I'VE BEEN READING A COUPLE OF BLOGS LATELY WHICH DEAL WITH SIMILAR SNOBBERY TO MY OWN, BY WAY OF LITTLE ANIMAL GUYS SAYING THINGS AGAINST A PINWHEEL BACKGROUND. THEY ARE UNEVEN -- BECAUSE ALL OF THE CONTENT IS USER-SUBMITTED, THERE ARE NO REAL STANDARDS OF QUALITY. A LOT OF IT IS BASICALLY "DON'T CONFORM TO MY HALF-UNDERSTOOD CONCEPTION OF PRESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR? I WILL END YOU, BITCH/*LOADS SHOTGUN*/DIE IN A FIRE/I AM FOURTEEN YEARS OLD AND WEAR T-SHIRTS FEATURING STEWIE FROM FAMILY GUY" BUT THE FREQUENCY OF GENUINELY AMUSING POSTS IS SURPRISINGLY HIGH. SOMETIMES THESE BLOGS ARE PRETTY FUNNY.
UNFORTUNATELY THEY ARE ALSO SOMETIMES UNBELIEVABLY STUPID. AND RECENTLY, ONE OF THE BLOGS DEVOLVED FROM POSTING FUNNY ARMADILLOS TALKING ABOUT JANE AUSTEN INTO POSTING A BUNCH OF ANONYMOUS COMMENTS ABOUT THE HARRY POTTER AND TWILIGHT SERIES. IT SPANNED ALL THE BIG QUESTIONS OF THINKING ABOUT BOOKS FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T READ MANY: WHAT CONSTITUTES "REAL LITERATURE"? IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HIGH AND LOW CULTURE? HOW MANY WIKIPEDIA SUMMARIES OF POST-MODERN THEORISTS DO YOU HAVE TO SKIM BEFORE YOU ARE LITERALLY SWALLOWED WHOLE BY YOUR OWN ANUS?
AS USUAL MY FIRST REACTION WAS TO STRIP NAKED AND TIE A BELT AROUND MY NECK SO THAT I MIGHT ESCAPE THE UNIVERSE IN A FINAL, GLORIOUS FRENZY OF AUTO-EROTIC ASPHYXIATION. BUT THEN I THOUGHT "MAYBE I COULD JUST COMPILE THESE AND POST THEM ON THE INTERNET. HEH, THEN EVERYBODY WILL KNOW HOW MUCH BETTER I AM THAN THESE IDIOTS." I OPENED MY LAPTOP AND TIPPED THE MORNING'S THIRD BAG OF TORTILLA CHIPS INTO MY FAT SMIRKING FACE. "YEAH. NOW EVERYBODY WILL KNOW HOW SMART I AM."
SO HERE PRESENTED FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DISCUSSION. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THESE ARE REAL PEOPLE, EITHER WITH, OR WORKING TOWARDS, DEGREES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.
"I wouldn't say sorry to the person that took the 300-level course based on the Twilight books. I am writing a rhetoric paper on one of the speeches in the last book. As an English major, I think the books offer more academically than people think. This is only if the professor does it right."
"Why in the world are people absolutely obsessed with terrible modern series about vampires falling in love with humans and werewolfs? Why are they also swept up into Harry Potter; claiming that it is by far their favorite literature.
People should appreciate the classic masterpieces."
"To everyone hating on Twilight:
...
Please read this quote:
'Though the derision of the Twilight Saga's success is not altogether surprising, the public commentary repudiates the appeal of the narratives, positions girls and women as unexpected and unwelcome media fans, and denies the long and rich history of the relationships female fans have had with media texts and personalities. On top of this, the mainstream press has belittled the reactions of girls and women to the Twilight series and the actors who play their favorite characters, frequently using Victorian era gendered words like 'fever,' 'madness,' 'hysteria,' and 'obsession' to describe Twilighters. [...] These reports of girls and women seemingly out of their minds and out of control disparage female pleasures and curtail serious exploration of the strong appeal of the series.' Introduction to 'Bitten by Twilight,' by Melissa A. Click, Jennifer Stevens Aubrey, and Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz."
"In defense of the Harry Potter series, I don't see what's wrong with it. Maybe it's not epic, classic prose, but it's not as if classic literature was immediately well-liked either. People have a hard time defining what they consider classic literature, but most of the time it's something from further in the past and not something that's been released in the past decade or so. Personally, I'm an English major with a concentration in Literary Studies and I...don't want to say HATE it, but I'm not a big fan of classic lit. I appreciate it for how it has formed literature as we see it today (outside of garbage like Twilight), but people are too bent on holding classic lit above everything else and dismissing perfectly good, modern works because they weren't written 30 years before. I find it particularly unfortunate when people can't seem to get their noses out of the air and appreciate modern lit without comparing it to something written by Shakespeare or one of the Bronte sisters."
"In response to the anon who thinks we should stick to enjoying the 'classic masterpieces,' the canon is overwhelmingly comprised of literature written by white men. Many incredible literary works have been left off the list of masterpieces because they were written by women, minorities, etc. While I agree that everyone should look beyond Harry Potter and Twilight for good reading, the 'classic masterpieces' aren't and shouldn't be the primary focus of literature."
"Why, anon? Why are they so taken with these books? Why were you so taken with whatever books brought you into the scope of literature when you were younger?
Not everyone learned to read before they went to school, and not everyone who learned to read had an easy time with it. Some people have learning disabilities, some people have an easier time listening to literature than reading it, some people just can't comprehend the density of the early novels. It doesn't make them any less intelligent that they prefer Harry Potter to Ulysses. It just means that Harry Potter was what they were able to connect to on more than just a superficial level--on an emotional level, on an intellectual level. I've attended symposiums that have delivered astounding lectures on the symbolism and intent of the series. I've dissected the books in my grad-level classes alongside Milton and Tolkien.
So you, anon, with your elitist perspective--you, anon, who believes that reading is an art of the aristocracy and the fortunately literate, you can take your opinion to your 'superior tomes' and associate exclusively with your fellow scholars and intellectuals and look down on the unwashed masses all you like. Please forgive them for maybe discovering for the first time that they CAN and DO connect with literature, and PLEASE forgive that it's something so uncouth as Harry Potter, for they are not worthy to read your classics!"
"To the other Anon who asked why people are obsessed with modern series *cough* Twilight *cough* as well as Harry Potter, I feel that you are letting yourself remain too pigeonholed in literature. The great, classic works once started somewhere, and although I detest Twilight, I appreciate good modern literature. One day, as with the classics, people may look back on things such as Harry Potter or Wicked (by Gregory Maguire) and study the political symbolism or great stylistic ideas behind them. What we need to understand is that even though you may not like a piece of literature, it has become part of history; people, years from now, will try to figure out why or why not we did not like something. So please, do not come off as someone that, because of your preference in literature, thinks that everything else is lower. Yes, people should appreciate the classic masterpieces, but the wide and beautiful world of writing is constantly evolving. Open up your mind to those as well. Who knows, maybe Harry Potter will become part of the Canon one day."
"In response to a post I read on March 19th on the issue of people claiming their favorite books are Twilight and Harry Potter, and how those people need to appreciate classic literature:
While I do agree that most of the 'literature' we find today is nothing in comparison to classics, I do have to point out the frustration I feel when people compare the Harry Potter and Twilight series. As a Realist Literature fan myself, I've never really liked anything written within the last one-hundred years. However I must comment on how Rowling created a fascinating story with a writing style which matured alongside her characters and audience. If the evolving writing doesn't qualify for some, it's also important to note that the series follows the classic 'Hero's Journey' form and is already beginning to be analyzed as a social commentary.
I agree people should be educated in the classics, but it's also important not to dismiss Harry Potter simply because it is targeted at children and young adults. We can look at many children's books in the past who have spread important messages through very simple texts, and have stood the test of time to become those literary classics we now revere.
Harry Potter tells an engaging story with an age appropriate writing style, while at the same time giving a nod to preceding classic literary forms. It has themes and can be 'close-read' like any other legitimate text.
Twilight is about a self-effacing girl who can't function without her boyfriend and his stalker-like behavior. The writing style reflects the work of one who thinks looking up words in the thesaurus and writing in excessive passive voice equates legitimate literature. Simply put, it seems to me that Harry Potter has the possibility to be examined as literature and Twilight remains nothing more that a type of 'fluff' novel.
Although I would hesitate to call anything an 'instant classic', I would also like to pose this question: Will our generation's children be reading Twilight or Harry Potter?"
"In response to the anon complaining about people loving HP over classic masterpieces: I think you have to see the difference in the way people love the two things. I personally am an English lit student and some of my favourite novels are 'classics'; Mrs Dalloway, Wuthering Heights, The Unbearable Lightness of Being etc. But if asked what my favourite books are, that list has always included Harry Potter. That series has been with me for ten years, and nothing quite compares to opening one of those novels and getting lost in that world again. I love reading novels that make me think or that are written in a language that moves me, but I also know that some people just want a story to escape into, and Harry Potter provides that beautifully. The way the story is constructed, the enourmous variety of characters and ideas that Rowling used to craft a whole world that feels like it really could be just around the corner, it is all astonishing and I admire her for that as much as I admire other writers for the way they use language or the ideas they convey.
I won't comment on Twilight because I haven't read it and don't intend to, and have issues with it myself from what I've heard about it. But Harry Potter played a huge role in my childhood and I a so grateful it is part of my life. I fuelled my love for reading and writing. And I think that children who discover Harry Potter in their youth are all that more likely to keep reading later on and read your classic masterpieces."
"I must say, that I partly disagree with the previous anon. I'd consider Harry Potter a masterpiece in itself. Why should it be such a negative thing that the Harry Potter series are people's favourite books? Most people, like myself, have grown up with the series, and I believe that it's most definitely done a lot for children's literature. That can't be disputed. I know the anon was saying that people should appreciate the classic masterpieces as apposed to the aforementioned Harry Potter series, which is fair enough, but you have to consider the people you're saying that to. Most Harry Potter readers are children, and people and in their pre-teens, and I don't mean to be funny, but most kids that age don't spend their free time reading shakespeare or john donne. If you think about it, the Harry Potter series does have its links and interjections with classic literature and mythology. I myself have learnt a lot about classic literature from the series, such as Chaucer, and I think that's where J.K. Rowling should be credited for her excellent storywriting skills. It's difficult to be able to construct such a structured plot, and incorporate the amount of classic and historical references as Rowling does, so I think it's slightly unfair to suggest that people are disregarding classical literature, when they're probably already learning about it in the books they find interesting."
"To the anon who commented saying, 'People should appreciate the classic masterpieces:'
Classic literature is not for everyone. We're English majors, we eat that stuff up, but even I will admit to disliking some of the 'masterpieces.' It's personal preference. There's nothing wrong with people reading and enjoying a book about werewolves and vampires or witches and wizards if that's what interests them.
Reading, for me at least, is an escape. It allows me to lose myself in a world that is not my own. I grew up on Harry Potter and it is one of my favorite series, but that doesn't mean I don't 'appreciate' what came before it, or that I'll dismiss what comes after it. J.K. Rowling changed the world with her books, and Harry Potter will become classic literature.
As to Twilight, I'll be the first to say those books are not well-written at all, and they belong as far away from the canon as possible, but they got people who wouldn't normally read, to actually read. I mean seriously, isn't that the whole goal? To get people reading?
It's like music, there's something for everyone and not everyone likes the exact same genres/artists/songs. Everyone is going to like different literature. You shouldn't disregard that. You should embrace it."
"I love classic literature. I read big books all the time. I relish having to look up new vocabulary. I like having to work at my reading. I like battling against archaic wordings, and out-of-date turns of phrase, and old fashioned conventions.
But if you asked me what three books I'd want with me on a deserted island for the rest of my days, I'd tell you honestly that I'd rather have Good Omens, Paper Towns and Lord of the Rings than all the Dickens and Shakespeare in the world."
"Lovely opinion! I feel essentially the same way! :o)"
(IF YOU TOO ARE NOW NAKED AND JERKING/CHOKING YOURSELF ALL THE WAY TO THE REALM OF THE SUBLIME, PLEASE DO CHECK OUT THE CLASSICS MAJOR CROCODILE, WHICH HAS A HIT RATE OF ABOUT 90% IN MY QUALIFIED AND SCIENTIFIC OPINION, AND PROVES THAT A FEW PEOPLE STILL KNOW HOW TO READ.)
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
THE BEST OF MARCH
HOMER - THE ILIAD
"This was a terrible time with so much blood shed, and so much pain for both sides. Achilles when he died I was sad. But in the end the side I was on won. Troy was destroyed just the way me and Athena planed. They did and excellent job. Homer captured this story as if he was actually there but he was not and I saw it all for myself and planed it all. Like a well played game of chest."
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD - THE GREAT GATSBY
"Gatsby was obviously drunk, or smoking marijuana when he was writing this book, and must have thougth that this book was pretty clever. It isn't."
OSCAR WILDE - THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
"When I just read some chapters of this book, I didn't realized anything wrong with it. However, I talked it over with others and realized that the book was full of allusions to the 'worst side of life,' something that might remind you of Hyde in 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.'
Oscar Wilde, the author, was gay, so there are even allusions to that. This book was considered 'immoral,' and the people during that time who read this book were extremely surprised. This book was the evidence given in Wilde's trial for his homosexual liaisons.
And as the story goes, it gets worse and worse. The author states 'A white-smocked carter offered him some cherries. He thanked him, and wondered why he refused to accept any money for them,...' Do you understand what this means? This means that the cherries have been picked in the midnight. Would you pick cherries in midnight? No, unless you are a robber.
Also, on the same page(pg.100), 'A long line of boys carrying crates of striped tulips, and of yellow and red roses, defiled in front of him,...' If you don't know the meaning of 'defiled,' you might want to look it up in the dictionary."
ERNEST HEMINGWAY - FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
"If you want to read an award-winning author's works, do not read this edition. It is censored to remove the profanity by usning the words 'unprintable' repeatedly. Very insulting to any reader. If young people can't handle such vocabulary, they should stick with 'The Adventures of Barney.'"
SIGMUND FREUD - CIVILIZATIONS AND ITS DISCONTENTS
"Being a Judaic, Freud was an outsider to Occidental civilization and he certainly was discontent (or more like, despised it) with it ... If you're European or of European descent, read C.G. Jung's masterpiece Modern Man in Search of a Soul instead of this slim book."
PLATO - THE SYMPOSIUM
"I hate plato. Other than his formula for writing a tragedy (which you can use over and over again to make money, if you're smart), he has nothing to offer."
VIRGIL - AENEID
"It's as if George W. Bush, after being adjudicated the U.S. Presidency in 2000 (instead of winning the election), had commissioned popular author of the day J.K. Rowlins to write that America had been founded by wizards, and one of those wizards was Bush's great-great-great-great-great grandfather. I know what my reaction to that would be."
VIRGINIA WOOLF - MRS DALLOWAY
"Socialising Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares to give a party, her fist lover Peter Walsh who unexpectedly shows up"
HERODOTUS - THE HISTORY
"Why do we insist that just because something is written 6,000 years ago that makes it good? Maybe, just maybe, it's 6,000 years old for a good reason. I have to admit, I still haven't finished it."
FRANZ KAFKA - THE METAMORPHOSIS
"I hate you and your stupid genre, Kafka."
"This was a terrible time with so much blood shed, and so much pain for both sides. Achilles when he died I was sad. But in the end the side I was on won. Troy was destroyed just the way me and Athena planed. They did and excellent job. Homer captured this story as if he was actually there but he was not and I saw it all for myself and planed it all. Like a well played game of chest."
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD - THE GREAT GATSBY
"Gatsby was obviously drunk, or smoking marijuana when he was writing this book, and must have thougth that this book was pretty clever. It isn't."
OSCAR WILDE - THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
"When I just read some chapters of this book, I didn't realized anything wrong with it. However, I talked it over with others and realized that the book was full of allusions to the 'worst side of life,' something that might remind you of Hyde in 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.'
Oscar Wilde, the author, was gay, so there are even allusions to that. This book was considered 'immoral,' and the people during that time who read this book were extremely surprised. This book was the evidence given in Wilde's trial for his homosexual liaisons.
And as the story goes, it gets worse and worse. The author states 'A white-smocked carter offered him some cherries. He thanked him, and wondered why he refused to accept any money for them,...' Do you understand what this means? This means that the cherries have been picked in the midnight. Would you pick cherries in midnight? No, unless you are a robber.
Also, on the same page(pg.100), 'A long line of boys carrying crates of striped tulips, and of yellow and red roses, defiled in front of him,...' If you don't know the meaning of 'defiled,' you might want to look it up in the dictionary."
ERNEST HEMINGWAY - FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
"If you want to read an award-winning author's works, do not read this edition. It is censored to remove the profanity by usning the words 'unprintable' repeatedly. Very insulting to any reader. If young people can't handle such vocabulary, they should stick with 'The Adventures of Barney.'"
SIGMUND FREUD - CIVILIZATIONS AND ITS DISCONTENTS
"Being a Judaic, Freud was an outsider to Occidental civilization and he certainly was discontent (or more like, despised it) with it ... If you're European or of European descent, read C.G. Jung's masterpiece Modern Man in Search of a Soul instead of this slim book."
