i can understand not getting a novel. i didn't get Heart of Darkness, i've mentioned that on here before. i didn't actually study that one though, given more understanding of the background i might have gotten more out of it.
i can understand not getting a novel. i didn't get Heart of Darkness, i've mentioned that on here before. i didn't actually study that one though, given more understanding of the background i might have gotten more out of it.
I was sorry I was ragging on The Great Gatsby in light of the author feeling he was a failure; that's what I meant.
But yeah, The Great Gatsby is very definitely tied to its time period. It's just that the stuff that happened in it just didn't seem to make much sense to me, and I can't seem to remember what happened.
Even with the help of the "NES game" that some fans made, which I played recently, I can't remember why anything happened.
The most I remember is that it involved rich people in (I think) 1920s USA, and there was something about the protagonist having some trouble finding a purpose in life or something like that. He also liked this one girl who didn't like him back.
At the end he commits suicide, or something like that, right?
how is the Scarlet letter making sense surprising, it's like the novel equivalent of a giant Flaming A appearing in the sky
By making sense I meant that I actually found the story, and its characters and their emotions, interesting, and felt that I could understand what they were thinking and why. In spite of all the antiquated language used to tell said story.
LWFC is literally my least favorite English class book. On the phone, so can't dredge up my list of complaints, but there's such little connectivity to everything.
Oh, I remember there being something about seeing a light in the distance.
Wasn't the ending of TGG left vague or something like that? Like, it's not clear whether he committed suicide, but many people think that's what it implies?
. . . i'm forgetting the details of TGG myself, hm
but i remember that it made a strong impression on me at the time
i have honestly never heard of LWFC outside this forum
I think it's a novel by a Mexican-American author. Laura Esquivel I think.
That reminds me, I also read I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, but I don't remember what that story was about. I remember racism is a theme in it, and if I recall correctly, the reason the "caged bird" (i.e. a person in a position of servitude and with no means to get out of it) "sings" (i.e. expresses happiness) is because of hope or optimism for her family or for others or something like that.
On the other hand, I remember reading reading Things Fall Apart, and that had a very strong emotional impact.
I remember really really liking the movie O -- a modern-day adaptation of Othello.
Military conflict became basketball. The political scene of an Italian city became the social dynamics of a private school. The main character, again, a black guy. In love with a white girl. The villain, again, a white guy, who resented the success of the main character. The racial tension present in the original was very much preserved in the adaptation. The script was of course updated (as opposed to slavishly sticking to the original). Everything was rewritten to suit the new setting. But the story was faithfully reproduced in its emotions.
Basically, it retold Othello and faithfully delivered the tragic message and emotions of the original, and did so completely smoothly (as opposed to being ham-handed about being an adaptation of something else).
half of the short stories I've written are sort of in the vein of magic realism. It's a fun medium to write in, but when it goes bad, it can go pretty bad
I also remember LWFC having hella contrivance. I mean, the first chunk of the book is basically the mom finding new ways to screw with Tita, and the book as a whole is 'let's keep Tita and Pedro from making love without committing adultery for as long as frigging possible"
Kingdom of Loathing had an event two weeks or so ago where you fight in a theatre, and you could both fight Othello (as played by an actor) and play Othello (the board game) in the same area.
I remember that at first I actually didn't get how that was funny, except the parts that were patently absurd, like the guy who saw everything literally twice (and no more and no less, literally). And Major Major Major Major, whom they clearly couldn't promote nor demote. And Milo Minderbinder. And LieutenantColonel General Scheisskopf.
Only after a while did I realize, not quite all that emotionally but more so cognitively, oh, this is basically shitting on the whole "being at war" thing.
Well, I mean, I did notice other stuff being weird. Like how I'd keep on running into that scene involving Snowden dying in the airplane.
And of course, the language. A distinctive disorganized deadpan delivery.
TL;DR Catch-22 seemed absurdist at first glance but I didn't quite get that it was anti-war until I thought about it afterwards
Comments
You need to approach it with some awareness of the context i think
this is just wrong though
i can understand not getting a novel. i didn't get Heart of Darkness, i've mentioned that on here before. i didn't actually study that one though, given more understanding of the background i might have gotten more out of it.
In fact, The Scarlet Letter made sense to me, and I was surprised it did.
i will have to attempt Heart of Darkness again some time.
But yeah, The Great Gatsby is very definitely tied to its time period. It's just that the stuff that happened in it just didn't seem to make much sense to me, and I can't seem to remember what happened.
Even with the help of the "NES game" that some fans made, which I played recently, I can't remember why anything happened.
The most I remember is that it involved rich people in (I think) 1920s USA, and there was something about the protagonist having some trouble finding a purpose in life or something like that. He also liked this one girl who didn't like him back.
At the end he commits suicide, or something like that, right?
but now that I have read Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie my opinion is in the process of being reconsidered
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Wasn't the ending of TGG left vague or something like that? Like, it's not clear whether he committed suicide, but many people think that's what it implies?
Other than that one super-spicy dish that couldn't be washed away in the shower being a metaphor for sexual desire.
i mean, it's social satire, it's not simply a story about some causal chain of events. another i have been meaning to read
I remember I had a lot of trouble visualizing what was happening in The Great Gatsby.
but i remember that it made a strong impression on me at the time
i have honestly never heard of LWFC outside this forum
i picked up a mood, but didn't form a concrete understanding of what was going on
That reminds me, I also read I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, but I don't remember what that story was about. I remember racism is a theme in it, and if I recall correctly, the reason the "caged bird" (i.e. a person in a position of servitude and with no means to get out of it) "sings" (i.e. expresses happiness) is because of hope or optimism for her family or for others or something like that.
On the other hand, I remember reading reading Things Fall Apart, and that had a very strong emotional impact.
These were among the best things I read in high school.
both were very good
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Military conflict became basketball.
The political scene of an Italian city became the social dynamics of a private school.
The main character, again, a black guy. In love with a white girl. The villain, again, a white guy, who resented the success of the main character. The racial tension present in the original was very much preserved in the adaptation.
The script was of course updated (as opposed to slavishly sticking to the original). Everything was rewritten to suit the new setting. But the story was faithfully reproduced in its emotions.
Basically, it retold Othello and faithfully delivered the tragic message and emotions of the original, and did so completely smoothly (as opposed to being ham-handed about being an adaptation of something else).
We didn't read One Thousand Years of Solitude.
I think magic realism was retroactively referenced to Like Water For Chocolate, but that was summer reading I think.
there were a few others that did that; i can't remember which ones
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Othello.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
I remember that at first I actually didn't get how that was funny, except the parts that were patently absurd, like the guy who saw everything literally twice (and no more and no less, literally). And Major Major Major Major, whom they clearly couldn't promote nor demote. And Milo Minderbinder. And Lieutenant Colonel General Scheisskopf.
Only after a while did I realize, not quite all that emotionally but more so cognitively, oh, this is basically shitting on the whole "being at war" thing.
Well, I mean, I did notice other stuff being weird. Like how I'd keep on running into that scene involving Snowden dying in the airplane.
And of course, the language. A distinctive disorganized deadpan delivery.
TL;DR Catch-22 seemed absurdist at first glance but I didn't quite get that it was anti-war until I thought about it afterwards