OP lists a random bunch of classic novels. Now enter a random series of posts, “Don’t read that book! I haaaaaaayted! It’s boooooring!” Not just “I hated it and it’s boring,” but “don’t read it. Throw it out. It’s useless. I didn’t understand it, was too impatient to bother with it, have the attention span of a four-year-old, don’t like reading anyway, so it’s a waste of time.” Culminating in a post which says, “thanks guys! I hate reading and now you’ve confirmed the notion that’s all a waste of time.”
So much for fighting ignorance. Why is there MPSIMS anyway? If this board is really about fighing ignorance, why indulge people with a forum to enable one another’s ignroance?
There’s a big difference between saying, “well, I didn’t enjoy _____,” and saying, “don’t read ____, it’s stupid and boring,” especially when ____ is a time-honored adventure story. Take some responsibility for being a lazy reader.
I don’t care for Wagner. Wagner is obviously appealing to people who know a lot more about music than me. I wouldn’t go into a thread on classical music and say, “don’t waste your time on Wagner.” I know, whatever my preferences, that Wagner isn’t a waste of time. I certainly wouldn’t dismiss, as some people do, and entire CENTURY of music based on my limited experience.
That thread is mostly people comparing notes as to which “classics” they enjoyed and which ones they found dull. I think you took the “thow it out” comments far too literally.
Besides, it’s in MPSIMS, f’chrissake. They’re in there talking about cute pet pictures, wierd-ass dreams, and the Dukes of Hazard.
So, let me get this right, you like the novels they do not like and that leads you to pit them? Or am I missing something? I counted 20 posts including the OP, one that even remotely fits into your pitting, someone said in his opinion to throw out such and such a book. Obviously you like the book, but not liking the book does not make you “ignorant” in makes you a person with there own tastes.
Well, reading “classics,” whatever that means. It was “Barely Adequates” contribution. A bunch of posters describe how classic book after classic book is “tortuous,” and then he thanks them for relieving him from the “guilt” of not enjoying them.
I don’t know I’ve ever read Paul Voehoeven. What difference does it make? There are classics I don’t enjoy. Henry James isn’t my favorite. But I try not to sound like an ignorant high-schooler when I state my preferences. “I never cared for James.” Fine. “James is teh suxx, he’s so booooring! It’s pure torture! Don’t even bother.” No.
But why not? If I’m asked my opinion, I’m certainly going to give it. If my opinion is “Don’t waste your time,” that’s what I’ll say. I’m certainly not going to recommend The Last of the Mohicans to anyone. (And neither will Mark Twain.) Someone else will have loved it, and will recommend it. Again, so what?
It was a joke, son. We had a now departed poster who was extremely emotionally invested in the idea that Paul Verhoeven’s movies were the finest art ever, and would brook no dissent.
The tone of the thread is like a bunch of whiney high school students. It was the tone that ignored me. It quickly gets one’s nerves to read book after book is “so boring, tortuous,” etc.
Like arguing with me on the Internet? I certainly feel I’ve got more out of reading Hawthorne than arguing with pretentious assholes like me on the Internet.
Well, sure, if you insist. But actually, I stumbled upon a copy of Steinbeck’s Winter of Our Discontent yesterday at a yard sale and I’m currently being reminded of why I enjoy his writing so much.
Of course, that leaves me open for others to screech “Steinbeck!! You’ve got to be kidding!” but if they do, I’m not going to open a Pit thread about it.
Am I allowed to think that a book is boring and torturous? Is it that I am just not allowed to think certain books are boring and torturous? Do you have a list of books that I must only give my undying praise to?
Note: Do not read this post. It’s worthless. Don’t spend your time on it.
“And how do you feel about Kipling?”
“I don’t know; I’ve never kipled.”
Seriously, dude, I don’t think anybody in that thread had this particular attitude, and I think you’re displacing your anger at those you may have encountered elsewhere who do have this attitude onto our poor Dopers in MPSIMS.
Seriously, though. I also loathed most of the 19th-C. English literature I had to read, with the exception of some of the Dickens and Pride and Prejudice. And I love Umberto Eco. I felt infinite jest was scintillating and worth each moment I spent looking up his purposefully erudite vocabulary strewn liberally over all 1,278 pages and throughout the footnotes which were, I’m not kidding, over 50 pages long. Does that mean I’m going to come in and thread-crap on someone for saying they liked Jane Eyre or Pynchon’s V.?
No! I recognize that Jane Eyre is not my improbably-coincidental-and-overwrought cup of tea, and that others like that, and I’m okay with that. Buy if it’s V. then yes, I’ll thread-crap. Nobody should have to deal with that tripe. If they want to read it, more power to them, but they’ll get fair warning from me:
Future Pynchon Readers: if you get to the fifth or sixth chapter of V. and think, “This stinks, but I should read to the end juuuuuust to make sure I’m not missing anything,” I’d like you think back on today, when you were warned that you’re not, in fact, missing anything. Put the book aside and go get something you’ll like. If you don’t, you’ll just end up angry at him.
