I had the delightful pleasure of hanging with my girl Jessica today, and while we ate our Chinese food in the park I told her of my latest annoyance of people flaunting their interest (or knowledge, for that matter) of things; specifically, interests that I sometimes question the authenticity of.
For example,
Well actually I should keep my mouth shut on some of the things I listed for Jessica, but one thing we did discuss was my annoyance of people reading classic novels just to say they did. Now I shouldn't judge whether people actually care about these classics they read, but I've read several that I didn't care for, so it really makes me wonder...I mean, I read Frankenstein three times--three times!--for school and didn't like it any of those times. So if I catch someone reading such a book in public, I won't lie, I roll my eyes to myself. And wonder if really, reeeeally, that person is enjoying that book. And I usually want to slip them a copy of a book that I thought was particularly incredible, such as The Middle Place, which I suggested to Jessica today at the bookstore.
I just want people to be truly honest about their interests, because I'm sick of wading through the bullsh*t.
So now that I've shown you all my cranky, not-so-loving side, for those of you who haven't closed your browser tab and are still with me I'll tell you about some of the classics I've read (just about all of these are from high school, as I've kind of abandoned the genre since) and those that I haven't gotten around to.
The ones I read more than once because my family moved and different school districts aren't perfectly aligned in their curriculum:
The Catcher in the Rye (sophomore year, junior year)
Macbeth (sophomore year, senior year--are you seeing part of the reason why high school wasn't my favorite time in life?)
The one I read in high school (once) and college (twice) and refuse, unless for some reason am forced, to read again:
Frankenstein
The ones I read on my own (and loved):
Little Women
Jane Eyre
The one I read for class, and loved:
The Great Gatsby
The ones I didn't finish:
The Odyssey
Lord of the Flies
The one I almost didn't continue reading because it was so violent and graphic:
A Clockwork Orange
The one that freaked me out:
In Cold Blood
The ones I didn't necessarily "love love," but that taught me something:
Things Fall Apart
The Bluest Eye
Ellen Foster
Black Boy
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The ones that were never assigned to me and I'm yet to get around to:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Wuthering Heights (I imagine I would like this one)
Pride and Prejudice (this one too)
And finally, one that I started on my own and didn't finish:
Sense and Sensibility (technically I only read about two or three pages and there were so many Sr.'s and Jr.'s that I got confused and deemed it not exactly a summer read)
The Grapes of Wrath (read a little more of this one)
So. I'm just saying. There are only three on that list that I really loved. Maybe it's just because I'm not a fiction person. Maybe it's because I'm a snob.
Or maybe it's because I'm actually on to something here. I don't mean great disrespect to the authors of these books, because obviously these books wouldn't rise to such fame without some sort of reader following, but I do have a theory that, fiction books in particular, often have to fall into the right hands of someone who a)loves the book, and b)has some influence so that people will listen to that person and then read the book themselves.
I just think there's gotta be a point where hype gets in the way of original, blind opinion. I feel like this can be more of a touchy statement for books than other forms of entertainment, but would we not say the same for certain movies? Music?
Go ahead, fight me. What do you think? What's your classic list look like? Which percentage did you love? Hate? Feel "meh" about? Am I just a jerk? Have you read some books that you think are outstanding, but feel like no one knows about them?
I mean, (and not that I'm arguing for Harry Potter here, because I'm not), but didn't Harry Potter sit on shelves unnoticed for some years? Would it be so popular if fewer people declared it to be wonderful?
Sorry to be a sourpuss, I'm just thinking here. Like I said, feel free to disagree.
Bear in mind that the IB curriculum has more of an emphasis on modern works, so I missed a lot of standard high school English classics... But I loved Huck Finn, Hamlet (never read MacB), Sula, The House of the Spirits... The only one I specifically recall hating was As I Lay Dying (better known to my class as As I Died Reading), but I think if it had been taught different, we might have been more receptive. Oh, and I wasn't terribly fond of romantic poetry, but possibly that's because we spent a whole semester on it and there's only so many times you can hear someone extoll the virtues of a daffodil.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I've reread some things since high school (Othello, To Kill a Mockingbird, In Cold Blood, Death of a Salesman, a bunch of plays we read for theater) and I find that coming back to them often means rediscovery. It wasn't until I took some women's studies classes that I worked out that Othello is textbook domestic violence, for example. And my copy of Hamlet has been reread (and re-annotated) so many times that pages have to be taped back in. There's a lot of magic in some classics - but I agree, a lot get overlooked. We did a unit on South American lit, and there were diversity requirements for the senior year curriculum. It made a not-insignificant (and positive) difference in the material we covered.
ReplyDeleteYou ARE a mini-me. I've never understood peer pressure. Why is it so hard to be yourself? I've never had a problem being hobest about my likes and dislikes, but maybe that's a fault innand of itself.
ReplyDeleteI liked Huck Finn and Wuthering Heights. Thought The Great Gatsby sucked, but that might have because I completely missed the point(s). As for movies, I feel like all the 'cool' movie buffs like Wes Anderson movies, and I'm not afraid to say that I hated the few that I've seen. For TV, I despise the well-loved Seinfeld. Annoying characters.
I find that I enjoy most books labeled "classic." I usually have some negative stereotype about them based on their title (I do this with movies, too), but once I actually get into them they are pretty cool!
ReplyDeleteI just finished The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Not sure if it is a classic, but it was pretty durn good.
I don't know why you didn't finish Lord of the Flies, but I suppose if you're not a fiction person you may not like it.
I haven't heard of anyone not liking Huck Finn, though.
I've not read Grapes of Wrath, but it is an important book. My wife read it, and then the magic of Netflix showed it to us. If you never finish it, watch the old movie. I think it is important.
Bailey, again, your honesty is appreciated! Yeah MacBeth is wonderful, of course, cause its Bill. Your yet to read list has some gooduns. Wuthering Heights is fantastic: dark, depraved, wild, a hero who should not be a hero, and a snipet of a happy ending to round out the book and make it readable. Of course, it takes place in the Yorkshire moors- a wild, ruddy, and fantastic place for the imagination (and oxford commas). Some of the longer oldies are powerful and rich- perhaps the longer ones do a better job of capturing the imagination. My three-year affair with Les Miserables came to an end recently with a sense of accomplishment and sadness.
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