

 

Probably the wrong thread for that statement though.

 

I was pretty shocked by the Fitzgerald hate. I was also shocked that Tolkien was called a bad writer. I can understand being bored by a great writer's choice in subject matter, that is all about personal taste, but there are reasons these folks are legends of literature.

Tolkien is a bad writer. He cares more about his universe that he constructs out of the Ragnarok saga than he does about the actual writing of the tale. One of the reasons he's considered a legend now is because he gave geeks a world to latch on to and dig their teeth into in fantasy that was fully realized and (through supplimental materials) entirely explained. They didn't fall in love because the story was so easy to read and slipped into the mind so swiftly.

 

I mean, he's the guy who LITERALLY took a left turn in the entire plot of the book to yank a forest spirit out of his rear end to give a more green message than the ents existance.

[Oblarg]

I've always maintained that Tolkien had superb content but utterly awful prose. Lord of the Rings itself is hard to slog through at best, and The Silmarillion reads like a bad translation of the Aeneid.

[HoonDing]

I'm not well versed enough in English to judge Tolkien's writing. I think though that he writes better than me.

[Purkake]

It's just all those literary critics trying to maintain their status quo. You know, to subjugate the little people and stuff.

Bourgeois literary criticism, oppression of the proletariat, perpetuation, oppression, class war, capitalist exploitation of the working left sock, &c.

Yes, if they stopped telling us what's a classic and what isn't they might as well give up and go back to crying in the shower about getting a liberal arts degree

[Guest The Architect]

The behavioural psychology textbook I had to read this semester, which was really just a compilation of **** chapters put together by my lecturer, was truly horrible. It got better towards the end, though. One psych textbook I won't be too keen to get out again for future reference.