Fannish end of year memes + Snowflake

[hamsterwoman]

Sorry for the spam -- it's just that between leftover end-of-year memes and Snowflake, there's a lot to catch up on... (It's OK, I'm starting working tomorrow and thus will probably have way less time to post again...)

Fannish end-of-year memes:

Comments

[zvuv]

3 days! ha! :)

[hamsterwoman]

I feel personally called out by it being compared to War and Peace... XD

[zvuv]

Several of these had Russian references...

[hamsterwoman]

Yeah, a friend of mine had "climbing Elbrus" as the comparison.

I'm not surprised by the Russian references, it's more that I find Tolstoy and War and Peace specifically deeply boring :P

[zvuv]

To be honest, I haven't read it, but it's not my impression that it's deeply boring. :) It's epic!

[hamsterwoman]

I was probably way too young when I did read it (and I was reading it basically for clout :P), and maybe I would've enjoyed it more if I picked it up as an adult, but I dunno... I liked Anna Karenina, which I read at the same age, but W&P didn't work for me. But the impression it left me with is not one I want to revisit either, so I guess we'll never know how I'd feel about W&P as an adult reader...

[zvuv]

I've been sort of meaning to read it... But there are so many other books in that category. :)

[hamsterwoman]

But there are so many other books in that category. :)

Very true! (I got a lot of classics, Russian and English, out of the way when I was in high school, because I decided to just do that, but once I became an adult, I've done very little of that sort of reading -- Ulysses and Tale of Two Cities, and I think that's it really. Oh, and some Toni Morrison when L was reading it at school. But that's really it.

[zvuv]

I did some classics in high school/college, though mostly Russian, and wasn't super thorough. (Chekhov was my favorite, and weirdly I really got into "Quiet Flows the Don.") But never did read War and Peace. But I think now may be the time. Also on my list (embarrassing for a Spanish lit major) is 100 Years of Solitude. :)

English lit classes basically destroyed my interest in anything Victorian older. :) I find Dickens annoying, though in fairness less so with age. I think I listened to David Copperfield on tape, but it was probably an abridged version. Dickens can go on and on and on.

[hamsterwoman]

Yeah, Chekhov is the Russian classic I like best (though I've read him on my own and thus a scattering of things, not necessarily "shkol'nuyu programu". Never read "Tikhij Don" but my mother likes that book and reread it not long ago and found that it held up.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my favorite (gen lit) novels! I read it in Russian (because I heard it was a better translation than the English one) and really enjoyed it. And I'm sure it's even better in the original.

I hated Dickens when I had to read him in school (Oliver Twist), but made it through The Tale of Two Cities and found it less objectionable, although I still hate his melodrama (I like him in comedic scenes, but they tend to be so outweighed by the melodrama...)

[zvuv]

Yeah, I know lots of people like 100 years, but I'm kind of iffy on Garcia Marquez, and I'm scared I won't like it. :) A friend did read it recently and said it was a great age for discovering it. So it's on my list... But I'm procrastinating.

I read the first part of Great Expectations pretty young, in Minsk, but once the main character grew up, I lost interest. :) I feel like we read Tale of Two Cities in school, but can't recall much of it, so wondering if we didn't do the full novel? Luckily I never had to read him in college, but we did lots of other stuff I didn't really get (all those Victorian critics writing about very random topics of no interest to me, in very stilted English). I kind of think maybe now I'd actually appreciate them, or maybe not.

[hamsterwoman]

I've not read a ton of other Marquez, but I did like 100 Years quite a bit more than the other thing I know I read for sure, Autumn of the Patriarch (though I did also like that one). Anyway, I hope it pleasantly surprises you when you do read it! :)

(all those Victorian critics writing about very random topics of no interest to me, in very stilted English). I kind of think maybe now I'd actually appreciate them, or maybe not.

Those were a mixed bag for me... Like with some, not even Victorian but as early as Enlightenment, I was impressed by just how modern some of their ideas seemed. Of course with some others it was just stuff I found to be nonsense, expounded on at length :P