I'd be impressed to see how The Sandman could be trumped up enough to be overrated. Someone was piling up flattery 'til they had to open the sunroof on heaven...
Anything by Thomas Pynchon. No one can digress and dissemble like fucking Pynchon. I constantly recommend The Crying of Lot 49 to people, ever since Jeff got me to read it, but I do so with a grave warning. "This man thinks characters, plot, and the reader's waning interest level are incidental."
Vineland almost killed me. How self-indulgent does one have to become to write a book where the plot just entangles more and more, becoming more and more ridiculous, and nothing is ever resolved? 500 pages of rising action.
He's dense, but the man is talented as hell. And Vineland may be a series of tangents, but they're all INTERESTING tangents. He has some real poetry in his language.
Dude, there is no way I'm going to promise to read a 1000+ page Pynchon book. Life is too short.
And YES, he DOES absolutely have some very gifted prose (c/f the passage about the Pacific Ocean in Lot 49.) He also has some quite fascinating ideas (W.A.S.T.E., etc., and the exposition of our assumptions about reality, therein, which figure heavily into my own thinking.) Notice that I didn't say he sucks, I just said that I think his fans' enthusiasm is excessive. When I finish one of his books (or even when I go back and re-read them), I'm always left with the feeling of "Am I supposed to pretend like I'm in on the joke, now
( ... )
I fall somewhere between the two of you. I fucking loved what I could manage of Mason & Dixon...one of those difficult/rewarding tomes that isn't going to happen in any short amount of time. Despised Vineland, though.
I would say, "The Robert Jordan books," but that would just degenerate into a series of zings on my Abingdon friends for being fantasy-book fanboys.
Ah...
I really hated Jacob Have I Loved, which I was forced to read in high school, but my utmost loathing is reserved for Atlas Shrugged, which I was TOLD was an IMPORTANT BOOK, rather than A TIGHTLY-PACKED MOUND OF BULLSHIT. Rand's style wouldn't be particularly odious if she didn't insist upon bending it towards the aggrandizement (if not outright deification) of capitalist industrial plutocrats and the slanderous condemnation of everyone else.
Jordan has earned some scorn, there's no doubt. I haven't bothered with the new one, yet, but I'm told it's quite good.
JHIL is absolutely the worst book I've ever had to endure. I likewise read it in highschool and hated it with a passion that I normally reserve for ubiquitous celebrities. It stoked my rage to levels that a book has never really been able to reach, since, but that's because I'm not in highschool, anymore, and I don't have to finish books if they blow. I wrote one scathing paper after another about it for Mrs. V., and she seemed quite miffed that I didn't sympathize with the series of boring and painful misadventures that the heroine undergoes on her way to womanhood.
The only reason I didn't list it is that nobody but Mrs. Vernon has ever tried to tell me it's good.
I had a debate about Mrs. Vernon's taste with my family not even a week ago.
I'm sure she's nice. There's nothing personal about this at all. But (I'm pretty sure) she put an adaptation of a made-for-tv movie from the 70's on a high school reading list.
And has ordered "Freak the Mighty." For high schoolers. A description: "Two eighth-grade misfits-one physically impaired, the other with a learning disability-become fast friends in a story Publisher's Weekly found 'choked with cliches and stereotypes.'" Amazon's recommended reading level? Ages 9-12.
Maybe in a few years we can teach high school students books meant for 7-year-olds! Those really simply told adaptations of superhero origin stories and popular movies, maybe! Maybe we can COMPLETELY ERADICATE their ability to read even the most remotely challenging literature forever!
You're referring to "Something for Joey," which I also had to read.
Honestly, it was a relief. At least that book isn't solely about someone's drudgerous misery, which most of the other books we read ("When the Legends Die," "Jacob Have I Loved") totally were.
'choked with cliches and stereotypes.'
Jesus. Somewhere, the author is contemplating a Drano cocktail.
Heart of Darkness. Combination of the high school reading list thing and the fact that Apocalypse Now made this seem like a much more powerful story than it actually is. Also, some of those sentences go on for fucking EVER. I don't need to have to stop and consciously sort clauses. That shit's just too damn tedious.
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Vineland almost killed me. How self-indulgent does one have to become to write a book where the plot just entangles more and more, becoming more and more ridiculous, and nothing is ever resolved? 500 pages of rising action.
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Try Mason & Dixon. Trust me.
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And YES, he DOES absolutely have some very gifted prose (c/f the passage about the Pacific Ocean in Lot 49.) He also has some quite fascinating ideas (W.A.S.T.E., etc., and the exposition of our assumptions about reality, therein, which figure heavily into my own thinking.) Notice that I didn't say he sucks, I just said that I think his fans' enthusiasm is excessive. When I finish one of his books (or even when I go back and re-read them), I'm always left with the feeling of "Am I supposed to pretend like I'm in on the joke, now ( ... )
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Ah...
I really hated Jacob Have I Loved, which I was forced to read in high school, but my utmost loathing is reserved for Atlas Shrugged, which I was TOLD was an IMPORTANT BOOK, rather than A TIGHTLY-PACKED MOUND OF BULLSHIT. Rand's style wouldn't be particularly odious if she didn't insist upon bending it towards the aggrandizement (if not outright deification) of capitalist industrial plutocrats and the slanderous condemnation of everyone else.
Reply
JHIL is absolutely the worst book I've ever had to endure. I likewise read it in highschool and hated it with a passion that I normally reserve for ubiquitous celebrities. It stoked my rage to levels that a book has never really been able to reach, since, but that's because I'm not in highschool, anymore, and I don't have to finish books if they blow. I wrote one scathing paper after another about it for Mrs. V., and she seemed quite miffed that I didn't sympathize with the series of boring and painful misadventures that the heroine undergoes on her way to womanhood.
The only reason I didn't list it is that nobody but Mrs. Vernon has ever tried to tell me it's good.
Reply
I'm sure she's nice. There's nothing personal about this at all. But (I'm pretty sure) she put an adaptation of a made-for-tv movie from the 70's on a high school reading list.
And has ordered "Freak the Mighty." For high schoolers. A description: "Two eighth-grade misfits-one physically impaired, the other with a learning disability-become fast friends in a story Publisher's Weekly found 'choked with cliches and stereotypes.'" Amazon's recommended reading level? Ages 9-12.
Maybe in a few years we can teach high school students books meant for 7-year-olds! Those really simply told adaptations of superhero origin stories and popular movies, maybe! Maybe we can COMPLETELY ERADICATE their ability to read even the most remotely challenging literature forever!
Reply
Honestly, it was a relief. At least that book isn't solely about someone's drudgerous misery, which most of the other books we read ("When the Legends Die," "Jacob Have I Loved") totally were.
'choked with cliches and stereotypes.'
Jesus. Somewhere, the author is contemplating a Drano cocktail.
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