What are some famous “things”–be they songs, movies, TV shows, paintings, books, anything, that are wildly regarded as classics that you just don’t see the appeal of?
I fail to understand why “Romeo and Juliet” is considered “the” Shakspeare play. Perhaps not among serious scholars, but I don’t know why it’s the most famous or most spoken-of of his plays. (I’m not sure whether “Wherefore art thou, Romeo?” or Hamlet’s “To be or not to be…” soliloquy is more frequently quoted out there.) It’s not even that great a love story: “I’m sixteen years old, and I’m gonna run away and get married to some girl I just met at a party solely because I think she’s pretty!” When we had to slog through this play for the who-knows-how-manyith time in one of my AP English classes in high school, we begged–begged the teacher to let us read something interesting. I think he took sympathy with us, because he took us to a roaring good theater production of Much Ado About Nothing afterwards, and we budding English geeks all adored that.
I think The Merchant of Venice will always be my favorite Shakespeare play. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a good close second, though.
On a more lighthearted note: I love Queen, but I find BoRhap to be a touch on the overrated side. I once heard a version of BoRhap done by a string quartet–MAN, that was weird. :dubious:
I’ve always suspected that Pink Floyd retains its popularity not so much for the music itself but for the nostalgia and the feelings the people who listen/listened to Pink Floyd associate it with.
Can I say all of poetry? I just don’t get the point. It might be because I’m personally not very creative, but I don’t think I’ve ever been ‘moved’ by poetry. If you are talking about a flower, say “a flower”, not some metaphorical love lost on endless seas wrapped in an enigma… see, I can’t even make up a fake poetic reference for a flower. That’s how much I don’t get it.
Nitpick: the line is “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”, and the lack of a comma is crucial: she’s not questioning his current location, she’s bemoaning that he’s a Montague and she’s a Capulet and that they are thus divided, and goes on to ask “What’s in a name?”.
I am corrected. Sadly, as but a guest, I cannot edit! I bow to your superior Shakspearian knowledge, however. I like the Bard, but I have not the brain to commit all his minutae such as that to my head.
However, I was told by my English teacher many moons ago that my “modern update” of Mercutio’s rant about the Faeries, with Miss Cleo in place of the mythical creatures, was hilarious and dead-on. Strangely enough, without any conference between us, one of my fellow students changed the exact same scene in the exact same way… :dubious:
I don’t really “get” poetry either. Maybe I just haven’t read enough of it, but it doesn’t do much for me.
Please don’t kick me off the board for admitting this: I thought The Godfather was one of the most boring movies I’ve ever had the displeasure of sitting through. I read the book and liked it, but I found the movie dull and cheesy.
Yeah, most of poetry is lost on me, as well, I’m afraid. I love words, and I love reading them and the “poetry” of a good line of prose leaves me smiling, but indent both sides and make the lines end at random places and I’m bored now.
I don’t see what’s so great about Starry Night, by VanGogh. Now, this may be because I’ve never seen the real thing and there’s some awesome magic in the painting itself. I hope so. Because that reproduction makes me think of some of my son’s grade school art projects. It’s nice and all, and if my kid *had *done it, it would totally get framed and hung on my wall, but I don’t understand the enduring greatness or mass appeal of it.
I love things that were inarguably directly influenced by Van Vilet, like Tom Waits and Pere Ubu, but Captain Beefheart records lack the Brechtian junkyard atmosphere of Waits and the sci-fi groove of Pere Ubu. All that’s left is what sounds like a homeless guy screaming over aimless free-form dicking around.
I think with a lot of famous art you have to see it in person. Van Gogh never impressed me (my opinion pretty much agreed with yours) until I saw an exhibit of his paintings in DC. His painting were mersmerizing in a way a print just can’t capture. Even his lesser works sparked. I finally understood why he’s considered one of the greats.
Thanks! I will keep the floodgates of my mind open and make it a point to see it (them) in person before I render final judgment. I did suspect it might be something like that.
And, likewise, I think the OP’s trials with R&J might have been less had he seen it as a play instead of reading it like a novel. Shakespeare didn’t write novels, he wrote plays, dammit! And they should be experienced like plays! But I prefer Much Ado About Nothing, as well. It’s just fun. Fun fun fun, and very little dramatics except for a few great scenery chewing scenes; “Oh if I were a man. I would eat his heart in the market place!”
Yes-I went to the Van Gogh/Gaugin exhibit a few years ago at the Art Institute and Starry Nights blew me away. I have never gotten the chills from a work of art before. Wonderful.
My list of meh includes:
The Elgin marbles-maybe if they were in their original setting
any and all Faulkner works
ditto Joyce
Andy Warhol-nice gimmick, where’s the genuis?
opera. Sorry, but there it is. Some of the music is wonderful, but since I don’t know what their singing (foreign language), plus I can’t understand their diction, all I have is lavish costumes and music.
american idol-what is it about that show that makes people ga-ga?
nouvelle cuisine-lot of money for pompous food.
Saw it as a play, too. (Against myself, it was a video recording of a play and not a live performance.) I still feel it’s one of the more lackluster Shakespeare plays. You’re very right, though, about too many English teachers presenting Shakespeare’s works as novels and not plays. Thankfully, I did once have a teacher who “got” it and always made sure we saw or heard some performance of the plays we read. Same teach who got me to love Venice, incidentally. How was the recently-released (well, relatively recently) movie version of that? Any good?
