The only one of these that I've read about myself was Robert Arryn, and although I suppose I'm expected to feel sorry for the poor, sickly little fellow, I detest him---when even sweet Sansa wants to "give (him) a hundred spankings and five slaps," you know someone's pretty hard to take.
I blame that horrible mother of his more than I do him, but even so, at age six he should be frantically trying to get away from her.
Strike the first few words above---I did read Heidi when I was a kid, but it's been so long that I forgot almost everything but the kid who shoved the other kid's wheelchair off a cliff so that she'd have to go home.
The only one of these that I've read about myself was Robert Arryn, and although I suppose I'm expected to feel sorry for the poor, sickly little fellow, I detest him---when even sweet Sansa wants to "give (him) a hundred spankings and five slaps," you know someone's pretty hard to take.
You're right. Granted, the kid's been spoiled until salt won't save him, but...most children start insisting that they're too old to be treated like babies at around the age of two or three.
Strike the first few words above---I did read Heidi when I was a kid, but it's been so long that I forgot almost everything but the kid who shoved the other kid's wheelchair off a cliff so that she'd have to go home.
And isn't it amazing that a child who has been paralyzed since forever gets healed thanks to wheelchair deprivation?
Precisely. At his age, I'd have been scooting around the Eyrie, probably terrifying my mother by wandering up on the battlements (I never feared heights in my life) and making friends with everybody (yes, difficult to believe as it may be for those who only know me now, I was considered a very charming child.)
If he was like that when his father was alive, I'd take a long, long look at Jon Arryn.
When reading The Catcher in the Rye, I did get the sense that at least some of Houlden's whining about "phoniness" was just him bullshitting. When he meets his younger sister and tries to get her to believe that it's understandable that he dropped out of yet another private school and that he wants to spend his entire life keeping kids from falling off of cliffs she pretty much calls him a dumbass, screams at him, and refuses to let him go off on his own
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And on Robert Arryn, dear lord we were SUPPOSED to like that creepy kid? I only saw him on the HBO series, granted, but I thought he was supposed to be a very screwed up kid, thanks to a very screwed up upbringing. Also, I thought I was going to vomit when I saw him breastfeeding.
By the fourth book, it's very, very obvious that we're supposed to pity Robert Arryn, since he's not only a spoiled and screwed-up brat but terrified of everything. Oh, and he's apparently being slowly poisoned. But by then he's been horrible for several books, and it's impossible to care.
I really hate that kind of character, the type who is in a "circular" story. All they do is wander around and around and bitch about the same things, and by the end of the story they haven't changed very much and aren't in a particularly different place, physically, mentally, or emotionally.
Yes! You said it better than I did. This is exactly my problem with him. He doesn't change; he merely whines.
If Renesmee wasn't such a brat in the brief amount of page time she
( ... )
You know, I think that's a big problem with a lot of his characters, honestly. Characters standing around being mysterious, or bratty, or anything, starts to get old if dragged out too long, and it's much harder to then feel anything else for a character. I guess that's what happens when a trilogy expands into a seven (or more...) book series. The pacing is shot.
"By the fourth book, it's very, very obvious that we're supposed to pity Robert Arryn, since he's not only a spoiled and screwed-up brat but terrified of everything. Oh, and he's apparently being slowly poisoned. But by then he's been horrible for several books, and it's impossible to care."
Eesh, sounds like Collin, from The Secret Garden. Big difference is that Collin, at least, was called out on being a self-centered hypochondriac by Mary, and worked to better himself. O_o
"Of course, part of the reason Meyer seems to think that Renesbait is perfect is that she takes no effort whatsoever. Bella doesn't have to feed her, dress her, change her diapers or teach her how to go potty. She won't even remain a child for very long."
>_< That pissed me off so much. She made a very loud and obnoxious show of pushing the moral "All women should want babies! All women should have babies! If you have no maternal instinct, you're a failure as a mother!" and then made Bella as un-maternal as possible. I think Scarlett O'Hara showed more
( ... )
I'd add the invalid kid from the Secret Garden. Colin somehtingorother. Man, did that boy need the smackdown that Mary gave him! Mary herself isn't much of a prize. And the whole "let's scare the staff shitless because it's such a great joke to keep this miraculous recovery a secret, and they're just servants after all" just pissed me off, even as a kid.
I would like to add that my Tenth grade English teacher made Holden Caulfield bearable by having us write a short story in his voice. Oooh! We got to swear on an assignment! So awesome! (eyeroll)
Colin was annoying, yeah, but at least he was supposed to be. Same with Mary, at least at the beginning.
What soured me towards Colin was that the entire second half of the book became All About Him. All of the first half was about Mary, her not-so-great upbringing, her learning to make friends and be healthier, her feeling a desire to do something for the first time in her life...and we ignore that all in favor of Colin becoming a proper English boy. At least the movie made it better by adding a scene where Mary cries because "No one wants me!" and her uncle talks to her and promises that he'll always want her.
I am so glad I'm not the only one who hated The Catcher in the Rye--my husband hated it too, for pretty much the same reasons: Holden is a whiny, overprivileged git. He's basically Draco Malfoy with more profanity.
I remember reading Heidi as a child, but it's all very muddled now. The wheelchair bit is the only one that really stuck out for me--and it does remind me a lot of The Secret Garden, only I liked the latter a lot better, mostly because Mary Lennox felt a lot more real to me. I do agree that she's not a particularly nice character by any stretch of imagination, but she was far more interesting.
I think that's why I genuinely liked The Secret Garden. Mary Lennox was angry, sour and unlikable; Colin Craven was a spoiled hypochondriac. The chapter where Colin works himself into screaming hysterics and Mary yells at him--they sound like real kids. Not particularly nice kids, mind you, but I'd rather put up with the two of them snapping at each other than, say, Pollyanna or Heidi (who I think of as fitting the category of "The Child as Celestial Messenger").
