I have an upper limit on life suckage.
Some people juggle geese!
Wash ,'Our Mrs. Reynolds'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Ginger - Apr 24, 2009 11:58:21 am PDT #8973 of 28414
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
flea - Apr 24, 2009 11:59:45 am PDT #8974 of 28414
information libertarian
Every time I re-read Jane Austen she gets funnier. I think she's best appreciated once one is into one's 30s.
Sue - Apr 24, 2009 12:00:18 pm PDT #8975 of 28414
hip deep in pie
I never read Jude, but I did see the grim movie version starring Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet. I had forgotten about it until now.
Ginger - Apr 24, 2009 12:01:25 pm PDT #8976 of 28414
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
I think she's best appreciated once one is into one's 30s.
I feel that way about Melville.
Amy - Apr 24, 2009 12:12:03 pm PDT #8977 of 28414
Because books.
I love Wharton but I *hated* Ethan Frome. Ick.
I have a soft spot for Hardy. And Tess.
::puts on tomato shield and hides behind Seska::
JZ - Apr 24, 2009 12:18:17 pm PDT #8978 of 28414
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
I love Austen, all the Brontë sisters, Hardy and Wharton. Please pass all your tomatoes to me.
I have read exactly two Austen novels. By the second, I'd worked out that they were all the same, and I was done.
Oh, heavens, no! (I mean, welcome, Seska!) There are definite similarities between the novels she wrote as a very young woman (P&P, S&S, and Northanger Abbey-- though that one's just sassy and snarky enough to almost belong with her rude and delicious juvenilia, Love & Freindship and The History of England) and very different similarities between the older, more emotionally painful ones she wrote much closer to her death (Emma, Mansfield Park and Persuasion), but even the similarities are all about tone and language and energy, not incidents or characters (Jane Bennet and Elinor Dashwood are a little similar, and Wickham and Willoughby more so, but their relationships with their sisters, their families, their beloveds--all so utterly different).
erikaj - Apr 24, 2009 12:36:11 pm PDT #8979 of 28414
Always Anti-fascist!
Most writers have similar veins they(we?) mine a lot but that doesn't mean they write the same book all the time. Except maybe Tom Robbins, but I love him, anyway, damn it. He just loves life and women's bodies so much...what? I have layers. One can't live on David Simon all the time. Austen: Phase started when I was about sixteen, am still a fan, but maybe not as passionately. Should read her now, see what's different. Hardy Bummed me out. Melville: Haven't really attempted him in long form, despite being one of DS' big faves and inspirations. I admit it, I think of that huge book full of whaling stuff and punk out.
Polter-Cow - Apr 24, 2009 12:45:46 pm PDT #8980 of 28414
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
erika, the whaling stuff was my favorite part of the book, to my surprise.
erikaj - Apr 24, 2009 12:53:20 pm PDT #8981 of 28414
Always Anti-fascist!
Huh. Well, maybe someday.
Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - Apr 24, 2009 12:58:48 pm PDT #8982 of 28414
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"
OK, I was being a bit flippant with 'all the same'. Also, also, I was about 19 when I last read Austen. Should maybe try again, it being over ten years later.
I think that to appreciate Hardy, it helps to know the area he's writing about. It's all about Dorset and Hampshire (bleak, depressing places, but with a certain charm that grows on you. Like mould). Well, that, and about society and the Industrial Revolution. But mostly the heaths and the locals.
very different similarities between the older, more emotionally painful ones she wrote much closer to her death (Emma, Mansfield Park and Persuasion)
In fairness, it's the stylistic similarities in Austen that grated. But I'll try her again. Recommend me one?