Thursday, September 29, 2011

THE BEST OF SEPTEMBER

DICKENS - GREAT EXPECTATIONS

"If you are thinking that I am not intellectually advanced enough to appreciate this fine art, then you are a follower. Try to think for yourself sometimes. Bye-bye."


"Where's the sex. Was Dickens scared of it. I believe that all great novels should have sex in them. It brings some humanity to them . Great Expectations is a fantasy on level with the Bible but worse, tragicly worse."


"This book definitely seems to be one of those all-American books about America in the 19th century that would be seen in a lot of American Literature classes."


FITZGERALD - THE GREAT GATSBY

"this was a good book about the roaring twenties it was about a man name nick that just came back from world war 1 when he came back he learned the business about stocks and he becomes rich and buys a house. Then when gets settle in the house he finds his old crush daisy but when went started to ask he stuff he finds out she had boyfriend and nick was crushed then later the boyfriend and daisy breaks up so nick tries to get her back he find out that daisy died in a car accident so nick dies in with one question does did daisy love nick? also when daisy died people told there love life’s about the affair and bad things the did behind the love life’s back"


DARWIN - ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES

"Regarding the phrase 'preservation of the favoured races,' who or what is doing the favouring? Natural selection? Can a natural selection process favour anything? Really...how does it pick what to favour? By a process! What process? Natural selection of course. It's a circus wheel!"


WALLACE STEVENS - IDEAS OF ORDER

"If there isn't an audience for someone's work, it isn't great. No audience, no talent."


HEMINGWAY - THE SUN ALSO RISES

"this book might be fine in dandy for people who like rambling, annoying, old style literature; but for younger, more modern people... it is a HUGE WASTE OF TIME."

"Hemingway's writing style could easily be surpassed by a seven year old. Descriptions like 'she was really pretty' just don't cut it in the world of top writers."


JOYCE - ULYSSES

"I remember touring NYU when I was between junior and senior year of high school. Right there, in the middle of the Art Department main office, was a black and white photograph of a woman sitting on the toilet. I was shocked. She had a faraway look in her eyes, and she was clearly thinking about something else-- the grocery list, all the things she had to do, something overwhelming. I was... confused but mentally intrigued. I had never seen anyone on the toilet before, and it's not something I actively think about other people doing. Ulysses is a lot like that. Almost as soon as Leopold Bloom, the main character, is introduced, we see him on the toilet."

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

James Joyce - Ulysses III

"I remember touring NYU when I was between junior and senior year of high school. Right there, in the middle of the Art Department main office, was a black and white photograph of a woman sitting on the toilet. I was shocked. She had a faraway look in her eyes, and she was clearly thinking about something else-- the grocery list, all the things she had to do, something overwhelming. I was... confused but mentally intrigued. I had never seen anyone on the toilet before, and it's not something I actively think about other people doing. Ulysses is a lot like that. Almost as soon as Leopold Bloom, the main character, is introduced, we see him on the toilet."


"Horrible. How was this ever published? It's the ramblings of a drunk."


"how many high school English teachers would flunk Joyce for writing as he did in said book"


"Does Ulysses deserve its reputation? I'd have to say no. It's a good book, but it just feels too dry and stale in the context of now. Though it may have paved the way for contemporary literature, I couldn't honestly say that it's the number one book of the century."


"Was this book written in a foreign language? I speak English but it made no sense to me. I started to read it because it is honored as such a great book. But I found no honor in it."


"It's indecipherable. I tried looking at the first few pages before and gave up."


"Does anyone else have trouble reading this or is it just me? Books like these just make me sleepy. It's almost like the ramblings of a schizophrenic."


"though I haven't read it, people enjoyed literature in a different way than we do now in ye olde times."


"The preferences of an intellegent few are of no interest to me, unless that intellegence correlates with something else like the preference for beauty or wisdom. Remember, crosswords and Sudoku are complicated, dense and require time. Whole systems of medieval thought are dense and require time. And indeed the people who loved these useless frameworks were probably intelligent."


"Technical prowess is not a sufficient condition for a great or even good novel."


"Joyce. The premier literature of do-nothing intellectuals."


"Mr. Joyce's works were uniformly terrible ... Shakespeare is also direly overrated, as well as a slew of other literature that is required reading at the HS and University levels. All signs of relevance are lost."


"I ripped through this thing in like an hour and a half, while watching 'Crossword All-Stars' on t.v., and cleaning the fish tank. It's a good book for multitasking, because the plot is so thin and watery.. nothing really happens! Just some shaving, walking around town.. crap like that. Now I have bragging rights to say I've read it, which is apparently a big deal to some people (losers), but honestly, I wouldn't recommend you waste your time. I actually heard that Joyce wrote this book as a basic reading lesson for immigrants who were learning English as a second language. He'd probably laugh himself silly, if he read the reviews on here that try to ascribe deep and oh-so-meaningful symbolism into it!"


"Sad for Ireland that their greatest work of fiction is unreadable. I know. I've tried many times.
...
The historic censorship issues aside,the book is pretty tame by today's standards and wouldn't pass a discerning editor's muster."


"Ah, this is a great con.

The book is, of course, utter drivel.

My theory is that this just Joyce's way of winding people up.

His thinking was (I paraphrase) 'Let me write a complete load of tripe then watch all the reviewers and critics get intellectual about it whilst pretending to understand it'.

Beyond that, good as a wedge for steadying a rickety table but otherwise a waste of ink and paper."


"I think the intellectuals praise the book so much because they are supposed to. Just like culinary experts praise oysters because that's what they're supposed to do."


"I CANNOT STRESS HOW MUCH I HATE JAMES JOYCE FOR EXISTING."

Monday, September 26, 2011

SPECIAL: TATTOO



"'I’ll follow you and make a heaven out of hell,
and I’ll die by your hand which I love so well.'
Fourth. A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act 12. Shakespeare."

