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Originally Posted by Poppaea
Not liking it is a matter of taste. Not getting it is a matter of not being well-read.
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The thing that gives "high literature" a bad taste for me is that I have run into quite a few people who conflate these. They think that if you don't like a classic, you must be too stupid (or ignorant, or otherwise defective) to get it, because if you would get it, you would like it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Poppaea
Not too stupid to get it, but maybe not well-read enough to do so.
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It is perfectly possible to GET something, but still to dislike it. Have you never heard a joke that you found tasteless or stupid or offensive rather than funny?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Poppaea
I already explained there are different layers in good literature that you won't grasp without any knowledge. This can be philophical ideas not entirely spread out but only hinted to or puns about other books, many things are possibly hidden in a seemingly dull book. The more you read the more you recognize.
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So the more injokes a book has, the better it is?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Poppaea
And scholars and critics have read all those ancient texts we are to lazy to bother with. So for them getting these undercurrents is normal and perhaps they do assume anyone else will see it, too. But this is not claiming absolute truth it is maybe just a little lack of phantasy.
I am sure none of you has shunned the youth classics like Treasure Island or The Count of MonteChristo, but am bold enough to bet you loved them as a kid.
So why do you bash the other classics? Do you really think they can't be equally captivating?
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I'm saying that there is no objective scale for how good or captivating a book is, because people have different tastes.
Some people love romance. Some people loathe romance. Some people love science fiction. Some people hate science fiction.
Some people think a book that captures the pointlessness of the lives of the new rich in Long Island in the 1920s well is the best thing since sliced bread, some people think that's an utterly boring topic to start with, and lathering on purple prose does not make it better.
I'm put off the whole literature thing by the people who think their taste is an objective measure of how good a book is.