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Literature you wanted/were supposed to like, but just couldn't - Page 3

post #31 of 249
3/10/09 at 1:26pm
I can understand not liking Murakami, but Roth is so readable and compelling....
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post #32 of 249
3/10/09 at 1:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Manton View Post
Moby Dick is awesome. My favorite novel.
It is amazing, but it's a slog to get through the chapters on whale anatomy and bookbinding. However, anyone who can't get through the first section is just nuts; it may have one of the most brilliant intros in book history.
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post #33 of 249
3/10/09 at 1:30pm
^ yeah the intro reads fast and it is hilarious i didn't find the technical aspects daunting at all, though my friends' warnings had put me off reading it for that very reason for years
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post #34 of 249
3/10/09 at 1:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by holymadness View Post
It is amazing, but it's a slog to get through the chapters on whale anatomy and bookbinding. However, anyone who can't get through the first section is just nuts; it may have one of the most brilliant intros in book history.


With the savage and whatnot, I couldn't stand it.
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post #35 of 249
3/10/09 at 1:51pm
ha i thought that bit with queequeg (right?) was mad homoerotic
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post #36 of 249
3/10/09 at 1:54pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by denimdestroyedmylife View Post
ha i thought that bit with queequeg (right?) was mad homoerotic

He got the business end of Ahab's harpoon, eh? o_O
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post #37 of 249
3/10/09 at 2:03pm
well, the indigenous indian character and the narrator share a bed
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post #38 of 249
3/10/09 at 2:06pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by denimdestroyedmylife View Post
well, the indigenous indian character and the narrator share a bed

Ah, and in the morning, as he rises out of bed to meet the dawn, he looks at his still dozing man lover with kindness in his barbaric native eyes. Before he steps out into the day, he leans down, plants a soft kiss on his forehead, and whispers "Call me, Ishmael". Savage love is cruel game.
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post #39 of 249
3/10/09 at 2:06pm
Richard Wright's novels.
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post #40 of 249
3/10/09 at 2:12pm
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. Tried to get through it twice, always ran out of breath in the middle.

Paradise Lost. I lost interest.

The Ill Earth series. Ugh.
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post #41 of 249
3/10/09 at 2:15pm
Cather in the rye - JD Salinger.. It's supposed to be a modern classic, but I just found it extremely underwhelming
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post #42 of 249
3/10/09 at 2:17pm
Does Sartres Being and Nothingness count as literature? I tried twice but have no idea what that guy is talking about.
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post #43 of 249
3/10/09 at 2:22pm
The Sun Also Rises.
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post #44 of 249
3/10/09 at 2:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by iammatt View Post
This is my first experience with people who didn't like Gatsby. I can't say I understand this heretofore unknown species.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Manton View Post
Moby Dick is awesome. My favorite novel.
+1 to both these.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuuma View Post
As I told you before I tried reading twice (or three times, not sure) and I never made it to the ship leaving port. Uhhghgh!
It really helps to have a good annotated edition. There's simply no way to appreciate the novel fully without it. There's an absolute madness to the work that can't be understood without a guide. One of my favorite aspects is how Melville, amid all his legitimate and often arcane allusions, references things that never existed, or that no one is quite sure existed, as though it's all common knowledge for a first-grader. It's like Moby-Dick, all 800 pages of it, came tumbling out of Melville's mouth in one mad breath. I thought Brave New World was fairly tedious, which is odd considering how much I like 1984.
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post #45 of 249
3/10/09 at 2:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RedLantern View Post
The Sun Also Rises.

Really? That last sentence alone would keep it off my list. It might be my favorite closing line.
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