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most hated literary works

Started by bob, September 26, 2011, 06:12:41 PM

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InformationGeek

Quote from: Derf on September 29, 2011, 09:57:19 PM
And Lord of the Flies remains the scariest book I have ever read, and one of the scariest movies as well.

Quote from: Mofo Rising on September 29, 2011, 03:39:14 AM
But I'm befuddled you found ... and Lord of the Flies underwhelming.

It's not that the book is bad to me or anything, it is just that it just very complicated to read and really hard to get what is going on most of the time.  I want to like it since my favorite manga series takes a lot of inspiration from it (It also predates Battle Royale).
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We live in quite an interesting age. You can tell someone's sexual orientation and level of education from just their interests.

bob

my main issue with both Heart of Darkness and Moby Dick is the same in that they bored the living crap out of me

I was like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0_f5fkrCTA
Kubrick, Nolan, Tarantino, Wan, Iñárritu, Scorsese, Chaplin, Abrams, Wes Anderson, Gilliam, Kurosawa, Villeneuve - the elite



I believe in the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

Flick James

Here goes. I know this is going to come across as snobby and condescending, but WTF? Great literature is great literature. If you don't want to read great literate, then don't. I don't care much for the socio-political nature of the works of Dickens or Steinbeck, but I would never say their work was crap. If one is bored by great literature, then I suggest comic books and video games.
I don't always talk about bad movies, but when I do, I prefer badmovies.org

lester1/2jr

I tried to read a book by Anne Rice once. Nothing happened for several hundred pages, my friend informed me it would be several hundred MORE pages till something happened and I put it down.

bob

Quote from: Flick James on October 07, 2011, 02:04:50 PM
Here goes. I know this is going to come across as snobby and condescending, but WTF? Great literature is great literature. If you don't want to read great literate, then don't. I don't care much for the socio-political nature of the works of d**kens or Steinbeck, but I would never say their work was crap. If one is bored by great literature, then I suggest comic books and video games.


books are just like movies in that just because something is deemed a classic does not mean that everyone has to like it, in fact one can loath it if they despise it that much
Kubrick, Nolan, Tarantino, Wan, Iñárritu, Scorsese, Chaplin, Abrams, Wes Anderson, Gilliam, Kurosawa, Villeneuve - the elite



I believe in the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

Leah

QuoteBut I'm befuddled you found Heart of Darkness and Lord of the Flies underwhelming. Those are the books you need to read as a teenager, because you'll never find them as effective at any other point in life.
I read Lord of the Flies back in 9th grade and hated it. I'm going to read Heart of Darkness later in the school year, so may be it'll be different?... :lookingup:
yeah no.

RCMerchant

Quote from: lester1/2jr on October 08, 2011, 03:57:15 PM
I tried to read a book by Anne Rice once. Nothing happened for several hundred pages, my friend informed me it would be several hundred MORE pages till something happened and I put it down.

Anne Rice is a terrible writer.
I tried the Lord of the Rings books. Yuck.
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FatFreddysCat

Quote from: lester1/2jr on October 08, 2011, 03:57:15 PM
I tried to read a book by Anne Rice once. Nothing happened for several hundred pages, my friend informed me it would be several hundred MORE pages till something happened and I put it down.

Ditto. I gave "Interview with the Vampire" a shot years ago (probably around the time the movie came out) just to see what all the whoop-de-doo was about, and it bored the man-titties off of me. I gave up about half way through.
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Flick James

Quote from: bob on October 08, 2011, 05:50:37 PM
Quote from: Flick James on October 07, 2011, 02:04:50 PM
Here goes. I know this is going to come across as snobby and condescending, but WTF? Great literature is great literature. If you don't want to read great literate, then don't. I don't care much for the socio-political nature of the works of d**kens or Steinbeck, but I would never say their work was crap. If one is bored by great literature, then I suggest comic books and video games.


books are just like movies in that just because something is deemed a classic does not mean that everyone has to like it, in fact one can loath it if they despise it that much

Well, that wasn't really my point. If one doesn't care for a piece of classic literature, that's fine. Some people can't stand reading Shakespeare or watching Shakespeare. I've got no problem with that. I'm just saying that many of the posts talk about them as if they are crap. They aren't crap. They wouldn't be classics if they were. They were influential works that deserve respect, whether you liked them or not. In that respect they ARE just like movies. Not everyone likes Citizen Kane. I don't care for it, in fact. I don't call it crap, though.

So, anybody can do anything they want. Freewill and all that. I just think it's kind of ignorant to trash significant works of art as crap.
I don't always talk about bad movies, but when I do, I prefer badmovies.org

Psycho Circus

Quote from: Flick James on October 11, 2011, 11:59:14 AM
So, anybody can do anything they want. Freewill and all that. I just think it's kind of ignorant to trash significant works of art as crap.

We can still say crap then...  :wink:

Flick James

Quote from: Circus Circus on October 11, 2011, 01:00:48 PM
Quote from: Flick James on October 11, 2011, 11:59:14 AM
So, anybody can do anything they want. Freewill and all that. I just think it's kind of ignorant to trash significant works of art as crap.

We can still say crap then...  :wink:

I'm flattered that you would await my permission, but yes.

:bouncegiggle:
I don't always talk about bad movies, but when I do, I prefer badmovies.org

The Burgomaster

* GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.  The first 1/3 of the book was interesting and often funny.  After that, it got really repetitive and seemed to go on and on pointlessly.  It took me almost a year to read it . . . mostly because I kept putting off reading the last 30 or so pages.  Finally, I just said, "Let me finish this sucker."  I'm glad it's over.

* MOBY DICK.  I'm willing to bet not more than 25 - 30% of this novel is devoted to the actual story.  The rest is chapter after chapter of information about whales and the whaling industry.  It's more like a text book than a novel.  Very, very dry.  Although, the actual story parts (which are few and far between) are good.

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Mofo Rising

Quote from: Flick James on October 07, 2011, 02:04:50 PM
Here goes. I know this is going to come across as snobby and condescending, but WTF? Great literature is great literature. If you don't want to read great literate, then don't. I don't care much for the socio-political nature of the works of d**kens or Steinbeck, but I would never say their work was crap. If one is bored by great literature, then I suggest comic books and video games.

I agree with that sentiment. Great literature is great literature. There is no reason it should be easy to understand. Some of the greatest books take an inordinate amount of work to understand. Ulysses is a prime example.

However, not every piece of literature that is presented as great deserves that role. I think the perennial high school favorite The Scarlet Letter is garbage. I do think it is crap, but it is forced on millions of unwitting high school sophomores. "Great literature."

It's not, it just has the force of history behind it.

But why so angry about comics and video games? Seems an easy target, but some of the most jaw-dropping works of art in the past twenty years have manifested themselves in those two mediums.

Art. It takes you unawares.
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This whole conversation reminds me of an exchange between an American tourist and a French curator at the Louvre:

American:  "I must say I don't think much of these so-called great works of art you got here!"

Frenchman:  "What you think about these artworks, sir, says very little about them.  On the other hand, it says a great deal about you."
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ulthar

Quote from: bob on September 26, 2011, 06:12:41 PM
inspired by my most hated movie thread

I hate Moby d**k, had to read it for a college class

same goes for Heart of Darkness

I'm reading Moby Dick now and loving it...

Great stuff.

Of course, I've lived on a boat for almost three years, which may change my perspective.
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