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

[Stainless]

Being an ESL kid I was never forced to read the same books you did, so when I read classics I do it for pleasure only. I don't understand how anyone could not like Animal Farm, unless they were turned off by the blunt force trauma of the metaphores, but I do get the hate for 1984. I personally loved it, but it's a slow moving thing, bleak and depressing little number that can be tedious at times. His semi-autobiographical books are pretty cool though, especially The Road to Wigan Pier.

I dislike Hemingway to the core. I've given each of his books a good go and managed to finish a few of his short stories, hoping that one day I'd "get it", but it's never happened. He writes in a horribly stunted, depressed and heavy handed way about things that I should enjoy, but for some reason don't. I loved the general idea behind The Old Man and the Sea and For Whom the Bell Tolls, but for some reason the way it's written kills it all off for me.

I also don't get why Kafka's Metamorphosis is more respected than The Trial. It's easier to read, sure, but The Trial is stunningly dark in every possible way. The Metamorphosis is good too, but not that good. I get miffed when short stories get more acclaim than novels.

Pride and Prejudice needs a book burning. Why I didn't do so once I'd finished my English with it I don't know...
My mother actually found my copy at the back of the loft last night, and was about to read it... I managed to stop her and replace it with Stardust. Feel like I've helped the world in my own little way now

Pride & Prejudice is a boring book, but at the very least it's well written. Forcing someone to read Stardust or anything else written by Neil Gaiman, the lord and master of the formulaic plot and the undeveloped character, is not helping the world. A hundred teenage girls and boys devour his popcorn lit every day. He writes good scripts for comics and movies, his stories can be interesting at their core even if they do follow an almost Pratchett-like shitty fantasy formula, but he's not a good author.

 

[Silva]

I was personally unimpressed with Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

Like the OP said about Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre might have been revolutionary at the time, but this is the 21st Century, for Pete's sake. The painfully Byronic derivativeness of it only made it seem worse. Jane herself was essentially the 19th Century version of a Mary Sue, with a small touch of feminism, which was apparently a big deal back then.

The book is, as far as I'm concerned, warranted as a classic, but certainly not for its bland writing. But then, I have always preferred more jagged and direct styles of literature. I need to do more reading in this life, especially as a writer. Though, this being 11:20PM might explain my lack of more things to comment on. Maybe I'll post more later.

 

[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)

 

[Eagle Est1986]

1984

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

Really? That's a shame, I'm reading it at the moment and I'm really enjoying it, though I'll admit that the first part was slow and when Winston reads the book is actually a little painful. All that aside, I'm really enjoying and I'm already thinking about reading it for a second time after I've finished it.

 

[Agent Larkin]

I absolutely loathed "Lord of the Flies" but as well as the story being crap i had seen "Battle Royale" before that so I kept wanting there to be weapons and exploding collars.

Also I hated Romeo and Juliet purely because I thought the story was rather boring but that dosn't mean I don't like Shakespeare as one of my favourite stories is King Lear.

 

[Agent Larkin]

I found To Kill A Mockingbird to be just awful and boring as all hell. And Romeo and Juliet. I'm kind of hoping I don't have to read any more Shakespeare for the rest of my life.

Why not? Didn't like the language or the characters? You know, Romeo and Juliet is a play. It's better spoken, or live, than it is on paper. Did you at least watch the DiCaprio version? "Give me my long sword, ho!"

Hamlet's pretty fucking awesome. So is King Lear. I've heard good things about Othello too.

I saw someone reading a manga version of Hamlet somewhere. I'd be interested in reading that. "Swear by my sword."

I dont know were you live but over here (Ireland) those manga versions are in a lot of book shops. You'll probably get them on amazon if nowhere else.

 

[Therumancer]

I think the idea of many classics is to show where ideas came from, and how things have changed in relation to those ideas over the years. In comparison to modern takes on the stories the originals oftentimes pale plotwise since they were the prototype.

When it comes to "The Catcher In The Rye" the point is that the guy narrating the story is himself insane, which is the point. The idea is that especially at the time it was written you were supposed to think "wow this guy sees things so clearly" but then realize at the very end that he's crazy. It's a powerful point, and that is why it's famous.

That is how I understand it at any rate.

>>>----Therumancer--->

 

[Cuniculus]

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.

