|
And the goalposts move ever in favor of the gatekeepers,
|
![]() |
|
![]()
|
# ? Jun 13, 2024 07:44 |
|
Yes, I don't understand why anyone would want to read Beloved or As I Lay Dying. Trash authors, those Toni Morrisons and William Faulkners, with their boring characters and mediocre writing.
|
![]() |
|
habeasdorkus posted:Yes, I don't understand why anyone would want to read Beloved or As I Lay Dying. [sarcastic hyperbole]Darn tootin.' They should have taken lessons from good writers like Dan Brown or Dean Koontz.[/sarcastic hyperbole]
|
![]() |
|
As I Lay Dying was the first book I disliked so much I got mad about it.
|
![]() |
|
I read a book by David Weber years ago, Out of the Dark, and it was the only book I've read that made me want to throw the goddamn book across the room. It's basically a "what if humans were the defenders of their planet and only surviving via guerilla warfare" and at the time it made me think it was an allegory for the Iraq War, and he fuckin John Cenas with a steel chair vlad goddamn tepes as being the savior of humanity, out of loving nowhere. I'm still mad about that book, to the point of probably never reading a single book by him ever again. I even went back to see if I was stupid and missed something, and I couldn't find anything relevant other than maybe a chapter or two before the ending before hinting at it. I was enjoying it up until that point.
|
![]() |
|
UwUnabomber posted:As I Lay Dying was the first book I disliked so much I got mad about it. I think I was too bewildered and disconnected to get mad.
|
![]() |
|
UwUnabomber posted:As I Lay Dying was the first book I disliked so much I got mad about it. Mine was Catcher in the Rye. As soon as I finished the book report on it, I took it outside along with a metal pot, tore out half the pages, and lit it on fire. Good riddance.
|
![]() |
|
I know ~~both sides~~ is usually bullshit, but there's just as much good literary fiction as there is good SFF, and the same goes for bad books. If you've only read what you're given at high school or whatever, then yeah you're probably not going to come away with a great impression, same if you'd only ever read Heinlein or Sanderson or Rothfuss.
|
![]() |
Kestral posted:Mine was Catcher in the Rye. As soon as I finished the book report on it, I took it outside along with a metal pot, tore out half the pages, and lit it on fire. Good riddance. Mine was The Education of Little Tree, which I felt vindicated on by discovering years later that it was written by a KKK member
|
|
![]() |
|
Chainclaw posted:I just finished Piranesi. What a great, short book. I can’t think of anything bad about it, it’s just so good too to bottom. Philip Reeve, who wrote Mortal Engines and Railhead, among other things (books for young people that tend to avoid the worst bits of modern YA tropes and style) and also illustrated a bunch of Horrible Histories books, did some "fan" art of Piranesi recently which I thought was incredibly good. https://twitter.com/philipreeve1/status/1619069741448171520?t=VEaHkPE0qjwX7IfGt72gDg&s=19
|
![]() |
|
Kestral posted:Mine was Catcher in the Rye. As soon as I finished the book report on it, I took it outside along with a metal pot, tore out half the pages, and lit it on fire. Good riddance. It's actually kinda funny the near-universal hatred I've seen from people who read that book in school. If you ever have a talk about "real literature I hate", Catcher will always be there and maybe also The Scarlet Letter. Of course, I think TSL's negative reputation is more a victim of bad education than the quality of the book itself. "Please list all the symbolism in the book" Symbolism is great but this method of learning is probably why we got "the curtains are just frickin' blue."
|
![]() |
|
GreenBuckanneer posted:I read a book by David Weber years ago, Out of the Dark, and it was the only book I've read that made me want to throw the goddamn book across the room. Huh, I read the same book, and I only liked it after the vampire stuff started happening. Was ok, but prefer Path of the Fury when it comes to Webers supernatural fantasy/ scifi mixes
|
![]() |
|
NikkolasKing posted:It's actually kinda funny the near-universal hatred I've seen from people who read that book in school. If you ever have a talk about "real literature I hate", Catcher will always be there and maybe also The Scarlet Letter. My hatred for it was probably made worse because I was either reading or had just finished reading The Silmarillion for the first time, and the contrast between them was so stark that it made Catcher all the more infuriating.
|
![]() |
|
Tales from Earthsea (Earthsea #5) by Ursula K Le Guin - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003ZX86BO/ Promise of Blood (Powder Mage #1) by Brian McClellan - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0092XHPIG/ Age of Ash (Kithmar #1) by Daniel Abraham - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0976XDNF2/
|
![]() |
|
cptn_dr posted:Philip Reeve, who wrote Mortal Engines and Railhead, among other things (books for young people that tend to avoid the worst bits of modern YA tropes and style) and also illustrated a bunch of Horrible Histories books, did some "fan" art of Piranesi recently which I thought was incredibly good. He's done illustrations for a wide range of children's educational books under the same imprint as Horrible Histories, all with a remarkably detailed and clear style. Mervyn Peake's the only other novelist-artist I know of.
|
![]() |
|
GreenBuckanneer posted:he fuckin John Cenas with a steel chair vlad goddamn tepes as being the savior of humanity Oh sure when Zelazny does it it's fine but ok I'll stop.
|
![]() |
|
GreenBuckanneer posted:I read a book by David Weber years ago, Out of the Dark, and it was the only book I've read that made me want to throw the goddamn book across the room. You'll be pleased to hear their's a sequel called Into the Light written by DW and one of his flunkies. I.e. actually written by the flunky.
