Unpopular Literary Opinions

[dwanollah]

May 5, 2011 12:10:04 GMT -4 @tversky said:

Ha. I was just thinking The Bell Jar may be the female equivalent to On the Road

I was "meh" on both. Of course, I'm also "meh" on the Brontes and Austen, so I have no "Woman's Book!" dammit.

[chonies]

May 5, 2011 12:41:08 GMT -4 wilbert said:

I'm female and liked On the Road, but I read it when I was like 14 and identified with the on the road/freedom/travel thing. The author I hate even more than the beats is Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer. I blame him.
O/t I picked up a book called Forty Ouncer by Kurt Zapata at my local Goodwill. I tried googling, but didn't find anything about the author. Does anyone have any info about him?

That's his only book, and it was published by Manic D, which looks like a niche vanity press. They have other materials that might be similar.

I also tried reading OTR when I was a teen, then tried again in college, and then when I started dating Mr Chonies, who predictably loves it--or did when he was in college and then took his own road trip. I just...can't. But I know I'm going to go home and try reading it AGAIN, although I live in a rental property so I won't be throwing it against the wall.

[Peggy Lane]

May 5, 2011 12:57:36 GMT -4 @dwanollah said:

May 5, 2011 12:10:04 GMT -4 @tversky said:

Ha. I was just thinking The Bell Jar may be the female equivalent to On the Road

I was "meh" on both. Of course, I'm also "meh" on the Brontes and Austen, so I have no "Woman's Book!" dammit.

...says the woman who has Krantz's and Susann's oeuvres practically memorized!

Here's another UO; I also hated The Women's Room. God, what a bunch of whining! And could the author have tortured the language any more? Damn, I hated that book. I'd rather the feminine answer to OTR be "Valley of the Dolls."

Of course, the feminine answer would probably get chucked into the category of "chick lit" or "women's fiction" which is so less important than anything written by John Updike.

ETA- Chonies, if you are feeling masochistic just pierce something with an old safety pin! It would be less painful.

[dwanollah]

DON'T YOU JUDGE ME, PEGGY LANE! And that's huntergrayson who's memorized all the Susann... I've only tackled VotD! Krantz, on the other hand...? And VC Andrews. And-

As long as the feminine answer isn't Sex in the City or a Shopaholic book. (Actually, I've never read a SitC book. Are they as vile as the television show?)

[Deleted]

Peggy, that is why I will not re-read any of those books I mentioned -- I want to remember how I felt about them when I first read them. Sad to know that the writing in 'The Women's Room' was so bad!

[huntergrayson]

For the billionth time, it's Sex AND the City, Dwan! Also, don't hate on Carrie just because she's a published writer.

I will say, as a young gay teen, reading VOTD changed my life much more than OTR did. I'll probably have to reread OTR but my overwhelming reaction was "really...that's it? I guess it's well-written but this is really the book that inspires people to have life-changing epiphanies?" It did make me curious about Kerouac's other stuff, so maybe I'll check that out instead.

ETA: All I know about the Brontes is via these boards, but I still found this comic] hilarious.

[Auroranorth]

May 5, 2011 13:41:46 GMT -4 @dwanollah said:

As long as the feminine answer isn't Sex in the City or a Shopaholic book. (Actually, I've never read a SitC book. Are they as vile as the television show?)

There are Sex and the City books? Are they about the series, or prequels, or what?

I've watched about 17 minutes total of the show, so I'm totally clueless here.

[dwanollah]

For the billionth time, it's Sex AND the City

Who cares? And for the billionth time, don't hate on me because I've FINISHED writing things!

[huntergrayson]

Writing "Mister and Misses Le Bon" over-and-over again in your Lisa Frank notebook SO doesn't count.

AuroraNorth - Candace Bushnell had a column for the NY Observer about her and her friends' love lives, which became collected in a book, which became the very loose basis for SATC, the show. And now, given the success of the show, there have indeed been prequels published that are designed for the YA/Tween/Teen audience. Which...yeah, but no. I actually like the show but it is in no way supposed to be geared towards girls that young.

[Auroranorth]

Wait, she's writing YA Samantha? That should be- interesting. In a trainwreck sort of way.