Why is this a literary classic? (not really a rant)

[zoozilla]

1984

I get it was awesome in the 40's and radical, but I got bored reading it D=

Same here. It was boring and I could barely muster up the strength to finish it.

You have to admit that the last torture sequence was pretty great though, right?

For me, I never liked The Grapes of Wrath. It's just very, very dry. Lots of description, and really not a lot of action going on. Really, my only recollection of that book is "turtle on its back".

I happened to quite like Catcher in the Rye - though I am quite cynical, so maybe I could relate to the protagonist a little more.

 

[Blow_Pop]

I was inspired to make this after seeing a few posts in the "last book you read" topic. What books are considered by scholars to be "great literary classics" but you read them and can't figure out what anybody sees in them?

For me, there are two books that stand out. The first one is "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger. I read the book in my junior year of high school, and I couldn't figure out what everyone (not just scholars) saw in it. To me, it was just a kid talking about how everyone except for him pretends to be someone else and...that's it. The book doesn't even have a real ending to leave you feeling satisfied that the book was a rounded story. It just...ends. I've read books that did that well ("Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" being a prime example), but in this book it just...didn't leave me feeling like I read a full book.

The other one is "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. I suppose I'm a bit harsh on it, being the opposite of the target demographic, but it bored me to tears. It's supposed to be a tale of true romance and looking deeper into people to find themselves, and I suppose it was revolutionary when it was written. Problem is, it was written in the 19th century. I've seen the story too many times to be fresh, and outside of the "novelty", the book doesn't really have much going for it. The characters seem flat, with one-note personalities, and the plot moves way too slowly to hold my interest. However, that's just my opinion.

Again, what other books have you read that were "classics", but you found to be dull or flawed? If you want to take me to task for what I wrote, go ahead as well.

I think I lucked out with the Catcher in the Rye because my copy was used for a college test and got an A on it and its all explained. I'd let you borrow it but A)I don't know where it is anymore and B)I don't let people borrow books anymore. Too many have gone MIA

 

[coldwarkid]

I know this is cliche, but William Shakespeare. Many teachers seem to subscribe to the belief that reading a dead form of English somehow will enlighten and sophisticate readers. Unfortunately, all it does is confuse and aggravate students. The ironic thing is that the teachers who preach Shakespeare's outdated English are usually the same ones who will tell you that your paper is unreadable because you misused a comma.

I couldn't agree more. I almost failed higher English because I wrote a negative analysis of Romeo and Juliet. Because my teacher (the sort of woman who would gladly dig up and marry Shakespeare) claimed she "couldn't get past the vile rubbish that clutters this essay", she wouldn't mark it. It was the cornerstone of my folio, I would either have to re-write the essay using her opinions, or...give up, really. Fortunately, another teacher marked it for me, and I got an A for the folio.

*shakes fist*....I hate you, Shakespeare....

Oh, and I also hated Kafka's "The Trail". The book is composed entirely of walls of text.

 

[Soul137]

I hated to kill a mocking bird which made my mom almost cry (she's southern)
i also hated Romeo and juliet
lord of the flies can fuck off.
the second half of a brave new world can eat shit. (i loved the first half)
Both Tam Sawyer and Huck Finn should be (insert Zero Punctuation quote here)
I'm sure there are others but whatever.

 

[Skreeee]

'Catch 22' by Joseph Heller

I don't get why most of my friends/classmates were creaming themselves when we were assigned this book (other than the fact that most had already read it and thus were on easy street). Sure, parts of it are funny, but the other parts just dragged on and on and on. Sure I like looking for the deeper meaning in literature; it's a great pasttime for me actually, but this book seemed to be trying so fucking hard to be deep and cmoplicated that I just didn't care anymore. If it wasn't required by the class I wouldn't have even bothered finishing it.

 

[Lord Krunk]

To Kill a Mockingbird. This was the worst book I've ever read.

Really? I actually liked that book; the first time I've enjoyed a text my school's thrown at me.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Anything by Jane Austen. Or Margaret Atwood

 

[Chipperz]

Moby Dick, anything by Dickens or Austin. Actually, anything I had to study in school/uni with the exception of Shakespeare, the Romantic Poets and Captain Corelli's Mandolin...

 

[Zukonub]

I actually really enjoy some of the Dickens I've read. A Tale of Two Cities is one of the best books I've ever read, due to the character of Sydney Carton and how everything ended up coming together.

 

[electric_warrior]

I thought that The Great Gatsby was terrible.

Pride and Prejudice was pretty awful, as well, but it didn't stop me from buying
http://roberthood.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/prideandprejudiceandzombies.jpg

totally agree, just a dull glorified soap opera.

 

[HentMas]

SNAP MAN, SNAP!

