Unpopular Literary Opinions

[Ripley]

The only way I got through it was thinking about which characters in Clueless were who in Emma and then realizing that Clueless is awesome, and Emma is just boring.

Heh. That's what I have to do with the book version of Lord of the Rings. I do enjoy the book, but it became so much easier to read once I could picture Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, etc. Characterization is not Tolkien's strong point.

[ahenobarbus]

I hate Wordsworth, too, which makes her cry. Of course, she thinks Hemingway is a misogynistic asshole. Like that's not part of his charm?!

But Hemingway is an American Wordsworth (as are a lot of American writers). His entire aesthetic is built up on the 'spots of time' technique Wordsworth invented in The Prelude - even though Hemingway probably learned it third-hand.

[hal9000]

Cannot stand the precious prose of Zadie Smith. She does not have the talent for character dialogue that her style depends apon. I made it painfully through maybe three chapters of White Teeth. The very idea of her latest, a internationally cast reworking of Howard's End, has me running for the hills. I'll take Forster, thanks.

[Cinchona]

The Handmaid's Tale does nothing for me.

[ladymadonna]

I'm not fond of Dickens, Hemingway, Thoreau, Alcott, Fitzgerald, or Shakespeare for that matter. While I have read the classics and am quite able to understand the themes and importance of the works, I just plain don't like to read them. That doesn't mean that they shouldn't be taught and whatnot, but...

Give me Pet Sematary any day over The Great Gatsby. It's more freakin' interesting. lol

[raqs]

While I have read the classics and am quite able to understand the themes and importance of the works, I just plain don't like to read them.

I agree and would go one step further to say that many of them are just straight-up no longer relevant. YMMV

[Margo]

Like many posters upthread, I also don't like most of classic Russian lit, with the exception of Chekhov's short stories, and Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, but I wouldn't say it's a classic. I find the characters hard to keep track of, and lots of the books are just boring. And also lots of them are about peasants, or at least it feels this way, and I hate reading about peasants. Yes, I'm bad. For example, I got through Anna Karenina and it was decent, but I hated all the asides about this guy who moved to the countryside accompanied by like 10-page descriptions of a field.

But you know what's even worse? Russian is my first language, which theoretically should make the novels easier to read.

[queequeg]

I got through Anna Karenina and it was decent, but I hated all the asides about this guy who moved to the countryside accompanied by like 10-page descriptions of a field.

*gasp*How can you not like Levin! /jk. Yes, those parts of Anna Karenina are totally soul destroying.

I guess my unpopular opinion is that I actually like Russian literature. Dostoyevsky's The Idiot is a great book.

I hate Henry James with a passion though. I mean he and George Eliot both seem to have had the mistaken belief that using five words where one would suffice is a good idea. Actually, to be honest, if it can be classed as 'Anglo-American realism' I'm not touching it.

[jaghetersimon]

Borges's work is mostly masturbatory, self-congratulatory bullshit. No wonder academics love him so much.

Oh, and The Virgin Suicides is totally creepy and misogynistic. I'd kill myself too if I had those fetishizing, pathetic losers stalking me 24-7!!

And Baudelaire and Rimbaud are totally overrated, and largely misogynistic, too.

I feel so much better now! I'm a former comp lit major, by the way.

[Deleted]

I hate Chick Lit. I assume that's an unpopular opinion based on how much of it is out there. It seems like every time I go to the bookstore there's a whole new batch of it -- all with the same cartoon-like drawings on the covers. People can't seem to get enough of quirky 30-something career gals and their problems with boyfriends and jobs.

I liked Bridget Jones's Diary, but I kind of blame it for starting this endless trend.