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[fajrdrako]

From March 19, 2009: What’s the worst 'best' book you’ve ever read — the one everyone says is so great, but you can’t figure out why?

Easy: Moby Dick. I'd heard great quotes from it on X-Files and Star Trek and it sounded brilliant. So only a few years ago I sat down and read it cover to cover, and haven't been so bored (or frustrated) by a novel since Ivanhoe. But I understand why some people might like Ivanhoe, or, rather, might have done so in the 19th century. Moby Dick? I just didn't get it.

It quotes well, though. Ignorance is the parent of fear.

It was a sharp, cold Christmas.

Comments

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

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.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

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!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

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.)

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

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

It's awful. They changed the setting to the 1840s (instead of 1770s-early 1800s), and missed out the next generation entirely, so you don't get the plotline of Heathcliff abusing his wife and the children. More people are fmiliar with the film than with the novel, so they have this love-story plot stuck in their minds, and don't know about the worst. The best adaptations I have seen are a BBC serialisation from 1978, and the Ralph Fiennes/Juliette Binoche film, which kept the multi-generation structure. Ralph Fiennes isn't obvious casting (indeed, there are a few hints in the book that Heathcliff may not be white European at all), but he is very, very chilling and nasty.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I saw the Fiennes/Binoche version, and didn't really like it any more than the others because I don't like the story, but I'm mad over both leads, so watching them was a pleasure - and I thought they did a good job. Still. I'd prefer to have seen them together in some other movie.