08-27-2013, 11:32 AM | #31 |
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Why is there so much hate against J.K.Rowling? She's a great writer. IMO she's as good as Salinger, though I've only read Catcher in the Rye (which I liked a lot).
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08-27-2013, 11:59 AM | #32 |
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I don't hate her at all. I've even read two or three of her books - they're quite ok, but nothing that would warrant the monster hype; as a child I read tons of books that were on a level with Rowling: just plain nice children's books.
While Salinger blew my mind when I first read him. He's a writer, not a story-peddler. Mind you, I have nothing against story-peddlers and enjoy many of their wares, but a real writer is someone who can change the way you see the world - Salinger is one, Rowling isn't. |
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08-27-2013, 02:57 PM | #33 | |
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08-27-2013, 03:24 PM | #34 |
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You got me completely wrong. I myself started reading because of... can't really remember, but it certainly was something more along the lines of Rowling than Salinger. I'm not bashing her at all; but there's still a difference between books that simply entertain -- and believe me, I LOVE being entertained by books and understand that it is no mean feat to write books that fascinate people like the Potter series does -- and books that can do so much more.
But I understand that it is nearly impossible to discuss the quality of books in public. |
08-27-2013, 06:30 PM | #35 | |
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08-27-2013, 09:28 PM | #36 |
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Although I'm sure I'll read whatever comes out (since I have everything Salinger published on my shelf), I confess to being somewhat nervous.
While I think great writers write the books they themselves want to read, I wonder if writing for decades in a complete bubble, with no feedback from readers of any stripe, with no back and forth with an editor, is necessarily a good thing. Even for a gifted writer. I'm fervently hoping he didn't go off the rails. |
08-28-2013, 06:23 AM | #37 |
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Didn’t he already go a little off the rails in his later stories? I couldn’t make myself finish Hapworth 16, 1924, it had too much holy Seymour (and the Rosenbaum text that doubleshuffle linked to makes a similar case). Perhaps one should hope that he got back on the rails.
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08-29-2013, 04:15 PM | #38 |
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I can't wait to bump this thread in 2015 with an "I got them all" note.
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08-30-2013, 07:35 AM | #39 |
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Why is Salinger held in such high regard? He only wrote one, thin novel! It's a good book, but it's not THAT good. I don't think he merits the hushed reverence he seems to be getting.
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10-25-2013, 05:16 AM | #40 |
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In general a book is considered good or very good if it brings up a specific theme, lifestyle or a specific narrative structure for the first time to a larger audience.
That is the reason why the books by J.R.R. Tolkien might be considered as literature, but those thousands of similar fantasy novels that followed are not, for example. Salinger was a revolution in literature at his time. He changed the world view of hundreds of thousands of readers. That is a good reason to be rated as one of the most influential authors of the 20th century, I think. Literatur is not just about telling a good story. It's about the author's integety, it's about his life and art, and the question if that represents something that is able to change history. Salinger's books changed history. And I think they are still able to touch a reader's heart if you like this sort of american literature. |
10-25-2013, 08:31 AM | #41 | |
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The Catcher in the Rye (1951) Nine Stories (1953) "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" (1948) Franny and Zooey (1961)"Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" (1948) "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" (1948) "The Laughing Man" (1949) "Down at the Dinghy" (1949) "For Esmé—with Love and Squalor" (1950) "Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes" (1951) "De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period" (1952) "Teddy" (1953) "Franny" (1955) Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963)"Zooey" (1957) "Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters" (1955) "Seymour: An Introduction" (1959) I liked Catcher in the Rye, but I loved Franny and Zooey. |
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10-25-2013, 04:22 PM | #42 | |
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10-25-2013, 07:59 PM | #43 | |
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10-27-2013, 04:15 PM | #44 |
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Brahms burned about half of his compositions, believing they didn't deserve to be seen, let alone performed or published. The pieces that survived in other copies have led musicologists to conclude that the work he burned was probably as good as that which he allowed to survive.
Eugene O'Neill specified he wanted Long Day's Journey into Night to be published twenty-five years after his death, but his widow thought better and I'm glad she did. Consider the great productions we'd have missed -- and think of the catharsis which that play has afforded so many audiences. In one way, it's terribly depressing; in another, it offers intensities of honesty and compassion that can assuage a depressive's pain like medicine. O'Neill tore that play out of himself in pieces and that's exactly why it has helped so many despairing people. The artist isn't always the best judge of what should and shouldn't be seen. Negative vanity -- that distorting mirror which allows anything to appear misshapen -- can make objectivity impossible for anyone. Last edited by Prestidigitweeze; 10-28-2013 at 09:31 AM. |
10-27-2013, 05:45 PM | #45 | |
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A person has a right to destroy their own creations, but if they don't destroy them it seems that somewhere deep down they wanted them to be used. condemning their heirs for using them is small minded envy IMO. Helen |
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