Unpopular Literary Opinions

[shiningstah]

Here are my unpopular opinions:

1) LOVE Russian lit, names and all, with the exception of Checov.

2) LOVED Catcher in the Rye. Maybe it was because I felt just like Holden when I read it at 16.

3) LOVE Dickens - He's a genius.

Am I the only one here who hated The great Gatsby with a passion?

[dwanollah]

Am I the only one here who hated The great Gatzby with a passion?

How dare you, Shiningstah? HOW DARE YOU?! First of all, it's GATSBY, and second, IT'S AN AMAZING BOOK, AND I SMITE YOU WITH MY COPY OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS GUIDE TO LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM, DAMMIT!

;D

Okay, seriously, I didn't like Gatsby when I read it at first, because I was expecting something more... I guess traditionally romantic. But once you get used to Scotty's writing style, it's amazing; I still maintain that he's written some of the bestest prose in American Literature, and I think the closing paragraph of Gatsby is breathtaking. I tear up every time I read it.

On the other hand, I can appreciate Dickens in theory, but he bangs on too much for my taste.

[shiningstah]

Dwanollah ;D

I did enjoy his writing style which is magnificent. It's very polished and elegant but the book is one of the most boring I ever read.

[Deleted]

Um, I didn't especially care for "The Great Gatsby," either. Or "This Side of Paradise" which is the only other book by Fitzgerald I've read.
I'm not especially into Dickens, but I loved "Tale of Two Cities" and "David Copperfield" (the ending paragraph or so of which makes me tear up when I reread it!).
Just this past weekend I tried reading some Russian lit (Dr. Zhivago). I gave up after a few chapters. Too boring and hard to keep track of the characters--the author kept refering to them by a different name each time, it seemed. I guess that's part of Russian culture, but I wasn't hooked on enough to put in the effort to figure out who was who. And any previous attempts at Russian lit proved to be too depressing or boring to want to continue.

[Deleted]

dwanollah said:

Am I the only one here who hated The great Gatzby with a passion?

How dare you, Shiningstah? HOW DARE YOU?! First of all, it's GATSBY, and second, IT'S AN AMAZING BOOK, AND I SMITE YOU WITH MY COPY OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS GUIDE TO LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM, DAMMIT!

The Great Gatsby is one of my all-time favorite books, however, I'd never bother to get worked up over someone else not liking it. (By the way -- that wasn't directed at Dwanollah -- I was just having a flashback to the Other Place and that guy who seemed to spend his life patrolling the literary thread to attack anyone who didn't like books that he liked.) My opinion is that TGG is a great book but that Fitzgerald overall is greatly over-rated.

By the way, anyone ever read (or tried to read) Zelda Fitzgerald's literary attempt, "Save Me The Waltz?" I spotted it in a used bookstore and was psyched, because I've always been kind of fascinated by the Fitzgeralds. But even the curiousity value couldn't keep me going -- the book is completely unreadable. It's gibberish.

[dwanollah]

Damn, you mean I can't break out my Tom Cruise-esque "I've done the research! Have you studied literature? I've studied literature! I have four degrees on my wall" b.s. to police this thread...? You spoil all my fun, Bonsai!

Zelda was such a mess. Then again, so was Scott.

[pepper67]

I was just having a flashback to the Other Place and that guy who seemed to spend his life patrolling the literary thread to attack anyone who didn't like books that he liked.

You mean you hated that too, Bonsai?? It used to drive me nuts - especially as the poster in question never ever got a smackdown for it. I stopped reading the thread because of it.

Damn, you mean I can't break out my Tom Cruise-esque "I've done the research! Have you studied literature? I've studied literature! I have four degrees on my wall" b.s. to police this thread...? You spoil all my fun, Bonsai!

Never mind, Dwanollah, you can do it at the Christmas party. ;D

Topic: I hate DH Lawrence. His stories are depressing and dull and I find it impossible to care what happens to any of the characters.

[Deleted]

Oops! Not trying to ruin fun -- I honestly had a flash-back for a second! I'm sure we're thinking of the same person, Pepper67 . The posts would often start out "You're wrong!" which instantly sent my hackles up!

The author I'm still a little defensive about is John Irving. Several of my all-time favorite books are by him. So in the past several years it's been very hard for me to admit to myself that I'm not enjoying him anymore... I avoided reading The Fourth Hand because I had a feeling I'd be disappointed, and I couldn't take a chance on being disappointed in my hero. I read a scathing review of his latest one so I'll also avoid that. I want to just retain my fond memories of Owen Meany, Cider House Rules, etc.

[Ripley]

Oh, yes. I remember that horrible poster too, and I even remember his poster name. He did get one smackdown of a sort. He always complained at length if anybody dared state that she or he loved The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (which was an AWESOME book, BTW). He complained so many times about that title that The Powers That Be finally told him that everybody knew he hated that book and he needed to shut up about it. And he did. It didn't stop him from making other all-inclusive, annoying statements, though.

My unpopular opinion is that I love SF and Fantasy, or rather, I love good SF and Fantasy. There is dreck out there, naturally, but there are some great authors producing some great material.

[batmom]

I hate DH Lawrence.

Me too. A misogynist with mommy issues.

I thought that One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest was meh and The Devil Wears Prada wasn't the good, trashy fun I'd been led to believe. It just made me tense.