I agree, I had to read this and I hated life every moment of it. It was just some dude bitching about everything for hours and hours. Not even in a way that's funny, that say Louis Black could pull off and it would be entertaining. Nope. Just boring. There are plenty of books in the library and have the same message and tone, and are still fun to read, and you pick THIS piece of shit? This was the only book I used cliffs notes for, because I couldn't stand reading it anymore.

 

[Aur0ra145]

Things Fall Apart....ewwwwwww

That book was terrible, the only reason we had to read it was b/c of the authors ethnicity.


In all, I didn't mind reading all the books assigned to me. Though, then again, I'll read the first 150 pages of any book and only descide to stop reading if I don't like it after that mark.


Thus far, the only book I haven't read all the way through is David Mammot's The Village. Which isn't like the movie. It's a whining, little town that does nothing.

I don't understand how so many people hold dissenting views for some of the best literature out there. Now, with that said I will concede that American literature is somewhat short sighted (we haven't been around that long) so the school system gets attached to some of the larger name authors and won't try anything new.

Though in my High School I read and reported on Chuck Palahniuk's "Choke" as my big, huge, final book report ever. Yes, my teacher was a badass.

 

[Baby Tea]

Man this is crazy.
I loved every book mentioned here that I've read, and almost all mandatory reading.

To Kill a Mocking Bird, 1984, Animal Farm, Watership Down (I read that one on my own), Man of La Mancha, 12th Night (Shakespeare play - Hilarious), Lord of the Flies, The Red Badge of Courage, Johnny Tremain...

No offence, but I found the people who didn't like these books usually were the people in the class who never enjoyed reading in the first place, or who thought 'Goosebumps' was good reading, or they just didn't understand the book. Especially 1984, Animal Farm, and Watership Down.

But, to each their own, I suppose.

 

[Krakyn]

I thought that The Great Gatsby was terrible.

To Kill a Mockingbird.

These. God, I wanted to rake my eyes out with clothespins Jocasta-style.

It seems that you have read at least one classic enough to use a reference from it.

Yeah, I referenced a good classic. Ancient literature is innovative and controversial, even now (just look at Oedipus Rex--how many stories do you see like that?). More recent "literary classics" bore me to tears.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

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

I love that book.

 

[teh_gunslinger]

I thought that The Great Gatsby was terrible.

To Kill a Mockingbird.

These. God, I wanted to rake my eyes out with clothespins Jocasta-style.

It seems that you have read at least one classic enough to use a reference from it.

Yeah, I referenced a good classic. Ancient literature is innovative and controversial, even now (just look at Oedipus Rex--how many stories do you see like that?). More recent "literary classics" bore me to tears.

While I don't really have anything to say against newer "classics" I'll agree with you without hesitation that ancient literature is better. I reread Oedipus Rex last week as a matter of fact.
Next on the list is Agamemnon or a reread of The Iliad. Depends on how busy I am.

As for the uniqueness of Sophocles Oedipus play he was of course not the first or the last to make a play of that particular mythos but he is one of the few we have left. It's also an interesting play in the way he mixed in contemporary Athenian policy and society. All in all I love it.

 

[megalomania]

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?

 

[ReZerO]

1984

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

it probably bored you because most of the "amazing future sci fi" things in the book exist now, try to look at the book with the view of seeing how much it resembles the present day world, instead of being a future world book.
it's rather frightening when looked at from that point of view.

 

[blaze96]

For me it was Huckleberry Finn by Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain. I know why the book is a classic and I appreciate it for the historic piece of literature that it was at the time, but personally I just can't get interested in the story. I know this because I have read the book three times at three different ages and never enjoyed it once.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

For me it was Huckleberry Finn by Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain. I know why the book is a classic and I appreciate it for the historic piece of literature that it was at the time, but personally I just can't get interested in the story. I know this because I have read the book three times at three different ages and never enjoyed it once.

I applaud you for being able to read it. Stupid written accents...

 

[dontworryaboutit]

I've taken many high level English courses, and frankly I've found a large number of "classics" to be pretty bland and unlikeable. I think it's mostly a matter of who's reading though.

 

[blaze96]

For me it was Huckleberry Finn by Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain. I know why the book is a classic and I appreciate it for the historic piece of literature that it was at the time, but personally I just can't get interested in the story. I know this because I have read the book three times at three different ages and never enjoyed it once.

I applaud you for being able to read it. Stupid written accents...

Ha ha ha it comes with the territory of your dad being born in Arkansas, accent and terminology isn't heavy but it is there.