PLATO - THE SYMPOSIUM
"I hate plato. Other than his formula for writing a tragedy (which you can use over and over again to make money, if you're smart), he has nothing to offer."
VIRGIL - AENEID
"It's as if George W. Bush, after being adjudicated the U.S. Presidency in 2000 (instead of winning the election), had commissioned popular author of the day J.K. Rowlins to write that America had been founded by wizards, and one of those wizards was Bush's great-great-great-great-great grandfather. I know what my reaction to that would be."
VIRGINIA WOOLF - MRS DALLOWAY
"Socialising Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares to give a party, her fist lover Peter Walsh who unexpectedly shows up"
HERODOTUS - THE HISTORY
"Why do we insist that just because something is written 6,000 years ago that makes it good? Maybe, just maybe, it's 6,000 years old for a good reason. I have to admit, I still haven't finished it."
FRANZ KAFKA - THE METAMORPHOSIS
"I hate you and your stupid genre, Kafka."
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Euripides - Medea
"this book to me it was not so good and it wasnt so much interesting.i think that this book could have been better by some ways."
"This an amazing...book"
"book is iight"
"i did, and do not like this book. Nor will i ever"
"Medea. Whiny, crazy, prone to ranting, wronged into insanity, her myth is a very fertile ground for feminism ... Even at the character's worst, though, let's not forget that Greek literature is the home of pushing a boulder up a hill for all eternity, running away from a rapist god only to turn into a tree, or a sociopathic hero holding up the sky, wrestling another god and fetching half a dozen lethal animals just because the king said so. It's terrible that Medea was treated this way, but on the list of people who got mistreated in ancient literature, she doesn't make the top 100."
"i learned that there is no true love in this book.The way jason treated madea was just bad because how he lefft her for some one else."
"That woman was pathetic...Her (ex)husband was clueless and those poor children!! It is entertaining but it makes me want to burn princesses and stab children too! (Not literally)"
"i didnt really like the book that much it didnt catch my attention but i learned dhat you dont blame others for your depression."
"from this book ive learned that karma is a really intense topic"
"Ma review on this book is really amazing. I really like this book alot. Basically, I can compare this book to my life becuase like Medea I would have done anythintg for my ex boyfriend. But one thing I wouldnt do is Kill someone or anything. But from There I would recomend this book to anybody."
"Well.. I liked when people died. It was cool."
"This an amazing...book"
"book is iight"
"i did, and do not like this book. Nor will i ever"
"Medea. Whiny, crazy, prone to ranting, wronged into insanity, her myth is a very fertile ground for feminism ... Even at the character's worst, though, let's not forget that Greek literature is the home of pushing a boulder up a hill for all eternity, running away from a rapist god only to turn into a tree, or a sociopathic hero holding up the sky, wrestling another god and fetching half a dozen lethal animals just because the king said so. It's terrible that Medea was treated this way, but on the list of people who got mistreated in ancient literature, she doesn't make the top 100."
"i learned that there is no true love in this book.The way jason treated madea was just bad because how he lefft her for some one else."
"That woman was pathetic...Her (ex)husband was clueless and those poor children!! It is entertaining but it makes me want to burn princesses and stab children too! (Not literally)"
"i didnt really like the book that much it didnt catch my attention but i learned dhat you dont blame others for your depression."
"from this book ive learned that karma is a really intense topic"
"Ma review on this book is really amazing. I really like this book alot. Basically, I can compare this book to my life becuase like Medea I would have done anythintg for my ex boyfriend. But one thing I wouldnt do is Kill someone or anything. But from There I would recomend this book to anybody."
"Well.. I liked when people died. It was cool."
Monday, March 28, 2011
Vladimir Nabokov - Pale Fire
"If I had had the time and inclination to study it for six weeks straight, I may have pronounced it brilliant, but personally, I don't believe you should have to do that to be able to get the gist of a novel. This book is only for English majors who've been assigned it or perhaps for people with a long commitment to the psychiatric hospital who have nothing but time on their hands."
"Ugh. Tried again. Guess it's genuine. Sorry, but I can't stand to read Navokov. Sad, as I like the classicists."
"I enjoyed the 1000 line poem, but the 200 pages worth of another persons thoughts about the poem is out of hand. On a personal level I would rather be lost in a poem and attempt to understand it on my own than have to endure someone else telling me how I should perceive the poetic language. It is like waking up to someone telling you how to feel today, simply wasted words."
"This is, without a doubt, the most difficult book I've ever read."
"I've decided to abandon more books. Why force myself? However, I do skim to try to be sure I'm not missing something."
"Is Kinbote the fugitive King of Zembla, or not? And, to be rude for a moment, who cares? If Nabokov did not care enough to tell us, but preferred to occupy himself with trivia such as 'word golf,' then one might well guess that this whole entertaining mess was written by Nabokov as a sort of "anti-Lolita" in his empty afternoons ... We have become accustomed to taking Vladimir Nabokov at his own estimation, as some sort of Great Artist. In fact, there is an argument to be made that Nabokov slaved away as a college professor until he hit on the idea of writing a piece of 'artistic' kiddie-porn ('Lolita'). He really raked in the bucks from that idea, and immediately left the United States to live out the rest of his life in a high-class Swiss hotel.
Born an aristo, and died an aristo. Will we still be reading his books in a hundred years?
I don't think so."
"Ugh. Tried again. Guess it's genuine. Sorry, but I can't stand to read Navokov. Sad, as I like the classicists."
"I enjoyed the 1000 line poem, but the 200 pages worth of another persons thoughts about the poem is out of hand. On a personal level I would rather be lost in a poem and attempt to understand it on my own than have to endure someone else telling me how I should perceive the poetic language. It is like waking up to someone telling you how to feel today, simply wasted words."
"This is, without a doubt, the most difficult book I've ever read."
"I've decided to abandon more books. Why force myself? However, I do skim to try to be sure I'm not missing something."
"Is Kinbote the fugitive King of Zembla, or not? And, to be rude for a moment, who cares? If Nabokov did not care enough to tell us, but preferred to occupy himself with trivia such as 'word golf,' then one might well guess that this whole entertaining mess was written by Nabokov as a sort of "anti-Lolita" in his empty afternoons ... We have become accustomed to taking Vladimir Nabokov at his own estimation, as some sort of Great Artist. In fact, there is an argument to be made that Nabokov slaved away as a college professor until he hit on the idea of writing a piece of 'artistic' kiddie-porn ('Lolita'). He really raked in the bucks from that idea, and immediately left the United States to live out the rest of his life in a high-class Swiss hotel.
Born an aristo, and died an aristo. Will we still be reading his books in a hundred years?
I don't think so."
Sunday, March 27, 2011
The Nibelungenlied
"I don't care if it is a classic, this book irritated me. It's probably better in German, but the good guys lost... being old and famous has never been an excuse for depressing endings for me."
"Like Beowulf, El Mio Cid, and The Song of Roland, this epic poem is *meh* the older version of a shoot 'em up movie."
"My problem is, actually, with the story itself. Now, this tale is one of the best stories man ever told - you just wouldn't know it from reading Das Nibelungenlied. You see, this happens to be the Bavarian version of the brilliant Scandinavian epic Volsungsaga, and if you want to find out what that story's all about, I urge you to go read the Norse version. The Volsungsaga is timeless - the passions fly to unknowable heights, the gods walk among men, and the actors of the drama burn with an overpowering flame. Much like a Joy Division song, in that regard."
"I'm sick of all the snobs going on and on about what a great, classic epic this is. If this book were written today, it would never sell. The fact that it's old and now an esoteric topic makes people feel like they're a more astute reader for being able to talk about it. I wrote this kind of stuff when I was in 5th grade! The characters have very little depth, nothing is explained, and the view of character's nobility changes. In addition, this story was copied down by christian monks and therefore has a christian tilt to it, which further clouds the morals of the story. In summary, it's not good; it's just old. Want to read some really good fantasy? Read George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones. You won't be dissappointed."
"Like Beowulf, El Mio Cid, and The Song of Roland, this epic poem is *meh* the older version of a shoot 'em up movie."
"My problem is, actually, with the story itself. Now, this tale is one of the best stories man ever told - you just wouldn't know it from reading Das Nibelungenlied. You see, this happens to be the Bavarian version of the brilliant Scandinavian epic Volsungsaga, and if you want to find out what that story's all about, I urge you to go read the Norse version. The Volsungsaga is timeless - the passions fly to unknowable heights, the gods walk among men, and the actors of the drama burn with an overpowering flame. Much like a Joy Division song, in that regard."
"I'm sick of all the snobs going on and on about what a great, classic epic this is. If this book were written today, it would never sell. The fact that it's old and now an esoteric topic makes people feel like they're a more astute reader for being able to talk about it. I wrote this kind of stuff when I was in 5th grade! The characters have very little depth, nothing is explained, and the view of character's nobility changes. In addition, this story was copied down by christian monks and therefore has a christian tilt to it, which further clouds the morals of the story. In summary, it's not good; it's just old. Want to read some really good fantasy? Read George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones. You won't be dissappointed."
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis
"An older son supports his younger sister and elderly parents as a traveling salesman. One morning he wakes up and has discovered that he is now a big beetle-like bug. Okaaaay...."
"I'm sorry, but this is about a sentient cockroach. That's just wrong."
"Technically I read this book in German, and if I could give it zero stars, I would. I read the first sentence (in German, mind you) around 3:30 in the morning earlier this semester, and was convinced I was loosing my mind and that I couldn't be translating it right. It read: 'Gregor Samsa awoke on morning to discover that he had somehow transformed into a giant cockaroach'. After typing the sentence into freetranslation.com and finding out I actually had read and translated it correctly, I thought for sure the author had lost
his mind."
"I hate you and your stupid genre, Kafka."
"Never once did I have a thought like, 'Oh, that was interesting' or 'Ohh, I can't wait to find out what happens, or find out what his life is like as an insect.'"
"Its the dumbest thing I have ever read, I don't care what it was supposed to be a metaphor for or why it was considered to be good at its time, its crap, pure crap."
"This book is so retarded. How did it become a classic?? It's about a guy who randomly wakes up and sees that he has turned into a cockroach over night. Yet, he is still set on catching the next train and going to work so he doesn't lose his job. What the heck?!!! How was he planning on working in his state. Like, people would think it was kind of weird if a random cockroach walked into their office."
"This novel, The Metamorphosis, in my eyes was boring and had no point in my view. I hate this novel and I rate it very low because it is very fictional and I do not think that changing that much would ever occur to mess up somebody's family that bad. "
"I totally feel that readint Tje Metamorphosis was a waste of time. Yeah, the symbology was interesting but the truth is: I would totally give this book to a ten-year-old kid and that kid would understand it perfectly. He wakes up as a coackroach (?) and he NEVER asks why! He just thinks that he has to work and whatever. No one wonders what happened or why he just turns into a bug and lives like a bug until he dies because he has an infection caused by an apple that his own father used to atack him. Plus, which was the bug size? He was small as a bug but still he was able to do lost of noise, stay with apples in its back and push forniture all over the room. I understood the symbology but this book was simply a waste of time."
"I felt relief when Gregor finally died."
"Quite simply the worst piece of writing I have ever undertaken. Although one can show Kafka respect for exploring the abstract and attempting (but unsuccessfully) pushing the bounds of writing styles, this is not a piece of literature to be respected."
"Again I don't get it, at all. Was Kafka's point that Gregor dominated the family to the point of being a big bully and the only way to free themselves of him was to kill him?"
"No matter how much symbolism and no matter how good a writer Kafka was, there is no getting over the creepiness and depression in this story."
"I just thought this was a remarkably silly book. Fantasy writers do better than this all the time but don't get the recognition. Perhaps the most overrated book in history. At least in the top five most overrated."
"This story had no point to it. It was extremely boring, which I found ironic because the message was not to lead a boring life."
"Um... everytime I look back at reading this book, I still think huh? It made no sense. But that is just me, I am not a fan of foreign writers somtimes :)."
"A man turns into a bug. Queue Russian author being overly descriptive. Voila! You have Kafka's formula!"
"I am sorry, but I must say that this book was a waste. Kafka's writing style, grammar, ability to portray the characters. etc. is excellent, but nothing ever really happened. Kafka spends the whole time describing how Gregor feels and the family's reaction. This is a key point for anything extraordinary, but not important enough to focus the idea into a full book."
"The premise of the story has a lot of promise. I mean, people turning into bugs? That has some serious potential right there. Instead we start the story with a guy that wakes up as a bug and his first thoughts aren't 'OMG! I'm a freaking BUG!!!' Instead he thinks 'OMG! I'm late for work! How am I going to get to work?' I understand that situations can be difficult to imagine. I myself have never turned into a bug."
"I don't see anything philosophical, moral or intelligent about this book. It's a boring, nonsensical story that has no point and on top of that is an excellent example of extreme ennui. If anyone other than the intellectual, snob critics' pet 'Kafka' had written it it would have been flushed down the toilet where it deserves to be."
"In my opinion, it sounded like it was written by someone on weed. I say he woke up trippin and saw himself as a bug and later decided to write about it."
"don't read it
complete waste of your tim"
"no like
my name is zatch and um yeah and theat ll"
"There is something to this story, but I'm at a loss as to what it is. Misery loves company, maybe. Part of the problem is that I am not sure what Kafka's metaphor is representing. The closest thing I can see is someone getting into a crippling accident, and the family getting alientated by all the care they have to give to the relative. Image what Christopher Reeves' family is going though right now since he is paralyzed."
"Hated this book. No sympathy for the MC, and didn't really care what happened to him. Ugh."
NOT COOL
"I'm sorry, but this is about a sentient cockroach. That's just wrong."
"Technically I read this book in German, and if I could give it zero stars, I would. I read the first sentence (in German, mind you) around 3:30 in the morning earlier this semester, and was convinced I was loosing my mind and that I couldn't be translating it right. It read: 'Gregor Samsa awoke on morning to discover that he had somehow transformed into a giant cockaroach'. After typing the sentence into freetranslation.com and finding out I actually had read and translated it correctly, I thought for sure the author had lost
his mind."
"I hate you and your stupid genre, Kafka."
"Never once did I have a thought like, 'Oh, that was interesting' or 'Ohh, I can't wait to find out what happens, or find out what his life is like as an insect.'"
"Its the dumbest thing I have ever read, I don't care what it was supposed to be a metaphor for or why it was considered to be good at its time, its crap, pure crap."
"This book is so retarded. How did it become a classic?? It's about a guy who randomly wakes up and sees that he has turned into a cockroach over night. Yet, he is still set on catching the next train and going to work so he doesn't lose his job. What the heck?!!! How was he planning on working in his state. Like, people would think it was kind of weird if a random cockroach walked into their office."
"This novel, The Metamorphosis, in my eyes was boring and had no point in my view. I hate this novel and I rate it very low because it is very fictional and I do not think that changing that much would ever occur to mess up somebody's family that bad. "
"I totally feel that readint Tje Metamorphosis was a waste of time. Yeah, the symbology was interesting but the truth is: I would totally give this book to a ten-year-old kid and that kid would understand it perfectly. He wakes up as a coackroach (?) and he NEVER asks why! He just thinks that he has to work and whatever. No one wonders what happened or why he just turns into a bug and lives like a bug until he dies because he has an infection caused by an apple that his own father used to atack him. Plus, which was the bug size? He was small as a bug but still he was able to do lost of noise, stay with apples in its back and push forniture all over the room. I understood the symbology but this book was simply a waste of time."
"I felt relief when Gregor finally died."
"Quite simply the worst piece of writing I have ever undertaken. Although one can show Kafka respect for exploring the abstract and attempting (but unsuccessfully) pushing the bounds of writing styles, this is not a piece of literature to be respected."
"Again I don't get it, at all. Was Kafka's point that Gregor dominated the family to the point of being a big bully and the only way to free themselves of him was to kill him?"
"No matter how much symbolism and no matter how good a writer Kafka was, there is no getting over the creepiness and depression in this story."
"I just thought this was a remarkably silly book. Fantasy writers do better than this all the time but don't get the recognition. Perhaps the most overrated book in history. At least in the top five most overrated."
"This story had no point to it. It was extremely boring, which I found ironic because the message was not to lead a boring life."
"Um... everytime I look back at reading this book, I still think huh? It made no sense. But that is just me, I am not a fan of foreign writers somtimes :)."
"A man turns into a bug. Queue Russian author being overly descriptive. Voila! You have Kafka's formula!"
"I am sorry, but I must say that this book was a waste. Kafka's writing style, grammar, ability to portray the characters. etc. is excellent, but nothing ever really happened. Kafka spends the whole time describing how Gregor feels and the family's reaction. This is a key point for anything extraordinary, but not important enough to focus the idea into a full book."
"The premise of the story has a lot of promise. I mean, people turning into bugs? That has some serious potential right there. Instead we start the story with a guy that wakes up as a bug and his first thoughts aren't 'OMG! I'm a freaking BUG!!!' Instead he thinks 'OMG! I'm late for work! How am I going to get to work?' I understand that situations can be difficult to imagine. I myself have never turned into a bug."
