By classic I mean those books we read in grade through high school, some you were forced to read, others you chose. And because my head is still full of snot and phlegm and mucous and detached membranous shit these reviews will reflect that. The operative word today is "shit."
Silas Marner-George Eliot
You're kidding, right? I remember reading it and then when trying to reread it recently I thought "Why?" and then it came back to me that teachers had to forge within us the ability to discover and describe symbolism and themes and shit where none existed or mattered, before we got onto fun books like Gone with the Wind.
The Great Gatsby-F. Scott F.
Proto-screenplay written by the Jay Mcinerney of his day. Pass me the debauchery and go play with your friend's girlfriend.
Tess of the D'Urbervilles-Thomas Hardy
Cover my face in chloroform and kill me now. Or hit me with a brick to keep me awake. Go read the toilet paper roll; it's funner.
War and Peace-Tolstoy
Who knows; I never finished it and never will.
Moby Dick-Melville
Rinse and repeat from above.
The Pellucidar Series-Edgar Rice Burroughs
Awesome! Stupid and simplistic and fantastically fabulous! Better than Tarzan. Holy shit.
The Barsoom Series-Burroughs
I haven't gotten to it yet, but I keep hearing "The Bazooms Series" in my head.
Last Exit to Brooklyn-Hubert Selby, Jr
I had to google his name since I'd blessedly put it out of my head. I tried to reread it a couple of years ago. Originally read it in high school or early college or some such time and thought how existentially enlightened and thrilled I was to be reading a book about a bunch of...scum-ridden junkies. And how I got to get a peak into their nihilistic world view and bleak lives. Then I screamed, got a glass of wine and thought, "Shit. I can look at the upstairs bedrooms and reminisce about the kids' high school days and how I would forage for scary objects that used to be food or something and look into the bathrooms and projectile vomit at the quagmires, so why would I read an entire book bringing that all back?" (Minus the actual junkie part)
Orwell
Anything. What a little pissant.
Camus
Anything. What a little frog pissant. Fou et plein de merde. And boring. Jeez, if you're going to be fou and plein de merde, don't be boring.
That's enough for now. I need to play Words with Friends. Now THAT'S literachuh.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
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So. . . I didn't miss a thing by not going to college, did I?
ReplyDeletePretty much not. Unless you count the painful frat functions.
ReplyDeleteBut I cannot believe you missed Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye"!
ReplyDeleteOMG the most awesome reviews evah!!! I shall send all youngsters who must read this tripe in your general direction. At least then they can giggle during the painful ordeal of having to read this drivel.
ReplyDeleteJerr!!! That would be number one on my list. Apparently it just melted completely out of my brain. What a loada. I reread it, too, a few years back and thought "That's what all the hoopla was about?"
ReplyDeleteThis may be a double post. Jerry! I can't believe I forgot that. Reread it, too, a few years back and thought, "Huh? Hoopla? Why?"
ReplyDeleteDouble reply double reply
ReplyDeleteI re-read Moby Dick about six years ago and (gasp!!!) actually liked it.
ReplyDeleteOther "classic" literature? Definitely hit or miss. Feh.
Oh no! Does this mean I need to actually try to reread it again?!? Oh, all right.
ReplyDeleteExcellent.
ReplyDeleteAnd if Words With Friends is anything like Lexulous, it's literachuh using words that don't actually exist in the wild.
Murr, pretty much. Some words that are just lovely wonderful never-heard-of-words and others, from Scrabble, they don't take. Oh well. I like making shit up.
ReplyDeleteI hated Tolstoy AFTER I read the novel. Not because of the length, no - purely on merit. I disagree with most of his views - and I wasn't afraid to say that out loud in 9th grade. Lecherous old misogynist didactic bastard. I was lucky my litrechah teacher was new college graduate and blushed easily, she wanted to hold on to her job - so she avoided loud discussions and begged me -yes, begged me and even my mom (on PSA day) do not start philosophical discussion in class. She confessed to my mom that she shudders internally when I raise my hand. Hehe.
ReplyDeleteAnyway - War&Peace gave me one wrong idea I had difficulty to come out of: after reading all that footnoted translation by the end of the novel I imagined I knew French!
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