HEY IDIOT, GOT A SUGGESTION FOR YOU: IF YOU'RE GOING TO GET A LINE FROM A BOOK TATTOOED ONTO YOUR BODY, AS IN, THIS SHIT IS GOING TO BE ON YOUR SKIN FOREVER, READ THE BOOK FIRST

THE MERE ACT OF TRYING TO OPEN IT TO ACT TWELVE OUGHT TO PUT YOU ON THE ALERT

THEN YOU CAN THINK TO YOURSELF FOR TWO SECONDS UNTIL YOU REALIZE THAT "HEY, THIS COUPLET OF SHAKESPEARE ISN'T IN IAMBIC PENTAMETER AND IS IN POINT OF FACT A RUNNY PUDDLE OF SHIT......... MAYBE I OUGHT TO CHECK THAT MY POTENTIAL TATTOO ISN'T FROM A NO FEAR SHAKESPEARE 'TRANSLATION' OF THE PLAY, INSTEAD OF THE PLAY ITSELF"

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Shakespeare - Love's Labour's Lost

"It was boring with a childish plot and there is a reason you don't see this one performed or even referenced much"


"I really wanted to like this one because with regard to themes and plot, this has the most potential of all Shakespeare's comedies. Unfortunately, the writing is largely unsuccessful."


"Shakespeare. Still boring to read"

Friday, September 23, 2011

Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises III

"The book has no theme, except that narcissim is okay. If you are a narcissist, and enjoy drinking, this book is for you."


"It sounded like a modern day soap opra off of the television."


"DON'T READ THIS BOOK!!!!"


"This book is not only TERRIBLY written, it is boring beyond words. Hemingway's writing style could easily be surpassed by a seven year old. Descriptions like 'she was really pretty' just don't cut it in the world of top writers."


"They say this is a 'Portrait of the lost post-war generation'. POrtrait my a...!! SO, if it is a portrait, I don't care about it"


"Now, will someone please explain why the hell bullfighting is such a noble effort anyway. I mean there are soldiers (even in Hemingway's time) fighting and dying for great causes"


"He is not that great of a writer. His style is short, simple, with not a lot of difficult vocabulary. Because of his style, his characters are two-dimensional and dull."


"The language that Hemingway uses in the book was crude and 'swear-like'. Young kids (and even adults) do not need to read such language. There's no point for such language. No role models at all in the book. I see no point in a 14 year old needing to read such garbage. I think people like this book because it is written by the famous, Ernest Hemingway and they feel that they NEED to say it's good because they want to fit in. It's either that or they have no morals and don't care what comes out of people mouths. These are the people that probably like to watch 'Jerry Spinger'. Anyway, the book had no point and no plot. This was a very hard book to do a book report on and I ended up with a 'C' on my book report because of my options did not map to the teachers. I later found out that my teacher didn't even read my book report and outsourced it to her teacher's aid. This made me mad. Teachers should grade their own students book reports, not give the job to someone I don't know. I could understand having a teacher outsourcing the grading of multiple choice/ true false tests. Things that have a definate 'yes' or 'no' answer to them but not essays. Anyway, if you like garbage and wasting your time this book is for you."


"I just don't understand how Hemingway writes dialogue. No one talks like that. Finish a sentence already!"


"It was an exercise my patients"


"And why could brett and Barnes not be together? They loved each other, but she was always running off with some other guy. It did not make any sense."


"And for the Lost Generation.... what's interesting about it? Maybe it's only the book written for the Lost Generation, but I don't believe in it. Or maybe, this could be the best novel to represent the said generation. But it's quite bleak to me. A nonfiction about the Lost Generation might do, but... is there any? Well, what for? I'm not interested anyway."


"I can't even tell what genre it is, because nothing happened."


"the characters kept refering to each other as 'tight' but I never was able to figure out what exactly they meant (emotionally pent-up)?"


"You know how people look at an abstract painting (like a Pollock) and say 'My 8 year old can do a better job than that!'?"


"Well, this book was just not exactly my type. You see, I'm not exactly the sort of reader that compares things in the book and thinks too much about his book."


"I want someone to paint a large picture for me to look in on, not just elude to some human nature that I have to pull apart from choppy dialogue."


"How much I looked for some meaning in this book! There is none. 'Lost Generation' pleease,simple decadence and weakness of character."


"I drink enough that I don't really need to hear about other people drinking a lot."


"I read this book to say I've read it, and now that it's done, that's how I feel about it. I've read it. Period. Moving on to something that will actually make me care."


"Quite boring and showed the vanity of people living life apart from Christ."


"did not like much-- long tale of alcoholism and macho worship...so much for the great man cannon"

SO MUCH FOR HIS MAN CANNON INDEED. NOTHING IS MORE MACHO THAN NOT HAVING A PENIS

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises II

"Although I have a house full of books, bursting with books, book shelves in every room, piles of books on a chest of drawers by the back door waiting for new shelves to be built, books along the edges of steps leading to the second floor, stacks of books in the master bedroom waiting their turn to be read..."

LET ME GUESS: YOU'RE STILL A DROOLING MORON BARELY CAPABLE OF WORKING THE VELCRO STRAP ON YOUR SHOES


"Maybe I just didn't 'get it.'"


"I can't tell you how pointless this book is. What's the moral? Is there one? I don't think there is."


"this book might be fine in dandy for people who like rambling, annoying, old style literature; but for younger, more modern people... it is a HUGE WASTE OF TIME."


"If you are into the late 90's politically correct scene, this book will offend you time and time again ... Bull fights? Yeah, yeah, yeah, so what?"


"his character introductions alternate between 'poor' and 'non-existent.'"