"I don't see anything philosophical, moral or intelligent about this book. It's a boring, nonsensical story that has no point and on top of that is an excellent example of extreme ennui. If anyone other than the intellectual, snob critics' pet 'Kafka' had written it it would have been flushed down the toilet where it deserves to be."
"In my opinion, it sounded like it was written by someone on weed. I say he woke up trippin and saw himself as a bug and later decided to write about it."
"don't read it
complete waste of your tim"
"no like
my name is zatch and um yeah and theat ll"
"There is something to this story, but I'm at a loss as to what it is. Misery loves company, maybe. Part of the problem is that I am not sure what Kafka's metaphor is representing. The closest thing I can see is someone getting into a crippling accident, and the family getting alientated by all the care they have to give to the relative. Image what Christopher Reeves' family is going though right now since he is paralyzed."
"Hated this book. No sympathy for the MC, and didn't really care what happened to him. Ugh."
NOT COOL
Friday, March 25, 2011
Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales
"too poetic."
"I couldn't finish this. Perhaps it's the translation. Perhaps they didn't translate it enough."
"Terrible. I wouldnt recommend this to anyone. I didnt even finish it. Maybe its because I dont appreciate the poetic side to it or the way its written. Whatever it is, I thought it was a terrible book."
"I realize the time period this was written in, and maybe I'm just too modern of a woman to enjoy this kind of thing, but this was one of the most sexist, elitist, and culturally discriminatory works I've ever read."
"I have so many things to do in my life I just don't want to take the time to read something that isn't appropriate."
"I don't easily understand poetry and traditional prose, so this was very hard to understand for me. I'm very sarcastic and can be quite cynical at times, so if this hadn't been so much work for me to read, I may have enjoyed it more."
"Ugh. This was one of those "Let's read this in Olde English-Middle English!!!!" college reads. That I didn't actually read the whole thing of. It's a metastory in poem form. I just didn't like the stories and I really hated the Olde English (it's seriously like another language). Good thing for 1066. (lol)"
"Gawd. I don't like the language (Old English), and I don't like the style (verse, poetry). I read for pleasure, and reading this is about as much fun as wiping your butt with a Brillo pad."
"Many people can be divided into camps of either liking Chaucer or Milton."
"Very slow moving, reminds me of Aesop's type fable reading."
"Just leave me alone. Yes, I don't understand you and I really don't like you, so what? Am I going to burn on a stick, while Goodreads crowd is going to scream, 'You witch, burn, you witch! You deserve no better!'"
"Chaucer makes you remember that the England of his day had a much smaller population than nowadays, along with a proportionally small amount of persons with an IQ of 100 or above. That's the only way I can see how this book gained its reputation as a classic."
"I hate the freaking Canterbury Tales! I don't care if it is a classic. I don't care if it's older than snot -- I still hate it. Sure, it's cool that it survived and whatever. But I'm not impressed."
"im not a fan of literature for literature's sake. i hated this book with a passion"
"The stories, set as they are in the 14th century, are barely contemporary"
"To me, this is a book that introduces one to the flavor of a certain time and place--Medieval England-- and much like tasting that flavor of time."
"This is another classic that contains sex, violence and language to rival any controversial book of today. And yet, this is required reading in advanced placement English in high school."
"It was fun to read about the tales that were told and retold during that Elizabethan time period."
"Just not what someone raised on modern storytelling can enjoy. At least, not this someone."
"If you like the television series 'The Simpsons,' you will probably like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. They reflect the same vulgar approach to entertainment which, instead of making us rise above the gutter of everyday life, brings us to the lowest level of crudity. There are some redeeming tales however, such as the Knight's Tale, but as a whole, this book should be avoided by anyone with a sense of honour and decency."
"Garbage
The Canterbury Tales are nothing more than dirty stories in the disguise of eloquent, archaic language. Why this is considered a classic is beyond me. The stories are low class and equivalent to crude comedy. Chaucer was merely a peddler of trash to the British public."
"Some consider this a bawdy, racy, funny book, but seriously modern Saturday morning cartoons are racier than this. I can imagine people hundreds of years ago talking about this "dirty" book on the sly and passing it around, but today it really doesn't measure up with other more enjoyable works."
"I couldn't finish this. Perhaps it's the translation. Perhaps they didn't translate it enough."
"Terrible. I wouldnt recommend this to anyone. I didnt even finish it. Maybe its because I dont appreciate the poetic side to it or the way its written. Whatever it is, I thought it was a terrible book."
"I realize the time period this was written in, and maybe I'm just too modern of a woman to enjoy this kind of thing, but this was one of the most sexist, elitist, and culturally discriminatory works I've ever read."
"I have so many things to do in my life I just don't want to take the time to read something that isn't appropriate."
"I don't easily understand poetry and traditional prose, so this was very hard to understand for me. I'm very sarcastic and can be quite cynical at times, so if this hadn't been so much work for me to read, I may have enjoyed it more."
"Ugh. This was one of those "Let's read this in Olde English-Middle English!!!!" college reads. That I didn't actually read the whole thing of. It's a metastory in poem form. I just didn't like the stories and I really hated the Olde English (it's seriously like another language). Good thing for 1066. (lol)"
"Gawd. I don't like the language (Old English), and I don't like the style (verse, poetry). I read for pleasure, and reading this is about as much fun as wiping your butt with a Brillo pad."
"Many people can be divided into camps of either liking Chaucer or Milton."
"Very slow moving, reminds me of Aesop's type fable reading."
"Just leave me alone. Yes, I don't understand you and I really don't like you, so what? Am I going to burn on a stick, while Goodreads crowd is going to scream, 'You witch, burn, you witch! You deserve no better!'"
"Chaucer makes you remember that the England of his day had a much smaller population than nowadays, along with a proportionally small amount of persons with an IQ of 100 or above. That's the only way I can see how this book gained its reputation as a classic."
"I hate the freaking Canterbury Tales! I don't care if it is a classic. I don't care if it's older than snot -- I still hate it. Sure, it's cool that it survived and whatever. But I'm not impressed."
"im not a fan of literature for literature's sake. i hated this book with a passion"
"The stories, set as they are in the 14th century, are barely contemporary"
"To me, this is a book that introduces one to the flavor of a certain time and place--Medieval England-- and much like tasting that flavor of time."
"This is another classic that contains sex, violence and language to rival any controversial book of today. And yet, this is required reading in advanced placement English in high school."
"It was fun to read about the tales that were told and retold during that Elizabethan time period."
"Just not what someone raised on modern storytelling can enjoy. At least, not this someone."
"If you like the television series 'The Simpsons,' you will probably like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. They reflect the same vulgar approach to entertainment which, instead of making us rise above the gutter of everyday life, brings us to the lowest level of crudity. There are some redeeming tales however, such as the Knight's Tale, but as a whole, this book should be avoided by anyone with a sense of honour and decency."
"Garbage
The Canterbury Tales are nothing more than dirty stories in the disguise of eloquent, archaic language. Why this is considered a classic is beyond me. The stories are low class and equivalent to crude comedy. Chaucer was merely a peddler of trash to the British public."
"Some consider this a bawdy, racy, funny book, but seriously modern Saturday morning cartoons are racier than this. I can imagine people hundreds of years ago talking about this "dirty" book on the sly and passing it around, but today it really doesn't measure up with other more enjoyable works."
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Herman Melville - Billy Budd, Sailor
"Shit.
Total and complete tired shit."
"why does so much 'great' literature suck?"
"The first sentence of this book lets you know what you're in for:
'The year 1797, the year of this narrative, belongs to a period which, as every thinker now feels, involved a Crisis for Christendom not exceeded in its undetermined momentousness at the time by any other era whereof there is record.'
Whatever that sentence is trying to say, the main thing it communicates to me is gratuitous wordiness. I know it's common for writers of that era. But seriously, read that shit again."
"Too many nautical terms."
"I admit it, I'm an English literature geek. I was one of those people who actually looked forward to the summer reading lists and book assignments for my high school English classes.
...
If you haven't read this, please don't waste your time. If you have, you have my sincere sympathy"
"Melville used unnecessarily large words to cover up the vague, terrible plot.
There was no point to read this novel.
If you want philosophical, read anything else.
And I mean anything."
"This was the stupidest book ever!!!! A guy kills a guy so a guy decides to hang the guy that killed the guy and then the guy tat hung the guy dies.... stupid? i think so..."
"If I remember right, I couldn't even understand what Budd had supposedly done wrong."
HE KILLED A MAN
"I'm guessing Melville and I don't have the same style."
"The thing is, I really, really WANT to like Melville. I love reading interpretations of Melville's writing, as they are of the type that fracture and fragment under postmodern analysis, bursting with utterly fascinating queer resonances."
"MY goodness. Melville spends more time describing the beautiful torsos of young men than he does the sea. Enough already! Couldn't finish it."
"The last thing I remember is that we had to watch an old film version. Something terrible happens, and one of the sailors exclaims, "Damn your eyes, John Claggert!" For some reason, my brother and I thought that was funny and would say it every once in a while. I don't know what this adds to your appreciation of my review, but maybe by now you've given up on reading my review."
"Melville was not particularly successful as a writer, and this book tends to show that."
"You have to know a lot of really boring history to understand half of the literary references that he makes"
"ugh...hated it. Melville is sooooo not my best literary buddy!"
"I cannot STAND Mellville and Billy Budd was the WORST! Either that, or Barttelby the Scrivner. Grr!"
"More like 'Hell'ville"
"This is the worst book ever written. Herman Melville wrote this book and then hid it himself because he was so ashamed"
"I find it very surprising that anybody could deem such a poor book apt for publication, but even more unacceptable is that this monumental exercise in boredom and pompous writing can be considered a 'classic' nowadays; something that, on the other hand, shouldn't surprise us if we take into account that other really appalling books such as 'The Red Badge of Courage' or 'As I Lay Dying' (to mention only two) are widely read in colleges and high-schools. As far as I'm aware, it is obvious that the critical eye must be blind or must have been poked out a long time ago."
"After taking three weeks to read this hundred or so page book, I was perplexed. The whole book does not have a plot. Melville's development of character is horrendous. He made it as if readers are supposed to already know who Billy Budd or John Claggart is. If it were not for the Cliff Notes, perhaps, no not perhaps, no one would understand what in the world is going on. The book is not in depth enough. THANK HEAVENS there is not a Billy Budd 2."
"Boo to Billy Bud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Boo to Billy Bud!!!! ... Booooo!!!!!!"
Total and complete tired shit."
"why does so much 'great' literature suck?"
"The first sentence of this book lets you know what you're in for:
'The year 1797, the year of this narrative, belongs to a period which, as every thinker now feels, involved a Crisis for Christendom not exceeded in its undetermined momentousness at the time by any other era whereof there is record.'
Whatever that sentence is trying to say, the main thing it communicates to me is gratuitous wordiness. I know it's common for writers of that era. But seriously, read that shit again."
"Too many nautical terms."
"I admit it, I'm an English literature geek. I was one of those people who actually looked forward to the summer reading lists and book assignments for my high school English classes.
...
If you haven't read this, please don't waste your time. If you have, you have my sincere sympathy"
"Melville used unnecessarily large words to cover up the vague, terrible plot.
There was no point to read this novel.
If you want philosophical, read anything else.
And I mean anything."
"This was the stupidest book ever!!!! A guy kills a guy so a guy decides to hang the guy that killed the guy and then the guy tat hung the guy dies.... stupid? i think so..."
"If I remember right, I couldn't even understand what Budd had supposedly done wrong."
HE KILLED A MAN
"I'm guessing Melville and I don't have the same style."
"The thing is, I really, really WANT to like Melville. I love reading interpretations of Melville's writing, as they are of the type that fracture and fragment under postmodern analysis, bursting with utterly fascinating queer resonances."
"MY goodness. Melville spends more time describing the beautiful torsos of young men than he does the sea. Enough already! Couldn't finish it."
"The last thing I remember is that we had to watch an old film version. Something terrible happens, and one of the sailors exclaims, "Damn your eyes, John Claggert!" For some reason, my brother and I thought that was funny and would say it every once in a while. I don't know what this adds to your appreciation of my review, but maybe by now you've given up on reading my review."
"Melville was not particularly successful as a writer, and this book tends to show that."
"You have to know a lot of really boring history to understand half of the literary references that he makes"
"ugh...hated it. Melville is sooooo not my best literary buddy!"
"I cannot STAND Mellville and Billy Budd was the WORST! Either that, or Barttelby the Scrivner. Grr!"
"More like 'Hell'ville"
"This is the worst book ever written. Herman Melville wrote this book and then hid it himself because he was so ashamed"
"I find it very surprising that anybody could deem such a poor book apt for publication, but even more unacceptable is that this monumental exercise in boredom and pompous writing can be considered a 'classic' nowadays; something that, on the other hand, shouldn't surprise us if we take into account that other really appalling books such as 'The Red Badge of Courage' or 'As I Lay Dying' (to mention only two) are widely read in colleges and high-schools. As far as I'm aware, it is obvious that the critical eye must be blind or must have been poked out a long time ago."
"After taking three weeks to read this hundred or so page book, I was perplexed. The whole book does not have a plot. Melville's development of character is horrendous. He made it as if readers are supposed to already know who Billy Budd or John Claggart is. If it were not for the Cliff Notes, perhaps, no not perhaps, no one would understand what in the world is going on. The book is not in depth enough. THANK HEAVENS there is not a Billy Budd 2."
"Boo to Billy Bud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Boo to Billy Bud!!!! ... Booooo!!!!!!"
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Joseph Campbell - The Hero With a Thousand Faces
"I do not 'do' mythology."
"If you are interested in the monomyth/hero myth, 'Making a Good Script Great' thought me the same things in just two pages."
"Guy would've seriously benefited from a skilled editing team."
"A good book if you want to see how one might become mired in superstition in any of a dozen different cultures. Books like this stand in the way of human progress by summoning up excuses from the past that purport to 'explain' the trials of tribulations of our lives, rather than giving us true power to overcome our limitations.
This book worships inferority and patheticness. It left a horrible feeling in my stomach."
"The book began to irritate me. Every single time it quoted the Bible, it missed the point. Instead of talking about heroic ideals through the ages, Mr. Campbell drew on Freud and his own mindset to interpret random myths as he saw them. Then, he dropped the straw on the camel's back. I came to a section entitled 'Apotheosis,' and the book completely derailed from its topic to sing the praises of the aforementioned Eastern religions."
"My second problem is the unusual nature of the myths that Mr. Campbell uses. They are quite often Native American, Indian or Chinese myths that would be unfamiliar to anyone but a specialist in the field. Yes, it is good that he showed good things about other cultures, but it is bad that this interfered with what was supposed to be his main thesis."
"I tried. Way to philosphical. I was expecting a brief narrative on several heroes but turned into what was wrong with each one and how to apply it to the author's own theories."
"Too theoretical."
"Too much like a textbook about something I have no interest in....yawn!"
"Where it falls down is when it attempts to combine 'modern' psychology, psychoanalysis, and dream interpretation to mythology. If these sections had been excised the overall work would have been much improved."
BECAUSE IT WOULD NO LONGER EXIST?
"If you are interested in the monomyth/hero myth, 'Making a Good Script Great' thought me the same things in just two pages."
"Guy would've seriously benefited from a skilled editing team."
"A good book if you want to see how one might become mired in superstition in any of a dozen different cultures. Books like this stand in the way of human progress by summoning up excuses from the past that purport to 'explain' the trials of tribulations of our lives, rather than giving us true power to overcome our limitations.
This book worships inferority and patheticness. It left a horrible feeling in my stomach."
"The book began to irritate me. Every single time it quoted the Bible, it missed the point. Instead of talking about heroic ideals through the ages, Mr. Campbell drew on Freud and his own mindset to interpret random myths as he saw them. Then, he dropped the straw on the camel's back. I came to a section entitled 'Apotheosis,' and the book completely derailed from its topic to sing the praises of the aforementioned Eastern religions."
"My second problem is the unusual nature of the myths that Mr. Campbell uses. They are quite often Native American, Indian or Chinese myths that would be unfamiliar to anyone but a specialist in the field. Yes, it is good that he showed good things about other cultures, but it is bad that this interfered with what was supposed to be his main thesis."
"I tried. Way to philosphical. I was expecting a brief narrative on several heroes but turned into what was wrong with each one and how to apply it to the author's own theories."
"Too theoretical."
"Too much like a textbook about something I have no interest in....yawn!"
"Where it falls down is when it attempts to combine 'modern' psychology, psychoanalysis, and dream interpretation to mythology. If these sections had been excised the overall work would have been much improved."
BECAUSE IT WOULD NO LONGER EXIST?
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Herodotus - The History
"Why do we insist that just because something is written 6,000 years ago that makes it good? Maybe, just maybe, it's 6,000 years old for a good reason. I have to admit, I still haven't finished it."
"Known as the father of history, this author used a bit too much of greek mythology for my taste. Unless you really believe in greek gods, this seemed pointless to me."
"When it was written, people sat around campfires telling the story of their people to pass the time between hunts and religious feasts. Unfortunately for good old Herodotus, we modern folk have the luxuries of television and film."
"Known as the father of history, this author used a bit too much of greek mythology for my taste. Unless you really believe in greek gods, this seemed pointless to me."
