|
|
Post by Zephyr Shenkiken on Jan 8, 2013 16:37:25 GMT -6
It's not secret if you post it on a public forum Matt lol.
Also here's an example Quaddy:
It was the best of times it was the worse of times, it was the age of wisdom it was the age of...
Oh I heard about this. It's all these contradictions and stuff. This is the like the LONGEST sentence ever. Seriously. Oh shit wait I was reading.
...epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light it was the season of...
Darkness, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah OH shit wait I'm supposed to focus and use all that discipline I have! Right, read. These. Words! Fuck where was I? Shit, better try this page again
It was the best of times it was the worst of
FUCK IT.
|
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on Jan 8, 2013 16:40:26 GMT -6
Oh there's no secret. These forums are going to give me a complex.
|
|
|
|
Post by Zephyr Shenkiken on Jan 8, 2013 16:51:13 GMT -6
Lol we love you even if you go nutso Quaddy.
|
|
|
|
Post by Matt on Jan 8, 2013 16:52:36 GMT -6
I don't think we mean you have to read Dickens Zeph. As we mentioned before Tale of Two Cities is probably the worst book to read ever. But reading anything and everything that interests you is worth it. I still buy children's literature because it's so imaginative and diverse. And then I go and get the next Karin Slaughter.
|
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on Jan 8, 2013 17:03:52 GMT -6
Neil Gaiman has taught me more about stuff than Dickens ever did. I kid you not.
|
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on Jan 8, 2013 17:04:13 GMT -6
Also, DONE! You're up, Zeph.
|
|
|
|
Post by Matt on Jan 8, 2013 17:14:46 GMT -6
That's a tough comment Q.
Dickens' writing offers a very insightful set of critiques (usually via satire) of Victoria life. Much of what we understand about the treatment of inmates in debtors prisons and such relate to what we know from Dickens and other writers of the times. Similarly, he offers vast amounts of cultural references, political references that reflect the tensions between the working class, the bourgeoisie and aristocracy.
On the other hand, Gaiman's books are packed with folklore and mythology. There are cross-cultural and spiritual references throughout.
It's a different kettle of fish and I think it's hard to say you learn more from one than the other.
|
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on Jan 8, 2013 17:16:48 GMT -6
I, personally, have learned more from Gaiman than Dickens.
There, comment fixed.
(I got about 10 pages into Dickens and stopped. Thank the Gods I never had to read him for class.)
|
|
|
|
Post by Zephyr Shenkiken on Jan 8, 2013 17:25:50 GMT -6
I was just using it as an example. I mean, I'd have finished the Harry Potter series had the gap in time between the fourth and fifth not been so great.
And if the Narnia books had all been in stock when I was in elementary I'd have read those too.
The Hobbit killed me though. Tried to read it in 4th grade and it was just too much.
|
|
|
|
Post by Matt on Jan 8, 2013 17:38:40 GMT -6
Fair enough - it is an opinion but... if you've only read around 10 pages of Dickens? I mean I know we have to study tomes of his stuff for class here (and incidentally when I was Stateside) but... yeah then you would inevitably learn more from Gaiman's collections. Idk. I mean I do agree there's a lot to get out of Gaiman. It is just much more of a supernatural/spiritual variety than the sort in Dickensian socio-political texts.
It's a shame they didn't have all the Narnia Books Zeph (though I reread them recently after reading a kid I babysat the first few chapters of The Horse and His Boy) they were ruddy brilliant. CSLewis is just such a wonderful writer (Christianity lessons and all).
|
|
|
|
Post by Zephyr Shenkiken on Jan 8, 2013 17:47:06 GMT -6
Lol I can't remember how far I got. I think it was The Silver Chair or Prince Caspian. Can't really remember. I know they skipped one and I'm super strict about reading or viewing in order so I was quite heartbroken.
|
|
|
|
Post by Matt on Jan 8, 2013 17:49:13 GMT -6
Hmmm I'm not such a purist in some senses... I've never read book one of LOTR because it's so damn slow and boring. But I love books two and three. I just watch film one, skip the shit bits and then read the next books...
