The Nature Theater of Oklahoma ([info]nuncstans) wrote,
@ 2005-10-25 12:45:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current mood: working

I know, this is all over the place, but PLEASE...just PLEASE
Native Son (1940)

Author: Richard Wright

“Well…someone who murders anyone…out of panic (which is a really stupid, irrational reason) does not deserve any sympathy. I felt the book was mainly about black people hating white people…as usual. Now, tell me anyone…if there was a book about a white person facing discrimination in Africa…or being killed because stones are thrown at them, then everyone would look down on them. Poorly written.”

More Reviews


(Post a new comment)


[info]gordonzola
2005-10-25 04:55 pm UTC (link)
I appreciated the Tolkien and Faulkner ones!

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]sabotabby
2005-10-25 05:08 pm UTC (link)
The Kesey and Vonnegut ones are also great. (I am a bad person because I sort of agreed with the criticism of Kerouac. Not "On the Road" particularly, but many of his other books.)

But the Faulkner one was the funniest.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]nuncstans
2005-10-25 05:15 pm UTC (link)
I sort of agree with the Keruoac one too.

I really have to say that the C.S. Lewis one is also a top contender.

(Reply to this

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]sabotabby
2005-10-25 05:20 pm UTC (link)
When I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time (or when it was read to me, actually), I had never heard of Turkish Delight so I had to look it up in the dictionary. The dictionary said that it involved gelatin (which isn't true; at least not with the quality stuff) so I was put off even trying it for years.

That's besides the point, though. I didn't know that Cadbury made addictive crack Turkish Delight. They certainly didn't mention that in the book!

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]nuncstans
2005-10-25 05:30 pm UTC (link)
I remember we (I think it was my sisters and I) found out that like Crabtree & Evelyn (or some other qualitay brand) made Turkish Delight. I had been pretty convinced up to then that it no longer existed along with all the other things I was dying to have such as lace-up Little House on the Prairie boots. I had imagined it tasting way more decadent, like a narcotic experience and without the gummy-rose texture.Although the powdered sugar was as delicious as expected.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]yourpony
2005-10-25 05:45 pm UTC (link)
I'm totally wearing Little House on the Prairie boots

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]nuncstans
2005-10-25 06:21 pm UTC (link)
OH MY GOD, where did you get them (please don't say Canadia)?!

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]yourpony
2005-10-25 06:24 pm UTC (link)
Not up north--but it was either the free store or the thrift store. Sorry!

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
OK
[info]nuncstans
2005-10-25 06:37 pm UTC (link)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: OK
[info]yourpony
2005-10-25 06:39 pm UTC (link)
are you trying to curse me because i can't help you find your own? or is this a symbol of halloween good tidings? (i'd guess the latter cause it's so rad.)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: OK
[info]nuncstans
2005-10-26 01:19 am UTC (link)
no, no, it's totally halloween good tidings.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: OK
[info]jwitchbaby
2005-10-26 03:53 am UTC (link)
I sort of agreed with the Kerouac one too.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]constintina
2005-10-26 06:32 am UTC (link)
when i was small i thought that stuff was actually wonderous. but i think that was mostly because i thought it had to be. by definition. i can call up a sensory memory and it makes me gag. i think that the disconnect from reality i imposed upon myself here is connected to many future dysfunctions, my inability to remember faces, perhaps, or my inability to see episode III as a bad movie.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]nuncstans
2005-10-26 03:13 pm UTC (link)
well apparently I have that too.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]nuncstans
2005-10-26 03:14 pm UTC (link)
the inability to see Episode III as a bad movie. or to make sure my comment makes sense before posting.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]pomo_drunkard
2005-10-26 08:13 pm UTC (link)
"On the Road" does have a certain ecstatic energy and some brief moments of fair-to-middling prose to support it. Nothing else Kerouac wrote is as good (or, in many cases, even "readable). Guess Kerouac should have written more books straight through on a single sheet of paper while wacked out on speed. That's always what's sustained me.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
This is how I felt when I tried to read TSAR to feel cool in 1999
[info]touchyphiliac
2005-10-25 05:45 pm UTC (link)
The Sun Also Rises (1926)

Author: Ernest Hemingway

“Here’s the first half of the book: ‘We had dinner and a few drinks. We went to a cafe and talked and had some drinks. We ate dinner and had a few drinks. Dinner. Drinks. More dinner. More drinks. We took a cab here (or there) in Paris and had some drinks, and maybe we danced and flirted and talked sh*t about somebody. More dinner. More drinks. I love you, I hate you, maybe you should come up to my room, no you can’t’… I flipped through the second half of the book a day or two later and saw the words ‘dinner’ and ‘drinks’ on nearly every page and figured it wasn’t worth the risk.”

