"Classic" Literature that you hated?
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A Tale of Two Cities can eat my ballsack any day of the week. That was the most brain-scraping read of my life as a child.
Blade Runner is close to, if not my favorite movie. So I figured I'd read the novel that inspired it - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - I hate that book. I hate it so much. It's just random and stupid. I have no idea such a worthless piece of trash inspired such an awesome movie, but I'm glad it did. I just prefer not to think of the source material when I watch the movie anymore.
Edit - Oh my, I don't know if Phillip K. Dick is considered "classic" - in that case I'd like to say everything by Franz Kafka instead. He had one interesting story (the crazy tattoo torture machine) the rest was utterly pointless.
Also, if Kafka doesn't fit, then I don't know what I would pick next.
Edit - Oh my, I don't know if Phillip K. Dick is considered "classic" - in that case I'd like to say everything by Franz Kafka instead. He had one interesting story (the crazy tattoo torture machine) the rest was utterly pointless.
Also, if Kafka doesn't fit, then I don't know what I would pick next.
monkeyonnos said:
God, why does EVERYTHING have to be happy or have a happy ending? A lot of things work better with a downer or mixed ending.
Okay so the one that I absolutely hated was Animal Farm. (I don't believe it was classical literature but my teacher in high school swore it was) It was supposed to be some great retelling of the events leading to and during Stalin's regime. I found it to be horrible, upsetting, and if I had to read anymore I would set both it and my teacher on fire.
I also hated Romeo and Juliet because it was just a bunch of hormonal teens who did not work out there family issues and killed themselves. This and Macbeth both for a long long time put me off of Shakespeare's work. Then when they made us go looking into this man's history I was like okay that explains why these books suck.
I also hated Romeo and Juliet because it was just a bunch of hormonal teens who did not work out there family issues and killed themselves. This and Macbeth both for a long long time put me off of Shakespeare's work. Then when they made us go looking into this man's history I was like okay that explains why these books suck.
Fun fact about Shakespeare - in his own day, he was basically Joss Whedon, the pop-culture obsessed geek who had a thing for strong female protagonists.dangitall said:
Another fun fact - the reason we still have most of Shakespeare's works and not many of his contemporaries is because King James was a huge Shakespeare fanboy and had people make him copies of Shakespeare's scripts to read.
The Lesson: Today's Pop Culture is next centuries "Classic Literature". People writing pretentious "literature" today aren't the people who will be remembered two hundred years from now. No, the people who will be remembered two centuries from now are the pop-culture obsessed geeks like Joss Whedon. ^^ And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Edit:
OT: Oh, and I hate pretty much anything by Hemingway. Jacqueline Carey (in her novel Santa Olivia) proved that she could do everything Hemingway could do, but better, and include Lucha libre and secret government Super Soldiers.
Gosh, where to start!!
Lord of the Flies- First few pages, and I couldn't stand it.
The Scarlet Letter- FIRST PAGE I stopped. "TO PUNISH YOU, YOU HAVE TO STAND THERE WITH A HUGE A ON YOUR CHEST AND HOLD YOUR BAAAABYYYYY" "OH NOES!!"
Tale of Two cities- I had to heave through that monstrosity because of school and I still don't get it.
Huckleberry Fin- I never read it, but we were reading it in school, so I kinda understand the premise.
Moby Dick- Thank god for cliff notes.
On the flip side, I do enjoy Shakespeare.
Lord of the Flies- First few pages, and I couldn't stand it.
The Scarlet Letter- FIRST PAGE I stopped. "TO PUNISH YOU, YOU HAVE TO STAND THERE WITH A HUGE A ON YOUR CHEST AND HOLD YOUR BAAAABYYYYY" "OH NOES!!"
Tale of Two cities- I had to heave through that monstrosity because of school and I still don't get it.
Huckleberry Fin- I never read it, but we were reading it in school, so I kinda understand the premise.
Moby Dick- Thank god for cliff notes.
On the flip side, I do enjoy Shakespeare.
God how I hated reading that, and the ending was like a kick to the face. All that for nothing, thanks book!lobo_ace777 said:
OT: Pride and Prejudice mainly. There are a few others that I hated reading and would never touch again, but that one earns my ire.
EDIT: But Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was awesome and should be the only way to read that book.
Great Gatsby can go fuck itself with a rake. Boring boring boring POINTLESS book.
'I've never SEEN such beautiful shirts!'
Also, Ulysses. I like detail and all but when the author decides to inform us on Leopold Bloom's bowel movements it becomes pretty tedious bloody quickly.
'I've never SEEN such beautiful shirts!'
Also, Ulysses. I like detail and all but when the author decides to inform us on Leopold Bloom's bowel movements it becomes pretty tedious bloody quickly.
I like both, but they are nowhere near being the same story. All the religious and social aspects are pretty much stripped out of the movie. And while I like Ford, he doesn't do the character justice. His Deckard is an extremely one-dimensional action hero. I'll take Dick's social satire and insight over Hollywood any day.janerowdy said:
Ehm how many haw read August Strindberg's "Red Room" ... "War and Peace" by L. Tolstoy was not what you could call fun, Shakespeare ugh... Moby Dick.. don't think I finished that. And yea my teachers loved making me read really boring books...
Well I try to forget all "classics" that I've read, no way anyone is going to come to me and want to discuss classic literature (and not expect the classic "shotgun-in-the-face")
Well I try to forget all "classics" that I've read, no way anyone is going to come to me and want to discuss classic literature (and not expect the classic "shotgun-in-the-face")
The fraking Iliad and Odyssey of Homer.
I sooo much hated those in school, I was like "why can't we read Terry Pratchett or something"
Anyway, I blame schools for ruining the classics by pushing them to us exactly when we were most likely to give them the finger.
I re-read Homers works a few months ago and they are actually AWESOME!!!
But I doubt most people would make such a masochistic gamble, after what we've been through in class!
And it's a shame cause they are actually very good.
I read Romeo and Juliet, the Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn on my own and enjoyed them as a kid, I doubt I would've enjoyed them at all if my first impression of them was in school.
It's the way they tried to hammer to us how important they were, and spelled the "morals" and "lessons" like we were kids (which we were), instead of you know, leaving us read the damn books like they are actually intended to be experienced!
Damn schools, it took me ages after graduation to discover that Physics, Math and History were all actually interesting, once you get rid of the teachers and enjoy the subjects on your own time.
I sooo much hated those in school, I was like "why can't we read Terry Pratchett or something"
Anyway, I blame schools for ruining the classics by pushing them to us exactly when we were most likely to give them the finger.
I re-read Homers works a few months ago and they are actually AWESOME!!!
But I doubt most people would make such a masochistic gamble, after what we've been through in class!
And it's a shame cause they are actually very good.
I read Romeo and Juliet, the Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn on my own and enjoyed them as a kid, I doubt I would've enjoyed them at all if my first impression of them was in school.
It's the way they tried to hammer to us how important they were, and spelled the "morals" and "lessons" like we were kids (which we were), instead of you know, leaving us read the damn books like they are actually intended to be experienced!
Damn schools, it took me ages after graduation to discover that Physics, Math and History were all actually interesting, once you get rid of the teachers and enjoy the subjects on your own time.