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Fun Stuff => ENJOY => Topic started by: SirJuggles on 21 Sep 2010, 21:21
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I assume we all had those books. The ones you had to read in high school English because they were "classics" and it was important that you be familiar with them. The Great Gatsbys and Catchers In the Rye and Lords of the Flies. Most of the class just found the Cliff Notes and left it at that. After a few years, we graduated school and left the "classics" behind.
But I've always been an avid reader, and even in high school I enjoyed a few of these works. I was the only one in my class who loved The Great Gatsby, but we all got pretty involved with a more modern novel called The Power Of One. Lately I've been thinking that I'd like to go back and give some of these works another try, or actually read a few that my class never got around to. A Clockwork Orange seem like it could be really good, and my girlfriend sings the praises of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.
So what literary classics would you recommend? Which ones get a bad rap? Which ones are a crime to inflict on schoolchildren (I'm sorry but I can't stand most of Steinbeck's work)?
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East of Eden is one of the best books ever written
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See from Steinbeck we read Of Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath, and The Pearl. Of Mice and Men was passable, but our teacher forced us to over-analyze Pearl and Grapes to the point where I never want to hear another loving description of the wind blowing across the barren landscape for as long as I live.
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Read East of Eden, especially without the confines of a class-related reading environment. I read it in a week on a road trip and it's still one of my favorite books of all time.
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Will add it to the list.
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Frankenstein, seriously. The best Industrial Revolution allegory ever written.
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I absolutely love A Clockwork Orange. I used it for a book report once a year for each year I was in highschool, but I actually read it every time because I enjoyed it that much. Plus you pretty much have no idea what they're talking about the first time you read it so repeat readings are sort of necessary.
I also really liked Old Man and the Sea.
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My girlfriend also really recommends a sci-fi'ish novel called Childhood's End that she read at a more creative-studies based charter school, but I had personally never heard of it.
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Frankenstein, seriously. The best Industrial Revolution allegory ever written.
Also, Brave New World.
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Funny story, my dad gave me Brave New World to read when I was about 10. My mom was not happy when she found out.
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I dropped out of high school before we ever had any required reading beyond Where the Red Fern Grows. Always bugged me that I missed out on all the discussions of classics and the disseminating of them to the minutest detail. Then again maybe that ruined some of the books for people that would rather just be caught up in the moment of reading and not have it broken down. Either way I took it upon myself to "catch up" as much as possible and some of my favorites are Animal Farm, Brave New World, The Jungle, Fahrenheit 451, A Farewell to Arms and of course On the Road is my all time favorite.
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Catch 22 is unflinchingly brilliant.
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(http://noisnois.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Fear-and-loathing.jpg)
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Frankenstein is a snooze, sorry to say. Moby Dick is easily one of the best things ever written in English. Along with Paradise Lost, that is. As for those fur'ners, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is absurdly masterful.
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I had to read The Stranger, Cat's Cradle, Brave New World, and Frankenstein among others my senior year.
That was a good year for english, I'd recommend all of those, but especially the Stranger and Cat's Cradle. Like, cannot recommend them strongly enough.
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Catch 22 is unflinchingly brilliant.
Agreed.
Anything from Mark Twain is worth reading.
The Dead by James Joyce is a short story and lags a little in the typical Joyce way, but once you hit the end the story all of a sudden becomes amazing.
Lolita is pretty excellent.
Confederacy of Dunces.
The Collector by John Fowles. It's not the best book, but it's worth a look.
As for crimes against humanity, Three Lives by Gertrude Stein. She may have been partially responsible for some of the greatest writers ever, but she could not write a decent story to save her life. She also once said that Hitler deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for his wanting to enact lebensraum.
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A lot of classic novels get a bad rap because people are made to read them in high school, and frankly there's some literature which you can't appreciate until you're a little older and a little more experienced in life. When I first read Thomas Hardy (the Return of the Native) for school when I was around 15 I hated it - partly in a genuine way, and partly because the accepted wisdom in the classroom was that "it sucks". It took me more than ten years to give Hardy another go: I picked up the Woodlanders in a bookshop just to give it the first page test and see if I'd changed my opinion since high school, and I was just floored by the quality of the writing. Even now it's impossible for me to read that first page (here it is (http://books.google.com.au/books?id=9MUHIHMoTzAC&lpg=PP1&dq=the%20woodlanders&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false)) and not be absolutely seduced.
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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a great read if you like mystery.
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See, the thing is, most books that are considered "classics" are that way because, for those who can attain a certain state of mind and get a grasp of the idiom (eg Elizabethan, Victorian, Modern, etc. English) these works are - really - good. Lots of things are worth reading that don't make it into the canon, but there aren't many things that do make it that don't deserve to at least be read, if not revered.
That said, Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground is riveting. I can't give you an informed opinion about the various translations of Russian literature, but Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have done an absolutely spectacular job with everything I've encountered of theirs so far.
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Frankenstein, seriously. The best Industrial Revolution allegory ever written.
Also, Brave New World.
1984 while we're at it.
