Cecily’s Comments (group member since Dec 14, 2012)

Cecily’s comments from the Classics Without All the Class group.

Brenda Last in Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust.

Ah, but The Trial has an ending.
The fact that The Castle ends in the middle of a sentence is so apt that for me, it wins by a whisker.

Kainzow06 wrote: "I will go for Kafka's The Castle!
I loved the message and the techniques used by Kafka,but still it was hard to finish this book..."

I guess Kafka would agree, given that he didn't finish it either!

Kainzow06 wrote: "It is maybe one of the gloomiest I've ever read as well."

Really? I find it so painfully beautiful that, for me, gloom is not an overriding theme. Or maybe that's because I read plenty of gloomy books!

You thought Atwood was trying to get you to hate men?

Well, she certainly failed with me. Yes, I hate the patriarchal society of Gilead, but not all the men in the book are hateful, and I saw it more as a warning of particular beliefs, behaviours and practises, rather than outright condemnation of 50% of the population.

I heartily agree with you, Jessica. Often the books people want banned actually convey very positive and moral messages, albeit by showing the opposite. They can provide a wonderful way to discuss difficult topics.

Age appropriateness is a different matter (though I think 16 is fine for Handmaid). Banning is bad, but delaying can be good (read something too young, and it may put you off it for life0.

Another Bookriot post about this book, fighting book-banning, one step at a time:

http://bookriot.com/2013/09/03/said-c...

(Eleventh grade is sixteen-year olds, isn't it?)

Fair enough. It certainly wasn't the first to cover these themes, but even so, I think it's easy for some of us (not necessarily you) to forget quite how long ago it was written and how much has been created since.

Regarding lack of "new themes", that is in part a penalty of the book being almost 60 years old: it looks unoriginal because we're familiar with later books and films that have been inspired by it!

Sadly, book burning has happened in real life. Of course people could just "choose to read them or not", but the government doesn't want them to have that choice. Furthermore, burning is a transgressive and memorable demonstration of their ruthless power - always useful for totalitarian regimes.

Awful as it is, I see the whole book as a passionate piece about the positive power and great beauty of the written word, so don't be disheartened.

Did you know, this was first serialised in... Playboy!

http://io9.com/5668053/15-classic-sci... (this link is not to Playboy, but to an article about 15 sci-fi classics that were rejected by publishers, with details of why)

That page has a link to this interview with Bradbury about writing the book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4kFyk...

Bookshelf - and a trip to the bookshop to buy copies for a few other people.

What I love about this book is that it is a paean to the power of the written word: that people will live and die for it, and will wither without the transformative power of fictional worlds and the insights of others.

I suspect most Brits will say English and most Americans (and Canadians?) will say American - not necessarily because of rampant nationalism, but because of familiarity.

Consequently, I'll be more interested in the answers of those from other countries.

(For the record, I'm English, and English classics have threaded through my life since I was small. As an adult, I've deliberately read a few American classics to balance things out a bit.)

Karena wrote: "Book Lamps!
http://bookriot.com/2013/05/21/awesom..."

Some are unlikely enough to be bright enough, one or two look like fire hazards, and some use the corpses of dead books, and yet I can’t help liking a few of them.

I think it's VERY hard to predict what will be viewed as a classic 50 years hence, let alone further ahead, but I like Leo's culture-carrying idea. The trouble is, without the benefit of hindsight, it's hard to judge what are the distinctive aspects of contemporary culture.

Liza wrote: "....But if we really come down to it - the way a persons life is pre-ordained by their classification, isn't really that different from our own class system prior to WW2."

Why stop at WW2? The class system has changed somewhat, and loosened up a bit, in some ways, for some people, but I think it's still the case that most people don't move very far from the niche they are born into - especially those who start off most deprived.

I suspect this is blasphemy to some, especially given the title of the group, and the many American members, but one of the few books I didn't finish in recent years was Little Women! Far too saccharine and moralistic for my taste.

I was brought up to think giving up on a book was a wicked moral failing.

I still find it hard to give up on a book, but life is too short to read everything I want to, so I'd rather read what I enjoy than what I don't.

Nevertheless, I'm more likely to skim than actually stop, though I have done the latter with a few.

Gosia wrote: "...Why whould an invididual with just a simple desire to love God go to so much trouble and practice painstaking rituals of the main world religions?..."

There are many parts of the world where it's very common for people to mix and match religions, though more usually only a couple: a traditional, local one, and a newer, foreign/colonial one. And what about Messianic Jews?

Pi is short for piscine, the French word for swimming pool, because is uncle(?) loved swimming. The name leads to teasing at school (pissing Patel), so he abbreviates it, partly because he likes the idea of a never-ending number, as Angie mentions.

As for why Martell chose to include this rather odd pun and mathematical idea... maybe he just thought it would make an arresting title and hence help get publicity and sales?!

Swathi wrote: "Thinking of starting "The Great Gatsby"...Anyways... the book is a small one.. a little over 100 pages...
Anyone who's already read??
"

Yes, it's quite a quick read, and if you view it as observations on modern obsessions with wealth and celebrity, still very pertinent. (I've reviewed it here, without spoilers: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...)