"When it was written, people sat around campfires telling the story of their people to pass the time between hunts and religious feasts. Unfortunately for good old Herodotus, we modern folk have the luxuries of television and film."
Monday, March 21, 2011
Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway III
"Mrs. Dalloway doesn't make sense."
"Also, there are no chapters, and I personally find that a more difficult read. On top of these things, VW switches from one character's perception to another, leaving the reader wondering just who is doing what and necessitating a re-read to figure out just what happened to the character one was reading about and who this new character is.
The weird thing to me was, it seemed as though one could almost feel/read the disorganization and distortion that was perhaps VW's mental illness.
I know there are many books which have been deemed 'classic' by some literary force but which people in modern day can't figure out exactly why. This is one of those books. It's reputation does not live up to its actuality."
"Maybe some people are afraid to admit they don't like it
I really like 20th Century literature, particularly Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, Proost, and Joyce."
"Frankly, a knowing book editor would have helped this book a lot. On the upside, there are some very serious Sapphic undertones to the rambling of the book which make it more interesting than James Joyce whining about how he got beaten by the other boys in boarding school."
"All I took away from this novel was the impression that Woolf had a huge obsession with semi-colons."
"The book just does not make any sense. After 65 pages I still could not discern the point of anything I'd read.
I suppose Woolf is considered a genius since she was apparently a cavalier writer of her generation, but I'm grateful that contemporary writers can at least string together 2 sentences that follow one another in a logical sequence.
I tried, I really did; My suggestion: just watch The Hours - you'll get all the beauty and none of the confusion."
"The only good thing to say about this 'literary' drivel is that the person responsible, Virginia Wolf, has been dead for quite some time now. Let us pray to God she stays that way as we, the people, all work together to make sure that no future generations ever have to read this nonsense again. Lets burn every sentence she ever penned to end all the unneccesary suffering that curious readers have to go through when they first pick up 'Mrs. Dalloway.' Aside from being dreadfully boring, might I add that it is also terribly written? Thats right, you heard me. The narrative reads like the inner thoughts of a sugar crazed autistic kid with ADD in the middle of a carnival."
"One of the basic problems of modernism in its form, is that it has no coherent plot and therefore, if you ask someone years later what Ulysses is about, they are probably going to shrug and say something like 'Dublin?'. The same is true of Mrs. Dalloway, a work that I read in college and really dont' remember. I didn't find it altogether a very good novel about anything particularly interesting ... Great works are memorable, that was the basic theme of Joyce and Woolf, therefore if one can't remember one of their works, it must be counted a failure."
"In closing, Virginia Woolf sucks. No, seriously. She's awful. Don't feel bad if you didn't like her books. It doesn't mean you're stupid. Many readers just ascribe to the Woolf camp to make themselves sound more intelligent. Even Woolf lovers don't understand what she was talking about, because really, it makes no sense."
"Also, there are no chapters, and I personally find that a more difficult read. On top of these things, VW switches from one character's perception to another, leaving the reader wondering just who is doing what and necessitating a re-read to figure out just what happened to the character one was reading about and who this new character is.
The weird thing to me was, it seemed as though one could almost feel/read the disorganization and distortion that was perhaps VW's mental illness.
I know there are many books which have been deemed 'classic' by some literary force but which people in modern day can't figure out exactly why. This is one of those books. It's reputation does not live up to its actuality."
"Maybe some people are afraid to admit they don't like it
I really like 20th Century literature, particularly Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, Proost, and Joyce."
"Frankly, a knowing book editor would have helped this book a lot. On the upside, there are some very serious Sapphic undertones to the rambling of the book which make it more interesting than James Joyce whining about how he got beaten by the other boys in boarding school."
"All I took away from this novel was the impression that Woolf had a huge obsession with semi-colons."
"The book just does not make any sense. After 65 pages I still could not discern the point of anything I'd read.
I suppose Woolf is considered a genius since she was apparently a cavalier writer of her generation, but I'm grateful that contemporary writers can at least string together 2 sentences that follow one another in a logical sequence.
I tried, I really did; My suggestion: just watch The Hours - you'll get all the beauty and none of the confusion."
"The only good thing to say about this 'literary' drivel is that the person responsible, Virginia Wolf, has been dead for quite some time now. Let us pray to God she stays that way as we, the people, all work together to make sure that no future generations ever have to read this nonsense again. Lets burn every sentence she ever penned to end all the unneccesary suffering that curious readers have to go through when they first pick up 'Mrs. Dalloway.' Aside from being dreadfully boring, might I add that it is also terribly written? Thats right, you heard me. The narrative reads like the inner thoughts of a sugar crazed autistic kid with ADD in the middle of a carnival."
"One of the basic problems of modernism in its form, is that it has no coherent plot and therefore, if you ask someone years later what Ulysses is about, they are probably going to shrug and say something like 'Dublin?'. The same is true of Mrs. Dalloway, a work that I read in college and really dont' remember. I didn't find it altogether a very good novel about anything particularly interesting ... Great works are memorable, that was the basic theme of Joyce and Woolf, therefore if one can't remember one of their works, it must be counted a failure."
"In closing, Virginia Woolf sucks. No, seriously. She's awful. Don't feel bad if you didn't like her books. It doesn't mean you're stupid. Many readers just ascribe to the Woolf camp to make themselves sound more intelligent. Even Woolf lovers don't understand what she was talking about, because really, it makes no sense."
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway II
"Momma is not a Virginia Woolf fan."
"I just could not deal with her excessive use of semicolons."
"I have to say, I never felt drawn into the book. I honestly had to read aloud to myself just to keep myself interested!"
DID YOU FOLLOW ALONG WITH YOUR FINGER TOO? BECAUSE YOU ARE A CHILD?
"The character of Septimus provides contrast between happiness (party) and sadness (Septimus death) but Miss Woolf chose not to give enough focus on this. It could have been more dramatic if the suicide happened in the party itself"
"One thing I found very intriguing is that one of the main characters commits suicide during the course of the day, which is interesting considering Woolf herself committed suicide in 1941."
"I thought the repeating stuff was awful. I can't imagine people really repeat their thoughts over and over, just rewording the sentence? It was all through-out the book so it seemed more a writer's flaw than an actual thought phenomenon"
"Also, Mrs. Dalloway was a shallow and vapid woman, and I regret being subjected to her inane rambling thoughts. Really. No one cares that you used to be a lesbian"
"I liked the idea of dipping into the the thoughts of people as they went by, but I just didn't feel like it was done as well as it could be. This device has been used to much better, and more coherent effect in other novels, most notably in The Piano Teacher."
"Socialising Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares to give a party, her fist lover Peter Walsh who unexpectedly shows up"
WELL HELLO THERE
"On the other hand what I didn't like about the novel was that nothing happened in the novel, the novel was confusing on many levels especially with the time that everything happned because she doesn't refer to the time of the story and the symbol of the clock is the only indication of time in the novel so it felt kind of slow."
"I was simply overwhelmed by the semicolons. It got to the point where I couldn't follow the narrative because I kept counting the semicolons."
I NOTICE YOU TAKE AN INTEREST IN COLONS. ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE YOU TO MY OWN
"I don't doubt the historical significance of this novel, but historical significance doesn't make a book great. I also know that a lot of people love this book, but that doesn't mean that I do."
"there are no breaks in this story, no chapters, nothing ... the writing is non-linear and seemingly scattered. it's good writing for sure, but i think it's too much feminism stylistically."
"Odd. Very postmodern, stream of consciousness. Not necessarily worth my time."
"Truly a Post-Modernist story."
"It's not that I didn't like the book, really, since I haven't read it. But it's not taking me past that first page, which isn't a good sign."
"Virginia Woolfe's books are the ones English majors like me had to read in college and then never picked up again."
"I'd recommend this book simply because it's by Virginia Wolff and she's such an important American novelist."
"I wanted to love it, because it is Virginia Woolf after all, but I didn't. No chapters ... I felt like I was picking sentences from paragraphs and re-organizing them in my head in order to get general gist of story."
I FELT LIKE I HAD TO... THINK... ABOUT THE BOOK.... AS I READ IT...... AWFUL. ONE STAR
"I just could not deal with her excessive use of semicolons."
"I have to say, I never felt drawn into the book. I honestly had to read aloud to myself just to keep myself interested!"
DID YOU FOLLOW ALONG WITH YOUR FINGER TOO? BECAUSE YOU ARE A CHILD?
"The character of Septimus provides contrast between happiness (party) and sadness (Septimus death) but Miss Woolf chose not to give enough focus on this. It could have been more dramatic if the suicide happened in the party itself"
"One thing I found very intriguing is that one of the main characters commits suicide during the course of the day, which is interesting considering Woolf herself committed suicide in 1941."
"I thought the repeating stuff was awful. I can't imagine people really repeat their thoughts over and over, just rewording the sentence? It was all through-out the book so it seemed more a writer's flaw than an actual thought phenomenon"
"Also, Mrs. Dalloway was a shallow and vapid woman, and I regret being subjected to her inane rambling thoughts. Really. No one cares that you used to be a lesbian"
"I liked the idea of dipping into the the thoughts of people as they went by, but I just didn't feel like it was done as well as it could be. This device has been used to much better, and more coherent effect in other novels, most notably in The Piano Teacher."
"Socialising Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares to give a party, her fist lover Peter Walsh who unexpectedly shows up"
WELL HELLO THERE
"On the other hand what I didn't like about the novel was that nothing happened in the novel, the novel was confusing on many levels especially with the time that everything happned because she doesn't refer to the time of the story and the symbol of the clock is the only indication of time in the novel so it felt kind of slow."
"I was simply overwhelmed by the semicolons. It got to the point where I couldn't follow the narrative because I kept counting the semicolons."
I NOTICE YOU TAKE AN INTEREST IN COLONS. ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE YOU TO MY OWN
"I don't doubt the historical significance of this novel, but historical significance doesn't make a book great. I also know that a lot of people love this book, but that doesn't mean that I do."
"there are no breaks in this story, no chapters, nothing ... the writing is non-linear and seemingly scattered. it's good writing for sure, but i think it's too much feminism stylistically."
"Odd. Very postmodern, stream of consciousness. Not necessarily worth my time."
"Truly a Post-Modernist story."
"It's not that I didn't like the book, really, since I haven't read it. But it's not taking me past that first page, which isn't a good sign."
"Virginia Woolfe's books are the ones English majors like me had to read in college and then never picked up again."
"I'd recommend this book simply because it's by Virginia Wolff and she's such an important American novelist."
"I wanted to love it, because it is Virginia Woolf after all, but I didn't. No chapters ... I felt like I was picking sentences from paragraphs and re-organizing them in my head in order to get general gist of story."
I FELT LIKE I HAD TO... THINK... ABOUT THE BOOK.... AS I READ IT...... AWFUL. ONE STAR
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway
"I just could not handle Virginia Woolf's rambling. She used so many commas, that I started to question whether she even understood the significance of a comma anymore."
"Has any author ever used as many semi-colons as Woolf does in this book? It's a question that plagued me as I slogged through her tedious dreck of a novel; I might have asked others questions; questions like: does she even know what a semi-colon is supposed to do? Does she? Know? What a semi-colon is supposed to do? Mostly she treats them like commas."
"I dont' know why this is a classic, horrible writing, no periods in the whole book, nothing but run on sentences....terrible writing. Didn't like it!"
"The writing was beautiful - complicated and varied sentence structures, amazing descriptions, and carefully chosen words filled this book. But it was just too much."
"The book contained no chapters"
"Sure she's supposedly lyrical and 'la-tee-da'. And this book is supposedly haunting and important. And it no doubt has its place in literature ...er... somewhere. But quite honestly, I'd be more willing to watch paint dry than read it again."
"This has almost no merit except for the fact that Virginia Woolf writes some great words...just about NOTHING! If I want to read some chick's thoughts, I will read Anne Sexton or Sylvia Plath or someone like that. They have great words and they have substance. This book is bullshit, real bullshit about a boring party and her thoughts about it. Oy vay!"
THIS PRESENTS ME WITH A HAPPY OPPORTUNITY TO QUOTE A POSITIVE REVIEW OF A BOOK THAT IS BY NO MEANS GOOD, SYLVIA PLATH'S THE BELL JAR:
"To anyone who suffers from a mental disability, this is a must read"
TRUER WORDS, DEAR READERS
"I do not like it though.I know one thing that I do not want to be in Mrs Dalloway's place.Her life seemed to me very depressing and sometimes I felt unhopeful a lot while reading.She is a character trapped among people and she did it to herself.She seems to me an ordinary woman struggle to be happy as if trying to see shining part of the sun as much as she can do."
"Just for future reference, if you are thinking of reccomending a book to me and it reads anything like Virginia Woolf...don't."
THANK YOU WE'LL ALL BE KEEPING THAT IN MIND
"I may be very criticized for what I'm writing right now, but I didn't think anything extraordinary on this story. That's a mere woman living a boring life whose only interest is arranging her party and, while it's not ready yet, starts to walk alone on the streets trying to figure out what people's main concerns are. Add to it her unsatisfied marriage with a distant husband and you'll see a Mrs. Dolloway who keeps fantasizing things between him and another woman. In summary, that's a compilation of personal thoughts that lead nowhere. It doesn't add value to your life nor to mine."
"I made it to page 25, and I hope to never revisit this tale. In 25 pages a reader should be curious about the MC, curious about the plot, the imagination should be on fire."
I'M SORRY WOOLF, BUT YOU HAVE COMPLETELY FAILED TO AROUSE MY CURIOSITY ABOUT THE MC. ONE STAR
"Has any author ever used as many semi-colons as Woolf does in this book? It's a question that plagued me as I slogged through her tedious dreck of a novel; I might have asked others questions; questions like: does she even know what a semi-colon is supposed to do? Does she? Know? What a semi-colon is supposed to do? Mostly she treats them like commas."
"I dont' know why this is a classic, horrible writing, no periods in the whole book, nothing but run on sentences....terrible writing. Didn't like it!"
"The writing was beautiful - complicated and varied sentence structures, amazing descriptions, and carefully chosen words filled this book. But it was just too much."
"The book contained no chapters"
"Sure she's supposedly lyrical and 'la-tee-da'. And this book is supposedly haunting and important. And it no doubt has its place in literature ...er... somewhere. But quite honestly, I'd be more willing to watch paint dry than read it again."
"This has almost no merit except for the fact that Virginia Woolf writes some great words...just about NOTHING! If I want to read some chick's thoughts, I will read Anne Sexton or Sylvia Plath or someone like that. They have great words and they have substance. This book is bullshit, real bullshit about a boring party and her thoughts about it. Oy vay!"
THIS PRESENTS ME WITH A HAPPY OPPORTUNITY TO QUOTE A POSITIVE REVIEW OF A BOOK THAT IS BY NO MEANS GOOD, SYLVIA PLATH'S THE BELL JAR:
"To anyone who suffers from a mental disability, this is a must read"
TRUER WORDS, DEAR READERS
"I do not like it though.I know one thing that I do not want to be in Mrs Dalloway's place.Her life seemed to me very depressing and sometimes I felt unhopeful a lot while reading.She is a character trapped among people and she did it to herself.She seems to me an ordinary woman struggle to be happy as if trying to see shining part of the sun as much as she can do."
"Just for future reference, if you are thinking of reccomending a book to me and it reads anything like Virginia Woolf...don't."
THANK YOU WE'LL ALL BE KEEPING THAT IN MIND
"I may be very criticized for what I'm writing right now, but I didn't think anything extraordinary on this story. That's a mere woman living a boring life whose only interest is arranging her party and, while it's not ready yet, starts to walk alone on the streets trying to figure out what people's main concerns are. Add to it her unsatisfied marriage with a distant husband and you'll see a Mrs. Dolloway who keeps fantasizing things between him and another woman. In summary, that's a compilation of personal thoughts that lead nowhere. It doesn't add value to your life nor to mine."
"I made it to page 25, and I hope to never revisit this tale. In 25 pages a reader should be curious about the MC, curious about the plot, the imagination should be on fire."
I'M SORRY WOOLF, BUT YOU HAVE COMPLETELY FAILED TO AROUSE MY CURIOSITY ABOUT THE MC. ONE STAR
Friday, March 18, 2011
Virgil - The Aeneid
"So I didn't read ALL of it."
"The battle scenes were depicted too well"
"There are a lot of Greek classics that are read. Here is a Roman classic that tries to usurp Greece's glory with a bit of a smear campaign."
"it seems I need something with a bit of vigour to keep me going, but this just got limper and limper"
I WISH THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME I'VE HAD THAT COMPLAINT
"In my freshman year at Whitman, I was asked to read the Aeneid and write a paper on it.
I tried very, very hard. I read through Book One. Then I decided that I would rather flunk out of college or kill myself than endure any more of it."
"I really really really tried. But, I guess that I am not there."
"He's a badfic writer. ... I swear, he's like the worst kind of fanfic writer in the world. He takes all his situations from other, better writers - well, I know there's another writer the Aenied was based on, but as I can't remember his name I can't actually look him up and decide whether he is a better writer. Pretend that he is for the sake of the argument - and sticks a bloody Mary Sue in there to make the whole mess so much better. His mother's a goddess (Venus), people fall over themselves to either help him or kill him, he walks out of situations that would have - and usually did - kill anyone else, he's an excellent fighter, he's well known for his piety, his archnemesis is a goddess (Juno), and somehow, even though he was never mentioned in the Iliad, everyone in the world knows who he is! ghsn;dhjfdh ... Yes, it was during this book that BITCH CAN'T WRITE started appearing on my notes. However did you guess."