YEAH!!!Oscar Wilde,(sorry, i am Mexican, and could only remember his name meant "Salvaje" and i was in a hurry, i remembered later haha)

Bah! Well being some sort of foreign person I could almost forgive you.... no wait, that is just crazy talk! Wait, I will let you off if you tell me a good Mexican writer: I have read German, Russian and French (in the actual French, but I think it was a dummies translation!).

P.S Americans count as foreign writers to me, the letter 'Z' is neither prominent in English nor Sesame Street.

What does 'Salvaje' mean and is that from Oscar or Wilde?

Wilde (or Wild) means "Salvaje" in spanish hehe

and one great writer is "Manuel Acuña" his best poem is "Nocturno a rosario" wich is said (i dont know if it is true) that he wrote it to a girl he was in love with and then killed himself... quite a weird guy, but great poems.

 

[JimmieDean]

Here would be my choices

Of Mice and Men- seriously this book just fucking sucked. And to be honest cruel or not I laughed out loud in class when he kills his retarded friend
Lord of the Flies- nothing good about this book
1984- it bored me senseless (I get the social commentary but being bored to death didn't help me care)

 

[Anachronism]

I couldn't agree more. I almost failed higher English because I wrote a negative analysis of Romeo and Juliet. Because my teacher (the sort of woman who would gladly dig up and marry Shakespeare) claimed she "couldn't get past the vile rubbish that clutters this essay", she wouldn't mark it. It was the cornerstone of my folio, I would either have to re-write the essay using her opinions, or...give up, really. Fortunately, another teacher marked it for me, and I got an A for the folio.

*shakes fist*....I hate you, Shakespeare....

Don't hate Shakespeare, hate the teacher. Although, Romeo and Juliet isn't one of his best, I have to admit; I honestly find it a little creepy. Did you know that Juliet is 14?

On the other hand, Othello and Julius Caesar are brilliant. The best thing about the former is Iago: he is an absolutely fantastic character; really, really evil, and yet at the same time oddly sympathetic. Even if you can't sympathise with him, he's one of the very few deliciously evil villains, in that you can really enjoy listening to/reading his soliloquys and finding out about his plans. He gets some of the best lines and speeches in all of Shakespeare, up there with "What a piece of work is Man" and "Friends, Romans, countrymen". On that note:

Caesar combines two of the things I really love: Shakespeare and Classics. It's a really hard to classify play since Brutus is arguably the hero, and yet the play doesn't have his name; and there is no clear-cut villain either. You could argue that the villain is Cassius, but the evidence is sketchy. I just love the moral ambiguity of it; there's no real way of knowing who is good and who is evil.

As far as stuff I dislike goes, I'm going to have to jump on the hate bandwagon for The Great Gatsby. I honestly can't tell why it's considered a classic; it offers an interesting picture of Depression-era America, but other than that I don't see what the big deal is. The writing is good, but the story is fairly dull, only getting interesting towards the end. I didn't particularly like the characters either: Gatsby is quite well fleshed-out, but I still didn't like him. The best thing about it was that it was less than 150 pages long, so I could blow through it in a couple of hours. A lot of people I know love it, but I just found it really boring.

 

[JimmieDean]

On The Road - recommended by a friend who has similar taste in literature, but within just a couple of pages, my brain was screaming "argh, shut uuuuuuuup". Might've just been the mood I was in that day, I've got it here on the shelf so I'll get around to it later.

Read through it. I personally think its great. It certainly speaks to my wandering spirit. Though if you want a true appreciation of the creativity and genius of Keroac than I would say forget "On the Road" and pick up "Visions of Cody" instead. Its much better.

 

[ace_of_something]

I was assigned to read 'the Scarlet Letter' and only skimmed it. I still got a B on the test. I simply could not read it it was soooo boring.
I do remember that the teacher graded our tests with a red pen instead of black like she normally would for that book.

Harharhar.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

"A carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers; but no glance of a bright, vivid physiognomy, no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck".

Charlotte Brontë

"Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone".

Mark Twain

I'm NOT a fan of Jane Austin, but Charlotte Bronte is NOT one to talk, Jane Eyre is my personal contribution to this list. I am very glad I managed to avoid reading the whole book in my first year of university, though I still managed to write a B+ paper on it

 

[Toaster Hunter]

Never read Ulysses by James Joyce. I had to read it this past semester and I was going to kill myself.

 

[Sylocat]

A shame that crappy English teachers ruin the experience of Shakespeare for so many people... I've had to make so many of my friends watch Slings & Arrows [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slings_and_Arrows] to wash the bad taste out of their mouths (it usually works).

 

[Squedee]

I HATE Tuesdays With Morrie. I found it pretentious, winy, and lacking in reasons for me to care about the message.

seconded, also raisin in the sun, except i loved when i got to yell damn in class, and Of mice and men "though i still kinda find lennys predicament funny" *pow*