January 31, 2007

As a woman, I find Hemingway to be laborious and slightly misogynistic.

Blogging teachers discuss "famous pieces of literature they can't stand or don't like to teach (but would never admit it to the class.)"

(I stumbled on it because of a google alert pointing me to this guy, whose entry mentions King Dork as an answer to the Catcher Cult.)

Posted by Dr. Frank at January 31, 2007 11:32 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Wow, I do not want to hang out with the folks who hated Moby Dick. That's the most romantic book I've ever read. Someone hated Moby and Proust? It takes all kinds. I also remember likeing Heart of Darkness for its tone (it's been years though).

Of course the correct answer is any non-Homer epic poem. Maybe in history class, but why do I need to know how many people Roland dispatched on the way to glorifying Charlemagne.

Posted by: josh at February 1, 2007 05:31 PM

I too find Hemingway to be a bore.

I also was left with a feeling of "Okay, that was nice but so what?" with Salinger's "Catcher...."
and Wells' "1984". They felt unfinished to me. I think the story could've continued.
I wanted to see what happened to Holden later on in life. I wanted to see the Revolution in Oceania.

I also have a profound hatred of anything to do with Emily Dickenson.

I also cannot see why anybody ever fell in love with the works of Walt Whitman or Ralph Waldo Emerson, not to mention David Thorough

In modern lit.

I can't stand Stephen King. I think he is a dullard who rambles too much.

I think Clive Barker is simply a wretched writer.

I've never been able to understand the enfatuation with Anne Rice outside of the "Goth kids".

This is just me, but I can't get into John Grisham or John Clancy either. Just not my cup of tea.

Posted by: Z at February 2, 2007 02:55 PM

Allow me to correct myself before somebody else does. I mean Tom Clancy in the above post.

Posted by: Z at February 2, 2007 04:34 PM

I can't help but be curious, Z. What do you like?

Posted by: Jonas at February 3, 2007 12:33 AM

I love that "As a woman ..."

Can I do that?

As a white guy, I love Hemingway.

That is strangely liberating.

As a white, male, church-going Roman Catholic, married father of five, Right Wing Conservative Republican I like Hemingway very much.

But now I feel strangely sad. Must I just be a bucket of sociological categories? Can't we all just get along.

Best of all, try this. As a human being who can read, and loves the English language and literature, and can appreciate that people who were born over a hundred years ago had different attitudes and moral values than we do, I really, really like Hemingway.

So there.

Posted by: Lexington Green at February 3, 2007 03:17 AM

what about Keats or Poe? I mean technically Poe isn't English but I thought I'd through him in anyway. As a romatic woman,they are both favorites of mine.

Posted by: just me at February 3, 2007 06:47 AM

Some of my favorites:
classics:
Charles Dickens
Isaac Asimov
William Shakespeare
Edgar Allen Poe
Mark Twain

Modern:
Douglas Adams
Matthew Stover
Frank Portman (of course) ;)

These days mostly I enjoy autobiographies or anectdotal tales from some persons I like. Some of the better ones I have read were by: Bruce Campbell, Leonard Nimoy, Terry Bradshaw and Jackie Chan.

Posted by: Z at February 5, 2007 07:34 PM