I am so glad I'm not the only one who hated The Catcher in the Rye--my husband hated it too, for pretty much the same reasons: Holden is a whiny, overprivileged git. He's basically Draco Malfoy with more profanity.
I don't remember anyone in my English classes being impressed with Holden except for my teachers, who thought that Holden was ever so revolutionary. Maybe he was when the book was first published, but not by the time that I was in high school!
As far as the Twilight thing - I get the impression that Stephanie Myers did not like becoming a mother. The pregnancy was horrific, and then she conviently grows the kid so her avatar never has to deal with raising a child.
I get that impression as well. It's also probably significant that Meyer, who has three boys and who says that she's always wanted a daughter, gave her avatar a pretty little girl who would effectively be self-raising.
I liked Pollyana and Heidi, probably for the same reasons you don't like them. It was escape for me; getting to pretend I'm this super awesome girl that charms everyone she meets.
See, I never identified with either one...though I liked Heidi when she was smuggling kittens in to see Klara or going up to the bell tower in Frankfurt to see her beloved mountains. I could believe that a kid would do things like that. But once both of them turned preachy, I lost interest.
Charlie had to read Catcher in the Rye this year, and he liked it about as much as you did. I asked him what it was about and he
( ... )
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I blame that horrible mother of his more than I do him, but even so, at age six he should be frantically trying to get away from her.
Strike the first few words above---I did read Heidi when I was a kid, but it's been so long that I forgot almost everything but the kid who shoved the other kid's wheelchair off a cliff so that she'd have to go home.
Reply
You're right. Granted, the kid's been spoiled until salt won't save him, but...most children start insisting that they're too old to be treated like babies at around the age of two or three.
Strike the first few words above---I did read Heidi when I was a kid, but it's been so long that I forgot almost everything but the kid who shoved the other kid's wheelchair off a cliff so that she'd have to go home.
And isn't it amazing that a child who has been paralyzed since forever gets healed thanks to wheelchair deprivation?
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If he was like that when his father was alive, I'd take a long, long look at Jon Arryn.
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By the fourth book, it's very, very obvious that we're supposed to pity Robert Arryn, since he's not only a spoiled and screwed-up brat but terrified of everything. Oh, and he's apparently being slowly poisoned. But by then he's been horrible for several books, and it's impossible to care.
I really hate that kind of character, the type who is in a "circular" story. All they do is wander around and around and bitch about the same things, and by the end of the story they haven't changed very much and aren't in a particularly different place, physically, mentally, or emotionally.
Yes! You said it better than I did. This is exactly my problem with him. He doesn't change; he merely whines.
If Renesmee wasn't such a brat in the brief amount of page time she ( ... )
Reply
You know, I think that's a big problem with a lot of his characters, honestly. Characters standing around being mysterious, or bratty, or anything, starts to get old if dragged out too long, and it's much harder to then feel anything else for a character. I guess that's what happens when a trilogy expands into a seven (or more...) book series. The pacing is shot.
Reply
Eesh, sounds like Collin, from The Secret Garden. Big difference is that Collin, at least, was called out on being a self-centered hypochondriac by Mary, and worked to better himself. O_o
"Of course, part of the reason Meyer seems to think that Renesbait is perfect is that she takes no effort whatsoever. Bella doesn't have to feed her, dress her, change her diapers or teach her how to go potty. She won't even remain a child for very long."
>_< That pissed me off so much. She made a very loud and obnoxious show of pushing the moral "All women should want babies! All women should have babies! If you have no maternal instinct, you're a failure as a mother!" and then made Bella as un-maternal as possible. I think Scarlett O'Hara showed more ( ... )
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I would like to add that my Tenth grade English teacher made Holden Caulfield bearable by having us write a short story in his voice. Oooh! We got to swear on an assignment! So awesome! (eyeroll)
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What soured me towards Colin was that the entire second half of the book became All About Him. All of the first half was about Mary, her not-so-great upbringing, her learning to make friends and be healthier, her feeling a desire to do something for the first time in her life...and we ignore that all in favor of Colin becoming a proper English boy. At least the movie made it better by adding a scene where Mary cries because "No one wants me!" and her uncle talks to her and promises that he'll always want her.
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I remember reading Heidi as a child, but it's all very muddled now. The wheelchair bit is the only one that really stuck out for me--and it does remind me a lot of The Secret Garden, only I liked the latter a lot better, mostly because Mary Lennox felt a lot more real to me. I do agree that she's not a particularly nice character by any stretch of imagination, but she was far more interesting.
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I am so glad I'm not the only one who hated The Catcher in the Rye--my husband hated it too, for pretty much the same reasons: Holden is a whiny, overprivileged git. He's basically Draco Malfoy with more profanity.
I don't remember anyone in my English classes being impressed with Holden except for my teachers, who thought that Holden was ever so revolutionary. Maybe he was when the book was first published, but not by the time that I was in high school!
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I get that impression as well. It's also probably significant that Meyer, who has three boys and who says that she's always wanted a daughter, gave her avatar a pretty little girl who would effectively be self-raising.
I liked Pollyana and Heidi, probably for the same reasons you don't like them. It was escape for me; getting to pretend I'm this super awesome girl that charms everyone she meets.
See, I never identified with either one...though I liked Heidi when she was smuggling kittens in to see Klara or going up to the bell tower in Frankfurt to see her beloved mountains. I could believe that a kid would do things like that. But once both of them turned preachy, I lost interest.
Charlie had to read Catcher in the Rye this year, and he liked it about as much as you did. I asked him what it was about and he ( ... )
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