Posted on 04/21/2011 2:43:04 PM PDT by Borges
I read for my pleasure, not to impress other people. Some of what I read winds up on the literati’s list of what people “should” read, most of it doesn’t, I don’t care one way or the other. Most folks who throw around quotes are just douches trying to impress people, I learned long ago that anybody that feels an internal need to impress the people around them isn’t impressive, so as soon as somebody throws a literati quote out I know to ignore them.
Taste has to be developed. If one doesn’t like Henry James or James Joyce the fault is not with them but with the reader. The obligation is on you to get to their level of sensibility.
I have personally found some of the “best” writers to be shallow and dull.
I think literature should be read for enjoyment and historical reference.
For me, writers are merely talented humans. There works are their art. I don’t look to them for the meaning of life.
If I am looking for true meaning, I go to God.
Like who?
Just because something is “crap” doesn’t mean it’s not fun. Not all of life is about the superior, some of it is just about the enjoyable. I can read a Harry Potter book in under 18 hours, it’s not a bad way to kill a day when I don’t feel like sinking my teeth into Dune. Some days you eat fillet mignon, some days you eat popcorn, because some days are good for popcorn.
(Pssst. Dune isn’t great literature either.)
;-)
I’d never heard of Alice Adams before this article.
Rowling is not the best writer, she may be this generations Cervantes, considering how limited this generation is.
What makes literature great? Is it how well it is written, how timeless the story is, how well a particular generation regards it?
I think the Potter books will be last. I don’t think she will replace Tolstoy or Dickens in terms of how future generations regard literature, but she has made a mark.
Twilight, however, really does suck.
The generation that grew up reading her will keep that stuff alive at least as long as they live. I don’t know if their kids will like it much though.
But who says it’s the “best” of Western Culture? If you don’t like something you don’t like it, there’s no reason to suffer through it just because the literati say it’s “the best”. Even if it is the best that doesn’t mean you’ll like it. A friend of mine’s mom makes the best liver pate in the city, or so folks who like liver pate say, I tried it once, tasted like liver pate, for my pallet that’s not a compliment, I think liver pate is gross. The literati worship “Howl”, to me it’s just more beat poetry, which again doesn’t agree with my pallet, so while it very well might be “the best” that doesn’t mean I should read it.
I'm reminded of Twain's quote on classic books:
I don't believe any of you have ever read PARADISE LOST, and you don't want to. That's something that you just want to take on trust. It's a classic, just as Professor Winchester says, and it meets his definition of a classic -- something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
Taste doesn’t have to be anything. People like what they like and anybody that thinks there’s a problem with somebody else’s taste is quite simply wrong and should mind their own business. James Joyce was a drunk whose writing is crap, and Henry Jame is dull. I have no obligation to suffer through books that bore me. If you like them fine, but that doesn’t make you right and me wrong, that makes you someone that likes those books and me someone that doesn’t.
Yup, I love that Twain quote.
Guess that explains why it’s enjoyable. I wasn’t actually putting it forth as great literature, I listed it as something to read that takes more effort than Harry Potter because it has a much denser plot and language. Still enjoyable reads, but not something I can crank through in 18 hours.
I’ve never met anyone who dislikes Paradise Lost.
I like it too.
Works great to kindle a campfire...
Well a scientist can write fiction that might be complex but that wouldn’t make it literature. Thomas Pynchon is literature.
The literati’s need to push the drunken ramblings of Joyce as literature is all the proof any sane person will ever need that the literati are idiots that just want to torture people. If you really must worship drunken ramblings just go to a bar, it’ll be more fun.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.