World Enough and Time

Yes, they definitely were! I did love the bit in the Jasper Fforde books where they are all in enforced therapy sessions to stop the book imploding from their combined hatred - that was really funny.

I think I read Lord of the Flies when I was too young for it - though I don't think I would have enjoyed it much later on either. I do not like Golding's view of things.

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See, that is interesting because I probably read it at roughly the same age, or a year or two older. I always thought I hated it so much because I was too young to get what he was doing (plus it gave me nightmares).

Though actually when I think about it, I detest Golding's view of things just as much now I'm an adult. And it is a deeply unpleasant book.

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Oh, I adore Cold Comfort Farm. That it makes it impossible to take DH Lawrence seriously is just the cherry on the cake of its wonderfulness.

I like some of his poetry though.

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txvoodoo.livejournal.com

I can appreciate Dickens, but I don't love it. Whereas Austin grabs me :D

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He's one of those demonic protagonists of which the Romantics were fond (see also The Monk, Vathek, & c.). One of the problems has been the elision in the popular mind between Romantic and romantic: two very different things.

The film version of 1939 softened the character considerably, and turned him into a more conventional 'bad boy' romantic (small r) lead character, played by Laurence Olivier, who had already played Darcy. The film has imposed itself on the book, dominating the perceptions of a lot of the public.

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Have you seen the wonderful 1968 BBC adaptation? Alasdair Sim as Amos, Rosalie Crutchley as Judith, Sarah Badel as Flora, and Peter Egan as Seth. Brilliant! It's not out on DVD, alas: I had to get a secondhand VHS set from the US.

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I'll resend it. I thought I had. It's called Body and Soul, Love and Murder.

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It's a Gothic novel, partly inspired by a real 18C story EJ heard about when she was working at Law Head School in Northowram. I thnk the man was called Jack Sharp: an orphan who eventually defrauded and disinherited the family who had taken him in.

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I haven't, unfortunately. I saw the one from the 1990s with Ian McKellen as Amos, Kate Beckinsale as Flora, Rufus Sewell as Seth and Eileen Atkins as Judith, and I liked it but not as much as I liked the book. I wouldn't mind seeing a different version as I wasn't too convinced by Kate Beckinsale for some reason; I will add it to my list of "things to track down at some point".

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played by Laurence Olivier, who had already played Darcy. The film has imposed itself on the book, dominating the perceptions of a lot of the public

That makes a lot of sense, as does the confusion of Romantic and romantic.

Ah well. Heathcliff might be demonic and the book a horrible disappointment to me, but at least it produced the absolutely potty brilliance of the song and video by Kate Bush!

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mmegaera.livejournal.com

I was an English major. I have read a lot of lit-ra-choor. A lot of it falls into this category.

But my ex loved Moby Dick. At one point he got his hands on an audiobook version of it, and we listened to it. All 26 cassettes. My brain was leaking out of my ears by the time that sucker went back to the library.

It's amazing to me that I still like audiobooks, when I think about that...

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I was in my teens when I read it, and it seemed like a story about a bunch of little kids - when I saw myself as an adult.

Was it by William Golding? I liked some of his other books better than that one.

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I liked The Snake. What poetry are you thinking of?

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I'm pretty much the other way around - Dickens grabs my feelings and doesn't let go. Austen seldom touches my feelings at all. Just faintly, maybe, in Persuasion, but really not even there - I like it because I like Anne Eliott and her story, but it's an intellectual appreciation rather than anything with much passion in it.

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One of the problems has been the elision in the popular mind between Romantic and romantic: two very different things.

Absolutely. I often find myself trying to explain this.

Laurence Olivier played Heathcliffe? Are you making that up? That seems... incredible. I can't imagine any actor less Heathcliffe-like. (Or... very few.)

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There are so many shows I really, really want, which aren't on DVD.

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Got it - thank you!

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Jack Sharp is a good name. Much more evocative than Heathcliffe, who sounds as if he should be one of the three witches in Macbeth!

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That was one of the things that got me hooked on Rufus Sewell. Except I was crazy over him already; that's why I watched the movie. I had not at that time read Cold Comfort Farm and had little idea ahead of time what it was.

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I have read a lot of lit-ra-choor. A lot of it falls into this category.

Sad but true.

At one point he got his hands on an audiobook version of it, and we listened to it. All 26 cassettes.

My goodness. Did that enhance the book, or was it as unbearable as it sounds?

My ex and I pretty much agreed on all novels except Lord of the Rings - which I loved, and he hated.

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I did love the bit in the Jasper Fforde books where they are all in enforced therapy sessions

Fforde is good at getting to the heart of things.

Lord of the Flies is problematic; I liked it at the time, but I think now I'd have trouble with all the religious metaphors.

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mmegaera.livejournal.com

It was at least as unbearable as it sounds [wry g].

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It would be enough to turn me off it forever! - Assuming that hadn't already happened.

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iibnf.livejournal.com

If it had been marketed to me as dark revenge and madness, I would almost have certainly enjoyed it a lot more. I prefer revenge and madness to romance any day :D

Bit like the Jim Carey movie, The Cable Guy - if it had been marketed as a homoerotic stalker-thriller, instead of a comedy, it may not have been panned so badly.

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