Paul’s review of Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me > Likes and Comments
128 likes · Like
I'm taking this book off my "to-read" list.
I think it should have a warning sticker for female readers with high blood pressure.
I gave this one two stars from my memory of reading it years ago when I was in my early 20's. After reading your review, I'm glad I didn't bother to give it another chance.
gee, I didn't think it was great literature but i kinda loved it. course I read it when I was in my 20s. I didn't find it pretentious but a prettymuch fair representation of the way it was back in the day
great book, not for prudes or those in love with themselves while denigrating those around them.
so not a good read for Gnossos himself then
Hahahaha! Not read this book but have enjoyed the comments!
Your scathing reviews often make me just as curious about a book as your glowing reviews.
curious like bystanders at a road traffic accident ?
Why does it need a waning for females with high blood pressure? I'm not a medical professional so I wouldn't know.
because of the unceasing stream of sexism littering every page.
For further disappointment, take a look at this review of The Giving Tree, a book you five starrily love - more than five hundred votes for a one line putdown!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Could be GR is just not your kind of place.
You know, a character representing the sexist ideals of their era does not make a book sexist, right?
I'd say that's a very interesting question. From our contemporary point of view we might wish to think that of course Farina's character doesn't represent his own views of women. Just as we don't want to think of Shakespeare or Dickens as being antisemitic for Shylock and Fagin. It's a gracious tendency of the reader.
But it might not be that every writer was as liberal and progressive as we would wish them to be. The whole controversy around American Psycho is a case in point. Was it a misogynistic book and did that mean that BEE was a misogynist, either consciously or unconsciously?
Assumptions: mine, yours, and the author's.
Holden Caulfield didn't need to be on drugs to get on my nerves!!
I read this in the late 1960s. Can’t remember what I thought of it. I would guess it is very much of its time. A bit like Richard Brautigan.
of its time might possibly include some attitudes we don't care so much for nowadays, I guess.
I read this at 16 and thought it was The Shit! Tried to read it again a year or two ago and ...just couldn't. I'm leaving my 4 stars for you-can't-go-home-again nostalgia, but gah!
So then should we stop reading authors because of their prejudices? People reflect their times in the books that they write and it would be a lovely thing to think that everything was just wonderful and I say that with quotes as it is now back then but it wasn’t. However that doesn’t mean that you should throw the baby out with the bathwater and stop reading authors who have had less than glowing ideas about certain races and people. Oh and things aren’t that wonderful now either. I do understand your point but I think that each book and each author has to be judged individually case by case.
yes, you are absolutely right here, but each reader brings their own prejudices just like authors do, and you can see my prejudices fairly forthrightly stated in my review... Sometimes it's just not possible to be dispassionate and soberly assess the author in the context of their times. I'm sorry he died and all, but Mr Farina really got my goat!
Can't tell if the reviewer is reviewing the book, the review, or the reviewer.
if you were to finish it you would like gnosis's demise. but I disagree with you whole heartedly
sometimes I have to reluctantly concede that there might be valid alternative views to my own....
Paul … I was extremely disappointed after reading this book. It was hyped as a classic expression of its era. Frankly it came across as a boring self indulgent poorly composed rant. Great writers use great words to make great sentences that stick. That resonate. My original reviews offered more detailed criticism but seems to have disappeared. It’s not worth trying to rewrite it.
Perfect (and humorous) summation; you nailed it! Kudos.
Book is all hype.
thanks Ryan - a perfect distillation of all that was wrong with hippies.
Paul wrote: "thanks Ryan - a perfect distillation of all that was wrong with hippies."
:(
And the ISB were the distillation of all that was good, I add hastily.
I was following Paul Bryant but now I need to reconsider... I think the forward by Thomas Pynchon is wonderful and puts the novel in a great perspective. If Mr. Bryant had that edition, maybe he should have read the intro first, would have given him the full expectations for the narrative to come, and if that seems not to his interest, don't read the frigging thing!
Sorry Reader, I will try to improve. Do you have any tips?