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Get thee a 'classic short stories' book or something.
Read The Stranger or The Plague.
I also really like most things I've read by Hemmingway. Be prepared for shock sad endings though.
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I read To Kill a Mockingbird at least once a year, but one of my absolute favourite classic novels is Jane Eyre. It often seems to be brushed over and called boring, but I find it so completely and utterly heartwrenching that I read it whenever I need a good cry.
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See back in middle school we would read from these giant Literature books that were basically huge compendiums of short stories, and some of the stuff in them was absolute gold. We had to read A Sound Of Thunder about 5 times over the years, but there was one called The Cold Equations that I always would flip back to.
I felt that most of the "numbered" novels were pretty good. Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Catch 22. And I was one of the few people who really got into Thomas Hardy's stuff. At one point we had an individual choice on what book we wanted to read next from the list the teacher gave us, and I went with The Mayor Of Casterbridge. His stuff is doubly good because you can pretty safely assumed that everyone's gonna get fucked in the end.
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Also: jumping on the Moby Dick bandwagon, and throwing in Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar on fifth for good measure.
Seconded although in High School I had to read Hamlet and Othello. Those two are (Aristotelian) tragedies because supposedly great men fall victim to their own emotional vices, i.e. jealousy and excessive introspection. Highschool behaviour really.
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Shakespeare does not make for classic reading, particularly in high school. It should be seen on stage, as is its proper and superior place.
That said, I'm looking forward to finally digging into Crime and Punishment (I had a paperback copy that fell apart when I was halfway through, and I've only just now gotten a new copy).
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FFFFF
I'm the process of tearing apart Crime and Punishment. As far as personal preference, I loved Flowers for Algernon.
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I'd like to second Moby Dick. I also enjoyed Crime and Punishment a lot (actualy everything by Dostoevsky that I've read), and while we're talking about Russian literature: War and Peace, if you can spare the time.
I also would like to add Goethe's Sorrows of young Werther to the list.
Also Hemmingway, Dickens, Wilde, yadda yadda...
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To Kill a Mockingbird is essential, Catch-22 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest I both deeply love.
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does The Hobbit count? if so by far better than anything else Tolkien ever wrote.
on the subject of Shakespeare, Macbeth, Mid-Summer night's dream, and Romeo and Juliet are all good, Othello was good too, but I couldnt get into Hamlet.
Moby Dick is something I always wanted to read but never had. Same with Three Musketeers and all of the Iliad and the Odyssey only read snippets and or retellings of them but never the actual stories themselves.
To kill a mocking bird was genius
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Oh yeah, Three Musketeers is pretty good, too. Worth reading in any case.
I think The Hobbit counts. It's a good book either way.
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is H.P. Lovecraft considered classic? Because it's certainly old.
If it is, I recommend everything by Lovecraft.
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on the subject of Shakespeare, Macbeth, Mid-Summer night's dream, and Romeo and Juliet are all good, Othello was good too, but I couldnt get into Hamlet.
Romeo and Juliet I dislike quite a lot unless you read it as a comedy. Then it's fantastic.
Taming of the Shrew is a personal favorite as far as Shakespeare goes.
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Shakespeare does not make for classic reading, particularly in high school. It should be seen on stage, as is its proper and superior place.
I think they're more for the characters than anything else.
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We actually did Cyrano de Bergerac as a bit of a counterpoint to Shakespeare, and I personally found it much more accessible and enjoyable. And while we're on plays, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was incredibly good.
I really wish schools would do more stuff like Lovecraft and Tolkien. I found out that the AP Reading List actually has some Orson Scott Card on it, but I could never convince our teacher to do a unit on Ender's Game.
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guess im the only one who hated moby dick. Old Man and the Sea was by far better. Moby Dick just went on and on about whaling, ships, every piece on a ship, types of whales, every piece of a whale, types of dolphins etc, etc. until finally oh yeah lets actually try to kill the whale.
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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
You and me are fight.
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on the subject of Shakespeare, Macbeth, Mid-Summer night's dream, and Romeo and Juliet are all good, Othello was good too, but I couldnt get into Hamlet.
Romeo and Juliet I dislike quite a lot unless you read it as a comedy. Then it's fantastic.
Taming of the Shrew is a personal favorite as far as Shakespeare goes.
yeah we read R&J as a comedy. Always wanted to read taming of the shrew.
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How about cult classics? Stuff like Henry Miller's Tropic of Capricorn and Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Two of my favourite novels of all time. Generally, however, I'll always hail the Russians as the greats of classic literature. I'm taking a course on Tolstoy right now at school, and one on Nabokov next semester - currently trying to make it through War and Peace. Book is so long, but I feel like it will be worth it.
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is H.P. Lovecraft considered classic? Because it's certainly old.
If it is, I recommend everything by Lovecraft.
Well, not so much "classic literature," as it is "classic horror." Close enough, though.
Also, Gravity's Rainbow. Haha, just kidding.
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yeah we read R&J as a comedy.
Baz Luhrmann did not help.
