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Bad books that are actually really good..... later
I'm starting to realize that a lot of the things we read in school are only interesting when you look back at them. Like in literature. For a lot of the books we've had to read..... well, maybe just a few of them..... I've struggled through them thinking, OH MY GOD. This is the most boring book I have ever read ever. Once I've completed the book, though, I'm like, this is the COOLEST BOOK EVERRR!
I think it's probably because a lot of the time, you don't really realize the author's message until the end. Or there's some little segment or a lot of segments that in the end, just make sense. Or maybe, you're supposed to hate the book and the horrible dullness of it is actually a literary device to make you feel empathetic for the characters. Like in Ethan Frome. We read that book last winter. That book, it's so boring that my Economics textbook seems like an adventure novel in comparison. When I finished the story, though, I really loved it. I think because the feeling it gives you is just so real. You can really feel LITERALLY the torture and isolation that poor Ethan Frome felt.
I'm not really sure where this is going. This just popped in to my head while reading Crime And Punishment. It is a really good book, but there are sections in the first half where you just want to toss it out a window. Once I completed that first half, though, I didn't hate it so much. It's kind of like a bad experience that once looked back on, it doesn't really seem so bad at all. Or something like that. I think that books like these would probably be better enjoyed when read for a second time. That time, you can really understand where the author is going and what everything means. This post is boring. But I feel bad for my blog because I hardly ever update it any more. So I'm posting it. (Post.)
January 5, 2006 at 12:35 PM
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You're exactly right about Ethan Frome. C&P doesn't get amazing until Marmeledov gets run over by the cart and Raskolnikov starts banging the underage, underfed chick. Then it truly gets AMAZING.
PS: Hostel? It's got the dude from Crazy/Beautiful!
i just voted