"Sorry folks, but I can't believe this pile of garbage is considered an all time classic. If I wrote this and took it to a publisher he would have thrown it in the garbage after a few minutes."


"Hemmingway writes like a third grader. The character development is non-exsistant. The plot is basically anything that is on MTV right now."


"THE SUN ALSO IS BORING...
It is a funny thing. Some people, to say that they are 'erudit', 'intelligent', 'cult', accept anything their teachers or friends tell them that is good, without questioning the real quality of the book they're reading. Because everybody says that Hemingway is a genius (he is), one can't assume the fact that this book is a pile of garbage; it is pure crap. DOn't come to me saying that this is a great portrai of the lost generation, blá, blá, blá. There is no plot at all, the character are ridiculous, the narrative style makes one want to kill the writer. ANyway, if you like to read a history that has absolutely no history in it (only characaters wandering through Paris and Pamplona), this is the right book..."


"my point is: why read the book? just come to spain!"


"To quickly paraphrase the story: We ate. We walked over there. We drank and ate. We walked over here. We argued. We watched a bullfight. We drank some more... If there is something 'important' about this book I missed it."

SURE DID


"I'm not some child who reviews books he never finished. I read the entire thing."


"Just a quick comment for all of you that think this novel deserves 5 stars. It does not! This is Hemingway's first novel and as such it shows a young developing artist attempting to find his voice and build his craft. Like many writers at this stage he does not fully make the grade ... Please restrain from making a book that deserves a '3' at most into a 5. (By the way I have lived in Paris and been to the running of the bulls"


"Jake Barnes the main character is in love with Brett Ashley who is a women player."


"This novel is somewhat similar to modern life now. People do drink to get away from their everyday troubles. But after reading this novel, you realize that love is not about sex. It's about true love."


"These people are not a part of the lost generation but the drinking, thinking that they got it made generation. I know teenagers who have been through more stuff than these knuckleheads."


"I am in the middle of the book and have to decide pretty soon whether to continue reading it or just throw it away. What am I reading? All I see is a bunch of aimless, seemingly privileged people spending most of their time in cafes and bars, and every page I turn has 'drink', 'wine', 'bottle', 'bar', 'cafe', 'coffee', 'breakfast', 'lunch', 'dinner' or any word related to dipsomania, gastromania (or bulimia perhaps?) written all over."


"Lady Brett Ashley, the eye candy in the book, is a trite, lying, promiscuous drunk who is anything but a lady. Mike is a pugnacious drunk. Bill is an indifferent drunk. Robert Cohn is a Jew and a non-drunk. Jake is the impotent drunk who narrates the story. In my insignificant opinion, I think the book would have benefited if we knew more about these people. Perhaps if I knew what happened to them, I could understand their behavior or the attraction of being drunk in Europe. Another thing, why is Robert Cohn in this book?"


"The time in which this novel taked palce and now times are similar in ways. In both the characters in the novel and people now-a-days, turn to alcohol for reliefand have tendencies to party all night long. Yet, there are parts in the book I cannot believe can occur, but this may be a good part of the novel. a place where dreams may happen."


"Usually when I'm reading a book and a proper noun is mentioned, I make the special subconscious effort to keep it in memory for later use, but EH spews them out with no regard."


"I thought the book The Sun Also Rises was a book for 'book worms.' The book was ok, I guess. It was some what interesting. I thought that the book was kind of boring also. I'm not a big reader so I guess that makes a big part of it. It's considered a classic and a great book because of who it was written by and the fact that the book was written in the 30's."


"he was straight! Its common for deviants to try and claim prominent people in history as part of their twisted ilk in order to find broader acceptance of their life choices."

Monday, September 19, 2011

Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises

"Le sigh."


"I decided to give Hemingway another shot-- but he failed once again."


"I don't like Hemingway's style of writing. He is too weighty. He says in twenty-five words what the normal person will say in ten."


"I think it was Hemingway's writing that prevented me from connecting with the book. His character's conversation's leave more unsaid than said, and it is what isn't being said that is the important part."


"They go out in the evenings, they go fishing, they go to bullfights, but this all seemed to me like background for a larger and more important story that never emerged."


"The novel's language was very simple. Nothing I would expect of someone who is considered to be a great writer."


"I have a problem with anything that is labeled a classic, as this book was (it was nicley printed on the side of the copy I took out from the library). Maybe, it's because I'm not from that time period (but I do like historical fiction), or that this book took place in France and Spain"


"I gave this one star because I wasn't old enough to drink or really enjoy much of anything when I first read it"


"If only he was a SF writer..."


"If he was writing today, he'd be just another emo homophobe."


"Honestly I think he is over hyped. It was hard to follow when one minute two characters are speaking then in the very same paragraph it is now three days later."


"If I wanted this much pointless angst, I'd read Order of the Phoenix again. Or just talk to some self-obsessed teenagers. That's what all of the characters in this book reminded me of: whiny teen brats."


"I guess for the 20’s she’s pretty sexually forward, but she doesn’t seem to have real independence as she jumps from one relationship to another, most of the time having affairs. She is obviously in love with the main character, and won’t do anything about it. I don’t know. . . seems like a poor example of an independent woman."


"Life to short to read boring books."

TALKING TO HARD TO USE CONNECTING VERBS


"If I had been Hemingway's editor, I would have said a big 'Needs work!'"


"Reading Ernest Hemingway is like having a conversation with a depressed person I hate."


"On the first page of this book I find 'He was really very fast.' Two adverbs in succession, and more than that, a sentence that was really very lame. Enough."


"I found this story very difficult to read. Even after reading some passages twice, I still did not get the point of this book. I have understood two other works written by this author, but this one is beyond me."


"A disgusting work! Insulting to women, no plot, and the girl has a dude's name!"


"I gather this was his first - so I'm willing to cut him some slack - but it's very poorly written. It reads like a draft and the characters are dull. I very much doubt this book would have found a publisher today."


