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 | TrackBackWow, 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 PMI 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 PMAllow 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 PMI can't help but be curious, Z. What do you like?
Posted by: Jonas at February 3, 2007 12:33 AMI 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 AMwhat 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 AMSome 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