Wednesday, June 1, 2011

May Classics: Task Completed

I did it! I went the whole month of May only reading classic works of literature! Except for when I brought the Axe Cop book home from the library, but comics don't count, right?

As Craig pointed out, my initial list of classics was waaaay too ambitious for one month of reading, so I'm planning to hold more Classics Months in the future. Not this month, though. For one thing, I already told all my cheesy YA lit holds to come back to the library for me. For another thing, one of my co-workers pointed out that it's better to read classics in the wintertime. That's clearly just true.

Here's what I accomplished:

1. Ivanhoe

Here's my Goodreads review. In a nutshell, Ivanhoe is not really good, but I can see how it set up a lot of the knights/chivalry/Richard the Lionhearted/Robin Hood cliches we all love so much. So it has that going for it.

After I read Ivanhoe, I checked out the 1952 movie version and boy howdy! If I thought the book had some dumb parts, it has nothing on the film. Neal and I had a grand old MST3K time with that one. Short version: plastic swords and helmets, everyone except Elizabeth Taylor is ugly and can't act (and Elizabeth Taylor's acting was no great shakes either), and the comic relief characters dies a painful death that no one ever remarks upon. Oh, and it got nominated for Best Picture that year, so I hope you're ashamed of yourself, cinema industry of 1952.

2. Slaughterhouse-Five

I would link you to my Goodreads review for this one, but I was only in the mood to write "It would have been better without the aliens." Which is true.

It's an odd little book; one that's better before the story gets started. It starts with what I assume is an only barely fictionalized account of Vonnegut trying to, but having a hard time getting around to, writing a book about his experience in Dresden during WWII. Once it gets to its protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, it's not nearly as interesting. Here's my problem with the book: Billy Pilgrim is a worthless, pathetic nothing even before he goes to war. His experience in Dresden doesn't break him. He's pretty much exactly the same until he goes crazy, long after the war, because he's in a plane crash and sustains a serious head injury. I don't care about Billy Pilgrim when he's being useless in Germany; I don't care about Billy Pilgrim when he's experiencing middle-aged ennui; I don't care about Billy Pilgrim when he thinks he's been abducted by aliens and living in their zoo. I would care about what happened in Dresden, but that only gets a cameo.

3. Great Expectations

My Goodreads review for this one is pretty long. This was the biggest surprise of Classics Month: I liked Great Expectations! It was sort of difficult going for the first two-thirds (although it was much funnier than I expected), but then the last third was really great and made the first parts worth it. I really enjoyed it.

4. The Catcher in the Rye

Like I mention in the Goodreads review, this is the only one of the books I read in May that I don't understand why it's a classic. Holden Caulfield is much, much more worthless than Billy Pilgrim. A co-worker/Goodreads friend told me she was sad to see I hated the book. I asked her if the point was to hate Holden, and she said it was, so I will admit that at least it's successful. I will give it this, too: it's a very believable internal portrait of an anti-social, spoiled, stuck-up teenage boy. But that doesn't make it any less irritating to have to spend so much time in his head. Especially when there's no plot to move things along.

This is a serious question for you: why do we, as a society, care about this book?

5. Heart of Darkness

I'm not going to lie to you:

I picked Heart of Darkness because I didn't finish Catcher in the Rye until the 29th. No regrets!

Again: Goodreads review link. Basically, I can tell this is good (unlike with some extremely popular J. D. Salinger books I could name), but I don't think I could fully get it without more outside study. It hints instead of explaining. I wish I had read it in some level of school so I could have wrung more of the meaning out of it.

That was the great thing about the Axe Cop book. All the commentary!

8 comments:

Angela said...

Classics month sounds like a great idea! But I agree...winter is a better time. I still have quite a few classics on my shelf that I've collected and always intended to read as well. I even kept most of them after the great garage sale of 09 in which I sold way too many of my books (Harry Potter, Stephen King, other great fiction). Anyway, I'm with you on Great Expectations. I read this in school, and I usually can't get through Dickens without feeling like it's such a task. But I did really like Great Expectations...may even be a good one to reread! Heart of Darkness I also really got into, but once again, I read it in school. If you didn't already know, I was a big nerd even back then. I ate up all the discussion of literature, and remember loving the discussions on this book. Not sure I'd remember all the deep symbolic meanings now, but I'll assure you, they're good! And I'm down with you on Salinger. I read Catcher in the Rye a couple years ok, and it was ok. I have no idea why it's important for molding the youth of today to read this in school. Seems like it's just not a good idea. I've never read the first two, and from your reviews...not looking to read them now either.

MacKenzie said...

I did a bit of a classics month (unintentionally because I got a kindle and am too cheap to pay for any books when I can get classics for free) yours is more impressive though. I'm going to third the winter's better comment so maybe I'll join you if you do one then.

Rachel said...

To be fair, I probably undersold Slaughterhouse-Five. There are definitely good parts in it.

I'm disappointed that Great Expectations is significantly better than other Dickens works. I didn't know when I was going to get around to reading more of his books, but I was kind of looking forward to it.

Oh man you guys, what if we had a Virtual Classics Bookclub?! Is October too early? (I guess it might not cold then in places that aren't Wisconsin.)

Angela said...

I'd totally be down for a virtual classics bookclub! I'm pretty sure it won't be cold here yet, but I can always crank up the a/c and light the fireplace anyway! And classics for free on Kindle are pretty badass, I'm not gonna lie. I'm finishing up Game of Thrones right now in preparation for the release of the next book in the series this summer. Then on to the Kindle I got but haven't used yet!

MacKenzie said...

I'd be up for that. October may not be really cold here yet but it is the time of year when I want it to be cold so I force it by staying inside a lot, dragging out my sweaters and making cocoa so I say it works.

Anonymous said...

In defense of Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities is so good that I actually reread it for fun. A Christmas Carol is also great (and short), but best read in December for obvious reasons. I have The Pickwick Papers on my list because if Alcott thought it was good, it probably is.

Elaine (MacKenzie's friend)

Nancy said...

Okay, just read this post and realized that you did, indeed, finish Ivanhoe. I salute you. Would've really, really liked to watch the movie with you and Neal.

Chestertonian Rambler said...

On Heart of Darkness, I wonder if a further Conrad novel would help instead of secondary literature/classes. Lord Jim is a sequel-of-sorts, in that it also features Marlowe, and again the story ends up being about an Englishman who works out his psychological problems (and those of English colonial masculinity) in a foreign tribe of "primitives."

It's a lot less emotionally monotone (some things happen that are actually happy at some points!), and perhaps less insightful, but it's a hell of a lot easier to understand. Even if it does present a fragmented narrative told from different points of view, not always in chronological order.

"It is when we try to grapple with another man's intimate need that we perceive how incomprehensible, wavering, and misty are the beings that share with us the sight of the stars and the warmth of the sun."