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Why Classics are enjoyable to me
Disclaimer I know that this isn't a very mature take on media consumption, and pretty ignorantly conformist. not looking for hate, i just realised this and was wondering if anyone felt similar.
I enjoy reading (relatively easy to read) classic/very recognised books \[such as jane eyre, the god of small things, the picture of dorian gray, oscar wilde in general, perfume, the vegetarian, chekhov plays, wuthering heights, the catcher in the rye etc\].
When others notice this, they often accuse me of just being pretentious because "noone enjoys reading classics" and question why im reading them outside of an academic context.
Ill immediately admit that I do not engage with them 100% analytically, i do not search for themes and stylistic features, i dont annotate or compare them to other literature, outside of what i passively notice while reading. But I also do not "enjoy" them the way that i enjoy the other (rare) books i read which are more modern and less critically acclaimed. I just realised that the reason for this is that i can start a classic fully certain that it is a "good book" or at least good until i actively decide that it isnt good. for other books it is the opposite, i am constantly displeased and annoyed with it unless it is actually AMAZING, in which case ill continue reading and enjoying it. I get a lot out of knowing other people value the words on a page, and i allow myself to appreciate and interpret things into them.
Another huge factor is references. I feel like we've reached a point where most media contains countless references to media before it, be it in terms of names or plotlines or specific phrases. Understanding references and being able to see connections between classics (because obviously most references are to classics) and movies and paintings and sayings makes me feel so much more grounded and also evokes a strong (even if maybe unjustified) attachment to the media in question. just realising this is slightly pretentious lmao.
This all is probably just to say im incapable of forming my own opinions, but it makes reading for enjoyment much easier to me, because i will rarely decide a book is good myself. This just leads to unfinished books gathering dust after i wasted my money on them lol.
#entertainment
source
Disclaimer I know that this isn't a very mature take on media consumption, and pretty ignorantly conformist. not looking for hate, i just realised this and was wondering if anyone felt similar.
I enjoy reading (relatively easy to read) classic/very recognised books \[such as jane eyre, the god of small things, the picture of dorian gray, oscar wilde in general, perfume, the vegetarian, chekhov plays, wuthering heights, the catcher in the rye etc\].
When others notice this, they often accuse me of just being pretentious because "noone enjoys reading classics" and question why im reading them outside of an academic context.
Ill immediately admit that I do not engage with them 100% analytically, i do not search for themes and stylistic features, i dont annotate or compare them to other literature, outside of what i passively notice while reading. But I also do not "enjoy" them the way that i enjoy the other (rare) books i read which are more modern and less critically acclaimed. I just realised that the reason for this is that i can start a classic fully certain that it is a "good book" or at least good until i actively decide that it isnt good. for other books it is the opposite, i am constantly displeased and annoyed with it unless it is actually AMAZING, in which case ill continue reading and enjoying it. I get a lot out of knowing other people value the words on a page, and i allow myself to appreciate and interpret things into them.
Another huge factor is references. I feel like we've reached a point where most media contains countless references to media before it, be it in terms of names or plotlines or specific phrases. Understanding references and being able to see connections between classics (because obviously most references are to classics) and movies and paintings and sayings makes me feel so much more grounded and also evokes a strong (even if maybe unjustified) attachment to the media in question. just realising this is slightly pretentious lmao.
This all is probably just to say im incapable of forming my own opinions, but it makes reading for enjoyment much easier to me, because i will rarely decide a book is good myself. This just leads to unfinished books gathering dust after i wasted my money on them lol.
#entertainment
source
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