"Starry eyed undergrads would wax lyrical about how it’s their favourite book of all time. I never fucking got it."
This SO reminded me of a particular experience at uni quite early on in first year.
I've never been able to get on with Thomas hardy and for one compulsory module we HAD to read one of his novels and I did it but under great sufferance. All the other students went into the related seminar full of how wonderful it was and what a great writer bla bla bla...
...I was feeling like a fraud being there anyway for various reasons and was wary of saying "the wrong thing" but it got so insufferable I ended up when the lecturer came to me (cos I'd not said anything) and I was like "I've never liked hardy, he blethers on incessantly about the scenery and the characters are never properly fleshed out I read it but only cos I had to and I won't be reading it or any of his other novels if I can possibly avoid it" the lecturer laughed and was like "finally one of you is being honest! I can't stand hardy either dull as dishwater (but don't tell the dean I said that 😉)" and THEN some of the others who'd been previously gushing started criticising 😂
At the end of the seminar the lecturer said something like "good start, remember whether you like the texts or not your supposed to analyse critically. You're not going to like them all, we don't either but you do have to know them"
I think a lot of people miss the point of WH, I don't think it's MEANT to be a beautiful love story it's meant to be a tragedy and the characters aren't meant to be likeable either I don't think, I think the point is they're right for each other and yet their faults lead to them not being together and so ultimately hurting themselves more than anyone else.
I adored the famous five books but even at 8 I found Anne incredibly annoying & whiny!
"I bet Julian spends his time these days shouting LEAVE MEANS LEAVE. Whilst his poor suffering wife dreams of sexy time with brother in law Dick, who now owns a bar in Majorca" 😂😂😂
Would he even be alive now? He was born in 1930 so he'd be 89 now! (I may get a tad over invested in fictional characters)
Alicia Johns was just a mean girl nasty little bully. Practical jokes are never nice whoever they're played on, because the whole point of them is to humiliate someone. But she was also seriously lacking in empathy and compassion, i suspect this was commented on around the time of publishing and is why Enid Blyton made her get sick and feel what it was like to be "stupid" as an object lesson to her.
(Not so fun fact - the school it was based on was in the same village as Jo brand grew up in - she'd have made mincemeat of Alicia!)
"Thomas (the tank). He is a selfish little arsehole.
And all the other whining little friends he has." Haha I think whatever pre school show/characters your child is obsessed with create a deep hatred in the parents especially the mother who lets face it is the one who's most likely had to watch the damn things a million times! I would still happily do time for killing bella out the Tweenies! And I still get a stomach lurch at the thought of trying to sing the hoobs song for the billionth time
"Amy March is a vacuous & amazingly, given her upbringing, entitled, little horror." She's the representation of their previous selves when they HAD money, the family weren't always poor. Iirc and it's based on the real life Alcott family the father made an unwise investment and lost it all on basically a gamble that he was advised against. Then the parents "found God" and became all "saintly" I think partly as a way of dealing with this misfortune.
"Even now, how often do you have the male characters in films saving the day?" I think you'll like the link below:
m.youtube.com/watch?v=JKKRBnpDpBY