You just aren't reading the right books (and reviews), it seems
Larry Send a noteboard - 23/01/2011 12:41:07 AM
Of the ones I've read...I don't think I actively liked any. And, here, there haven't exactly been amazing reviews rolling in on other people's challenge classics, they've been pretty bad. (yours included)...Why are these books classics?
Ugh. I finished The Swiss Family Robinson today and I am sick and tired of these horrible books. That had to be one of the worst reading experiences for me ever. I think I may dis-obey myself and go back to Erikson. Now.
Ugh. I finished The Swiss Family Robinson today and I am sick and tired of these horrible books. That had to be one of the worst reading experiences for me ever. I think I may dis-obey myself and go back to Erikson. Now.
Technically, I'm not participating in any of the "challenges" given at this site due to ones I devised a few months ago, but I have reviewed a few classics here over the past couple of months and I did enjoy those (Moby Dick, The Poems of John Keats, and Paradise Lost). I'll be commenting later tonight/tomorrow on Rubén Darío's poetry, Plato's The Republic, and will add my thoughts on Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Then again, each of these are revisits at age 36 of books/poems read between 17-23 (except for the Darío, which I first read three years ago).
Sometimes, it's amazing what re-reads after long intervals can do for one's take and appreciation of these works. Sometimes a classic is not to be "enjoyed" in the same way that a pulp genre fiction is; several stories challenge readers, make them have to confront weighty issues that perhaps they'd rather not read about. Does not make them any less excellent because the reader was unprepared or non-receptive of them, however. Usually, it just means the reader needs to experience more and have a more open mindset.
And if you're going to go back to reading Erikson, you might want to be familiar with Mesopotamian cosmology and religion, as there are a few references to that buried within that series.
Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie
Je suis méchant.
Je suis méchant.
A few thoughts on my Classic challenge book. Well, books, as it turns out.
22/01/2011 11:48:21 PM
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This month is just making me hate classics.
23/01/2011 12:06:08 AM
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Aw. That's a shame.
23/01/2011 12:21:10 AM
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Re: Aw. That's a shame.
23/01/2011 12:55:44 PM
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Hrm... a high fantasy classic...
23/01/2011 01:15:05 PM
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Yes.
23/01/2011 01:17:18 PM
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Dunsany is good. And Grimm, but
23/01/2011 01:25:40 PM
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There's really only one high fantasy classic, no? Or two, if you count the Silm separately. *NM*
23/01/2011 01:35:03 PM
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Perhaps Gormenghast?
23/01/2011 01:58:50 PM
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H. Rider Haggard.
23/01/2011 01:24:01 PM
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You can't love all of the classics, but it's not like it's a genre of its own that you can dislike.
23/01/2011 12:32:01 AM
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You just aren't reading the right books (and reviews), it seems
23/01/2011 12:41:07 AM
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The Swiss Family Robinson is hardly a "classic", unless by "classic" you mean "old".
23/01/2011 06:55:30 AM
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A lot of "classics" need proper context to be appreciated
23/01/2011 12:22:44 PM
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Well said.
23/01/2011 12:46:35 PM
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Re: Well said.
24/01/2011 02:33:10 AM
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That reminds me I need to get back to the Mémoires of Marguerite de Valois.
24/01/2011 10:17:17 PM
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Very true
23/01/2011 01:04:56 PM
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Speaking of Dumas...
24/01/2011 02:45:02 AM
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ooooh
24/01/2011 08:51:46 AM
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The Molière movie is called... wait for it...
24/01/2011 10:21:48 PM
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oooh
24/01/2011 10:24:19 PM
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Re: oooh
24/01/2011 10:29:23 PM
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Re: oooh
25/01/2011 01:15:39 AM
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I really should watch that movie.
25/01/2011 09:43:35 PM
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Re: I really should watch that movie.
25/01/2011 11:15:10 PM
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Why not? We liked Le Déclin de l'Empire Américain and Les Invasions Barbares. *NM*
26/01/2011 06:45:26 PM
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Re: Why not? We liked Le Déclin de l'Empire Américain and Les Invasions Barbares.
27/01/2011 12:26:48 PM
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Re: A few thoughts on my Classic challenge book. Well, books, as it turns out.
23/01/2011 06:25:50 AM
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The big problem with Dracula is that it's an epistolary novel.
23/01/2011 06:58:25 AM
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Yeah, agreed.
23/01/2011 09:46:57 AM
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But Frankenstein doesn't even have good writing to recommend it.
23/01/2011 10:09:58 AM
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Dracula is the book I hope to review (properly) today. I love it. So very much.
23/01/2011 10:08:34 AM
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The challenge is making me wish I hadn't already read Frankenstein
23/01/2011 07:38:49 AM
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Really?
23/01/2011 07:52:24 AM
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...
23/01/2011 09:08:03 AM
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Thank you. *NM*
23/01/2011 10:10:34 AM
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For, as usual, being my wonderful, divine self and bringing light to the world? *NM*
23/01/2011 10:12:30 AM
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Re: A few thoughts on my Classic challenge book. Well, books, as it turns out.
23/01/2011 08:53:01 AM
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I just read A Christmas Carol as well. It's very short, alright.
02/02/2011 08:46:16 PM
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