You must be so sad and lonely, sad enough you are
I wish any of these words had meaning
back to top
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Virginia
(new)
May 22, 2017 04:05PM
I'm taking this book off my "to-read" list.
reply
|
flag
I think it should have a warning sticker for female readers with high blood pressure.
I gave this one two stars from my memory of reading it years ago when I was in my early 20's. After reading your review, I'm glad I didn't bother to give it another chance.
gee, I didn't think it was great literature but i kinda loved it. course I read it when I was in my 20s. I didn't find it pretentious but a prettymuch fair representation of the way it was back in the day
great book, not for prudes or those in love with themselves while denigrating those around them.
so not a good read for Gnossos himself then
Hahahaha! Not read this book but have enjoyed the comments!
Your scathing reviews often make me just as curious about a book as your glowing reviews.
curious like bystanders at a road traffic accident ?
Why does it need a waning for females with high blood pressure? I'm not a medical professional so I wouldn't know.
because of the unceasing stream of sexism littering every page.
For further disappointment, take a look at this review of The Giving Tree, a book you five starrily love - more than five hundred votes for a one line putdown!https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Could be GR is just not your kind of place.
You know, a character representing the sexist ideals of their era does not make a book sexist, right?
I'd say that's a very interesting question. From our contemporary point of view we might wish to think that of course Farina's character doesn't represent his own views of women. Just as we don't want to think of Shakespeare or Dickens as being antisemitic for Shylock and Fagin. It's a gracious tendency of the reader. But it might not be that every writer was as liberal and progressive as we would wish them to be. The whole controversy around American Psycho is a case in point. Was it a misogynistic book and did that mean that BEE was a misogynist, either consciously or unconsciously?
Assumptions: mine, yours, and the author's.
Holden Caulfield didn't need to be on drugs to get on my nerves!!
I read this in the late 1960s. Can’t remember what I thought of it. I would guess it is very much of its time. A bit like Richard Brautigan.
of its time might possibly include some attitudes we don't care so much for nowadays, I guess.
I read this at 16 and thought it was The Shit! Tried to read it again a year or two ago and ...just couldn't. I'm leaving my 4 stars for you-can't-go-home-again nostalgia, but gah!
So then should we stop reading authors because of their prejudices? People reflect their times in the books that they write and it would be a lovely thing to think that everything was just wonderful and I say that with quotes as it is now back then but it wasn’t. However that doesn’t mean that you should throw the baby out with the bathwater and stop reading authors who have had less than glowing ideas about certain races and people. Oh and things aren’t that wonderful now either. I do understand your point but I think that each book and each author has to be judged individually case by case.
yes, you are absolutely right here, but each reader brings their own prejudices just like authors do, and you can see my prejudices fairly forthrightly stated in my review... Sometimes it's just not possible to be dispassionate and soberly assess the author in the context of their times. I'm sorry he died and all, but Mr Farina really got my goat!
Can't tell if the reviewer is reviewing the book, the review, or the reviewer.
if you were to finish it you would like gnosis's demise. but I disagree with you whole heartedly
sometimes I have to reluctantly concede that there might be valid alternative views to my own....
Paul … I was extremely disappointed after reading this book. It was hyped as a classic expression of its era. Frankly it came across as a boring self indulgent poorly composed rant. Great writers use great words to make great sentences that stick. That resonate. My original reviews offered more detailed criticism but seems to have disappeared. It’s not worth trying to rewrite it.
Perfect (and humorous) summation; you nailed it! Kudos. Book is all hype.
thanks Ryan - a perfect distillation of all that was wrong with hippies.
Paul wrote: "thanks Ryan - a perfect distillation of all that was wrong with hippies.":(
And the ISB were the distillation of all that was good, I add hastily.
I was following Paul Bryant but now I need to reconsider... I think the forward by Thomas Pynchon is wonderful and puts the novel in a great perspective. If Mr. Bryant had that edition, maybe he should have read the intro first, would have given him the full expectations for the narrative to come, and if that seems not to his interest, don't read the frigging thing!
Sorry Reader, I will try to improve. Do you have any tips?
You must be so sad and lonely, sad enough you are
I wish any of these words had meaning