"Read a children's version and hated the whole Gods-interfering-fate thing"
"I understand it's important, but this isn't most people's idea of a sit-down-and-read-it-all novel."
"Dido starts off perfect and ends up insane and dead with no real explanation in between ...
If you really want to know why I can't stand Virgil and Aeneas, book four is the only one you really need to read. It's annoying, it destroys the characterisation he's already set up, it makes Aeneas look like a bitchy Mary Sue, it reduces Dido from a strong, competent woman to one who stabs herself and throws herself onto a fire because she's being left by a man who refuses to even he admits he loves her on the page. It's my example of how not to write a romance, and definitely how not to write one that's you want to end badly and have the man come out looking anywhere near good.
I just. ARGH. It's terrible and horrible and I hate it with the fire of a thousand suns.1
1. DEAR VIRGIL: YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG."
"Virgil never finished it. Before he died he ordered the incomplete manuscript to be destroyed. This book shouldn't even exist!"
"It's as if George W. Bush, after being adjudicated the U.S. Presidency in 2000 (instead of winning the election), had commissioned popular author of the day J.K. Rowlins to write that America had been founded by wizards, and one of those wizards was Bush's great-great-great-great-great grandfather. I know what my reaction to that would be."
"From this novel, I learned that it is possible to use fate as a theme within a work."
"You can tell it's more recent than Homer, but still: what these classics are lacking is observation. It's all plot -- and don't forget, not much happened in the old days except sailing and feasting!"
"Um, my knowledge of Latin is non-existant"
YEP
"takes 'Armis virumque' and gets 'I sing of warfare and a man at war'?"
HEH
"The battle scenes were depicted too well"
"There are a lot of Greek classics that are read. Here is a Roman classic that tries to usurp Greece's glory with a bit of a smear campaign."
"it seems I need something with a bit of vigour to keep me going, but this just got limper and limper"
I WISH THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME I'VE HAD THAT COMPLAINT
"In my freshman year at Whitman, I was asked to read the Aeneid and write a paper on it.
I tried very, very hard. I read through Book One. Then I decided that I would rather flunk out of college or kill myself than endure any more of it."
"I really really really tried. But, I guess that I am not there."
"He's a badfic writer. ... I swear, he's like the worst kind of fanfic writer in the world. He takes all his situations from other, better writers - well, I know there's another writer the Aenied was based on, but as I can't remember his name I can't actually look him up and decide whether he is a better writer. Pretend that he is for the sake of the argument - and sticks a bloody Mary Sue in there to make the whole mess so much better. His mother's a goddess (Venus), people fall over themselves to either help him or kill him, he walks out of situations that would have - and usually did - kill anyone else, he's an excellent fighter, he's well known for his piety, his archnemesis is a goddess (Juno), and somehow, even though he was never mentioned in the Iliad, everyone in the world knows who he is! ghsn;dhjfdh ... Yes, it was during this book that BITCH CAN'T WRITE started appearing on my notes. However did you guess."
"Read a children's version and hated the whole Gods-interfering-fate thing"
"I understand it's important, but this isn't most people's idea of a sit-down-and-read-it-all novel."
"Dido starts off perfect and ends up insane and dead with no real explanation in between ...
If you really want to know why I can't stand Virgil and Aeneas, book four is the only one you really need to read. It's annoying, it destroys the characterisation he's already set up, it makes Aeneas look like a bitchy Mary Sue, it reduces Dido from a strong, competent woman to one who stabs herself and throws herself onto a fire because she's being left by a man who refuses to even he admits he loves her on the page. It's my example of how not to write a romance, and definitely how not to write one that's you want to end badly and have the man come out looking anywhere near good.
I just. ARGH. It's terrible and horrible and I hate it with the fire of a thousand suns.1
1. DEAR VIRGIL: YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG."
"Virgil never finished it. Before he died he ordered the incomplete manuscript to be destroyed. This book shouldn't even exist!"
"It's as if George W. Bush, after being adjudicated the U.S. Presidency in 2000 (instead of winning the election), had commissioned popular author of the day J.K. Rowlins to write that America had been founded by wizards, and one of those wizards was Bush's great-great-great-great-great grandfather. I know what my reaction to that would be."
"From this novel, I learned that it is possible to use fate as a theme within a work."
"You can tell it's more recent than Homer, but still: what these classics are lacking is observation. It's all plot -- and don't forget, not much happened in the old days except sailing and feasting!"
"Um, my knowledge of Latin is non-existant"
YEP
"takes 'Armis virumque' and gets 'I sing of warfare and a man at war'?"
HEH
Thursday, March 17, 2011
SPECIAL: WOMEN MAKE JOKES ABOUT ENJOYING ONLY THE "PEACE" BITS OF WAR AND PEACE
"I loved the storyline, except for the war parts. I guess I should have guessed at least half of it would be about war."
"I'll admit that I 'skimmed' some of the 'war' parts to get to the 'peace' parts"
"I skimmed the war parts:)"
"I don't even like books about war. (Case in point: I scanned half of War and Peace. I think which half is obvious.)"
"I loved the 'Peace' parts of the book, but skimmed most of the 'War' sections."
"I rather enjoyed the peace chapters but got bogged down in the war chapters."
"I have a confession: I skip the war parts"
"I liked the peace parts"
"Great book, but I couldn't get through the war part, which considering the title obviously is quite a bit of the book."
"Too much battle for me."
"Loved the peace sections best."
"I'll be honest: the 'war' parts kind of drag."
"Too many battle scenes, but the characters are awesome."
"The Peace parts were better than the War."
"I remember that I liked the peace sections, but the war not so much."
PART II: MANLY MEN WHO LIKE WAR MAKE JOKES ABOUT ONLY ENJOYING THE WAR PARTS
"The war part was pretty good. The peace has been less exciting..."
"I'll make this one easy for all of you. WAY too little war, WAY too much peace."
"I'll admit that I 'skimmed' some of the 'war' parts to get to the 'peace' parts"
"I skimmed the war parts:)"
"I don't even like books about war. (Case in point: I scanned half of War and Peace. I think which half is obvious.)"
"I loved the 'Peace' parts of the book, but skimmed most of the 'War' sections."
"I rather enjoyed the peace chapters but got bogged down in the war chapters."
"I have a confession: I skip the war parts"
"I liked the peace parts"
"Great book, but I couldn't get through the war part, which considering the title obviously is quite a bit of the book."
"Too much battle for me."
"Loved the peace sections best."
"I'll be honest: the 'war' parts kind of drag."
"Too many battle scenes, but the characters are awesome."
"The Peace parts were better than the War."
"I remember that I liked the peace sections, but the war not so much."
PART II: MANLY MEN WHO LIKE WAR MAKE JOKES ABOUT ONLY ENJOYING THE WAR PARTS
"The war part was pretty good. The peace has been less exciting..."
"I'll make this one easy for all of you. WAY too little war, WAY too much peace."
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Tennessee Williams - The Glass Menagerie
"I think I speak on behalf of UO Theatre Grads everywhere when I say this play totally blows. I don't care how many times you tell me Tennessee Williams is a great American playwright, this is no masterpiece. The best rendition of this I've seen, I thought Laura was played as mentally challenged. Morally questionable?"
"I hate Laura...you'd think with the leg brace she'd have a sturdier stance in the world...but she's so depressingly weak. Oh, the stuff we prop up as great literature...no wonder most people stop reading after school."
"Don't read it if you don't have to. There isn't an actual conclusion, and I'm pretty sure I could write something as pointless."
"I would not recommend The Glass Menagerie to anyone who reads. Unless you like no climax when you read, don't pick it up. It will only waste time."
"The Glass Menagerie is actually a written play about a young girl's life. I picked this book because glass makes me think of shiny and happy times, it was also interesting because I didn't know what Menagerie meant."
"It is so clearly a retelling of events that there can be no possible outcome except for the one that exists."
"Perhaps because the play is about disillusionment, I did not like it. Williams did a great job with characterizion, but the lack of resolve is disappointing"
"This play is one of the many 'classics' that english teachers and literary critics seem to love; all of these classics have the defining characteristic that they bring out the worst in human nature and undermine the values of hard work, sacrifice, courage, and love."
"The Glass Menageria was descent
The Glass Menageria was a descent book but I wouldn't waste your money on it because its not very interesting. I am an action man so I really didn't dig it to much. If your into drama and like sad stories about a drunk or a crippled depressed girl who's mom keeps pressuring her to get out and find a man.Or if you like drunks that lie.This is the book for you."
"i am a frechman in highschool. i have read a varity of books such as A seperate peace, romeo and juliet, the odessey, and a bunch of other hard books. BUT THIS ONE I hated!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"It could just be the hype or my more 2002ish expectations, but I'd rather read the dictionary."
"Overall if you have no life and are a boring person, you would probably like this book."
"I hate Laura...you'd think with the leg brace she'd have a sturdier stance in the world...but she's so depressingly weak. Oh, the stuff we prop up as great literature...no wonder most people stop reading after school."
"Don't read it if you don't have to. There isn't an actual conclusion, and I'm pretty sure I could write something as pointless."
"I would not recommend The Glass Menagerie to anyone who reads. Unless you like no climax when you read, don't pick it up. It will only waste time."
"The Glass Menagerie is actually a written play about a young girl's life. I picked this book because glass makes me think of shiny and happy times, it was also interesting because I didn't know what Menagerie meant."
"It is so clearly a retelling of events that there can be no possible outcome except for the one that exists."
"Perhaps because the play is about disillusionment, I did not like it. Williams did a great job with characterizion, but the lack of resolve is disappointing"
"This play is one of the many 'classics' that english teachers and literary critics seem to love; all of these classics have the defining characteristic that they bring out the worst in human nature and undermine the values of hard work, sacrifice, courage, and love."
"The Glass Menageria was descent
The Glass Menageria was a descent book but I wouldn't waste your money on it because its not very interesting. I am an action man so I really didn't dig it to much. If your into drama and like sad stories about a drunk or a crippled depressed girl who's mom keeps pressuring her to get out and find a man.Or if you like drunks that lie.This is the book for you."
"i am a frechman in highschool. i have read a varity of books such as A seperate peace, romeo and juliet, the odessey, and a bunch of other hard books. BUT THIS ONE I hated!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"It could just be the hype or my more 2002ish expectations, but I'd rather read the dictionary."
"Overall if you have no life and are a boring person, you would probably like this book."
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Plato - The Symposium
"i hate Plato XD most of the things he said are just retarded (for a human being nowadays)"
"While a classic, Plato's elevated view of MANkind will irritate any modern female reader to some extent. And is it just me or was the big speech from Socrates a rip-off from a woman's speech?"
"Oh well, at least I tried to read it; I get credit for that, don't I?"
"I like the hom0-yet-no-homo vibe of it all because I too enjoy the company of men yet strictly in a conversational way although I can apperciate their beauty too. This is as important to the feminine movement as 'The City of Ladies is' for the...what should we call it...androgynous movement? grand!
it made me feel like i've never been born and I was having a re-birth while reading it.
I'm now androgy thanks to Plato and crew!!!"
"Those that understand this argument, and have read enough plato to understand this, please respond. everyone else, shut yer yaps.
The forms- they suck. a pencil can't be more than a pencil... i mean come on, how can a pencil be more perfect than just a pencil?
The alagory of the cave...
im not even going to start..."
"I hate plato. Other than his formula for writing a tragedy (which you can use over and over again to make money, if you're smart), he has nothing to offer."
"Can't remember which book it was, but I do remember Socrates talking about how beautiful things like the color purple and young boys were. :confused:"
"Die Plato....DIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! >=l"
HE DIED 2300 YEARS AGO
"Plato Schmato
I hate Plato.
Separating
things and
labeling things.
Plato tells us
that the things we
see around us such
as trees or animals
are not special perfect
thing unto themselves,
only flawed imitations of
the perfect 'Ideal' of
these things, such as
tree or animal. An Ideal
that exists separately
from the particulars
that we experience. That
can never be obtained in
the physical world.
NOW if it wasnt for
this ancient Greek
JERK OFF
and the effect his bullshit
has had on Western Culture
Perhaps I would have
found the 'Ideal' woman
by now instead of the
flawed women I am forced
to experience in my imperfect
toilet of a
world, and what about
me. How do I measure up?
I hate Plato."
"While a classic, Plato's elevated view of MANkind will irritate any modern female reader to some extent. And is it just me or was the big speech from Socrates a rip-off from a woman's speech?"
"Oh well, at least I tried to read it; I get credit for that, don't I?"
"I like the hom0-yet-no-homo vibe of it all because I too enjoy the company of men yet strictly in a conversational way although I can apperciate their beauty too. This is as important to the feminine movement as 'The City of Ladies is' for the...what should we call it...androgynous movement? grand!
it made me feel like i've never been born and I was having a re-birth while reading it.
I'm now androgy thanks to Plato and crew!!!"
"Those that understand this argument, and have read enough plato to understand this, please respond. everyone else, shut yer yaps.
The forms- they suck. a pencil can't be more than a pencil... i mean come on, how can a pencil be more perfect than just a pencil?
The alagory of the cave...
im not even going to start..."
"I hate plato. Other than his formula for writing a tragedy (which you can use over and over again to make money, if you're smart), he has nothing to offer."
"Can't remember which book it was, but I do remember Socrates talking about how beautiful things like the color purple and young boys were. :confused:"
"Die Plato....DIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! >=l"
HE DIED 2300 YEARS AGO
"Plato Schmato
I hate Plato.
Separating
things and
labeling things.
Plato tells us
that the things we
see around us such
as trees or animals
are not special perfect
thing unto themselves,
only flawed imitations of
the perfect 'Ideal' of
these things, such as
tree or animal. An Ideal
that exists separately
from the particulars
that we experience. That
can never be obtained in
the physical world.
NOW if it wasnt for
this ancient Greek
JERK OFF
and the effect his bullshit
has had on Western Culture
Perhaps I would have
found the 'Ideal' woman
by now instead of the
flawed women I am forced
to experience in my imperfect
toilet of a
world, and what about
me. How do I measure up?
I hate Plato."
Monday, March 14, 2011
Shakespeare - Troilus and Cressida
"The main character's love story never seems very convincing ... Another thing that I disliked about this play was how much dialogue there was. About half the book was simply talking"
"The most striking thing is that the Greeks are all men, and their camp is a boys' club"
"I wasn't to interested as I struggled to read the story, the obvious star-crossed lovers tragedy plot of many of Shakespeare's plays apparant from the beginning of the story and the placement of the plot in good old Troy made it no more entertaining to me. What I did find interesting from the tale is how Shakespeare wrote wrote the play. Anyone who has written fanfiction has made a story or two where they introduce there own characters into a previously established plot and twist it a bit and while I've done some nonpublished fanfictions I had never thought the idea of taking such an established and long honored tale such as the Illiad, writing in my own characters and plot twist, and getting it actually published was possible. This play showed me that the chance exists, it just depends on the degree of twist and the material being chosen for it."
"Mh... I was expecting more."
"The most striking thing is that the Greeks are all men, and their camp is a boys' club"
"I wasn't to interested as I struggled to read the story, the obvious star-crossed lovers tragedy plot of many of Shakespeare's plays apparant from the beginning of the story and the placement of the plot in good old Troy made it no more entertaining to me. What I did find interesting from the tale is how Shakespeare wrote wrote the play. Anyone who has written fanfiction has made a story or two where they introduce there own characters into a previously established plot and twist it a bit and while I've done some nonpublished fanfictions I had never thought the idea of taking such an established and long honored tale such as the Illiad, writing in my own characters and plot twist, and getting it actually published was possible. This play showed me that the chance exists, it just depends on the degree of twist and the material being chosen for it."
"Mh... I was expecting more."
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Sigmund Freud - Civilization and Its Discontents
"The man was a serious drug addict and believed women and children being molested and raped were actually not sharing trauma that happened, but repressed desires."
"Sadly, the father of psychology is a bit of a fool."
"Man is not innately aggressive.This is a fallacy propounded by the patriarchy to justify its aggression and repression."
"Being a Judaic, Freud was an outsider to Occidental civilization and he certainly was discontent (or more like, despised it) with it ... If you're European or of European descent, read C.G. Jung's masterpiece Modern Man in Search of a Soul instead of this slim book."
"Sadly, the father of psychology is a bit of a fool."
"Man is not innately aggressive.This is a fallacy propounded by the patriarchy to justify its aggression and repression."
"Being a Judaic, Freud was an outsider to Occidental civilization and he certainly was discontent (or more like, despised it) with it ... If you're European or of European descent, read C.G. Jung's masterpiece Modern Man in Search of a Soul instead of this slim book."
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls
"If you want to read an award-winning author's works, do not read this edition. It is censored to remove the profanity by usning the words 'unprintable' repeatedly. Very insulting to any reader. If young people can't handle such vocabulary, they should stick with 'The Adventures of Barney.'"