"I can't understand why Hemingway is so acclaimed and why he's become such a central part of the American canon. Wait, I DO understand- it's his manly style of writing. Yuck. There are women who are much better writers who should be in the canon."


"This book sucks!(I don't like that word but that is how bad it was)"

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Wallace Stevens - Ideas of Order

"I don’t know how Wallace Stevens’ work got into the canon. Perhaps it’s one of those 'You had to be there' instances."


"OK so I'm not a trained critic and this is just my opinion. Does anyone else see the obvious artifice in his poetry?"


"If poets aren't interested in being understood, they will have to resign themselves to being read by no one except English Lit drones. There was a time when poetry was so popular in the USA that many daily newspapers had daily poems and the average worker with a grade school education could recite several great American poems by heart. That was also the time when poets wrote about things that people experienced and could relate to ... I started this book because Stevens was said to be a great poet. After forcing myself through twenty of these poems I still had no idea what any of them were about. I might as well have been reading Icelandic for all I got out of them. Here's an example of how Stevens unnecessarily obscures his poetry: in one poem, he refers to 'the halo-John.' This phrase never occurred before Stevens used it. Its appearance stops the reader as abruptly as if he had driven into a brick wall. Who or what is "the halo-John"? The reader searches through the rest of the poem for clues. Ok, it is a religious poem so maybe he means St. John the Evangelist because saints have halos. But why not just say 'St. John'? 'The halo-John' doesn't add anything to the poem. In fact, it detracts as the reader has to stop reading the poem in order to do the equivalent of a crossword puzzle exercise in order to proceed further. If the reader isn't christian, he may be completely out of luck. Stevens doesn't just do this sort of thing once or twice; his poems are full of this sort of nonsense. If a poem needs a commentary in order to appreciate it, the poem is a failure because this sort of poet is incapable of speaking to the reader without an intermediary, a literary priest to offer sacrifices for the poor, ignorant layman who has insufficient piety and intelligence to approach the divine mysteries of poetry on his own. The reader has his revenge, though. Poetry is unread. Poetry becomes irrelevant. Poets must either scrap with each other for literary prizes that mean the difference between starvation and three steady meals a day or slog away at teaching jobs since no one will buy their work. My copy of this book of poetry will meet its end in the dumpster ... If there isn't an audience for someone's work, it isn't great. No audience, no talent."

Thursday, September 15, 2011

The Epic of Gilgamesh II

"Gilgamesh was seen as a savior for the Babylonians, but he fell short. No other savior can truly save us besides Jesus Christ."


"It is a very long story and only should be read if there are no other books insight. If you don’t have to read it save yourself the trouble and pick up a good book that isn’t so gory."


"HA HA, FUCKER, SNAKE GOT YOUR YOUTH."


"Right, so let's get this straight. Man goes on long journey to overcome death, finally finds a plant that will restore him to youth, and then the silly bugger lets a snake make off with it in the end.

Anyone get the feeling a woman wouldn't have made that mistake?"

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Darwin - On the Origin of Species II

"Darwin had a great imagination, but with no scientific evidence to support it, its just a fable. I can't believe people are so gullible as to believe the things written in here. I'm judging it as a work of fiction."

DIDN'T READ THE BOOK HUH


"Yes, I just marked it as read so I could put it on my 'needs-to-be-burned' shelf."

DIDN'T READ THE BOOK HUH


"I love putting this book under 'fiction.'"

DIDN'T READ THE BOOK HUH


"The true title that Darwin gave this thesis is: 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.' Amazon.com makes no mention of this. Darwin believed that the peoples of Africa were inferior."

DIDN'T READ THE BOOK HUH


"this book has contributed to the worst atrocities of the twentieth century, from the Jewish holocaust to the evils of Josef Stalin. The concept of 'survival of the fittest' and the idea that all existence is a mere accident, has also spawned many deranged and oddball fantasy/philosophies ... But now, with the complexity and beauty of even the simplest life forms, (one bacterium contains enough DNA information to fill a public library)the scientific validity of this book can be safely called into question. Darwinian ideals have badly shaken our civilization, directly or indirectly resulting in two world wars and the slaughter of millions. this book, although important, should be nonetheless relegated to the back shelves to gather dust, as should the beliefs and suppositions it contains."

DIDN'T READ THE BOOK HUH


"Here is an interesting experiment: Empty your garage of every piece of metal, wood, paint, rubber, and plastic. Make sure there is nothing there. Nothing. Then wait for ten years and see if a Mercedes evolves. If it doesn't appear, leave it for 20 years. If that doesn't work, try it for 100 years. Then try leaving it for 10,000 years."

DIDN'T READ THE BOOK HUH


"Darwin says that if we find out that the cell is not simple, then his whole theory is destroyed."

DIDN'T READ THE BOOK HUH


"I find it interesting because he doesn't actually support macro-evolution, like an amoeba becoming a fish which becomes a frog. But rather in micro-evolution, like a fish growing an extra fin which helps it swim faster to escape predators."

DIDN'T READ THE BOOK HUH


"In order to prove the theory proposed, he requires future findings of fossils that, to this day, haven't been found yet. 1/5 Stars for Charlie."

DIDN'T READ THE BOOK HUH


"It's like 1/10 theory and 9/10 observational evidence for the theory. Since I buy it, I don't need all that evidence."

IDIOT HUH


"The animals are de - evolving. Less DNA being accessed due to different threats and food sources for each animal group. Animals are changing because they are outside of the collective. Not from live that we can see with the naked eye, other animals why some are not afraid of other animals, but from microscopic organisms; bacteria and viruses (lack of exposure) on islands. Darwin was not aware of these. Survival of the sickest ( in isolation). Traits (mutations) 'tells' who is healthiest in the isolate group to be the 'healthiest' strongest against the next mutation insects in the environment. Life structures we can'tsee influences the design of the shape of the life we do see."

