Heaven: Books I Shouldn't Have Read But Did

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  • DoublethinkDoublethink Admin, 8th Day Host
    I got very into Robert Cormier as a teen, but I’ve never read Catcher in the Rye - are they really similar ?
  • Trudy wrote: »
    Dickens is one that I have found has grown on me with age -- I have a lot more patience with his style now than I did when I was younger. And I agree, there are lots of books I read that aren't read primarily for pleasure; Virginia Woolf would definitely be in that category.

    We read several Dickens novels at school. I remember only getting through the Pickwick Papers because I was stuck on a train and needed something to do. It got better about half-way in, but the first half was as tedious as anything.
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    I got very into Robert Cormier as a teen, but I’ve never read Catcher in the Rye - are they really similar ?

    Well, Cormier wrote thrillers of a pessimistic bent, whereas TCITR is basically just a monologue about a few days in the protagonist's life, of what some would argue is an optimistic bent.

    But I'd say Catcher is similar in that it's written from the teenagers' point of view(though I think The Chocolate War is technically third-person), and that it reflects a cynical viewpoint about the adult-world.

    If you haven't read Catcher, and you have time for fiction, I'd recommend it. Love it ir hate it, it's part of literary history.
  • DafydDafyd Hell Host
    Whenever Kipling forgets he's an imperialist which is surprisingly often he is genuinely interested in Indian characters and culture and rather contemptuous of those English who aren't. AIUI English language Indian writers are deeply ambivalent about him.
  • TurquoiseTasticTurquoiseTastic Kerygmania Host
    Dafyd wrote: »
    Whenever Kipling forgets he's an imperialist which is surprisingly often he is genuinely interested in Indian characters and culture and rather contemptuous of those English who aren't. AIUI English language Indian writers are deeply ambivalent about him.

    My idea about Kipling is that although he is most certainly an imperialist, he is unusually self-aware about this and can see that there might be another way of looking at things, a way that his inner self finds deeply attractive despite being in constant tension with his imperial "superego" if you like.
  • Hedgehog wrote: »
    When reading Dickens, I just keep reminding myself that he was being paid by the word...

    ... as my father was also fond of saying, and which is perhaps why film adaptations of Dickens can be good. They have to strip away the excess verbiage, often leaving a lively and engaging story.

    We read Hard Times at school, and I still find it influential on my own social and political thinking, such as it is.
  • NenyaNenya All Saints Host, Ecclesiantics & MW Host
    [tangent]

    Do you like Kipling?

    I don't know. I've never kippled. [/tangent]


    As you were. :smile:
  • EigonEigon Shipmate
    Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes....
  • Eigon wrote: »
    Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes....

    But he has to work ruddy 'ard at it.
  • Oh dear!
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    Eigon wrote: »
    Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes....

    Hm. So that was an advertising slogan in the UK? In Canada, we have a cookie company called Christie's, which used "Mr. Christie, you make good cookies" in the 1980s.
  • Eigon wrote: »
    Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes....

    No, he doesn't.
  • EigonEigon Shipmate
    You're quite right - I always found them too sweet, but that's what the adverts used to say.
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