"Did this guy not have an editor?"
"I just cannot wrap my arms around Hemmingway's style."
"Of course, 'learned' professors never want to admit that 'classics' like The Old Man and the Sea are really poorly written, or that the 'classical'-looking language ('thee', 'thou', 'wouldest') is really just flat, decorative writing that actually distances the author from his readers, from the characters, from their saying anything with any real flow or rhythm, and from making any direct statement at all. In short, it's a cop-out."
"I am sorry that one of the first exposures to sex in a novel was a novel by Ernest Hemingway. Gross."
"His love for strange settings and depressing story lines reflects how far into the bottle he had crawled. If I want to listen to the drunken ramblings of a person with advanced brain damage from alcohol I can call my grandmother."
"I read half of the book and then still was bored as after the first few pages, so I decided to not stop liking the beautiful places of our planet that Hemingway seems to have all visited before me but to stop reading Hemingway."
"The war hadn’t been going on for very long at the start of the book, so she wasn’t in the fascist camp for over a year I’d say. Even at 17, even being abused in a fascist camp for a year couldn’t make someone completely lose all sense of self."
"Ugh! I HATED this book!!!! Story had a BAD ending, and furthermore, the gal and girl went WAY too far---and the first night too!"
"It is my earnest belief that Hem ought to have titled this novel, For Whom the Book Bores."
"I put it down because I'm in my 30's, not in High School and don't have to read books just because they are classics."
"The dialogue halted me a lot, with the 'thee, thou' language that seemed as if it were trying to hard to sound 'old', even though it was supposed to be a translated piece."
"While there is no denying that the book is different in its perspective and technique, overall it falls short for the simple reason that it makes readers dig through wordy dialogue and monologue to remain engaged in the story."
"This book deeply disappointed me ... It's portrayal of war struck me as more old-era (think WW1 minus nations and money plus guerilla warfare) than anything"
"I skimmed all the bullfighting scenes because bulls are my friends and I don't give a crap whether or not a bullfighter is a winner or a loser. They're all losers to me."
"His main character Robert Jordan is russian and is assigned to destroy a bridge."
"I only read about a third of the book. Hemingway committed suicide; so, what of value could he have possibly had to say?"
?????
??????????????????????????
I INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING HILARIOUS AND LEGITIMATE CRITIQUE OF FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLLS IN PART BECAUSE I HAVE SOME QUALMS MYSELF ABOUT PRAISING THE BOOK TOO HIGHLY...
"the novel can be summed up thus: 'i am a man, a silent, authentic man, a man who drinks for sorrow and a man who sleeps with women for joy and a man who loves violence for its own sake - allthough im saying something else to myself... to myself, a man. a silent man. a man who doesn't swear in front of the mucks of spaniards, the spaniards who fight. who fight for justice. i am a man who fights for justice. i love this woman - i truly love thee oh my spanish fullbreasted slim woman - till the earth moves, the earth did move - did it really move? yeah, it moved, it moved for me, the silent man - who still loves to drink and swear and sleep with women and shoot. yeah, me.'"
...BUT PRINCIPALLY TO QUOTE THE FOLLOWING RESPONSE, FROM AMAZON USER "SERIOUS REVIEWER":
"I only feel it neccessary to tell you that this review really reflects negatively on you. You sound incredibly immature. I reported your review for abuse but I guess Amazon has more pressing concerns than defending a classic that brought tears down from my eyes from people who would wish to insult it. Coming from an Artist, your review is thoughtless and arrogant, I mean I am an Artist, you are a sour critic :)"
"Did this guy not have an editor?"
"I just cannot wrap my arms around Hemmingway's style."
"Of course, 'learned' professors never want to admit that 'classics' like The Old Man and the Sea are really poorly written, or that the 'classical'-looking language ('thee', 'thou', 'wouldest') is really just flat, decorative writing that actually distances the author from his readers, from the characters, from their saying anything with any real flow or rhythm, and from making any direct statement at all. In short, it's a cop-out."
"I am sorry that one of the first exposures to sex in a novel was a novel by Ernest Hemingway. Gross."
"His love for strange settings and depressing story lines reflects how far into the bottle he had crawled. If I want to listen to the drunken ramblings of a person with advanced brain damage from alcohol I can call my grandmother."
"I read half of the book and then still was bored as after the first few pages, so I decided to not stop liking the beautiful places of our planet that Hemingway seems to have all visited before me but to stop reading Hemingway."
"The war hadn’t been going on for very long at the start of the book, so she wasn’t in the fascist camp for over a year I’d say. Even at 17, even being abused in a fascist camp for a year couldn’t make someone completely lose all sense of self."
"Ugh! I HATED this book!!!! Story had a BAD ending, and furthermore, the gal and girl went WAY too far---and the first night too!"
"It is my earnest belief that Hem ought to have titled this novel, For Whom the Book Bores."
"I put it down because I'm in my 30's, not in High School and don't have to read books just because they are classics."
"The dialogue halted me a lot, with the 'thee, thou' language that seemed as if it were trying to hard to sound 'old', even though it was supposed to be a translated piece."
"While there is no denying that the book is different in its perspective and technique, overall it falls short for the simple reason that it makes readers dig through wordy dialogue and monologue to remain engaged in the story."
"This book deeply disappointed me ... It's portrayal of war struck me as more old-era (think WW1 minus nations and money plus guerilla warfare) than anything"
"I skimmed all the bullfighting scenes because bulls are my friends and I don't give a crap whether or not a bullfighter is a winner or a loser. They're all losers to me."
"His main character Robert Jordan is russian and is assigned to destroy a bridge."
"I only read about a third of the book. Hemingway committed suicide; so, what of value could he have possibly had to say?"
?????
??????????????????????????
I INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING HILARIOUS AND LEGITIMATE CRITIQUE OF FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLLS IN PART BECAUSE I HAVE SOME QUALMS MYSELF ABOUT PRAISING THE BOOK TOO HIGHLY...
"the novel can be summed up thus: 'i am a man, a silent, authentic man, a man who drinks for sorrow and a man who sleeps with women for joy and a man who loves violence for its own sake - allthough im saying something else to myself... to myself, a man. a silent man. a man who doesn't swear in front of the mucks of spaniards, the spaniards who fight. who fight for justice. i am a man who fights for justice. i love this woman - i truly love thee oh my spanish fullbreasted slim woman - till the earth moves, the earth did move - did it really move? yeah, it moved, it moved for me, the silent man - who still loves to drink and swear and sleep with women and shoot. yeah, me.'"
...BUT PRINCIPALLY TO QUOTE THE FOLLOWING RESPONSE, FROM AMAZON USER "SERIOUS REVIEWER":
"I only feel it neccessary to tell you that this review really reflects negatively on you. You sound incredibly immature. I reported your review for abuse but I guess Amazon has more pressing concerns than defending a classic that brought tears down from my eyes from people who would wish to insult it. Coming from an Artist, your review is thoughtless and arrogant, I mean I am an Artist, you are a sour critic :)"
Friday, March 11, 2011
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
"This book was entertaining for the fact that the author seemed gay."
"When I just read some chapters of this book, I didn't realized anything wrong with it. However, I talked it over with others and realized that the book was full of allusions to the 'worst side of life,' something that might remind you of Hyde in 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.'
Oscar Wilde, the author, was gay, so there are even allusions to that. This book was considered 'immoral,' and the people during that time who read this book were extremely surprised. This book was the evidence given in Wilde's trial for his homosexual liaisons.
Wilde noted in a letter, 'Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be-in other ages, perhaps.'
Dorian, in a language (I think it was ancient Greek, but I'm not sure), means 'brotherly love.'
I mean, the story starts out by describing the scene where Basil is at his studio with Lord Henry. As you can obviously guess, they're both male, but the author says, 'The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses...there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn. From the corner...Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-cloured blossoms...' and so on. Do you notice how the author put in as much 'feminine' details as possible?
And as the story goes, it gets worse and worse. The author states 'A white-smocked carter offered him some cherries. He thanked him, and wondered why he refused to accept any money for them,...' Do you understand what this means? This means that the cherries have been picked in the midnight. Would you pick cherries in midnight? No, unless you are a robber.
Also, on the same page(pg.100), 'A long line of boys carrying crates of striped tulips, and of yellow and red roses, defiled in front of him,...' If you don't know the meaning of 'defiled,' you might want to look it up in the dictionary.
This book is full of 'poisonous influences.' Even Wilde accepts the fact. Dorian kills his friend Basil, 'He rushed at him, and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind the ear, crushing the man's head down on the table, and stabbing again and again.'
If you want to read this book, I'm not the one to stop you. But I hope to be the one who make you think twice about doing so."
"I tried classics but they are for people way smarter than me, I like BDB, psy-changeling, dark-hunter and other series alike and I’m damn proud of it!!"
"This was honestly one of the hardest reads I have ever had to overcome. Nearly every observation that Wilde makes is absurd and unfounded. The depravity of this book is astonishing, it reminded me of Hemingway's 'Tender is the Night,' which I utterly abhorred. Wilde's own perverse desires saturate the book with an unflattering blatancy."
"I felt like it was all about homosexuality...didn't finish it"
"After having studied The Proclamation on the Family it was easy to pick out every false belief that these shallow characters held and professed."
"i hate dorian gray..if any of you love to hear james blunt's.plis listen 2 one of his songs, tears and rain...he sang about dorian gray..."
"Piece of shit. Wilde, where are your balls, where is the risk? Throw the fucking dice, you pussy."
"The novel The Picture of Dorian Grey is an unoriginal story line with disturbing morals in which innocent people are corrupted. Written in the late 18th century by Oscar Wilde the novel is an example of homosexual fiction. While the sexual preference of the characters is never addressed it is often hinted at. Many of the morals presented in the novel are very disturbing."
"What can be worse than reading about guys giving detailed descriptions of other guys they are enthralled with?!"
"Wow Oscar Wilde, Could you not have been more blatantly homosexual ? It should have been obvious that Oscar had a taste for the same gender after he wrote this book. I found Dorian Gray to be a reflection of what most humans want. Immortality. Dorian Gray disgusted me."
"Very piquerest and floural with its pages and pages of desriptions. I think is was very new and dramatic for the time period is was written in- but for now- really he only killed one person.... now a days that will not even get you 20 yrs in prison."
"A nauseating amount of symbolism for, shall we say, 'alternative sexuality'...too many men poised delicately on sofas, too many red, plump male lips lingering behind tufts of colorful lilacs and so on. It makes one wonder whether Wilde really wanted to write a novel so much as he wanted a forum to covertly publicize his own fantasies."
"gay"
"When I just read some chapters of this book, I didn't realized anything wrong with it. However, I talked it over with others and realized that the book was full of allusions to the 'worst side of life,' something that might remind you of Hyde in 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.'
Oscar Wilde, the author, was gay, so there are even allusions to that. This book was considered 'immoral,' and the people during that time who read this book were extremely surprised. This book was the evidence given in Wilde's trial for his homosexual liaisons.
Wilde noted in a letter, 'Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be-in other ages, perhaps.'
Dorian, in a language (I think it was ancient Greek, but I'm not sure), means 'brotherly love.'
I mean, the story starts out by describing the scene where Basil is at his studio with Lord Henry. As you can obviously guess, they're both male, but the author says, 'The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses...there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn. From the corner...Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-cloured blossoms...' and so on. Do you notice how the author put in as much 'feminine' details as possible?
And as the story goes, it gets worse and worse. The author states 'A white-smocked carter offered him some cherries. He thanked him, and wondered why he refused to accept any money for them,...' Do you understand what this means? This means that the cherries have been picked in the midnight. Would you pick cherries in midnight? No, unless you are a robber.
Also, on the same page(pg.100), 'A long line of boys carrying crates of striped tulips, and of yellow and red roses, defiled in front of him,...' If you don't know the meaning of 'defiled,' you might want to look it up in the dictionary.
This book is full of 'poisonous influences.' Even Wilde accepts the fact. Dorian kills his friend Basil, 'He rushed at him, and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind the ear, crushing the man's head down on the table, and stabbing again and again.'
If you want to read this book, I'm not the one to stop you. But I hope to be the one who make you think twice about doing so."
"I tried classics but they are for people way smarter than me, I like BDB, psy-changeling, dark-hunter and other series alike and I’m damn proud of it!!"
"This was honestly one of the hardest reads I have ever had to overcome. Nearly every observation that Wilde makes is absurd and unfounded. The depravity of this book is astonishing, it reminded me of Hemingway's 'Tender is the Night,' which I utterly abhorred. Wilde's own perverse desires saturate the book with an unflattering blatancy."
"I felt like it was all about homosexuality...didn't finish it"
"After having studied The Proclamation on the Family it was easy to pick out every false belief that these shallow characters held and professed."
"i hate dorian gray..if any of you love to hear james blunt's.plis listen 2 one of his songs, tears and rain...he sang about dorian gray..."
"Piece of shit. Wilde, where are your balls, where is the risk? Throw the fucking dice, you pussy."
"The novel The Picture of Dorian Grey is an unoriginal story line with disturbing morals in which innocent people are corrupted. Written in the late 18th century by Oscar Wilde the novel is an example of homosexual fiction. While the sexual preference of the characters is never addressed it is often hinted at. Many of the morals presented in the novel are very disturbing."
"What can be worse than reading about guys giving detailed descriptions of other guys they are enthralled with?!"
"Wow Oscar Wilde, Could you not have been more blatantly homosexual ? It should have been obvious that Oscar had a taste for the same gender after he wrote this book. I found Dorian Gray to be a reflection of what most humans want. Immortality. Dorian Gray disgusted me."
"Very piquerest and floural with its pages and pages of desriptions. I think is was very new and dramatic for the time period is was written in- but for now- really he only killed one person.... now a days that will not even get you 20 yrs in prison."
"A nauseating amount of symbolism for, shall we say, 'alternative sexuality'...too many men poised delicately on sofas, too many red, plump male lips lingering behind tufts of colorful lilacs and so on. It makes one wonder whether Wilde really wanted to write a novel so much as he wanted a forum to covertly publicize his own fantasies."
"gay"
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Samuel Beckett - Waiting for Godot
"This is as overrated as it gets, my friends. Beckett's play is little more than two idiots bantering on the stage for pages on end."
"This was weird! I know it is about man's serch for meaning, but I had a hard time finding the meaning in the book. It certainly didn't help me find man's meaning. Weird."
"This book is apsurd. I've never read so borring book. This was compleatly waste of my time.
They're dialog is ridiculus, and I don't see a point in this book"
"As far as existentialist literature goes, this book is excellent. As a book (or play), I couldn't put it down...but it was much like the time I was watching a movie in JetBlue, some stupid suspense drama, only because I have the kind of compulsiveness that compels me to walk a certain amount of steps in a cement block (if that makes sense, sorry if it doesn't); I only watched this stupid movie to figure out what the title was, because I knew that if I landed 5 hours from then and didn't know what it was called I would be driven crazy...I said, 'Watch, it's going to be called something stupid, like {Phone Booth}' (guess what it was called); so much like that movie, I read 'Waiting for Godot' just to satisfy my compulsion and see if anything interesting DID happen...which...it didn't. At least, not if I look at it literally."
"The main protagonists in this play are called Vladimir and Estragon. Now, you try to tell me that those aren't the names of vampires in a YA novel."
"Another thing is I'm not quite sure why they're waiting for this Godot person. He seem quite mysterious and all I know is he is important to these people."
"frankly i found this play too be just a little long and boring. it was and on and on and on about two guys who were like married couple, i wasnt even sure this was a heterosexual world because there were like no mentions of any female presence. the men just bicker on and on and obviously wait for this guy named godot. i dont even noe who godot is, his character isnt talked about. all i can say is that through the book, they argue and argue about various issues including suicide at the end cough cough...
i wouldnt recommend reading this play, it was just crazy and long,and crazylong..."
"It just doesn't strike me as requiring much talent to write down nonsense and call it a play. I'm sure it was really different for its time, but it kind of strikes me as the literary version of the type of contemporary art where someone paints a canvas black and then it winds up at the Met. I just don't get it."
"Waiting for Godot goes into the category of works that people (pretentious literary snobs and pretentious literary posers) say are so deep and meaningful because they don't have the slightest idea of what it means. I'll be a man and say it's not deep and it's not interesting."
"I am suspicious of abstract art that consists of a circle and a line, and is praised by the art critics. I am thus reminded when reading this play, considered an American classic, and praised to the heavens by the theatre critics, many of whom are excerpted on the covers. This minimalist play consists mainly of two clueless pinheads, apparently eternally waiting for a man named Godot who will give them instructions. They often argue about leaving, but never do so, and during their wait they meet up with a master and servant, with confusing and meaningless results. I have occasionally read a play that was this absurd and pretentious. I have never read one that was held in such critical acclaim."
"so what was all the fuss about...that play sucked...just plain awful....not trying to start a fight here but that was a big piece of shit of a play"
EVOLUTION OF A COMEDIAN: A TRAGICOMEDY IN TWO ACTS
ROB R., ON THE 11TH OF AUGUST, WROTE:
"Root canals are preferable"
AND THEN ON A DIFFERENT WEBSITE, THIRTEEN DAYS LATER:
"If you have the choice of seeing this play or having a root canal without Novocaine, choose the dentist"
THANK YOU ROBERT. GLAD YOU GOT THAT ONE DOWN.
