Michele, I've never gotten the impression, in any argument/discussion I've seen you participate in, that you particularly worried about insulting other people. As far as I can tell, this is your conversational style. Fine. But I don't understand how you're perpetually amazed when people respond poorly. And I don't mean to turn this into a discussion of any one person's behavior. I just don't understand when we, the board, lost the ability to disagree about things without words like "snob" and "anti-intellectual" and "oppressive" being thrown around.

(And someone may wish to call me a Pollyanna, and that may very well be fair.)

First up for me: Why The Count of Monte Cristo has a mealy-mouthed, meaningless ending.

Damn! I've been told to read that since high school, and I still haven't gotten around to it. Even when it showed up as a plot point in Sleepers and I thought it was a sign I was supposed to read it.

My personal hate-on is Persians, by Aeschylus. It consists of a cavalcade of characters all coming onto the stage and saying the same thing, that the Persians are dead. I think there are supposed to be characters, but God, give me Sophocles (or hell, even Euripides) any day.

Oh, and I did already mention that My Antonia is all summary and no scene.

Okay, Monte Cristo. Whitefont for the innocent:

The Count should have died in the end. His punishments were so elaborately baroque, and actively cruel -- but he was punishing people for being heartless and thoughtless. None of them knew in advance he'd be stuck on the Chateau D'If for eternity; and he really just fell through the cracks of the system. (Hello to lack of habeas corpus!) Since the Count was NOT "doing justice" as he claimed, it would have made much more thematic sense for him to be killed in the completion of his revenge-acts.

Also, this would have allowed Haydee to fall in love with Albert Morcerf, instead of ickily with her own guardian. Thus, both Haydee and Albert get good endings, and we avoid ickiness.

Who else has read Monte Cristo? Or Minty Cristo, as I typed the first time?

Why The Count of Monte Cristo has a mealy-mouthed, meaningless ending

Ah ha! The Count! En garde, mon amie--though for what it's worth, I thought the Indian princess was a bit out of left field myself.

So much of the book depends on the era. I don't think it was ever intended as much more than a beach book of the time. Honor and revenge are the driving forces, and I htink the point is that Mercedes feels she is too dishonored to do more than retreat from the world.

Oh, and I did already mention that My Antonia is all summary and no scene.

I like that one too. The language is beautiful.

I was introduced to Shakespeare in 7th grade by a guy on whom I had a massive crush. He was reading one of the comedies and grinning, and I worked up the nerve to actually ask this paragon of hotness a question. Out loud, even. He went off on this long screed about the coolness of the play, and how there were all these amazing insults and jokes, and so on. With all the energy of a crushed out 7th grader, I found a book of Shakespeare's plays and spent the next few months devouring them. Ah, the power of hormones. And I found out that he was right about the plays.

The guy moved away around 10th grade (and I moved in the 11th) and I've never seen him since. But I still love the plays. I think this may be the healthiest thing romantic feelings for another person ever did for me.

So, to take that back to the discussion of canon, what makes it okay to say "No thanks, I don't like fantasy" and not okay to say "No thanks, I don't like whaling?" Why is one percieved as an expression of individual taste and the other percieved as a hostile attack on intellectualism?

Jessica, I wouldn't quarrel with anyone who didn't read MD for that reason. Life is too short to read everything, and everyone has to have criteria for what they will and won't read. But the non-fan of whaling shouldn't look down the nose at someone who loved MD.

Nutty, I read the unabridged CMC just last year. Wonderful, sprawling story of the type I'm a sucker for. And much of it is extremely vivid. But I can't remember the ending for the life of me.

I like that one too. The language is beautiful.

Huh. I don't recall the language; I'll take a look at my copy when I get home. But if we're talking beautiful language, I go with Lolita. Which does get a bit weird in the last hundred pages, but man. Oh, the last paragraph nearly made me cry.

I like that one too. The language is beautiful

Yes. It's so serene and wistful.

Ooh, I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo right now and enjoying it immensely. Debating over reading Nutty's whitefont, but I think I'll come back to it once I've finished the book.