Quote:
Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes
I don't think anything needs to be said about Franz Kafka's The Trial. A book that can be read on so many levels. Whether you read it as the state gone mad or the paranoia of one individual it is equally effective.
Many point to Kafka being a one-trick pony, but that should not take away from the genius of that pony and this book. It'll club you over the head and drag you kicking and screaming until you believe it still can and will happen in our society.
Just reading all the comments on Nancy Drew should make one realize that the best book is obviously the one that points at the madness of bureaucracy. |
Yes, for me
The Trial tops any book of the decade, or book of the century, list.
I found the discussion of how the Nancy Drew novels were edited from as first published interesting. I believe that the Mary Poppins novels went through that as well and for some of the same reasons. It's always a question if or how to alter any work that contains language or depictions that were current when the book was written, but now are recognized as offensive. There are people that would like to do the same to even great works like
Huckleberry Finn. To my mind unless it is the original author doing the edit it should just not be done. I'd correct you slightly on the Nancy Drew edits. Done in response to public opinion, but I don't believe that the "bureaucracy" [government] would have mandated it. Not in the US at least.