"This book is fantastic, i liked all of it and made me learn to not wait around to long"
"This was weird! I know it is about man's serch for meaning, but I had a hard time finding the meaning in the book. It certainly didn't help me find man's meaning. Weird."
"This book is apsurd. I've never read so borring book. This was compleatly waste of my time.
They're dialog is ridiculus, and I don't see a point in this book"
"As far as existentialist literature goes, this book is excellent. As a book (or play), I couldn't put it down...but it was much like the time I was watching a movie in JetBlue, some stupid suspense drama, only because I have the kind of compulsiveness that compels me to walk a certain amount of steps in a cement block (if that makes sense, sorry if it doesn't); I only watched this stupid movie to figure out what the title was, because I knew that if I landed 5 hours from then and didn't know what it was called I would be driven crazy...I said, 'Watch, it's going to be called something stupid, like {Phone Booth}' (guess what it was called); so much like that movie, I read 'Waiting for Godot' just to satisfy my compulsion and see if anything interesting DID happen...which...it didn't. At least, not if I look at it literally."
"The main protagonists in this play are called Vladimir and Estragon. Now, you try to tell me that those aren't the names of vampires in a YA novel."
"Another thing is I'm not quite sure why they're waiting for this Godot person. He seem quite mysterious and all I know is he is important to these people."
"frankly i found this play too be just a little long and boring. it was and on and on and on about two guys who were like married couple, i wasnt even sure this was a heterosexual world because there were like no mentions of any female presence. the men just bicker on and on and obviously wait for this guy named godot. i dont even noe who godot is, his character isnt talked about. all i can say is that through the book, they argue and argue about various issues including suicide at the end cough cough...
i wouldnt recommend reading this play, it was just crazy and long,and crazylong..."
"It just doesn't strike me as requiring much talent to write down nonsense and call it a play. I'm sure it was really different for its time, but it kind of strikes me as the literary version of the type of contemporary art where someone paints a canvas black and then it winds up at the Met. I just don't get it."
"Waiting for Godot goes into the category of works that people (pretentious literary snobs and pretentious literary posers) say are so deep and meaningful because they don't have the slightest idea of what it means. I'll be a man and say it's not deep and it's not interesting."
"I am suspicious of abstract art that consists of a circle and a line, and is praised by the art critics. I am thus reminded when reading this play, considered an American classic, and praised to the heavens by the theatre critics, many of whom are excerpted on the covers. This minimalist play consists mainly of two clueless pinheads, apparently eternally waiting for a man named Godot who will give them instructions. They often argue about leaving, but never do so, and during their wait they meet up with a master and servant, with confusing and meaningless results. I have occasionally read a play that was this absurd and pretentious. I have never read one that was held in such critical acclaim."
"so what was all the fuss about...that play sucked...just plain awful....not trying to start a fight here but that was a big piece of shit of a play"
EVOLUTION OF A COMEDIAN: A TRAGICOMEDY IN TWO ACTS
ROB R., ON THE 11TH OF AUGUST, WROTE:
"Root canals are preferable"
AND THEN ON A DIFFERENT WEBSITE, THIRTEEN DAYS LATER:
"If you have the choice of seeing this play or having a root canal without Novocaine, choose the dentist"
THANK YOU ROBERT. GLAD YOU GOT THAT ONE DOWN.
"This book is fantastic, i liked all of it and made me learn to not wait around to long"
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Ludwig Wittgenstein - Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
"I find, the old Chinese Sage philosophy of the Tao much more understanding and much of which Wittgenstein probably already knew and read about before he even started this non-sense. Which to me, that I, believe makes a worth of understanding the self in it self. Read philosophy on the Tao before, you, read this!"
"The Tractatus is a mesmerizing pile of poo. I spent a semester trying to understand whatever it was that Wittgenstein seemed to have stumbled upon... it turns out that this is just nothing more than an engineer writing bad poetry. Crap. Absolute crap..
'Whereof that which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence.' What the devil is this? It's a coward's way out. Translation: 'I can't roll with the big dogs so I'm going to take my ball and go home.'"
"It was like reading bad poetry written by an engineer who cannot think outside the box. I did not really enjoy it.
But I do admit that I have not read too many philosophical essays yet, so this book might not have been ready for me yet (yeah, Wittisteini, how do you like the logical form of THAT sentence? =D )"
"Wittgenstein must be the most over rated philosopher who has ever lived. Because of the work (and marketing) of a few devoted students, the rest of us have been led to believe that he is one of the great ones. The truth is nothing of the sort. He couldn't write clearly ... Much of his work is unreadable ... If you really want to read some good philosophy, do not be unjustifiably taken in by the weird mystique of the Wittgenstein name. It is all P.R. work by some ivy league philosophers who do not even care anymore if philsophy has anything useful to say to people who live in the real world. As long as they can continue to collect their salaries and analyze their little language puzzles in the privacy of their faculty offices, they are happy-and irrelevant to the lives of anyone who actually works outside of a university. Save yourself the bother of trying to decipher this guy; It isn't worth your trouble."
"Just glad he didn't live long enough to write another."
"The Tractatus is a mesmerizing pile of poo. I spent a semester trying to understand whatever it was that Wittgenstein seemed to have stumbled upon... it turns out that this is just nothing more than an engineer writing bad poetry. Crap. Absolute crap..
'Whereof that which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence.' What the devil is this? It's a coward's way out. Translation: 'I can't roll with the big dogs so I'm going to take my ball and go home.'"
"It was like reading bad poetry written by an engineer who cannot think outside the box. I did not really enjoy it.
But I do admit that I have not read too many philosophical essays yet, so this book might not have been ready for me yet (yeah, Wittisteini, how do you like the logical form of THAT sentence? =D )"
"Wittgenstein must be the most over rated philosopher who has ever lived. Because of the work (and marketing) of a few devoted students, the rest of us have been led to believe that he is one of the great ones. The truth is nothing of the sort. He couldn't write clearly ... Much of his work is unreadable ... If you really want to read some good philosophy, do not be unjustifiably taken in by the weird mystique of the Wittgenstein name. It is all P.R. work by some ivy league philosophers who do not even care anymore if philsophy has anything useful to say to people who live in the real world. As long as they can continue to collect their salaries and analyze their little language puzzles in the privacy of their faculty offices, they are happy-and irrelevant to the lives of anyone who actually works outside of a university. Save yourself the bother of trying to decipher this guy; It isn't worth your trouble."
"Just glad he didn't live long enough to write another."
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Aeschylus - Oresteia
"The murders and background information make it a PG-13."
"This book was TERRIBLE. not only was it so incredibly boring that i would have rather watched paint dry, but it's stupidity amazed me."
"All I have to say is 'Man O Man'!! I thought I would have somewhat of a difficult time reading & understanding this book/play but was definitely up for the challenge. After reading the painful diatribe of the foreword & introduction then the explanation of each of the 3 Parts by the author. I started reading Part I - Agememnon, instantly got very confused and knew I was not going to enjoy reading this type of genre. ABORTED."
GOOD EVENING, GENTLE READER. NOW, ALL OF US LIKE TO SEE A BOOK READ POORLY - THAT'S THE REASON WE'RE HERE: TO LAUGH AT PEOPLE INFERIOR TO OURSELVES, LIKE SCHOOLCHILDREN AND SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES. BUT THE UNFORTUNATE THING ABOUT POOR READERS IS THAT THEY DON'T TEND TO READ A GREAT DEAL. OFTEN I FIND MYSELF TRAWLING THROUGH A BOOK'S REVIEWS TO FINISH WITH JUST THREE OR FOUR SUITABLE QUOTES. SO INSTEAD OF UPDATING ONCE EVERY TWO DAYS, I'VE DECIDED TO USE DAYS WHEN I DON'T HAVE A LOT OF TIME TO POST THESE SHORTER ENTRIES. BUT THERE WILL STILL BE MUCH LONGER POSTS ON FRIDAYS, SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS, WITH PLENTY OF CHILDREN AND FOREIGN PEOPLE AT WHOM WE CAN LAUGH TO OUR HEARTS' CONTENT.
"This book was TERRIBLE. not only was it so incredibly boring that i would have rather watched paint dry, but it's stupidity amazed me."
"All I have to say is 'Man O Man'!! I thought I would have somewhat of a difficult time reading & understanding this book/play but was definitely up for the challenge. After reading the painful diatribe of the foreword & introduction then the explanation of each of the 3 Parts by the author. I started reading Part I - Agememnon, instantly got very confused and knew I was not going to enjoy reading this type of genre. ABORTED."
GOOD EVENING, GENTLE READER. NOW, ALL OF US LIKE TO SEE A BOOK READ POORLY - THAT'S THE REASON WE'RE HERE: TO LAUGH AT PEOPLE INFERIOR TO OURSELVES, LIKE SCHOOLCHILDREN AND SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES. BUT THE UNFORTUNATE THING ABOUT POOR READERS IS THAT THEY DON'T TEND TO READ A GREAT DEAL. OFTEN I FIND MYSELF TRAWLING THROUGH A BOOK'S REVIEWS TO FINISH WITH JUST THREE OR FOUR SUITABLE QUOTES. SO INSTEAD OF UPDATING ONCE EVERY TWO DAYS, I'VE DECIDED TO USE DAYS WHEN I DON'T HAVE A LOT OF TIME TO POST THESE SHORTER ENTRIES. BUT THERE WILL STILL BE MUCH LONGER POSTS ON FRIDAYS, SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS, WITH PLENTY OF CHILDREN AND FOREIGN PEOPLE AT WHOM WE CAN LAUGH TO OUR HEARTS' CONTENT.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sir Thomas Malory - Le Morte d'Arthur
"I described it to a friend as a bad tabletop game with a randomizer instead of a DM. Logistically, the fighting doesn't make a lot of sense"
"I Hate this book with ever fiber of my beaning... its all about sex, fighting, magic, and more SEX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dont read it."
"I did not enjoy the book because it was difficult to read - because the copy i had was in Old English or French."
YOU KNOW
ONE OF THOSE TWO
"Secondly i had low motivation to read the book because i had just watched the movie and my brain was questioning the point of it."
"Like many books from this period, the main argument against Le Morte d'Arthur being a classic is simply the arcane nature of its language ... there's no doubt that it's all funny-sounding to modern ears"
"I got about a third of the way through before I 'accidently' picked up something else to read."
"this book was a waste of time
do not read this its too long and is boring. Nothing goes on in it and the charecters are stupid. this book is not worth your time. If I was you I would buy GTA Vice City ."
"I Hate this book with ever fiber of my beaning... its all about sex, fighting, magic, and more SEX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dont read it."
"I did not enjoy the book because it was difficult to read - because the copy i had was in Old English or French."
YOU KNOW
ONE OF THOSE TWO
"Secondly i had low motivation to read the book because i had just watched the movie and my brain was questioning the point of it."
"Like many books from this period, the main argument against Le Morte d'Arthur being a classic is simply the arcane nature of its language ... there's no doubt that it's all funny-sounding to modern ears"
"I got about a third of the way through before I 'accidently' picked up something else to read."
"this book was a waste of time
do not read this its too long and is boring. Nothing goes on in it and the charecters are stupid. this book is not worth your time. If I was you I would buy GTA Vice City ."
Sunday, March 6, 2011
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby III
"I fail to share Scott Fitzgerald's enthusiasm for the rich."
"I'm sure that with a patient reader, this book would be a success.
I'm sure that with a reader better at memorizing names, this book would be a success.
I'm sure that with a reader who knows some background on the time that this book is set, this book would be a success.
Unfortunately, I am none of those."
"I didn't like the way the narrative took the reader through the story."
"The entire story could have been told in about 20 pages. I felt like the majority of the book was spent developing - over developing actually - the characters and using a lot of unneccessary adjectives, phrases, etc."
"this book seemed like a soup like... the young and the restless... lol. It did have a surprize ending but I didn't feel compled by the story over all."
"Fitzgerald took out his bitter, hateful feelings towards not having been rich when this book was written by casting the rich in a light that shows them as having little to no moral compass. He comforts himself in his lack of success by convincing himself it's better not to be rich anyways. If his intention was to come across as a bitter old man, and had written the book as such, I think it might have been much better written. But as is, this book is a poorly written excuse for Fitzgerald to comfort himself in his lack of success."
"I felt like there were dangling story lines, i.e., whatever happened to the girl back west?"
"Since then, we have learned a great deal about that era (possibly, yes, thanks to Fitzgerald, but I believe other sources were also largely to thank), so I think holding on to the notion that this book is some great window into the era is hard to uphold"
"'that's all a girl can hope to be, is a beautiful fool'. what a misogynist prick."
"The Great Gatsby is a book about scenery. There isn't much more to say about it. I'm neither better nor worse off after reading it, it had no central theme apart from the scenery"
"What makes this a classic?
It didn't seem to have a single revolutionary idea. It didn't have an idea stated in some revolutionary way. It wasn't extreme in one way or another."
"I hear the novel is supposed to be a criticism of the extravagant lifestyle of the 1920s, and I guess it could be taken as such at some level. But the way Fitzgerald describes much of what he is supposedly criticizing, I felt much more that he was glorifying the era and the people and practices of the time. It was like hero-worshiping the anti-hero - almost like Spiderman, with some part of the narrative against it and a large part of the narrative for it. The comparison makes sense in my head"
"There's a message, deep down in there, but you have to dig through a cesspool of bad writing and jarringly bland dialogue to get to it. As my esteemed friend Claire has said, 'If I see another Myspace or Facebook profile that lists this as their favorite book, I will be epicly latered.'"
"How did this book become a classic? It's not that well written and Gatsby is simple and uninteresting... any Wes Anderson movie has more nuance than this book does."
"The only reason this book is taught is because some school board back in the day thought it might teach their chilluns to be good people. Instead, it bores them and inspires them to leave school and go into lives of crime."
"Meh. I didn't care about anyone, not Jay, not Daisy, not Nick. I really liked Fitzgerald's Frankie and Zooey, so it's not an author issue. Read it once in 11th grade, and once again as an adult. Meh."
"Although not one of my favorites, I do think this book leaves a great message, 'Never give up.'"
WELL THAT ABOUT WRAPS IT UP FOR THE GREAT GATSBY (THOUGH YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN THIS PRETTY FUNNY GATSBY THING). BACK ON WEDNESDAY
"I'm sure that with a patient reader, this book would be a success.
I'm sure that with a reader better at memorizing names, this book would be a success.
I'm sure that with a reader who knows some background on the time that this book is set, this book would be a success.
Unfortunately, I am none of those."
"I didn't like the way the narrative took the reader through the story."
"The entire story could have been told in about 20 pages. I felt like the majority of the book was spent developing - over developing actually - the characters and using a lot of unneccessary adjectives, phrases, etc."
"this book seemed like a soup like... the young and the restless... lol. It did have a surprize ending but I didn't feel compled by the story over all."
"Fitzgerald took out his bitter, hateful feelings towards not having been rich when this book was written by casting the rich in a light that shows them as having little to no moral compass. He comforts himself in his lack of success by convincing himself it's better not to be rich anyways. If his intention was to come across as a bitter old man, and had written the book as such, I think it might have been much better written. But as is, this book is a poorly written excuse for Fitzgerald to comfort himself in his lack of success."
"I felt like there were dangling story lines, i.e., whatever happened to the girl back west?"
"Since then, we have learned a great deal about that era (possibly, yes, thanks to Fitzgerald, but I believe other sources were also largely to thank), so I think holding on to the notion that this book is some great window into the era is hard to uphold"
"'that's all a girl can hope to be, is a beautiful fool'. what a misogynist prick."
"The Great Gatsby is a book about scenery. There isn't much more to say about it. I'm neither better nor worse off after reading it, it had no central theme apart from the scenery"
"What makes this a classic?
It didn't seem to have a single revolutionary idea. It didn't have an idea stated in some revolutionary way. It wasn't extreme in one way or another."
"I hear the novel is supposed to be a criticism of the extravagant lifestyle of the 1920s, and I guess it could be taken as such at some level. But the way Fitzgerald describes much of what he is supposedly criticizing, I felt much more that he was glorifying the era and the people and practices of the time. It was like hero-worshiping the anti-hero - almost like Spiderman, with some part of the narrative against it and a large part of the narrative for it. The comparison makes sense in my head"
"There's a message, deep down in there, but you have to dig through a cesspool of bad writing and jarringly bland dialogue to get to it. As my esteemed friend Claire has said, 'If I see another Myspace or Facebook profile that lists this as their favorite book, I will be epicly latered.'"
"How did this book become a classic? It's not that well written and Gatsby is simple and uninteresting... any Wes Anderson movie has more nuance than this book does."
"The only reason this book is taught is because some school board back in the day thought it might teach their chilluns to be good people. Instead, it bores them and inspires them to leave school and go into lives of crime."
"Meh. I didn't care about anyone, not Jay, not Daisy, not Nick. I really liked Fitzgerald's Frankie and Zooey, so it's not an author issue. Read it once in 11th grade, and once again as an adult. Meh."
"Although not one of my favorites, I do think this book leaves a great message, 'Never give up.'"
