Classic Novels

[jgaiser]

Had a good laugh this morning reading the comic pages of our newspaper.

Rats take on classic novels from Pearls Before Swine:

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2012/04/25

[Apache]

Pearls Before Swine is the best comic since Far Side and Calvin and Hobbs.
Apache

[yekim54]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Had a good laugh this morning reading the comic pages of our newspaper.

Rats take on classic novels from Pearls Before Swine:

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2012/04/25

Rat reminded me of JSWolf and his many rants in the Book Club forum.

I love that one of the comments was this:


“A classic is something that everybody wants to have read, and nobody wants to read.” —Mark Twain (1835-1910), nom de plume of Samuel L. Clemens, American writer and humorist

I wonder what Mark Twain would think about the fact that now almost all of his books are considered classics.

The comic strip title, one I had never heard of before, is also so appropriate in this case.

"Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls classics before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces."

[yoho]

would give it a go

[caleb72]

Awwww - they are making fun of Death in Venice. I loved that book.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by caleb72

Awwww - they are making fun of Death in Venice. I loved that book.

I think the problem with classics is not that they are not good books, but rather because they are a certain subset of all reader's idea of what a good book is. The critics (academic or otherwise) tell us this book is great, therefore we should love it. This of course also extends to literary fiction as opposed to genre fiction (as if literary fiction was not a genre of its own).

The problem is, that this attitude often conflicts with the taste of many readers. I know I use to hate reading. Teachers would assign us stories to read that I hated; the result was that for a long time I equated school reading with reading period. Then in eight grade my teacher assigned us a book report a week. The cool part was we got to pick the book. It took me several tries, but then I found what sort of stories I liked. In the course of a year, I became a reading addict.

So, anyway, not that I would like to see the books go away, but I would like to see the label classics go away. You can read your Dumas, I will read Sabatini, and it is all good .

--
Bill

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

So, anyway, not that I would like to see the books go away, but I would like to see the label classics go away. You can read your Dumas, I will read Sabatini, and it is all good .

I love Verne, Poe, Wells, Dickens, and Hawthorne; but hate Hemingway, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and Wilde.

[jgaiser]

Pearls Before Swine is one of my favorite strips and Wikipedia has a pretty good overview of the strip. And Rat is not one of it's finest characters.

[Namekuseijin]

I can summarize that comic strip: hipster comic strip distills vitriol against high literature...

Originally Posted by Apache

Pearls Before Swine is the best comic since Far Side and Calvin and Hobbs.
Apache

if so, then our standards have certainly shrinked a lot since C&H...

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

I think the problem with classics is not that they are not good books, but rather because they are a certain subset of all reader's idea of what a good book is.

the problem with the classics is not their age, it's that they are not a stupid dumbed down videogame to entertain obese cheetos-eaters wanting more fun for their greasy sweaty money...

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

I can summarize that comic strip: hipster comic strip distills vitriol against high literature...

if so, then our standards have certainly shrinked a lot since C&H...

Sigh... As with differing tastes in literature, so there are differing tastes in humor.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

I love that one of the comments was this:

pearls

How do you do that ..

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

the problem with the classics is not their age, it's that they are not a stupid dumbed down videogame to entertain obese cheetos-eaters wanting more fun for their greasy sweaty money...

Not a fair statement (nor even a particularly good flame). The classics are such a broad category of novels, that its unreasonable to assume that anyone's tastes are going to include all of them. Alexander Dumas and Herman Melville, The Bronte Sisters and Joseph Conrad are all very different authors and I suspect that one could like one or two of those authors and abhor the others. Yet by labeling their works as classics, there is some expectation that these books should be universally well regarded.

--
Bill

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

How do you do that ..

[ strike ]strike through[ /strike ]

minus spaces gives

strike through