Also, I remember being hooked on The Lost World and White Fang when I was a kid.
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currently trying to make it through War and Peace. Book is so long, but I feel like it will be worth it.
Next you should give Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman a go, if you can face up to another Russian epic. It's sort of a 20th-century World War II version of War and Peace.
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I got War and Peace for my bday and I've got a few books in line before it but I'm a little excited to start it. I know it's a slog, but fuck. That's what winter's for.
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All Quiet on the Western Front - the book is phenominal
The Hobbit - Still my favourite book of all time
Henry V, MacBeth - amoungst the plays of Bill that can be read and are still compelling, better seen performed, but they still make interesting reads, and even better when you realize what a revisionist Shakespeare was
I hated Shakespeare in school, and I blame it all on the curriculum's need to have students analyse the symbolic significance of every third flippin' word and most teacher's complete refusal to either show a film of the play or the play itself, so that the students could see them for what they were - the mass public entertainment of the day. It wasn't until I saw Ken Brannagh's Henry V while waiting for Highlander to start at a double feature in university that I realized that Shakespeare might be interesting. If teenagers had to study sex like they do Shakespeare the human race would die out.
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You and me are fight.
Ozy how can you not love Joyce
maybe he just likes Ulysses better
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All Quiet on the Western Front - the book is phenominal
Shit, how could I forget that?
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is H.P. Lovecraft considered classic? Because it's certainly old.
If it is, I recommend everything by Lovecraft.
Well, not so much "classic literature," as it is "classic horror." Close enough, though.
Also, Gravity's Rainbow. Haha, just kidding.
oh god, I'm trying to read Gravity's Rainbow right now and it is extremely slow going. It's so hard to follow, sometimes I have to read whole pages again just to remember what character is being dealt with.
I almost never give up on a book, but I'm seroiusly considering it with this one.
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I felt that way about Ulysses, though I feel bad because I know it's supposed to be an amazing read :|
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it is oh my god it is
you may need to use sparknotes or something similar to know what the hell is going on sometimes though
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The Most Dangerous Game was and still is a favorite. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It wasn't required reading, but as a child I read Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn - just because I wanted to. I have fond memories of both.
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The point of a book is to be read and enjoyed. Joyce is not enjoyable to read. He is only enjoyable to learn about completely irrelevant shit outside of reading the book then come back to the book and rub your dick on it.
Which, not coincidentally, is something I'm sure he did on the regular.
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Is Kurt Vonnegut's stuff old enough to be considered "classic", as such? Because to me every single bit of hyperbole about the guy is absolutely deserved.
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yeah, honestly S5 is good but i like breakfast of champions and bluebeard a lot more
and to tell the truth i like his short story collection welcome to the monkey house better than any of his novels.
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I've only read God Bless You, Mr Rosewater and Cat's Cradle (and Palm Sunday) but holy god-damn
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Shakespeare does not make for classic reading, particularly in high school. It should be seen on stage, as is its proper and superior place.
come now, we all know that the superior place to see shakespeare is in a kurosawa adaptation
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Shakespeare does not make for classic reading, particularly in high school. It should be seen on stage, as is its proper and superior place.
come now, we all know that the superior place to see shakespeare is in a kurosawa adaptation
truth, throne of blood was excellent!
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(http://images.greencine.com/images/article/kurosawa-throne.jpg)
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I seriously want that on DVD! but its hard to find and expensive when you do find it...unless you get it used...but then its covered in Kawaii spooge (j/k)
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yesss finally a thread where I get to talk about one of my favorite books and one of my favorite movies
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I was thinking more of
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y66/Spluff/ran02.jpg)
but that works too
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yeah I guess Ran was pretty good too
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currently trying to make it through War and Peace. Book is so long, but I feel like it will be worth it.
Next you should give Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman a go, if you can face up to another Russian epic. It's sort of a 20th-century World War II version of War and Peace.
That sounds fucking awesome, actually. I really want to read an Andrei Platonov novel, ever since I read short stories of his in one of my classes last year, so if anyone can lead me in the right direction, it'd be much appreciated.
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Ugetsu directed by Kenji Mizoguchi is a really good movie and a classic and is based off of japanese folk tales from back in the warring states period, had to watch it for a class and it was surprisingly good. kind of like pulp fiction except with peasants in japan in the late 1400s early 1500s.
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oh god, I'm trying to read Gravity's Rainbow right now and it is extremely slow going. It's so hard to follow, sometimes I have to read whole pages again just to remember what character is being dealt with.
I almost never give up on a book, but I'm seroiusly considering it with this one.
Mason & Dixon is the only long Pynchon novel I've gotten through on the first try. I think that's 'cause 1) you mostly only have to keep track of the two titular characters and 2) it's fucking hilarious. It has Ben Franklin acting like a rock star (complete with groupies), George Washington offering the boys a joint, Popeye the Sailor residing in a wilderness tavern, frequent and excessive visits to coffee houses, etc., etc., etc.
(http://images.greencine.com/images/article/kurosawa-throne.jpg)
OH FUCK YES.