(no subject)
Asking questions is fun! The next one's more positive: what is the most underrated book you've read?
My most overrated book: Plato's Republic. Vast swaths are no more well-reasoned than a child's rambling about how the world would be better if they were in charge, because they'd get rid of tornadoes and shots. Furthermore, though it's well-written for philosophy, it's not a terribly compelling utopia. Its spiritual and personal arguments are (to summarize, rather than write an essay) often downright silly and always self-congratulatory to the point of masturbation.
It's riding on age and Western self-satisfaction alone.
Runners-up: Pride and Prejudice, Don Delillo, Philip Roth, John Updike. (I've read nothing even resembling the full works of those last three, because I have too little time and too much self-respect, but I've read enough to be dumbfounded by the critical and academic glee over them.) I don't hate P&P by any means, and there are some nice passages in Delillo, but I'm perplexed by their anointed status.
My most overrated book: Plato's Republic. Vast swaths are no more well-reasoned than a child's rambling about how the world would be better if they were in charge, because they'd get rid of tornadoes and shots. Furthermore, though it's well-written for philosophy, it's not a terribly compelling utopia. Its spiritual and personal arguments are (to summarize, rather than write an essay) often downright silly and always self-congratulatory to the point of masturbation.
It's riding on age and Western self-satisfaction alone.
Runners-up: Pride and Prejudice, Don Delillo, Philip Roth, John Updike. (I've read nothing even resembling the full works of those last three, because I have too little time and too much self-respect, but I've read enough to be dumbfounded by the critical and academic glee over them.) I don't hate P&P by any means, and there are some nice passages in Delillo, but I'm perplexed by their anointed status.