HARD NIGHT ON THE P HUH

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Darwin - On the Origin of Species

"Many people don't realize that there are many flaws with the theory of evolution."


"P.152: 'We are profoundly ignorant of the causes producing slight and unimportant variations'.

He doesn't say who the 'We' refers to."


"P.105: 'I believe that the nearly wingless condition of several birds, which now inhabit or have lately inhabited several oceanic islands, tenanted by no beast of prey, has been caused by disuse.'

The kiwi of New Zealand is a flightless bird that thrived until Westerners imported rats to the island. Beasts of prey existed in New Zealand before the rat arrived. So it would seem that he is wrong in his belief."

YES, ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS MAKE UP LIES ABOUT BIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS IN NEW ZEALAND AND DARWIN'S HOUSE OF CARDS COMES TUMBLING DOWN

"On page 62 he claimed that 'the vigorous, the healthy and the happy survive and multiply'. Therefore, is he stating that the European plants and animals are happier, healthier and more vigorous than the NZ species? H.G. Wells in Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island, makes the following point: 'The struggle for life can terminate in the triumph of types unfit to live, types merely successfully most noxious. In nature a relative survival of the rotten and dying is possible.' So, as the kiwi bird is exterminated by the rat, this presumably the sort of evolution that Darwin has in mind in his Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection."

THAT'S PRECISELY WHAT HE'S THINKING OF, WHICH IS WHY HE SPENDS PAGES AND PAGES TALKING ABOUT THIS SPECIFIC EXAMPLE, BECAUSE SOMETIMES THINGS THAT ARE UNPLEASANT ARE ALSO TRUE

"P.157: 'Natural selection in each well-stocked country must act chiefly through the competition of the inhabitants one with another, and consequently will produce perfection, or strength in the battle for life, only according to the standard of that country. Hence the inhabitants of one country, generally the smaller one, will often yield, as we see they do yield, to the inhabitants of another and generally larger country.'

Is he saying that perfection equals strength, or that either perfection or strength will be produced? If he is saying that strength and perfection are the same thing then this is Marxist ideology. As for the inhabitants of smaller countries yielding to those of larger ones, perhaps this is what provided some inspiration to the Nazi lebensraum program."


"It takes more faith to believe in natural selection and evolution as the origin of species than creation. A single living cell is more complex than a space shuttle , and we are naive enough to presume that random mutation lead to utter complexity& diversity. This planet is at a fixed distance from the sun, sun , moon and planets revolving at fixed speed, fixed orbits, at a fixed distance, just enough to maintain life on earth. And we still teach evolution to our kids when secant explain where are all the unevolved,partially evolved species disappear. We must have scientific and humble minds to question every thing we we're taught in high school, rather than eat everything our 'superiors' have to offer. Random chance,...........hmmmmm"


"Just a couple of things to say about this one:

1. I'm not a scientist but I know enough about science to know that this book was, admittedly (as in, the author admitted to) 70-80% speculation. That is NOT science."


"Did you know…
1. Spontaneous generation was finally disproved in multiple ways, and this book was published in the same year that Louis Pasteur performed his famous S-shaped flask experiment, demonstrating that life cannot pop out of nowhere." NOPE PASTEUR'S EXPERIMENT WAS 1864, DARWIN WAS 1859 "3. The complexity of DNA points to a Creator, not a big explosion and a random accident.

…now you know. Darwin didn't."


"Regarding the phrase 'preservation of the favoured races,' who or what is doing the favouring? Natural selection? Can a natural selection process favour anything? Really...how does it pick what to favour? By a process! What process? Natural selection of course. It's a circus wheel!"


"people of the socalled hard sciences(up until the 19!80's when physicists also started to make their science softer because of the problems they ran into), looked down on Darwinism as a soft science employing a magical struggle for existence and intuitive terms like that."


"First of all, let's quote Darwin himself from this book, page 75: 'To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.' There you have it, from Darwin himself, from his famous book."

...WHICH THEN GOES ON TO GIVE A COMPLETE HYPOTHESIS FOR HOW THE EYE IS DEVELOPED BY NATURAL SELECTION, USING THE EYES OF CRUSTACEANS AND IN PARTICULAR THE EYE OF THE CIRRIPEDE AS A CASE STUDY


"IF true we have NO hope and no future
evolution and creation CANNOT both be right!"


"'can we doubt (remembering that many more individuals are born than can possibly survive) that individuals having any advantage, however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and of procreating their kind? On the other hand, we may feel sure that any variation in the least degree injurious would be rigidly destroyed. This preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection.'

The fact is that *all* individuals do not survive, all individuals die. Such exactness is important in science and Darwin fails this scientific standard. This seemingly insignificant error in the fundament of the theory gives a cascade of errors later on. It is really quite different to say that the chance of reproduction determines which organisms are left in the world, then to say a struggle for survival/existence determines it."

