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| "Welcome to the Reading Life"-Charles |
Do you find yourself disposed to like (or dislike) books that are generally considered great books and have been incorporated into the literary canon? Discuss the effect a book's status has on your opinion of it.
When I read a canon status book and I find I do not like it I look within myself first to figure out why I do not like it. Clifton Fadiman in his preface to his original Life Time Reading Plan said if you do not like a classic, put it down and try again in ten years. In someways reading canon status literature is like looking in a mirror. Of course the notion of a canon is a tool of academia.
I think that's wise advice. Sometimes you're not in the right part of your life for a particular book. Or not in the right frame of mind.
ReplyDeleteHey, I love that quote! I'm going to write it down :D
ReplyDeleteInteresting about reading the classics being like looking in a mirror.
You've given me a lot to think about tonight. Happy hop!
I absolutely agree to look within myself before I toss the Great Book aside. I mentioned this in the last hop, I never finished Anna Karenina and I believe that's because I was not yet ready for its words.
ReplyDeleteHere's my answer:
http://bookbelle0819.blogspot.com/2011/03/does-great-book-need-to-earn-its-stars.html
I am a new follower. I love your blog header - it's very dramatic.
Good day.
Belle
...if you do not like a classic, put it down and try again in ten years.
ReplyDeleteI like that line. I don't think that maturity can help liking a difficult book, but reading experience and perspective can certainly help.
Great quote. Thanks for sharing. Personally, I view all classics with reverence, until I actually start reading them. While reading, the "this-is-a-classic" mindset leaves me, and I can figure out for myself whether I like it or not. :)
ReplyDeletegreat answer, my conclusion was similar, I thought that status can be a good signpost, especially if you've no formal guide through literature.
ReplyDeleteI like the thought of coming back to the book in 10 years if you do not like it. This is such a true thing because of how much your mindset changes. I love the way you say it is like looking in a mirror -- it is a very interesting point.
ReplyDeletePart of me really likes Clifton Fadiman's quotation and part of me wants to call him on hogwash, I'm afraid. I think for too long only one kind of person (white, educated, privileged, Western, almost always male) was decreeing was was Canon, so naturally if your experience falls outside of that, it's much more likely that the so-called Great Books won't move you in the same way.
ReplyDeleteFortunately now the canon seems to be more inclusive than even 15 years ago when I was in grad school, which means there really *is* a classic out there for every reader.
That is pretty great advice. I'll have to try Dickens again when I'm older, maybe I won't hate him as much then!
ReplyDeleteI guess that's very true. I find myself ready to read classics that 10 years ago I could never appreciate. Perhaps 'experience' and 'maturity' is also something that helps us grow into the classics?...
ReplyDeleteRisa-also reading 'easier' classics like Steinbeck or Jane Austin prepares us for Faulkner and Elliot-or so Clifton Fadiman and others tell us-it is my experience
ReplyDeleteGreat quote : )and very true. I read some Elizabeth Bowen and Edith Wharton many many years ago - and was left with little memory of them. Recently though have tried again - wow! what was I missing?
ReplyDelete