Grudge Against Literature

[tealin]

AAGH THEY HAVE ETHAN FROME ON BBC7.

I AM BECOMING IRASCIBLY BORED JUST LOOKING AT THE TITLE.

Comments

[purlicue.livejournal.com]

So I suppose if I offered you membership to the Starkfield Sledding Club you would decline?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Seriously. I am hard to please but usually fairly forgiving; there are very few books or movies that I actually regret reading/seeing. But I would very dearly like to get back the hours spent reading, discussing, and testing on Ethan Frome in high school.

ARGH PICKLE DISH ARGH.

[purlicue.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, we never watched the movie, but we spent an altogether ludicrous amount of time going through the text, after which I had every symbol and branded into my mind.

Hahahahahaha OH ~*PICKLE DISH*~. See, now I'm kind of horrified that I had up until this point forgotten all about the book, as it is one of the bleakest and soul-crushing pieces of literature I have ever read (I suppose I can understand its ~ literary merit ~ in terms of describing the ~desolate landscape of the human soul~, but I'm pretty sure I did not need it pointed out with such enthusiasm) . :(

(INCIDENTALLY how have you been doing? I am trapped in college at the moment, swamped by hideous amounts of homework and obligation-- already I miss childhood, woe.)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I never watched the movie either (they made a movie? HOW? Do people use it to put fussy children to sleep?); I was referring to a couple other films that stole part of my life away. But that's another matter.

WHY do we have to study this book in school? What does it say? Surely something with this much literary reverence paid to it should have something profound to say about the human experience beyond 'Life sucks and then you die [or possibly not die and live instead a bleak and ironic half-life that makes you long for death].' There are plenty of 'life sucks and then you die' books out there with good characterization, insights into life, the universe, and everything, and maybe even actual events.* WHY ETHAN FROME? Unless it's part of a vast educational conspiracy to make kids believe all great literature is a waste of time.


(INCIDENTALLY I happen to be doing quite well at the moment, how are you, aside from trapped and swamped (if there is an aside)? Did you end up studying Physics or the other thing that was less cool and therefore I don't remember what it was?)

[purlicue.livejournal.com]

I suspect Ethan Frome: The Movie! would not be used to lull small children to sleep unless one desired to give the aforementioned children nightmares of dullness and utter, utter tedium, from which they would awake not so much thrashing and terrified as groggy and irritable. I usually just walk out of films I can't stand-- instead, my main weakness is the badly-chosen book, which I usually end up finishing out of sheer spite (I did this with Gone With the Wind, which I began disliking halfway through, ultimately throwing it across the room after completion...though I wonder if I would feel the same way upon reading it again).

I have nothing to add to your second paragraph, only a heartfelt agreement.
(I...possibly need to read Copenhagen. I recall you raving about the play, and further remember I resolved to read it one day...and then I never did. SHAME. They actually put the play on at my school, but I didn't learn about it until after the fact-- I did think of you, though!)

Hah, actually this semester I ended up without a single math or science course, which is a bit of a mind-numbing experience after having attended a math/science school for the past two years. I am surviving college, but it is honestly a substandard existence; indeed, I am only in my eighth week in and already wallowing in collegiate angst... I'm thinking if I play my cards right I can maybe pursue computer animation, though it seems like a long shot...the way things are playing out I may head into architecture, which I never saw coming. Four more years, eh. (I always thought college was supposed to be a party!, but then upon arrival this purported party resolved itself into an awkward gathering with too many outrageously drunk people, and I really mean this literally in the worst way. It's vaguely depressing, that people don't seem to be able to have fun without alcohol-- I find most of the population inexplicably boring, though well-meaning, from their sheer lack of quirk.

[magicnme.livejournal.com]

LOL, oi.

Bad 10th grade english memories.

[ari-enchanted.livejournal.com]

Edith Wharton bleeeeehhhh.

[pressrecord.livejournal.com]

Ugh....Edith Wharton...Ethan Frome....*has headache....throws up*


Okay...I feel better now.

[crimsnfirestorm.livejournal.com]

I am so glad that someone else hates that book to the degree that I do. Though it is fun to horrify those who have not read it: "They sled into a tree. No, seriously."

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Do you mention that this is the only thing that happens in the entire book, and you have to wade through two hundred pages of navel-gazing and empty angst to get there?

Oh wait, also, a pickle dish breaks. AAAAGH.

I am similarly glad to know I am not the only Frome hater.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

P.S. Did it ever occur to you that possibly Ms Wharton only had them do this because she could think of no other way to just make the book stop?

[crimsnfirestorm.livejournal.com]

That or she had the most twisted sense of humor ever.

[ardys-the-ghoul.livejournal.com]

Huh. I did that once. Seriously, I did. Fortunately, I was not injured in the incident, just thoroughly freaked out.

[crimsnfirestorm.livejournal.com]

Goodness, I think I'd be freaked out, too. At least it wasn't deliberate like in the case of our good friend Ethan. Or, well, I hope it wasn't, haha.

[fryingpanofdoom.livejournal.com]

BUT they have Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who on this week...that has to count for something...

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does – and if you want some real fun, listen to You Only Live Twice, which features Sherlock Holmes in yellowface (a.k.a. Clive Merrison playing a badly stereotyped Japanese man).

[fryingpanofdoom.livejournal.com]

I heard it! It's so funny--I love Clive Merrison's voice, even though he does a REALLY TERRIBLE Japanese accent. When I first heard his voice, I thought he was the perfect Holmes. He even kind of looks Holmesian (not that that's important on radio)

Actually, another good one (not currently on) is the dramatization of the Canterbury Tales--he reads the Pardoner, and Anton Lesser and Philip Madoc are also in it.

[ardys-the-ghoul.livejournal.com]

I've never read Ethan Frome. Judging by the hatred piled onto it in the comments, I probably never will now, unless I have to. Is this normal high school required reading? Seems my high school fails again--I'm only now coming to realize what a lousy school for an English student it was.

Also, if you're looking for useless, pointless literature, in my opinion you can't get much worse than "The Last of the Mohicans." Or anything else by James Fenimore Cooper, really. Mark Twain was so right.

[fani.livejournal.com]

What the heck is Ethan Frome? The image I get is a perky English schoolboy.

[theangrywaffle.livejournal.com]

God, that book. I keep trying to bury it and move on with my life but IT KEEPS COMING BACK.

I decided that my English teacher was insane when she said that Ethan Frome was her favorite book. When half of the class dressed up in togas on the Ides of March and she did not get it, I changed the diagnosis to "oh my god how did this woman get a Master's degree".

[iseepurplehair.livejournal.com]

I have never read it.

Now I have the desire to pick it up and read it in my own free time.