IF ONLY DARWIN HAD KNOWN THAT EVERYBODY EVENTUALLY DIES, MAYBE HE WOULD HAVE SEEN THE FOLLY OF HALUGHLAHG WAVING MY DICK IN YOUR DROOLING FACE

OKAY THAT'S ENOUGH FOR TODAY. LET'S BE STRAIGHT UP ON THIS, I AM NOT SOME KIND OF FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD MILITANT ATHEIST -- THE BLOG WILL COVER THE BIBLE THIS MONTH AND THE KORAN AT SOME POINT THIS YEAR -- I JUST LIKE IT WHEN PEOPLE READ BOOKS INSTEAD OF FLAPPING THEIR FAT BIGOTED IGNORANCE ALL UP IN MY FAT BIGOTED SUPERIORITY COMPLEX

I MEAN HOW DARE THEY SELECTIVELY QUOTE AND CHERRY-PICK FROM A TEXT TO MAKE DARWIN LOOK DUMBER THAN HE IS

OUTRAGEOUS

Friday, September 9, 2011

F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby IV

"this was a good book about the roaring twenties it was about a man name nick that just came back from world war 1 when he came back he learned the business about stocks and he becomes rich and buys a house. Then when gets settle in the house he finds his old crush daisy but when went started to ask he stuff he finds out she had boyfriend and nick was crushed then later the boyfriend and daisy breaks up so nick tries to get her back he find out that daisy died in a car accident so nick dies in with one question does did daisy love nick? also when daisy died people told there love life’s about the affair and bad things the did behind the love life’s back"


"Why does everyone praise this book? It's about a guy who parties a lot!"


"Capitalist garbage"


"hmm...this is voted the best book of blah blah.
Well, I think it's boring."


"Why it is a 'classic' is beyond me. There is no redemption and there must be in all True Stories."


"A great piece of crap. Highly over rated. The paper should be used to insolate dog houses."


"The one thing i think is confusing about this book is that Nick Carraway is the main character and the narrator of the book at the same time."


"Ehhh ... you have to be a book reviewer to love this book."


"i thought the great gatsby was a timeless classic cause it brought me back to the 20s an easer time for americans were we had nothing to do but tell the stories of our past"


"I've never been a fan of symbolism; sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and a green light at the end of someone's pier doesn't indicate that Mr. So-and-So has a lust for money or equality or even a particular kid of African-moss-mold. It's just a green light. Maybe they like green, or that's all they had on hand."


"When Gatsby's smile was described my heart all but melted right out of my chest and dripped a slow trickle onto the ground."


"The author was trying to make people see how crazy some people get about money. The theme of this book is ho highly people hold money. The characters in this book all struggle with materialism. They all put money and material items before everything else. The book was a little confusing becauseof all of the characters and the cheating that goes on. I think all he really wanted out of this book was money and he got that. He became rich. The point he wanted to prove is how people act crazy about money. I think he got that point across. He also wanted to talk about death. He did. I dont have any experiance relating to this book. I dont struggle with materialism, but i do know someone that does, so maybe they would know. I don’t think I would recommend this book. It was very slow and boring. It didn’t start to pick up until around chapter five which is more than half way through the book. There are also a lot of characters in the book so it can get confusing with all of the cheating going on. Personally I hated the book. I hate the way the characters are about money. They are all so rich and don’t appreciate any of it. I hate that kind of behavior."


"Another one of those books I was forced to read in high school and HATED. Ugh how boring. God knows if Ill ever understand why this book is so popular. Like I said, maybe Im not deep enough lol"


"there was nothing significant about this book in my opinion other than it being a footnote of the high water mark of subordination by whites and the folly therein, on the precipice of destruction. the language was not interesting, the story moved along at a good pace but there was no originality or specific purpose to it, and the characters were marginal, with gatsby being an exception simply in that he foreshadowed his a-alike kerouac used in on the road (which is also hardly noteworthy any longer outside of it being a story of riding the initial fall down the slope just beyond the precipice fitzgerald described). he still shook his hand in the end, and that pussy ass nature is the laziness i ascribe it's writer."


"There's just nothing interesting going on in this book. I'm 17 years old, though. So maybe old people would like this book. I mean it takes place in the 20's. Maybe some old folks can relate to this book. But I don't like it."

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Charles Dickens - Great Expectations IV

"Hello! My name is Pip! I'm an annoying little crybaby with no personality! Will you join me for tea and crumpets?"


"Try harder, Mr Dickens. -.-"


"Dickens was apparently paid by the word. Especially the silly ones, like 'prithee' and 'vittles'. It is time that we stopped attacking freshmen honors students with this pretentious book, which serves only to drive them away from English forever. Nowhere near the best of Dicken's work, the book reads like a 19th century soap opera, without bathroom breaks and Snuggle-bear commercials. By the time the first interesting character returns to the novel, the reader is lucky if he or she hasn't choked to death on tears of frustration. Why is Estelle such a b****? Why is Ms. Havisham such an old hag? Why is Pip so utterly slackjawed that he permits 20 years of idiocy to be perpetrated upon his stale English carcass?"


"I heard somewhere that Dickens got paid by the word and that is was there's a lot of extra, stupid words in it. I also think that it was twisted because everyone was realted to each other."


"Dickens is a jerk. Nobody likes his stuff, they're just afraid to say it because he's supposed to be classy. The man got paid by the word for crying out loud. Imagine if I got paid to write marching band drill by the dot. I would write a page for every four counts of music. What would I produce? A ridiculous tomb that nobody will ever get through and if they ever did it would be way too hard and too much work."


"The man was *obviously* paid by the word. I just don't need to read about the coloration/texture/feel of every brick in the sidewalk as a character walks down the street"


"Dickens is accused of being 'wordy,' and I see why: British authors were often paid by the word and length of their novels and short stories. No wonder so-called classics like 'Tale of Two Cities' and 'Great Expectations' is heaped in a drudgery of fluff."


"Just read some other reviews and discovered Dickens was paid by the word and it explains a lot."


"I was not surprised when my English teacher informed us that Dickens was paid by the word."


"I know he was paid by the word and that's why he goes on so. If I had my way I would like to appoint an editor for all these over-wordy books to turn them into something somewhat more readable."


"huge waste of time. He must've been paid by the word."


"It was much too long and drawn out. Perhaps paying writers by word is not the best way to pay them."


"never trust an author paid by the word."


"because Dickens was paid by the word, he added too many useless details."


"One of my GR friends mentioned in her review of this book that Dickens was paid per word. Well then... suddenly it all makes sense."


