Embarrassing literary confessions.

Celestial Dung · Post by **Celestial Dung** » Thu Jun 05, 2003 2:08 pm

1. My most embrassing of confessions...I havn'et been inside a public library for over two years. No seriously I have this habit of buying the books I want to read. And what with this wonderful little haven town of used book stores the temptations get easier. So I have this hoarde of books in my apartment, more then enough to read, but I still don't have a Knoxville Library Card.

2. I've never read Moby Dick straight through. Why can't Melville ever stick to the Ahab, Ishmael, and the whale? I can understand the psychological asides but why in the bloody hell must I know the detail to ever single aspect of boating? It's like the beginning when he lists all these quotes about whales. and I'm screaming...Yes yes but get to the white whale do you mind? I've read about the pride issues, man against god/nature issues. It all sounds so very interesting until I actually try to read the bloody thing.

3. I've never had the courage to pick up a Jane Austin novel. Blame it on High School American lit. We watched a "Pride and Prejudice" movie without reading the book. Yeah bizzare I know but please keep in mind that this is Cocke County High School ok? I watched and was totally repulsed. Ok she loves him he loves her but they are both too emanmoused with their own pride to admit it? I wasn't too enthused to be honest. I have heard that she had a way clear writing style so at the moment I am considering remedying my Austin phobia.

http://elf.chaoscafe.com/austen/pride/index.html

4. Romantic Poetry. I love the Romantic era, it's fictional literature, and the ideals it presented but it's poetry is just too dry for me. The only work by Shelly I like is the poem Ozymandias. Byron I gave up on. Wordsworth is just too into nature. Coleridge had me hooked with Kubla Khan but I quit cold turkey trying to muddle through Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

If you could take Romantic values and mix it in with "modern" poetry (Elliot, cummings, Pound, Whitman, Dickinson ) you would probably have something. The Beats I suppose.

5. Still haven't read any of the Harry Potter books. Fantasist me should now hold my head down in shame.

Ok don't leave me feeling guilty in solitude, fess up!

Lost Traveler · Post by **Lost Traveler** » Thu Jun 05, 2003 2:56 pm

1. Ive read very few of the classics, I can only smile when people referance Lord of the Flies, Moby dick (i saw the movie..well most of it), The cantabery tales, Dantes Inferno, etc etc.

2. I want to read the harry potter books. :ohmy:

3. I also dont have a library card for here and ive been here 7 yrs.( i do have one for San Antonio)

4. The only Poetry books I have are Ribau (spell) and an italian guy who i wont even try to spell (lenord Cohen covers his poem Little Wien Waltz)

5. I stopped reading for 5 yrs because of the Coan show and EQ :cry:

SeeingI · Post by **SeeingI** » Sun Jun 08, 2003 3:11 pm

Moby Dick and Frankenstein both fall into the category I like to call "Worst Best." These are classics that have become literary canon & cultural benchmarks, but which are not actually very good. In both cases, the IDEAS of both books are great, but the actual execution is terrible. Thus, film versions, rewrites, parodies, etc proliferate, and though everyone knows who Frankenstein and Captain Ahab are, very few people have actually read the books.

Odd, no?

The Fallen · Post by **The Fallen** » Sun Jun 08, 2003 10:11 pm

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner actually isnt that hard to muddle through and is quite interesting. Of course having Iron Maiden do a song based off the poem sparked my interest, and the Opera IX cover of that really kicks. When classic literature is turned into music its quite interesting to see how the artist portrays the emotions and feelings (as limited to ones music genre) like Rush's version of Xanadu or even the CATS musical. Applying audio and visual mediums from print is something I always tend to look at with an appreciating eye.

JaNell · Post by **JaNell** » Mon Jun 09, 2003 6:03 pm

Today, in the thrift store, I almost bought a copy of Alexandra Ripley's Scarlett, the follow-up to Mitchell's Gone With The Wind.

Exquisite Mystery · Post by **Exquisite Mystery** » Tue Jun 10, 2003 12:53 am

JaNell wrote:Today, in the thrift store, I almost bought a copy of Alexandra Ripley's Scarlett, the follow-up to Mitchell's Gone With The Wind.

What's worse? ..... I own it.

Celestial Dung · Post by **Celestial Dung** » Tue Jun 10, 2003 1:12 pm

Go figure I liked Frankenstein. I read it when I was twelve or thriteen and was totally into it. I loved the early section where it displays Victor's love of knowledge. It has a slow middle to be sure but otherewise I'm into it. Plus I find it's treatment of creator vs. creation much deeper then the movie version. Substitute god for Victor, humans for the creature, and watch what happens.

i just gave Rime of the Ancient Marine another chance. Still can't get into it. It's not that it's a hard read, it's just a few slow one. Never trust a story that begins at a wedding.

iblis · Post by **iblis** » Tue Jun 10, 2003 2:22 pm

1. I am not at this time reading anything.
2. I do not foresee this changing in the near future.

That is all. :-x

martini · Post by **martini** » Thu Jun 12, 2003 10:01 am

True confessions:

1. I can't stand Cormac McCarthy's writing. Same goes for James Agee.

2. I have read every book Lois McMaster Bujold has ever written.

3. In high school, I only read the Cliffs Notes for The Scarlett Letter.

Oh, I'm so ashamed.

Lost Traveler · Post by **Lost Traveler** » Sat Jun 14, 2003 1:01 am

Ohhh wow sinse i was Damned to a SE school in the 5thgrade I dont even understand your reffs :shock:

.....Ok i do get teh scarlet letter reff.