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: This is how I felt when I tried to read TSAR to feel cool in 1999
[info]nuncstans
2005-10-26 03:12 pm UTC (link)
awesome.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
amazing...
[info]amillionandone
2005-10-25 06:32 pm UTC (link)
My favorite was this, re: Steinbeck. Speaks for itself.

“While the story did have a great moral to go along with it, it was about dirt! Dirt and migrating. Dirt and migrating and more dirt.”

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: amazing...
[info]nuncstans
2005-10-26 03:12 pm UTC (link)
also awesome.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]pomo_drunkard
2005-10-25 07:07 pm UTC (link)
No love for "The Lord of the Flies"? review?
“I am obsessed with Survivor, so I thought it would be fun. WRONG!!! It is incredibly boring and disgusting. I was very much disturbed when I found young children killing each other. I think that anyone with a conscience would agree with me.”

I do kind of agree with "The Lord of the Rings" review. Tolkein is not a great prose stylist.

My fav still has to be "Slaughterhouse-Five." Someone seems to miss the fact that the book isn't intended to be non-fiction...which is weird, since the entire first chapter of the book is Vonnegut talking about how he's going to write the novel you're about to read. Anyway, the reviewer has problems with this: "I do not believe that an alien can kidnap someone and house them in a zoo for years at a time, while it is only a microsecond on earth. I also do not believe that a person has seven parents.”

My dads are totally going to tag team to kick his dad's ass.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]sabotabby
2005-10-25 08:09 pm UTC (link)
That should be his "dads' asses." Just because he didn't think believe that gay men played an essential role in his conception doesn't mean it isn't true.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]pomo_drunkard
2005-10-25 08:20 pm UTC (link)
Well, I mostly meant that the strength of my Baker's Half-Dozen family can wipe the floor with his "traditional" family. Especially someone who says that they think "the very concept of a man who was kidnapped by aliens was truly unbelievable and a tad ludicrous." The fool! The mad fool!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]nuncstans
2005-10-26 03:11 pm UTC (link)
there are apparently a lot of people out there who don't really distinguish fiction from nonfiction.

Is it just me or does Don Quixote set up his peerless Dulcinea of El Toboso to be an object of ridicule by making her out to the most beautiful woman he's ever seen? It's clear he's had hallucinations before. Anyways, i think that by elevating her to such a lofty position she is bound to attract some negative criticisms. Just my two cents.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]pomo_drunkard
2005-10-26 08:10 pm UTC (link)
I blame reality TV. And the liberal media. And also the Rosicrucians.

How do people not learn this stuff by the time they are 12? Seriously? This whole "verisimilitude" thing seems to have backfired horribly...perhaps authors didn't entirely count on their readers to have no imagination whatsoever.

I think the worst part of all this is that I just know that these reviewers get that special warm and tingly smug feeling of having outsmarted a "classic."

It's probably not healthy for me to get so incensed by stupid people not realizing that they are stupid, not in the least because, at some point, I start feeling it's my duty to clue them in on how clueless they are.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]ms_priestypants
2005-10-25 07:36 pm UTC (link)
Gone With the Wind (1936)

Author: Margaret Mitchell

“Well, it’s a girl’s world. The world of Gloria Steinem and the popular feminism, as distilled on TV (including CBC shows, not all fundamentalist Hollywood garbage) of my youth is GONE. Now the girls run the show. You’re not allowed to call them sluts. And it’s impossible to call them virgins. They’re all doing Rhett Butler. So what are they? Idiots… Hope you like the Gangstas. It’s what you deserve.”

Um, I have this mental picture of some blinged out hip hop guy sitting at his computer a la ALi G, muttering about bitches be after his money.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]nuncstans
2005-10-26 01:21 am UTC (link)
I just find this review really, really confusing.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]constintina
2005-10-26 06:27 am UTC (link)
i picture warren from buffy's little brother using aol after smoking weed for the first time, in 1994.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…