Is it considered taboo to judge literary classics like…
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Is it considered taboo to judge literary classics like modern works of fiction?
Just a thought I had. I remember being in high school and being forced to read *On the Road*. When the teacher asked what we thought of the novel, one of my more sarcastic classmates said it was ‘quite dull’. The teacher got upset and said it was disrespectful to talk that way about a literary classic. That reaction always struck me as odd, given that he was the one who invited opinions from the whole class.
Something similar happened recently when I described *Dracula* as having a great atmosphere but not being a very enjoyable read. The person I was talking to got defensive and said, ‘That’s how novels were written back then’. But if I’m reading for enjoyment, historical context does not automatically make a book more fun to read.
It’s an odd phenomenon, because people rarely object when you make similar judgements about ‘non-literary’ works, even older ones like *The Lord of the Rings* or novels by HG Wells (though I’m never quite sure where those sit on the genre vs literary spectrum). The same is true of popular cinema. Most people accept blunt takes on recent films, but some film buffs get strangely defensive if you say *Citizen Kane* was mostly boring, or that *It’s a Wonderful Life* is a mediocre Christmas film.
#entertainment
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Just a thought I had. I remember being in high school and being forced to read *On the Road*. When the teacher asked what we thought of the novel, one of my more sarcastic classmates said it was ‘quite dull’. The teacher got upset and said it was disrespectful to talk that way about a literary classic. That reaction always struck me as odd, given that he was the one who invited opinions from the whole class.
Something similar happened recently when I described *Dracula* as having a great atmosphere but not being a very enjoyable read. The person I was talking to got defensive and said, ‘That’s how novels were written back then’. But if I’m reading for enjoyment, historical context does not automatically make a book more fun to read.
It’s an odd phenomenon, because people rarely object when you make similar judgements about ‘non-literary’ works, even older ones like *The Lord of the Rings* or novels by HG Wells (though I’m never quite sure where those sit on the genre vs literary spectrum). The same is true of popular cinema. Most people accept blunt takes on recent films, but some film buffs get strangely defensive if you say *Citizen Kane* was mostly boring, or that *It’s a Wonderful Life* is a mediocre Christmas film.
#entertainment
source
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