(no subject)

[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

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

Wuthering Heights. Romantic? They hated each other!

At least it wasn't as agonisingly boring as Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Romantic? They hated each other!

Yeah. That's a weird one. The only good thing about it was that one of the movies had Timothy Dalton.

The only thing I remember about Tess of the D'Ubervilles - and I never read the book, just saw the movie - was how beautiful Nastassja Kinski was.

(Shallow, me? I like a good book or a good story, but I like beautiful people too.)

[dejla.livejournal.com]

Moby Dick is a difficult book. I can't say I like it, but I appreciate it. I think it does quote beautifully, and uses language as if it's poetry, not prose. The imagery is fascinating. But it's not a book I go back and reread, although I'm not sorry I read it.

[dargie.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha, I liked Moby Dick once I got into it, but there are other "great" books I've thrown across the room. What grabs you, grabs you.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

My first thought was *anything* by Joseph Conrad. But Wuthering Heights (never could finish it, BTW) fits the bill, too.

On a more modern note: A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews. It got all these awards and wonderful reviews, but it gave me the creeps.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

I hate 'Wuthering Heights' (in common with others on your flist, I see). I wanted to slap every single character in it and I have no idea why an abuser like Heathcliff is held up as a romantic hero.

I also detest 'Lord of the Flies' quite a lot.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

The fault there is in the marketing (often exacerbated by soppy film versions). Wuthering Heights isn't a romance: it's a dark tale of revenge and property and madness.

Tess is fascinating and tragic, I find: it exposes the cost of body/spirit dualism. I find it distressing because it costs the life of one of Hardy's most delightful and good (and entirely unstuffy) young men.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I have no idea why an abuser like Heathcliff is held up as a romantic hero.

He isn't a romantic hero, and it's a gross misreading of the text, fuelled by the 1939 film, that has turned him into one in popular culture. He's horrible.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Anything by:
Jane Austen;
D H Lawrence (impossible to take seriously before, never mind after, Cold Comfort Farm);
Charlotte Brontë - the least talented of the family, but sadly the longest lived.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Tess is excellent, if heart-breaking. I like the film, but no film or TV version has done it justice: they are all too kind to the vile Angel, and don't see through Alec's 'bad boy' pose. (Alec is very, very bad for my h/c complex!)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes. Parts of it were very clever, with excellent word use. But I couldn't make a smooth story in my head; it just didn't work. I'm not sorry I read it, but I can't say I enjoyed the experience. I just enjoyed the good quotes!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What grabs you, grabs you.

So true! Lots of people don't like Dickens, whose stuff I love.

I chuckled when I saw that the first set of people answering this question on the 'booking' site all mentioned Twilight. The moral of the story: you're not going to automatically like a book just because it's famous.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

My first thought was *anything* by Joseph Conrad.

LOL. I don't think I've ever tried to read Conrad. Don't feel in a hurry to do so, either.

Wuthering Heights

It's so turgid.

A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews. It got all these awards and wonderful reviews, but it gave me the creeps.

I quite enjoyed it, but I'll agree that it was creepy.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The characters in Wuthering Heights are all eminently slappable. Catherine made me roll my eyes.

I liked bits of Lord of the Flies but it was no kind of favourite, and I probably wouldn't have read it at all if it hadn't been assigned in high school.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Marketing is often a problem. The movie-makers may understand what they have, but the marketers go for - something else entirely.

I do plan to read Tess eventually. Not sure what I'll think.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Given the popularity of psychological horror these days, perhaps we have an opening for a total switch of genre.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I have mixed feelings about Jane Austen because I liked Persuasion; but I never understand her popularity. Agree absolutely about D.H. Lawrence, largely because he wrote about women as if he thought he was an expert in the subject, but writes as if he never actually met one. Which is weird, because we know biographically, he did. He must have never actually listened to one.

Charlotte Bronte, I like; Jane Eyre is one of my favourite books, and I loved Shirley too. The others... I've mostly forgotten.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the characters now, except Stonehenge.

[dargie.livejournal.com]

Funny you should mention Dickens because I've never seen the allure. LOL

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

While I love Dickens with a passion, and never saw the allure of Austen. So it goes!

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

I loved Lord of the Flies, but I was six when I read it. I think it appeals to that age group - it's more of an advanced reader for tots.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Quite probably true! The psychology struck me as rather immature. Not without interest or charm, but not like real-life people.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Did I send you my article on it from The Thomas Hardy Yearbook (2000)?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

No...?

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

it's a gross misreading of the text, fuelled by the 1939 film, that has turned him into one in popular culture

Oh, is that where it came from? Interesting - I found it completely confusing to have picked up on that idea of the character through cultural osmosis before reading the book and then to read it and find out how horrible he actually is in it. I wound up wondering if I was nuts or if everyone else was!

I wonder if it is just the hype that makes people read him as romantic or if there are some people that do find him appealing. My mind boggles at the thought, but he does kind of fit the classic 'bad boy' stereotype.