WELL THAT ABOUT WRAPS IT UP FOR THE GREAT GATSBY (THOUGH YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN THIS PRETTY FUNNY GATSBY THING). BACK ON WEDNESDAY
Friday, March 4, 2011
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby II
"I have always heard that this was a great classic, well I guess it is a classic to people who don't like happy endings. hmmm Not one I would read again, sorry to all of you great intellectuals."
"Gatsby was obviously drunk, or smoking marijuana when he was writing this book, and must have thougth that this book was pretty clever. It isn't."
"I think that the overall message that the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald sends out about the society where the book takes place is the most important to look at because the society is run by the elite group. If we look at how America is run today, this may stand true to a degree in where the people elect who they want as their representation. Back then, only the rich were able to rule the country and most of the time, the people’s views were not seen through the elected officials. Who and how a country is run is an important concept that really impacted on how the United States became to be and Fitzgerald does a good job in bringing up this discussion."
"Fitzgerald uses to much symbolism and to many big words"
"If you're looking for a book to read, the Great Gatsby is not it. If you consider yourself an intellectual, I suggest reading Pedro Paramo (I forget the author) or Karl Marx's Das Kapital for some stimulation. Better yet, write your own damn book and amuse yourself with whatever it is you come up with."
"I wasted much time reading critical appraisals, but they are all junk. So is this book. I don't care what anybody says there are *SEVERAL* parts that *DO* seem to be 'scribbled drunk' and are nearly unintelligible. The book is filled with all kinds of errors, particuliarly chronological. There is also plenty of *PREJUDICE* and *RACISM* in this book ... when Tom talks about the 'Superior Nordic Race nobody seems to care *IN THE LEAST* about the horrible things he is saying. Nick's maid is refered to as 'my Finn', which is so racist as to be almost unintelligible. Daisy and Gatsby are proposterous characters. The idea that they can never get together *MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE WHATSOEVER*. I don't care about society standards that is completely ridiculous. That Daisy would even think of staying with Tom dates this book *HORRIBLY* at the very least and more realitically turns into *A VIRTUAL CARTOON*. How and why Gatsby would do what he did is not believably in the least. Gatsby would never have gone to Oxford if he had truly cared about Daisy. The Confrontation makes absolutely no sense. Tom calls Gatsby a bootlegger with a drink in his hand. That is *THE WEAKEST WRITING I HAVE EVER SEEN.* Don't bother to read this book."
"So what does Fiztgerald do, he has his hero Gatsby mysteriously get some money but no that is not enough because he is not part of society and he can only look at his long lost loves window over the water. It's the dilemma of the untouchable in India the Commoner in England buts its nonsense. Its not American its just because Scott was a whoos ... You know in your heart I'm right"
"The stilted language is like trying muddle your way through Beowulf in Middle English."
"this booke is very stupid, just like all the other secular writers out in the world. quite frankly, they should not be writing about 'worldly' things that do not affect people in any way whatsoever! after reading this book, your life will be the same as before you read it...why not read a book that will change your life and the way you think of things? what book is this? it is 'THE BOOK'... the BIBLE! God loves you no matter what, but why not give your life to him as he gave his son for you? God Bless You and May Your Days Be Bright!!!"
"terrible, terrible, terrible! This incredibly boring book, although considered an american classic, is dismal. Don't bother with it, and read Douglas Adams instead."
"'Long Journey into Night' had more literary qualities than this, and that's a movie."
"A TITLE FOR YOUR REVIEW
I HAVE JUST STARTED READING THIS BOOK AND I DON'T LIKE WHAT I READ SO FAR.IT IS VERY COMPLICATED TO UNDERSTAND AND THERE ARE A LOT OF CHARACTERS."
"I would give this so-called 'classic' zero stars if it was possible. The language is vulgar and archaic, with words such as 'gay' and 'excitement' used completely erroneously."
"Tom is the quintessential Aryan prototype spouting racist propaganda about how it has been scientifically proven that the blond haired blue eyed Nordic male is superior in every way to other races, and again there is no satiric edge from Fitzgerald to say that Tom is not correct in his beliefs and assumptions."
"I found some parts of the story quite blurry and hard to understand. Was the role of Tom Buchanan a bad man or a good yet misunderstood man? Some say he's a brute but was his actions justifiable? I believe they were"
"Fitzgerald over-characterizes certain characters, giving them true form and personality, almost to the point of nausea ... Gatsby you knew to the point of wanting to slap him every single time he said 'old chap' because it just gets annoying."
"The end could have been as worded longer and complex just like the rest of the book. But in my opinion Mr. Fitzgerald just got lazy and decided to end the book at that.
The Jay Gatsby was as great as claimed to be, then so is everyone who hustles for a women (Donald Trump, me and every other rich non-attractive male with an overly-attractive partner) is great. And if that is true then so be it."
"Gatsby was obviously drunk, or smoking marijuana when he was writing this book, and must have thougth that this book was pretty clever. It isn't."
"I think that the overall message that the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald sends out about the society where the book takes place is the most important to look at because the society is run by the elite group. If we look at how America is run today, this may stand true to a degree in where the people elect who they want as their representation. Back then, only the rich were able to rule the country and most of the time, the people’s views were not seen through the elected officials. Who and how a country is run is an important concept that really impacted on how the United States became to be and Fitzgerald does a good job in bringing up this discussion."
"Fitzgerald uses to much symbolism and to many big words"
"If you're looking for a book to read, the Great Gatsby is not it. If you consider yourself an intellectual, I suggest reading Pedro Paramo (I forget the author) or Karl Marx's Das Kapital for some stimulation. Better yet, write your own damn book and amuse yourself with whatever it is you come up with."
"I wasted much time reading critical appraisals, but they are all junk. So is this book. I don't care what anybody says there are *SEVERAL* parts that *DO* seem to be 'scribbled drunk' and are nearly unintelligible. The book is filled with all kinds of errors, particuliarly chronological. There is also plenty of *PREJUDICE* and *RACISM* in this book ... when Tom talks about the 'Superior Nordic Race nobody seems to care *IN THE LEAST* about the horrible things he is saying. Nick's maid is refered to as 'my Finn', which is so racist as to be almost unintelligible. Daisy and Gatsby are proposterous characters. The idea that they can never get together *MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE WHATSOEVER*. I don't care about society standards that is completely ridiculous. That Daisy would even think of staying with Tom dates this book *HORRIBLY* at the very least and more realitically turns into *A VIRTUAL CARTOON*. How and why Gatsby would do what he did is not believably in the least. Gatsby would never have gone to Oxford if he had truly cared about Daisy. The Confrontation makes absolutely no sense. Tom calls Gatsby a bootlegger with a drink in his hand. That is *THE WEAKEST WRITING I HAVE EVER SEEN.* Don't bother to read this book."
"So what does Fiztgerald do, he has his hero Gatsby mysteriously get some money but no that is not enough because he is not part of society and he can only look at his long lost loves window over the water. It's the dilemma of the untouchable in India the Commoner in England buts its nonsense. Its not American its just because Scott was a whoos ... You know in your heart I'm right"
"The stilted language is like trying muddle your way through Beowulf in Middle English."
"this booke is very stupid, just like all the other secular writers out in the world. quite frankly, they should not be writing about 'worldly' things that do not affect people in any way whatsoever! after reading this book, your life will be the same as before you read it...why not read a book that will change your life and the way you think of things? what book is this? it is 'THE BOOK'... the BIBLE! God loves you no matter what, but why not give your life to him as he gave his son for you? God Bless You and May Your Days Be Bright!!!"
"terrible, terrible, terrible! This incredibly boring book, although considered an american classic, is dismal. Don't bother with it, and read Douglas Adams instead."
"'Long Journey into Night' had more literary qualities than this, and that's a movie."
"A TITLE FOR YOUR REVIEW
I HAVE JUST STARTED READING THIS BOOK AND I DON'T LIKE WHAT I READ SO FAR.IT IS VERY COMPLICATED TO UNDERSTAND AND THERE ARE A LOT OF CHARACTERS."
"I would give this so-called 'classic' zero stars if it was possible. The language is vulgar and archaic, with words such as 'gay' and 'excitement' used completely erroneously."
"Tom is the quintessential Aryan prototype spouting racist propaganda about how it has been scientifically proven that the blond haired blue eyed Nordic male is superior in every way to other races, and again there is no satiric edge from Fitzgerald to say that Tom is not correct in his beliefs and assumptions."
"I found some parts of the story quite blurry and hard to understand. Was the role of Tom Buchanan a bad man or a good yet misunderstood man? Some say he's a brute but was his actions justifiable? I believe they were"
"Fitzgerald over-characterizes certain characters, giving them true form and personality, almost to the point of nausea ... Gatsby you knew to the point of wanting to slap him every single time he said 'old chap' because it just gets annoying."
"The end could have been as worded longer and complex just like the rest of the book. But in my opinion Mr. Fitzgerald just got lazy and decided to end the book at that.
The Jay Gatsby was as great as claimed to be, then so is everyone who hustles for a women (Donald Trump, me and every other rich non-attractive male with an overly-attractive partner) is great. And if that is true then so be it."
Thursday, March 3, 2011
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
"IMHO (in my humble opinion) The Great Gatsby is not so great!"
"Jay Gatsby throws a lot of parties. Many people think that he throws great parties. They can last up until 3 am in the morning."
"Though it's considered as one the greatest books of the 20th Century and it's so admired by many Americans readers WHY ? I don't have any idea !
And here's why I didn't like it : the story is told by Nick Carraway,the guy who hardly done\said anything at all !"
"I guess there's a reason why this book was unpopular and forgotten about for the first 20-30 years after it was first published. Personally, it makes no difference to me that this is supposed to be an 'important' literary novel, as I like to make those conclusions for myself rather than going with the masses just because it's the masses."
"One of the most interesting parts of the whole story was when Gatsby got killed. He was killed to pay for his evil doings that made him rich."
"Most of the novel was incomprehensibly lame. I was never fully introduced to the root of the affair that existed between Gatsby and Daisy. So they were in love...yeah..I've been in love too, who cares?
Several times I didn't even understand where characters were when they were speaking to each other. I also didn't understand the whole affair with Tom and Mrs. Wilson.. and something about her husband locking her up over the garage...? huh? then she gets run over by a car, then he sneaks in through the trees and shoots Gatsby? wha..? still..why am I suppose to care about all this?
Shallow and meaningless characters. again, who cares?
I read this book twice. 2 times. I just didn't get it. There was nothing in it for me.
I can't believe this book is revered with the rest of the great classics. Truly unbelievable. Fitzgerald certainly kissed the right asses with this one.
What garbage.
Daisy quote:
'They’re such beautiful shirts,' she sobbed.… 'It makes me sad because I've never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.'
...sob..sob.. boo-hoo-hoo. oh Please someone shut her the fuck up."
"Yes, I love classical books, like Oliver Twist, Animal Farm...etc, but the Great Gatsby just did not snag my attention at all."
"This fucking book blew. What a pompous fucking jew"
"The book was confusing. I read the first chapter but I didn’t finish the book. The book I know was told by the Gatsby’s neighbor. He is one of the most important people in the story. The other characters in the are the nick caraway, the cousin of daisy, Daisy, Tom, married to daisy, and Jordan Baker, and Jay Gatsby, and Myrtle Wilson, and George Wilson. First, Gatsby was military leader and a bodyguard for man name Dan Cody but when Cody died he left Gatsby 25, 000 dollars and becoming rich and successful. The reason he was rich because he was famous and through a lot of parties at his mansion, and he sold drugs. When He became famouss he made a lot of enemies. He didn’t have anybody close to him besides his father. He didn’t really like anyone.
Near the end, he was going to the hospital because Daisy got pregnant. Tom got her pregnant and they had a party. Gatsby went back home and was in his car with Daisy, and Daisy drove the car. She hit Myrtle and they they stopped and drove off. She died and Myrtle’s husband came and killed the Great Gatsby and killed himself. Then at the funeral was held and only servants and his dad and Nick were there. This book was confusing but the book had meaning. The message It was trying to convey is that the American and fame comes at a price and it could cost your life."
"I would like to meet one straight person who likes this author... so I can tell them how gay they are."
"Perhaps postmodernism just isn't my cup of tea."
"It made me wonder why we weren't reading about rich, white people who did good in the world and why the high school never assigned any books with Asian people in them. Another problem I had with it is that I don't remember anything about the women in the book except the fact that a woman named Daisy ran over somebody. Women being portrayed negatively and/or without strong personalities reads to me as mysoginistic."
"I refer to it as the 'Not-so Great Gatsby.'"
"This book has so many things that are wrong with this world: infidelity, murder, lies, greed… THIS is what we consider 'classic'?"
"I understand why it was chosen for the roaring twenties because it was about what was going on in the 1920's, but it just wasn't that well of a book in my opinion because it just didn't have that same hook to it as most books do. I felt like I was reading history more than what normal books have. But that makes this book unique. It makes you think you are reading a history text book more than a actual book. Two things that make this book stand out are the Valley of Ashes, and The Eyes Of DR. TJ Eckleburg. Whenever you are 'walking through the valley of ashes,' 'The Eyes of DR. TJ Eckleburg' will always be looking down on you to make sure you are always safe."
"Jay Gatsby throws a lot of parties. Many people think that he throws great parties. They can last up until 3 am in the morning."
"Though it's considered as one the greatest books of the 20th Century and it's so admired by many Americans readers WHY ? I don't have any idea !
And here's why I didn't like it : the story is told by Nick Carraway,the guy who hardly done\said anything at all !"
"I guess there's a reason why this book was unpopular and forgotten about for the first 20-30 years after it was first published. Personally, it makes no difference to me that this is supposed to be an 'important' literary novel, as I like to make those conclusions for myself rather than going with the masses just because it's the masses."
"One of the most interesting parts of the whole story was when Gatsby got killed. He was killed to pay for his evil doings that made him rich."
"Most of the novel was incomprehensibly lame. I was never fully introduced to the root of the affair that existed between Gatsby and Daisy. So they were in love...yeah..I've been in love too, who cares?
Several times I didn't even understand where characters were when they were speaking to each other. I also didn't understand the whole affair with Tom and Mrs. Wilson.. and something about her husband locking her up over the garage...? huh? then she gets run over by a car, then he sneaks in through the trees and shoots Gatsby? wha..? still..why am I suppose to care about all this?
Shallow and meaningless characters. again, who cares?
I read this book twice. 2 times. I just didn't get it. There was nothing in it for me.
I can't believe this book is revered with the rest of the great classics. Truly unbelievable. Fitzgerald certainly kissed the right asses with this one.
What garbage.
Daisy quote:
'They’re such beautiful shirts,' she sobbed.… 'It makes me sad because I've never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.'
...sob..sob.. boo-hoo-hoo. oh Please someone shut her the fuck up."
"Yes, I love classical books, like Oliver Twist, Animal Farm...etc, but the Great Gatsby just did not snag my attention at all."
"This fucking book blew. What a pompous fucking jew"
"The book was confusing. I read the first chapter but I didn’t finish the book. The book I know was told by the Gatsby’s neighbor. He is one of the most important people in the story. The other characters in the are the nick caraway, the cousin of daisy, Daisy, Tom, married to daisy, and Jordan Baker, and Jay Gatsby, and Myrtle Wilson, and George Wilson. First, Gatsby was military leader and a bodyguard for man name Dan Cody but when Cody died he left Gatsby 25, 000 dollars and becoming rich and successful. The reason he was rich because he was famous and through a lot of parties at his mansion, and he sold drugs. When He became famouss he made a lot of enemies. He didn’t have anybody close to him besides his father. He didn’t really like anyone.
Near the end, he was going to the hospital because Daisy got pregnant. Tom got her pregnant and they had a party. Gatsby went back home and was in his car with Daisy, and Daisy drove the car. She hit Myrtle and they they stopped and drove off. She died and Myrtle’s husband came and killed the Great Gatsby and killed himself. Then at the funeral was held and only servants and his dad and Nick were there. This book was confusing but the book had meaning. The message It was trying to convey is that the American and fame comes at a price and it could cost your life."
"I would like to meet one straight person who likes this author... so I can tell them how gay they are."
"Perhaps postmodernism just isn't my cup of tea."
"It made me wonder why we weren't reading about rich, white people who did good in the world and why the high school never assigned any books with Asian people in them. Another problem I had with it is that I don't remember anything about the women in the book except the fact that a woman named Daisy ran over somebody. Women being portrayed negatively and/or without strong personalities reads to me as mysoginistic."
"I refer to it as the 'Not-so Great Gatsby.'"
"This book has so many things that are wrong with this world: infidelity, murder, lies, greed… THIS is what we consider 'classic'?"
"I understand why it was chosen for the roaring twenties because it was about what was going on in the 1920's, but it just wasn't that well of a book in my opinion because it just didn't have that same hook to it as most books do. I felt like I was reading history more than what normal books have. But that makes this book unique. It makes you think you are reading a history text book more than a actual book. Two things that make this book stand out are the Valley of Ashes, and The Eyes Of DR. TJ Eckleburg. Whenever you are 'walking through the valley of ashes,' 'The Eyes of DR. TJ Eckleburg' will always be looking down on you to make sure you are always safe."
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