Some people get bit from the inside. When they talk it's cold and sour...
Starting off the year by stating that I have finished reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time in my life and wondering what I was supposed to get out of it.
I've been very removed from classic literature for awhile. But I did just finish reading the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, and The Hobbit. I ventured through the rather detailed descriptions of settings, didn't I? So my brain can't have gone to complete mush.
zWARNING! NO DIRECT SPOILERS, BUT I PROBABLY ALLUDE TO SOMETHING THAT MAY SKEW YOUR VIEW OF THIS BOOK. WAIT? ISN'T THAT THE INTENTION OF A REVIEW? POPPYCOCK! I WISH ONLY TO ASK THE PEOPLE, "WHAT IS IT I AM FEELING? PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO FEEL!"
When I started the Austen book, I had read aloud a series of paragraphs to the boyfriend, prefacing it with, "Listen to how boring this is!" He ran out of the room, begging I stop.
And, c'mon people. Really. It was sloooow to get to any sort of point. It is a book consisting solely of people talking, that is, dialogue. When there is the sparse narration in between, it is merely talking about people talking.
Took me awhile to get into it. Eventually I gave a damn about the characters enough to want to know what was going to happen to them, but, at about half-way done, I wasn't even there yet.
Elizabeth Bennett, our headstrong, says-what-she-feels heroine in a world of classism and repression comes off very Holden Caulfield in the beginning. "Oh, look at all these phonies being so stuck up. I am way above all that." But she is not, because judging someone about how they judge other people is judging nonetheless.
I got that. I got the point of her learning and developing and Mr. Darcy doing his thing. Which I was not really convinced by, by the by. I don't think in real life people just decide to be different and achieve it almost immediately.
The whole dialogue heavy presentation of the book was interesting, but also difficult to follow. It's a cool concept. It did it's job pretty well.
All in all, I didn't really connect with a single character in the story. Who am I supposed to identify with? Everyone is rich, vapid, and oh-so repressed by the society in which they live. Let me shed a tear as they stroll through gardens.
My brain was reminded a bit by Less Than Zero, which is also about rich people problems. But I liked Less Than Zero A LOT. Could it be because there was sex and drugs strewn throughout? Yeah, probably.
This is coming across angry. I don't think I am mad at Pride and Prejudice. Disappointed, perhaps. Elizabeth was supposed to be so witty and charming. I didn't really like her. She was just as gossipy and self-absorbed as everyone else. I know that was intentional, and that she grows a bit in the end. But that was all the way at the end. I'd already held her hand through balls and parlors where everyone is snubbing everyone for hundreds of pages. Once we got to the "I'll be a better person because of all this," I was like, "Yeah, you better be! Jesus, woman."
I went into the book thinking it would be a cool book written by a female that as stood the test of time. Co-workers (also female) cooed over my mention of reading it. I am done and shrugging. I bet it was really awesome when it came out. And maybe if I hadn't read so many other books along the same lines, if I was younger or something, I'd appreciated it more. I feel guilty for not loving it.
Dry, dry, dry, until the very end where I suddenly found juicy bits. Still had to eat all that chaff to get to it, though.
I've been very removed from classic literature for awhile. But I did just finish reading the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, and The Hobbit. I ventured through the rather detailed descriptions of settings, didn't I? So my brain can't have gone to complete mush.
zWARNING! NO DIRECT SPOILERS, BUT I PROBABLY ALLUDE TO SOMETHING THAT MAY SKEW YOUR VIEW OF THIS BOOK. WAIT? ISN'T THAT THE INTENTION OF A REVIEW? POPPYCOCK! I WISH ONLY TO ASK THE PEOPLE, "WHAT IS IT I AM FEELING? PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO FEEL!"
When I started the Austen book, I had read aloud a series of paragraphs to the boyfriend, prefacing it with, "Listen to how boring this is!" He ran out of the room, begging I stop.
And, c'mon people. Really. It was sloooow to get to any sort of point. It is a book consisting solely of people talking, that is, dialogue. When there is the sparse narration in between, it is merely talking about people talking.
Took me awhile to get into it. Eventually I gave a damn about the characters enough to want to know what was going to happen to them, but, at about half-way done, I wasn't even there yet.
Elizabeth Bennett, our headstrong, says-what-she-feels heroine in a world of classism and repression comes off very Holden Caulfield in the beginning. "Oh, look at all these phonies being so stuck up. I am way above all that." But she is not, because judging someone about how they judge other people is judging nonetheless.
I got that. I got the point of her learning and developing and Mr. Darcy doing his thing. Which I was not really convinced by, by the by. I don't think in real life people just decide to be different and achieve it almost immediately.
The whole dialogue heavy presentation of the book was interesting, but also difficult to follow. It's a cool concept. It did it's job pretty well.
All in all, I didn't really connect with a single character in the story. Who am I supposed to identify with? Everyone is rich, vapid, and oh-so repressed by the society in which they live. Let me shed a tear as they stroll through gardens.
My brain was reminded a bit by Less Than Zero, which is also about rich people problems. But I liked Less Than Zero A LOT. Could it be because there was sex and drugs strewn throughout? Yeah, probably.
This is coming across angry. I don't think I am mad at Pride and Prejudice. Disappointed, perhaps. Elizabeth was supposed to be so witty and charming. I didn't really like her. She was just as gossipy and self-absorbed as everyone else. I know that was intentional, and that she grows a bit in the end. But that was all the way at the end. I'd already held her hand through balls and parlors where everyone is snubbing everyone for hundreds of pages. Once we got to the "I'll be a better person because of all this," I was like, "Yeah, you better be! Jesus, woman."
I went into the book thinking it would be a cool book written by a female that as stood the test of time. Co-workers (also female) cooed over my mention of reading it. I am done and shrugging. I bet it was really awesome when it came out. And maybe if I hadn't read so many other books along the same lines, if I was younger or something, I'd appreciated it more. I feel guilty for not loving it.
Dry, dry, dry, until the very end where I suddenly found juicy bits. Still had to eat all that chaff to get to it, though.