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'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:27 pm
by Critical Torsion
Classics you had to read for whatever reason whose appeal no one bothered to explain to you.
Jane Eyre
The Moviegoer
As I Lay Dying
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:29 pm
by Scumfucker
Everything ever written by:
Jane Austen
Maya Angelou
I'm not a woman hater. I even eat pussy.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:41 pm
by EBA Prime
Fuck Holden Caufeild
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:39 pm
by Jack Mort
Anything by Charles Dickens.
The Jungle
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:46 am
by gasoline y2k
Victorians shaped the modernists / modern world. The history of Dickens, Jane Eyre, Jane Austen, Jude the Obscure, Tess, ... all that stuff, it's damn important. What happened when colonial expansion failed? Economic hardship, world wars, London feared for it's existence with the ever growing evil pressure (read: Svengali.. I mean, cmon. Svengali is one sweet villian) from the world outside. What happened when women started working, writing, and expressing themselves sexually? Economic and social fucking panic. Awesome shit to be had, 1870-1910ish, but you'll need some sort of college equivalent guide or class to read them correctly. You think shit is fucked up now.. the Victorians had it rough.
Or you can just read these books like soap operas. Which, essentially, is what they are. But that's how the Victorians learned about things.
Hating on Dickens is just crazy.
I agree, though, fuck Holden C.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 3:43 am
by Crowbar
Pickwick Papers is awesome.
I am slowly concluding that Dostoyevsky is not.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 4:08 am
by spacehamster
After doing a presentation on it, I fully understand the artistic value of Jane Eyre as a well-crafted novel, but to me it's still an angsty and annoying book about a girl who can't decide if she should marry the priest or the millionaire.
I despise Melville. I tried to read Moby Dick once and gave up, and I can't even stand his short stories. The guy should have been a painter or something, he obviously didn't understand the meaning of the words "story" or "narrative".
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 4:11 am
by St. Hillaire
EBA Prime wrote:Fuck Holden Caufeild
Hated that book, but I like all the other Salinger I've read. I guess it's all how you relate to it, that kid just pissed me off, but I actually couldn't put down crime and Punishment.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 4:25 am
by Mr. Budd
Sense and Sensibility - fuck you
Atlas Shrugged - I hope your periods hurt
A Seperate Peace - zzzzzzzzzzzz fuck you
Great Gatsby - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz die
Some Dostoyevsky was written to sell by the page - making it REALLY long winded and dull. Read the Idiot.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 4:29 am
by spacehamster
Oh yeah, also, every word Dave Sim said about Hemingway is true.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 5:55 am
by Bored
Most protofeminist stuff. Garbage.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 5:56 am
by Bored
spacehamster wrote:
I despise Melville. I tried to read Moby Dick once and gave up, and I can't even stand his short stories. The guy should have been a painter or something, he obviously didn't understand the meaning of the words "story" or "narrative".
*cough*
You're dead to me.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:10 am
by hadji murad
spacehamster wrote:After doing a presentation on it, I fully understand the artistic value of Jane Eyre as a well-crafted novel, but to me it's still an angsty and annoying book about a girl who can't decide if she should marry the priest or the millionaire.
I despise Melville. I tried to read Moby Dick once and gave up, and I can't even stand his short stories. The guy should have been a painter or something, he obviously didn't understand the meaning of the words "story" or "narrative".
Melville wasn't terribly popular in his own time, his most widely-read piece around his lifetime was Billy Budd. Moby Dick was unearthed (exhumed?) in the '20s and '30s by professors of American literature, who subsequently declared it a great work of early American literature and thus forced it down the throats of students for decades to come. So basically, Moby Dick is great because some academics decided on it, not because anyone really likes it. Really... there are 250 pages worth of plot, and a 400 page discourse on whaling stuck in between them.
Dickens and Austen for me. Don't get me started on what a fucking pussy Mr. Darcy is.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:15 am
by Necrometer
Maya Angelou shit
dominichorton wrote:The Bible
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:16 am
by 51[V][V]f0C
it's not that i dont find dickens incredibly important or relevant, it's that the guy wrote in a manner that manages to lose my attention within 3 pages, bar none.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:25 am
by Imminent Death
dominichorton wrote:The Bible
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:36 am
by Toxicarius
The Scarlet Letter. I had to read this in HS. I seriously wanted to invent a time machine, go back and kill Hawthorne. Or at least steal all of his writing implements. God what a boring piece of crap.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:43 am
by Bored
hadji murad wrote:his most widely-read piece around his lifetime was Billy Budd.
I would have guessed Typee.
Moby Dick was unearthed (exhumed?) in the '20s and '30s by professors of American literature, who subsequently declared it a great work of early American literature and thus forced it down the throats of students for decades to come.
They also rediscovered Poe, so...
So basically, Moby Dick is great because some academics decided on it, not because anyone really likes it. Really... there are 250 pages worth of plot, and a 400 page discourse on whaling stuck in between them.
Not true at all, and I love it for what it is...a desperate novel of a deeply troubled writer who despaired of being able to say what he really wanted to, who felt completely constrained by his time and culture, tortured by his own life. It's also IMO one of the most profound treatises on evil ever written. I try not to give in to hierarchies and competitions, but Americans seem to love them, and in that spirit Moby Dick IS the best American novel, at least for me...I can't think of anything else that even comes close.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:44 am
by Bored
Toxicarius wrote:The Scarlet Letter. I had to read this in HS. I seriously wanted to invent a time machine, go back and kill Hawthorne. Or at least steal all of his writing implements. God what a boring piece of crap.
I love that novel, but I think The House of the Seven Gables is much more interesting.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:47 am
by anfo666
The entire Ayn Rand ouevre
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:11 am
by Critical Torsion
So no one had the pleasure of suffering through the literary torture of Percy and Faulkner? Mark Twain could've taught them an important lesson about the proud Scots-Irish tradition of being intelligent without taking yourself so fucking seriously.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:23 am
by Mr. Budd
Move that sacred cow Tolstoy over that slotted floor because he needs a gutting. Why bother with Tolstoy when you have Lermontov and Dostoyevsky? He has been rendered superfluous by his superior pre and antecedents.
Jane Austen was a horrible shrill bore. If she had a cock she'd be forgotten.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:29 am
by Bored
Mr. Budd wrote:Why bother with Tolstoy when you have Lermontov and Dostoyevsky?
Um...because they wrote about completely different things, and Lermontov was utterly shallow? Either you're trolling or you need to read more.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:42 am
by spacehamster
Also, I was subjected to a Don DeLillo novel once, and... ugh.
Re: 'Great' books you could do without
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:58 am
by Phritz
Mr. Budd wrote:Move that sacred cow Tolstoy over that slotted floor because he needs a gutting. Why bother with Tolstoy when you have Lermontov and Dostoyevsky? He has been rendered superfluous by his superior pre and antecedents.
no no no
i've only read "resurrection" so far, but this one was awesome. i love his view on life, christianity and asceticism. although he overdid it in "kreutzer sonata". "resurrection" is pretty much the last book he wrote, so if you only know the older ones, i recommend trying that one.
the only book that i really hated was "dr. faustus" by thomas mann. i liked the story and wanted to finish it, but that guy writes like a bored, nerdy german teacher; nobel price or not.
also the newer books of peter handke. i can only handle a certain amount of landscape description...and he crossed the line.