Jennifer’s Comments (group member since Mar 11, 2012)

Jennifer’s comments from the Classics for Beginners group.

I have a quick question for you all. I know they may not be considered classic outside of sci-fi, but I want to read all the books that are set in Ender's world. I've read Ender's game, and I'm not sure if I should move on to the books that concern Ender or if I should read the ones that are set in his world like Ender's Shadow and the sequel to that next. I've read that the sequels to Ender's game are very different from the rest of the books. Any suggestions?

I read this book recently, and I personally found it a little too repetitive in structure for my taste. I wonder if part of that could come from the influence of older fairy tales, most of which have some sort of repetitive aspect. I would have probably loved it as a kid, but I never read it then, and I only saw the movie once. I decided to give the next book in the series a try, and I really enjoyed that one, and I am looking forward to starting the third soon. I think part of my annoyance came from the fact that Dorthy had to have everything explained as she was an outsider to Oz, and that she just accepted a lot without any real thought. The second book, written from an insider perspective, made a lot more sense to me and was more enjoyable. I understand why the first book was like that, I just found it a little tiring.

On another note, has anyone read the Cracked.com article about Glinda the good witch?

I read this book recently, and I was originally going to read it with my sister, but she was put off too much by the first chapter. The first chapter is amazing in the way it will just wrench your stomach.

A little spoilery here, but does anyone else have a problem with the savage? I have an issue with his connection to Shakespeare. I understand the thematic reasons, but I hold that there is no way he would have been able to learn how to read using a very technical guide for his mother's job and a collection of Shakespeare. Most people who have had a formal education have difficulty reading Shakespeare in today's world, let alone someone in his circumstances. I think this is just a case where my classes in pedagogy getting in the way here, but it just bugs me, especially since it is so important to the book.

This post will include spoilers, as I'm don't know how to hide them yet.

I'm glad I read this book, most of it I read in one sitting, right before it was due back to the library. I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second, I would have liked to see more of the society and the other characters before it turned into a chase scene. I was surprised when Clarisse disapeered so quickly. My big problem with it is that the last half felt rushed, and I know that the whole plot takes place in a couple of days, and Bradbury wrote the book so quickly, but it just seemed to happen so fast that Montag didn't have much time to think things through, which seemed to go against part of the point of the book. But then again, I'm not generally the type who enjoys "running-for-our-lives" kinds of scenes, especially when it's an elongated chase.

I did think it was interesting that there is a movie version, which does seem ironic. Unfortunately like my sister said, it was probably the only way a lot of people would get any part of the book's message. I got the 50th anniversary edition, and I was a little surprised that he wrote about it. This part particularly struck me as I've been noticing that any book that sells well at all seems to be immediately made into a movie, and other writers talk about who they want cast in the movie of their book, which I don't personally understand, if I wanted to write a movie, I'd write a screenplay, not a novel. It's as if a book is only good or has "made-it" once is has been adapted into a movie. I actually like studying how things are adapted, but it's just gone to a crazy level.

I generally really enjoy accents in everything, so long as I can understand it. I personally have a really hard time reading the southern U.S. dialects. I haven't made it through "Tom Sawyer" or "Huckleberry Finn" because of this, I keep on having to ask other people to make sure I'm understanding what the characters are saying. It's especially bad for me when apparently one word (in a nonstandard spelling of course) has five different meanings, a couple in the same paragraph. Eventually I'll get through it and get into the dialect, but it's going to take a while. I think part of it depends on what accents you've been exposed to before, and the more exposure the easier it gets. I've read more british lit than american southern lit, so I find it much easier to read.

Part of it could also depend on how your grammar works. If a dialect cuts off the back end of a word, like black english, I have a much harder time than if the front half of the word is cut off in some way. It's not impossible, but it is harder. And if there are two many missing letters, I may not understand it at all. I read "The Red Badge of Courage" twice in a row, and I still had no idea what happened.

I think it mostly just depends on the person.

I do think that Harry Potter will become a classic, it's already getting some literary scholarship, and I think it will stand the test of time. I think what really makes a classic is that is remains valued, read, studied, and loved for years to come, something I see happening with Harry Potter, but maybe not so much for Twilight which seems more a good escapism book to me. Like Tolkien's work, Harry Potter is being studied academically, though I haven't heard of a college course on Harry Potter yet. I'm hoping the Discworld books become classics I'm not really sure what other books will enter the literary canon, but it will be interesting to see.