|
![]() |
|
I was reading a list of coming releases for February and apparently Lovecraft Country has a sequel. Destroyer of Worlds drops on the 21st.Lovecraft 2:Lovecraft Harder posted:
|
![]() |
|
Ninurta posted:I was reading a list of coming releases for February and apparently Lovecraft Country has a sequel. Destroyer of Worlds drops on the 21st. Oh amazing. I adored the first book.
|
![]() |
|
Kestral posted:Mine was Catcher in the Rye. As soon as I finished the book report on it, I took it outside along with a metal pot, tore out half the pages, and lit it on fire. Good riddance. Preach. I will defend it as the best book I've ever hated because I've never had anything before or since infuriate me so much. And I read some real infuriating customer service comments on the the company intranet. Seriously, if it got me that good then author did something right. And Holden Caufield is the best example of protagonist =/= hero. But also just gently caress that book top to bottom.
|
![]() |
|
Every single person who hated Catcher read it in highschool. Every person who still hates it never grew past highschool.
|
![]() |
|
Gaius Marius posted:Every single person who hated Catcher read it in highschool. Every person who still hates it never grew past highschool. ![]() Jokes on you, I liked Scarlett Letterand the symbolism of class. I also thought I am the Cheese was neat.
|
![]() |
|
I just thought Catcher was bland, but to be fair at the time I resented being told to read anything so I'd skim assigned books the minimum amount to sort of answer the questions about them. Also it was in Hebrew translation, who knows how good that was.
|
![]() |
|
I kinda like Catcher. ![]() I'm not really a big fan of flood-of-words stream of consciousness narration and As I Lay Dying is at least partially to blame for my disdain for it. I felt like Faulkner was trying to obscure the story he was telling from me. It was just frustrating. "My mother is a fish." my rear end.
|
![]() |
|
Gaius Marius posted:Every single person who hated Catcher read it in highschool. Every person who still hates it never grew past highschool. "I related to Holden in high school but now that I've matured I now know he was a nasty brat" is a common enough response to the book.
|
![]() |
|
Gaius Marius posted:Every single person who hated Catcher read it in highschool. Every person who still hates it never grew past highschool. I love Catcher, and it's a real tragedy that if it hits you during the exact right stage of your life it obliterates your brain, and yet it's almost guaranteed that you won't be at that stage in high school but these sort of smug little adages are a big reason people roll their eyes at conversations involving literature
|
![]() |
|
FPyat posted:"I related to Holden in high school but now that I've matured I now know he was a nasty brat" is a common enough response to the book. By idiots, yes WarpDogs posted:I love Catcher, and it's a real tragedy that if it hits you during the exact right stage of your life it obliterates your brain, and yet it's almost guaranteed that you won't be at that stage in high school There's nothing smug about the truth.
|
![]() |
|
Gaius Marius posted:By idiots, yes This is aggressively rude.
|
![]() |
|
StrixNebulosa posted:This is aggressively rude. More or less than bragging about your inability to feel empathy for teenagers?
|
![]() |
|
Gaius Marius posted:There's nothing smug about the truth. This isn't just wrong, it's so wrong that it is difficult to think of anything you could have said that could possibly have been less correct. Smugness is where you're getting satisfaction from emphasising how you're better (in some manner) than someone else; in the context of an argument like this one, the specific metric is being more correct than the other party. Truth is not a defence against smugness, it's a requirement for smugness. Only someone [who thinks they're they're] stating the truth can be smug!
|
![]() |
|
I get no satisfaction from this only depression at people valuing posturing against a fictional teen over actually learning to have an ounce of empathy for troubled people in bad situations
|
![]() |
|
I didn’t really like Catcher in high school and I’m not going to bother to reread it again to see if my opinion changes, but I really nailed an A Separate Peace joke the other day and I’m really proud of it
|
![]() |
|
Catcher had some standout moments that I still think about decades later but on the whole the story doesn’t do much for me. Different from Scarlet Letter, where I’ll always respect the absurdity of the concept but I’ll be damned if I can remember anything specific on a scene-level.
|
![]() |
|
come on, gamer, i even agree with you about catcher in the rye being good. i just think this whole "make a blanket statement, then call everyone who disagrees with me an immature idiot" bit you're doing is basically just taking a minor and inconsequential point of disagreement ("did someone enjoy a book"), then intentionally distorting this into a much more significant issue ("if someone didn't enjoy the book, it's because they're a callous and/or hateful person who lacks of empathy for the disadvantaged") then dismissing any attempt to actually engage on the topic because that would get in the way of using this made-up opinion as a pretext to indulge in being rude and contemptuous to people to gain emotional validation about how much better you are than them. it's the way a literal schoolyard bully acts and its just as immature! and layering an extra helping of "who, me? smug? self-satisfied? oh no, you misunderstand me, i'm just... depressed. depressed by how much better I am than everyone else... truly it's a sad life being the only person in the room with the genius and the emotional intelligence..." sure doesn't make you any less of condescending rear end in a top hat.
|
![]() |
I could beat up Holden Caulfield. Only thing he's gonna catch are these guns.
|
|
![]() |
|
I'm responding to the multiple people who demonstrated, in their own words, their lack of empathy for Holden. I'm not arguing against a straw man.
|
![]() |
|
Folks, back off from the Holden fan! You don't want to end up like Lennon, right?
|
![]() |
|
holden…[loud dial up noises]…deez nuts
|
![]() |
|
Holden was definitely annoying but I still enjoyed The Expanse.
|
![]() |
|
![]()
|
# ? Jun 13, 2024 07:44 |
|
General Battuta posted:holden…[loud dial up noises]…deez nuts
|
![]() |