That and I sometimes read the last book in a series and then go back to the beginning and start it afterwards.
|
|
|
|
Post by Zephyr Shenkiken on Jan 8, 2013 17:53:50 GMT -6
I just can't do it if I have any option at all. Same way with games and movies lol. I can't stand spoilers most times.
|
|
|
|
Post by Matt on Jan 8, 2013 18:05:52 GMT -6
I guess my problem is I figure things out really easily. So sometimes I now finish the series and then have more fun trying to work out HOW the author is going to get them to the end point.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mynt on Jan 8, 2013 19:06:02 GMT -6
I'm the same way Zeph. Although when I was younger it wasn't an issue. I read the last Narnia book first. The second Animorph book.
|
|
|
|
Post by Zephyr Shenkiken on Jan 8, 2013 19:14:12 GMT -6
Omg Animorphs. I'm such a 90's kid.
|
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on Jan 8, 2013 19:50:44 GMT -6
I read Great Expectations...and I hated it. I hated everything about it. I hated the language, I hated the damn characters...everything. Not a damn thing about it did I love. I very much dislike Dickens. I feel the same way about Herman Melville and most of Hemingway.
Then again, I was the only person growing up who loved The Great Gatsby, so maybe I'm weird.
I don't read much literature. I enjoy Austen and the Bronte sisters (I didn't want to search for the damn dots). My dislike of their language structure is such that I cannot see past it. In fact, the reason I loved Wuthering Heights so much was because her language wasn't so damned convoluted.
Actually, know who I hate? I can't stand Nathaniel Hawthorne. I wanted to stick needles in my eyes while reading The Scarlet Letter. I felt like the man was writing some sort of scientific treatise or something.
I do love Tolkien, though...which seems odd to a lot of people. I'm just a fantasy wonk.
As far as the Gaiman/Dickens learning divide...I suppose I care more about the supernatural/mythological than I do the socio-political morays of the Victorian era. At least the English one. I enjoy me some Mark Twain like nobody's business.
|
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on Jan 8, 2013 19:53:39 GMT -6
Also, history books. I enjoy history books. Literature isn't my thing. If I want to read about the socio-political morays of Victorian England, I will read about them in a historical text and not in a book of literature. It's hard to lose one's self in a book when they spend more time telling me about the plight of the poor in 19th century London than the First Elven Demon war.
|
|
|
|
Post by Zephyr Shenkiken on Jan 8, 2013 20:05:40 GMT -6
Hmm maybe that's why I don't like Dickens. I would often read through my history book when I got bored at home. I actually asked for another one in 7th grade cause I read all of the one I had.
|
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on Jan 8, 2013 20:13:44 GMT -6
Matt's going to fall over dead now. He's never going to speak to me again 'cause I just insulted half of Britain...
|
|
|
|
Post by Zephyr Shenkiken on Jan 8, 2013 20:25:22 GMT -6
Lol, Laras will break of with Mia and the world really will split apart.
|
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on Jan 8, 2013 20:38:44 GMT -6
Oh Gods! Not Laras and Mia! Forgive me, oh mighty one!
I will read everything Dickens has ever written...NOT LARAS AND MIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
|
|
|
|
Post by Zephyr Shenkiken on Jan 8, 2013 20:51:53 GMT -6
LOL Quaddy.
|
|
|
|
Post by Quaddy on Jan 8, 2013 20:59:47 GMT -6
See, you think I'm kidding. Mia and Laras are my favorite couple ever.
Seb and Alain are close, but Matt and I have to get control over them.
|
|
|
|
Post by Zephyr Shenkiken on Jan 8, 2013 21:02:17 GMT -6
Lol I know Quaddy. I think we all know. They are quite entertaining. Quite.
|
|
.......................