"Dickens's paid-by-the-word descriptions are a bit much."


"Dickens got paid by the word, and he squeezed every dime he could out of this book!"


"He got paid by the word, which is why there's way too many of them."


"I'm glad authors no longer get paid by the word."


"Dickens' impact on Western literature is undeniable, but he was paid by the word, and it shows."


"I dont like writers who get paid by the word."


"it was obvious he was paid by the word."






"Is it true he was paid by the word?"

ACTUALLY NO IT'S NOT

Monday, September 5, 2011

Charles Dickens - Great Expectations III

"This was the worst book that I have ever read in my entire life."


"This book definitely seems to be one of those all-American books about America in the 19th century that would be seen in a lot of American Literature classes."


"I started reading this over a month ago and I'm still not finished. I can't get into it at all! It's like a really boring nightmare! I mean, the parts that take place at Satis House are mildly interesting, but no part of it seems to be building up to anything. The story moves so slowly that at times you'd swear it wasn't moving at all, and, to be sure, at times, it isn't! It's just sitting there in its stupid rocking chair knitting and petting its cat by the fire, which isn't even burning! OMG!
You want to read something fast paced and interesting?
Try Daniel White's Hellstone, available right here at amazon.com (plug). Now that's a good book. White's influences span the ages, and don't skip Victorian, if that's what you're into, which you obviously are, or why would you be here?
Don't get me wrong. I like Victorian literature. A Christmas Carol is a very good story, as is Dracula, and Frankenstein, and most of Poe's works. It's just this particular book that I don't like...and anything by Jane Austen.
In conclusion, buy Hellstone. You'll be happy you did."


"The fact that Pip found his Great Expectations and then only becomes a snob afterwards upset me. Where's the morals to that."


"I can tell the reader of this review that I am not a Charles Dicken's fan..I truly believe that he is a pig of a man and was mandated to read this book for a college lit class. Otherwise, I find his work to be over-rated in importance."


"This book was literally the worst thing thats happened in my whole entire life.
...
THIS BOOK WAS HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!
The only GOOD thing about this book is that I hav found a new way to doze off without sum sleeping pills (just read the first two pages and WALLA ure fast asleep!!!!!!!)"


"all the classics always in my opinion, are very bad"


"A poll was taken and about 73% of the students in the school liked this book. What does that show about the book?"


"If i were to recommend this to anybody i would recommend it to adults who like lots of detail, lots of connections, and olden day talking."


"The concept of the book vaguely reminded me of other 'old world' movies and books that I know, like 'Pride and Prejudice' or 'Sense and Sensibility.' The concept of gaining riches, through marriage or 'great expectations.' A lot of older material tend to follow this idea, mostly because that was society then."


"If they cut it down by 300 pages they could still get the whole story in and it would likely be better-at least for me."


"dickens...i'd love you if you weren't so old fashioned. how do you expect me to relate to old-timey london society dude? those suckers didn't even tv."


"I saw part of the movie and it was REALLY weird. I would not suggest either the book or the movie."


"On my home planet of Mars, books that we do not enjoy, we refer to as lunch. We had 'Great Expectations' before the matinee last week. The matinee was 'Smoky the Cowhorse.' It was Martian Thanksgiving, so 'Awful (great (yeah right!)) Expectations' was a good choice, because it is so freakin' long, and low in cholesterol. I am on a strictly bad classics diet. The Martian Major Leagues starts today, so I grilled a warthog.
One of the reasons that I found this book (in terms of literature, not food) so disturbing is because the Martian term for a hemmohroid is a pip. In terms of food, it could have used a bit more seasoning, like a trip to Denmark. Of course, they didn't actually go to Denmark. If instead of being named 'Magwitch' the convict had been called Bozo the Clown, and gave Pip balloon animals instead of money, I would have enjoyed the book much more.

But, the thing that ticked me off the most (and Auntie, too!) was the way that Dickens never ended his sentences: instead, he just ran them on and on and on and on and punctuated them only with commas and semicolons, as if to say, 'this is my book, feel free to fall asleep; or, you could eat it': that reminds me of a very funny story about a man named 'Kitty'...

WHACK!

(Auntie just hit me over my other head with a frying pan). The truth is... the only good part about this book is when Miss Havisham (the Martian) gets married to Pip. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! HA.

Ha."

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Charles Dickens - Great Expectations II

"Out of date"


"Too many words"


"Many of the sentences would be considered run-on today."


"But the one thing that absolutely ruins this book is the clutter of coincidences. One of the first rules of fiction writing is NO COINCIDENCES. And Dickens goes out of his way to break this rule. Over. And Over. And Over."


"Not to mention the characters are just plaing weird. Where in the world did Dickens get a bizarre lady like Miss Havisham, who is practically ill in the head?"


"Charles Dickens wrote a novel about a boy who had a hard life, and in the end he was happy....Big Deal!"


"if Estella hit me like she did pip, I would have hit her back!! All the women in this book seem like stuck up b****es!"


"I have never read a more stupendesely boring book.It's a revered book but it lacks everything that makes a book truly great.It's poorly written,uninteresting,the characters are unlikable,there is very little theme or characterization,the plot is virtually non-existent.The chapters are so meandering and pointless you have to force yourself to read it.English students shouldn't have to suffer by being made read this incomprehensible,boring, overrated 'novel'.I'd rather watch paint dry than read this book again.Still,any insomniacs looking for a cure,this book's for you."


"I think Charles Dickens was not a smart man for writing

this book. He could have summed the book up a lot. He used

long word that some times were had to say."


"ZZZZZZZ SNOOZE ZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!"


"As far as the story is concerned, the 300 pages is crap.

I said it. Don't gasp.
...
Why is it that academics pick these boring books that can't tell stories as part of the western canon? I love reading classics, thanks, but THIS?
...
His prose is dense, sprawling, and unseemly as sentences are connected by ugly semicolons and don't flow beautifully at all.
...
Yuck.

