{"id":269,"date":"2008-12-20T20:34:24","date_gmt":"2008-12-21T01:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/noelfigart.com\/blog\/?p=269"},"modified":"2008-12-20T20:34:24","modified_gmt":"2008-12-21T01:34:24","slug":"books-and-their-effects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/20\/books-and-their-effects\/","title":{"rendered":"Books and Their Effects"},"content":{"rendered":"

For all that I’m a compulsive reader, you could hardly call me a lover of “great literature”.\u00a0\u00a0 Oh sure, I like Shakespeare, but understanding that mode of English was hardly a leap.\u00a0\u00a0 My church gave out Bibles to its first graders when I was a kid and we got the King James Version1<\/sup>.\u00a0 So we were educated in Late Tudor\/Early Stewart English from nearly babyhood.<\/p>\n

But when I look at the books that really hit me between the eyes, that move me and that make me think\/feel on a deeper level, they’re generally not considered “great literature”.\u00a0 Stranger in a Strange Land<\/em>, the later Discworld novels, American Gods, Shogun<\/em>, The Lord of the Rings..<\/em>.\u00a0 We’re talkin’ pop literature here.<\/p>\n

And yet I’m so culturally (or perhaps emotionally) backwards and dense that this stuff does move me deeply.\u00a0 I find the climax of Wintersmith<\/em> — a kid’s<\/em> book, can move me to tears2<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

I often struggle with the fact that my fiction isn’t very good.\u00a0 Sometimes I wonder if it is my taste in books.\u00a0 I wanna move people like I am moved by some works.\u00a0 I know of one<\/em> person who admitted he cried at the end of Stranger in a Strange Land<\/em> and have never known anyone who has spoken of Terry Prachett as doing anything other than be funny.\u00a0 Sure, Prachett is<\/em> funny, but his best work3<\/sup> isn’t a comic piece even if it does have humorous bits.\u00a0 It’s why I like him.\u00a0 He’s funny, but his stuff generally has a point.<\/em><\/p>\n

Russian novels (sorry Prof. Barnstead) leave me clammy.\u00a0\u00a0 The Bront\u00eb sisters?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Oh, I like Dickens well enough.\u00a0 Mark Twain is amazing.\u00a0 But “serious literature”?\u00a0 Not so much.\u00a0 They don’t move me.\u00a0 They don’t inspire me.\u00a0 They don’t make me want to reach beyond myself.<\/p>\n

But I like that stuff to be candy-coated, too.\u00a0 Inspirational literature as a genre makes me shudder.\u00a0\u00a0 Mostly, I think, it’s because I can’t relate to the characters.\u00a0 I get John Blackthorne just fine.\u00a0 Granny Weatherwax or Sam Vimes and their personal struggles with themselves?\u00a0 Oh my goodness do I grok them!<\/p>\n

I just don’t connect with what’s generally accepted as “great literature”.\u00a0\u00a0 I wanna be told a story, be affected with pity and terror.\u00a0 I want something that moves me, even if it’s not all that highbrow.<\/p>\n

\n

1<\/sup>In spite of its translation faults, I still favor the KJV when reading the Bible. Early training, I expect, but it just sounds<\/em> better.<\/p>\n

2<\/sup>The last scene does, too, but that was meant for the Pratchett fans who are parents and would catch the power of that metaphor, I think.<\/p>\n

3<\/sup>Nation<\/em>, his latest. It’s really fantastic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For all that I’m a compulsive reader, you could hardly call me a lover of “great literature”.\u00a0\u00a0 Oh sure, I like Shakespeare, but understanding that mode of English was hardly a leap.\u00a0\u00a0 My church gave out Bibles to its first graders when I was a kid and we got the King James Version1.\u00a0 So we … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Books and Their Effects”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}