# You had to read/see it, it was a classic! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 13, 2005, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083 "2005-04-13T04:25:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/81 "2005-04-14T21:55:20Z")
Yeah, but did it turn you into an architect? ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/82 "2005-04-14T23:34:37Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Nobody has. I’m fairly certain that **erislover** did read the book w/in the book and expressed disbelief that I a) didn’t read it and 2) didn’t read it because I couldn’t. But then he’s weird like that 😛 ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/83 "2005-04-14T23:50:15Z")
Heck yeah, the BiB was one of the best parts of **1984** to me. Well, that and the very first page… (because you know: soon I will get to read the book! 😃 ). It puts the whole thing in context. Without the BiB I can’t see how 1984 even rates on anyone’s list of things to read. I tell you, considering Winston versus Julia, you can totally get a feeling for people on that book. 'Cause, you know, Julia couldn’t stand it, either. 😉 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/84 "2005-04-15T06:12:20Z")
> [@vetbridge](#): > > I stopped watching after about 20 minutes. Everyone else I know loved the movie. **Hated** The Royal Tennenbaums. What was Gene Hackman thinking? ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/85 "2005-04-15T06:25:07Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > \*\*Blade Runner. \*\* > > I’ve watched it through twice, the directors cut both times. It’s okay, but for some reason I can’t get into it. I loved this movie. I’m curious, what didn’t you like about it? ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/86 "2005-04-15T06:44:57Z")
I was forced to read all these in high school and college, and others I’ve since forgotten. I hated: Dante’s Inferno (who cares?) Heart of Darkness (kill me now) Beowulf (I am not bilingual) Ulysses (hu?) I enjoyed: Crime and Punishment Huckleberry Finn I loved: An American Slave 1984 Catcher in the Rye ---
**Author:** ![brownie55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f14d63/32.png) [@brownie55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownie55)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/87 "2005-04-15T14:11:10Z")
Since I have not seen either of these mentioned: In the movie category: Saving Private Ryan, After the landing it turns into your typical Hanksian crap of overemoted dreck. And for books: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, what could have possible been the deal with that? ---
**Author:** ![CapnPitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@CapnPitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CapnPitt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/88 "2005-04-15T16:30:09Z")
> [@brownie55](#): > > In the movie category: Saving Private Ryan, After the landing it turns into your typical Hanksian crap of overemoted dreck. I have to rethink that movie now. I think I’ll still like it. However, with your permission **brownie55** , I’d like to use the phrase “typical Hanksian crap of overemoted dreck” as often as possible. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/89 "2005-04-17T06:33:41Z")
> [@Not A Tame Lion](#): > > I recently got rooked into reading L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle In Time,” because it’s a “classic” of children’s literature. (Newbery medal winner and all that). What a pile of pigshit. The writing was atrocious, even by the standards of 40 years ago (when it was first published). Of course, if you really dig books that are written almost entirely in passive voice and tell really lame thinly-veiled religious allegories, then it’s just the book for you. I _loved_ Wrinkle when I was 13 and I still re-read it every so often. It is a little weaker than her subsequent books in the same series, though. ---
**Author:** ![Coulbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Coulbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coulbean)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/90 "2005-04-17T08:09:06Z")
I pretty well liked all the books I had to read and have read many classics on my own time. However, I will say that I didn’t really like **The Time Machine**. My step-dad’s told me to read \*\*Great Expectations \*\* when I was about 13. I got through about 20 pages and haven’t picked it up since. I never really liked reading plays, I’d much rather see them performed. I had to watch **The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly** in my college film class. I despise that movie more strongly than anything else I’ve ever watched. I’ll never forgive myself for actually watching the whole thing because I felt obligated to. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/91 "2005-04-17T11:41:40Z")
I had to read Lord of the Flies in high school (twice if memory serves). Ugh. I can see how it would be part of a high school English class curriculum; the teacher basically just has to assign the reading and then point at a copy of the book and say, “Look! Themes and symbolism!”. I can see how it’s a useful teaching tool that way. Too bad the book isn’t very thought-provoking. Yeah, yeah, thin veneer of civilization; whatever. The only reason I’m glad I read it is that once during meandering yet high-energy discussion, somebody cited this book; I simply scoffed and said, “I disagree with Lord of the Flies!” and continued making my point without missing a beat. It was a great moment. I’ve watched several Kubrick films, each time hoping to be blown away. Dr. Strangelove is pretty good, but The Shining, 2001, Full Metal Jacket, and A Clockwork Orange were just plain boring. I do have high hopes for Lolita, though, based on exerpts I’ve seen as part of Film History class. ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/92 "2005-04-18T18:32:43Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > \*\*Blade Runner. \*\* > > I’ve watched it through twice, the directors cut both times. It’s okay, but for some reason I can’t get into it. You could always try the other version. I actually quite enjoyed Harrison Ford’s cheesy Sam Spade voice-overs explaining the plot… without them, I have no idea what I’d have made of the movie. I like watching the directors’ cut now because, y’know, everybody else does and I already dig most of the point. But a cheesy voice-over or two never hurt anybody, and they’re nowhere near as badly done as many will have you believe. I think I just used the word “dig”. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/93 "2005-04-18T18:49:23Z")
> [@Coulbean](#): > > I had to watch **The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly** in my college film class. I despise that movie more strongly than anything else I’ve ever watched. I’ll never forgive myself for actually watching the whole thing because I felt obligated to. :mad: It’s long and parts of it are a bit slow, but the final, three-way shootout is one of the best scenes ever made. Starting with a wide shot and cycling through closer and closer shots, even giving each character a different type of holster so you can tell who’s who when the camera shows a hand hovering over a pistol. I need to see this again, but with a stopwatch. I lose track of time during that sequence and I don’t know if it’s 30 seconds or three minutes. And the music kicks ass. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/94 "2005-04-18T20:01:49Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > _Silas Marner_, _Red Badge of Courage_, _Cancer Ward_ > > I was reading _Atlas Shrugged_ my senior year. My English teacher took it away from me. I don’t think you realize what a wonderful, kind, compassionate woman your English teacher was. Good grief - what I wouldn’t give for someone to have told me to put “Atlas Shrugged” back on the library shelf instead of actually wading all the way through that…that…gah, there are no words. _mumbles_ There’s a bloody 40-page monologue on the evils of socialism, for Christ’s sake. Fourty…horrible…pages. And I did it all voluntarily. That’s why I am the way I am today. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/95 "2005-04-18T20:04:48Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > In French IV, we had to read **L’Etranger**. I thought it read like a flat rock skipping over a lake and, in the end, sinking to the bottom. I wanted to wash my brain out with soap. Yeah, I think that’s kind of how you’re _supposed_ to feel after reading it. Personally, I _hated_ reading Antigone in high school. In fact, I loathed the entire Oedipus Cycle. I saw a production of Antigone at American U. a couple months ago, though, and it was really quite something. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/96 "2005-04-18T20:06:46Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Nobody has. And nobody has ever read John Galt’s whole speech either in **Atlas Shrugged**. (Okay, maybe not nobody, but probably almost…) I did. I want an hour of my life back. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/97 "2005-04-18T20:07:34Z")
\*\*One Hundred Years of Solitude \*\* are what I’d rather endure than attempt to read that pile of crap again. Ditto **Steppenwolf**. Furthermore, I would like to add to the hatred for Henry James and Charles Dickens. If a sentence is more than, say, a page long, fuhgeddaboutit. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/98 "2005-04-18T20:29:00Z")
> [@Lisa-go-Blind](#): > > The worst book I ever had to read for school was Thomas Hardy’s **The Mayor of Casterbridge** in tenth grade. It was so contrived and so unrealistic. Every time the scene changed, Hardy would spend six pages describing the architecture. So _dull_, and filled with eye-rolling stupidity. I’ve never read any Hardy since, and I’m avoiding him. Ah, yes, Thomas Hardy. Hated 'im. There was a joke to the effect that he would spend the morning putting in a comma and the afternoon taking it back out. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/99 "2005-04-18T20:51:41Z")
I always thought William Burroughs’ \*Naked Lunch \* was vastly overrated. It’s like wading through a particularly nasty gutter: shallow and somewhat disgusting. (Yes, I know it’s supposed to be funny. It isn’t.) ---
**Author:** ![Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_A_Tame_Lion)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083/100 "2005-04-19T16:16:30Z")
> [@Dung Beetle](#): > > \*\*One Hundred Years of Solitude \*\* are what I’d rather endure than attempt to read that pile of crap again. Yeah, I got subjected to that one freshman year of college. “Countless Hours of Boredom” was my take on the title. Though I must confess, I always like the other play on the title I heard: “One Hundred Inches of Solid Tool.” The clever work of some anonymous wag. And LP’s dead on about _Naked Lunch._ I couldn’t get through it. I think I made it to the part where he mentions “Steely Dan” and then gave up. **matt\_mcl,** I stand by my previous slur. _Wrinkle_ is an atrociously written book. Everything in the book “seemed”: the wall seemed to disappear, the sky seemed this, the weird creature seemed that. Damn, woman, buy a thesaurus. And, even though the family was explicitly stated as American, she kept having them use Britishisms like “old chap” in the dialogue. That’s horrendous characterization. Worst book I’ve read in a long time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-had-to-read-see-it-it-was-a-classic/299083.md?page=6)