People are irresistibly drawn to anything related to themselves. I have a sneaking suspicion that the academics who bill this book as 'most fascinating' and 'greatest and most sophisticated work' see THEIR prominent characteristic in it."


"Have low expectations when you read 'Great Expectations.' Modern books have much faster pacing and are more easy to read."


"Second question Where in his warped imagination did he get Ms. Havishom? News flash! Anyone who did so many terrible things because a man left her was mentally unstable before she met the jerk which explains why he left her. Oh and one more thing if your a feminists (like me) this book will get you upset enough. The only women in the book are either crazy old hags or out right bitches. It certainly says a lot about male Victorian sensibilities!!"


"By far the worst literary blunder the world has ever excreted. I would never wish this horific mass of boredom upon anyone. Avoid this book like the black plauge (another one of Europe's tragedies)."


"Funking exelen!
i havent read it yet but it shows diskousting:)I hate this book and i hope my mates of aal help me finisk it.Chill out"


"Put simply, Great Expectations is a wordy, convuluted, and overrated peice of trash. Written originally in different volumes and distributed to an excited Victorian republic, Dickens was able to make his audience care and feel for his odd, moving characters. He was the Stephen King of his day; a clever businessman who distributed mediocre books to the public. That Dicken's fever passed on from one generation to the next is fine, that this made Dicken's books classics in schools is a shame. But let me get to the actual book at hand! Yes, many characters in Great Expectations are original and interseting. Overall, however, Great Expectations is wordy (!), and painfully convoluted. It is often difficult to get through, and geared towards a certain audience only. This is not to say that everyone will dislike Great Expectations, but we live in an age (good or bad) of gritty realism ... Anyone who wants to live in a former era, Great Expectations is a must; for anyone who wants a powerful, sophisticated read PLEASE put Great Expectations in the incinerator."


"I honestly try to appreciate what is *supposed* to be fine literature, but 'Great Expectations' is about as entertaining as watching kale grow. First off, the fact that this book has two endings inspires a bit of skepticism in me. I've never heard of an author so indecisive that he would put two endings in a novel. It creates a generally unsatisfying conclusion, as you're at a loss for which ending to 'accept'."


"Who cares about Wemmick's stupid plays?"


"I hate this novel with a passion so great it scares even me. I'd like to see all copies burned. Okay, not really. That's a little extreme. But, at least take this garbage out of school curriculums. Its' making us stupid, making us believe Pip's world is what the world really is. Pip if a fool that got dumped too many times and where's the sex. Was Dickens scared of it. I believe that all great novels should have sex in them. It brings some humanity to them . Great Expectations is a fantasy on level with the Bible but worse, tragicly worse."


"I give you a generous TWO STARS this time Charlie! Youre getting there so keep trying!"


"This book was a very big disappontmet. I thought this book could have had a couple minor plot changes. I also thought the way the main charictor, Pip, transfored through his expectations was shallow and padanthic. To conclude, I belive that the chapters are cycled like story line with many charictors and an entire chapter with Pip talking to himself and talking about his expectations. Thank you for reading my review."

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Charles Dickens - Great Expectations

"Best to get someone else to sum up the story rather than undergo the torture of reading it."


"I wouldn't even wipe my ass with this."


"I don't get it! What's to like? The story centres around a completely unlikable twit and a stone cold bitch, surrounded by a further cast of such extreme eccentrics that you're left wondering where all the *normal* people went."


"By the time I was finished with this book I had nothing but bad thoughts for the author. My favorite of which was, 'I hope he's burning in hell and they're using his shitty book to feed the flames.' I may just be an angry child, but man, I abhor this book."


"oh my god i hate this book with all my heart and soul. whenever it comes up in conversation and someone hasn't read it i immediately spoil the ending to save them the trouble."


"Memo to Mr. Dickens: Why do I care if they had three different kinds of meat at dinner? Tell me more about why that one dude was looking at the maid THAT way all through the meal. Come on!"


"No one should be exposed to such boring and subversive writing"


"I had a great deal of difficulty since the words and the language used are just to difficult. You can slash at the book but you just won't get inside and fell that you're there. Just the parts in Pip's house make sleep and Joe well makes me sick!. It's ok but don't pick it up if you want a quick read. If you can't get the Isabela you desperate boy Pip then stop trying since you'll newver will!!!"


"Gag me with a stick. I quite frankly think Dickens like to hear his work read aloud."


"I literally decided to home school because I didn't want to finish this in preparation for ninth grade honors English. Seriously."


"This honestly has to be one of the worst books I've ever read. Written in the usual BritLit style, it loops around the same idea constantly so that when you reach the end nothing has happened and you've really learned nothing except for how much time you've wasted of your life."


"Pip and Miss Havisham are both bitches. I hate them both."


"throughout that entire novel i wished pip a terrible death"


"Everything about Pip makes me feel twitchy and violent. I actually pulled out my thesaurus for this review because "stupid" just didn't do him justice. The protagonist is an obtuse, pussy-whipped, daft idiot who never outgrows himself. Why was he so static? Were ANY of the characters likable in any way?"


"He's a whiny, self-important brat who thinks he's too good for those around him through the whole book. No wonder my young self couldn't stand him--he was incapable of learning a thing."


"I wanted to thrash him with my gold-headed sword-cane."


"Why can't we read Mitch Albom? There's just as many life lessons there as in Charles Dickens' book!"


"I hat Dickens, I hate Dickens, I hate Dickens. Ponderous, bloated, diseased ramblings of a very disturbed individual. Ugh."


"If you are thinking that I am not intellectually advanced enough to appreciate this fine art, then you are a follower. Try to think for yourself sometimes. Bye-bye."