I think who we are and what we have lived through can greatly affect our understanding and appreciation of many books, especially classics. I’m 61 and recently read Moby Dick. I loved every page. This wasn’t the case in my previous attempts, but now I’ve lived enough life to connect with the deeper meanings.
Are you me? That book hated me for YEARS. It became a bit of an obsession for me to conquer it. (Fitting, given the themes!) Why can't I just read WORDS on a page?! I'm not illiterate. I'm not stupid. I've read long books before. Why am I struggling with this one over and over? I can't even answer that. For whatever reasons, this time, it clicked. I finally read it in August. It still was a struggle in some parts. But this time I was wanting to keep going. I ended up loving it! That's why I'm almost always willing to give a book another try. You just never know!
Part of why I like to read classic books is to better understand the world at that time. I think today a lot of people want everything to fit into our current views, experiences and expectations, and they want instant entertainment. I take exception to any effort to modernize the work of literature - I don’t mean retellings, I mean anything that either condemns the book or changes the book in service of modern sensibilities. You can not like it, but you need to see it for what it is - a reflection of their own time and place.
"Had to read this book for class." * "Had to read this book for class." * "Had to read this book for class." * "Had to read this book for class." * "Daughter had to read this book for class. I read it and loved it. Five stars!" *
Loved this video Tristan! I have been guilty of this back in early university. But now I want to learn how to read the classics for what they are, not how I make them fit my world. Thank you for all the work you put into these videos. You have truly opened my eyes about reading good books. ❤
My 25 year old self would never have read Jane Eyre. My 62 year old self loved it. Young self was too impatient. Old self is more empathetic and willing to let the novel reveal itself.
I avoided it forever because I assumed it was a sappy romance. (Which I hate.) I tried it again, kind of on a whim. It became an instant favorite! I think I've read it three times now. I will continue to re-read it the rest of my life.
I love this analysis. I recently picked up “How To Read A Book”, which covers how to read at a deeper level, and how this was an issue even back when it was written in the 1940s. This is such a great topic; we miss so much when read only on a surface level.
Great analysis, Tristan. I think today's society has created a desire for instant gratification. The beauty and intent of so much amazing literature is lost to a "speed read."
How quickly one goes from - “Of course! How anyone could read differently than from the perspective of learning: philosophy, critical thought and self-reflection?” To 4 minutes later: Surprising , immediate insight and self-awareness of my own reading experience and sometimes shallow criticisms. Brilliant video, Tristan. Thank you so much. I always appreciate the education I gain from your videos. 💙✌🏻
Only 4 chapters into crime and punishment and someone gets axed. That got me hooked. I do agree that if you sit down with a classic, it must be carefully, thoughtfully and meticulously read.
Bravo! I am continually impressed with the information you present. I have somewhat an opposite view of many others. After devoting most of my reading this year to the classics. When I then attempt to read a more recently published book…I become quickly bored with the recent offering.
In some states in the US, in order to teach to the test from No Child Left Behind, Bush Jr., they are only given maybe a few paragraphs to read and discuss in class. In my time in high school, we were to read books, and discuss them as a group, with the students leading the conversation once it got going. Yeah, the teacher would lead off with some discussion points, usually written on the board. If you did not like the book, and read the cliff notes, then yeah I can see these students even back then leaving one star reviews. Also, we were constantly writing our own reflections on what we were reading, with weekly essays. Both our writing and literature had essays written on texts we were assigned to read.
Tristan produces such excellent interesting vlogs. I would loved to have vids like these to watch when I was at school or even better a teacher like him.
Always love your video's to give me a new way of thinking and guidence into literature. Thank you so much Tristan for your thoughtful concepts and execution you put into your video's.
Thank you, Tristan. I think this can be a problem even for lifelong serious readers. Sometimes, I fear that my own attention span will shrink down to the length of a RUclips short. 😊
Idealogues both employed and the unwitting have rendered review centres like Goodreads redundant over the past decade or so. It isn't just in Classics, it's every genre and any path of 'entertainment'.
I agree that the education system is lacking instead of nurturing……..one must think and extend one’s process of thinking! I love the Classic’s and have the greatest respect for the author and the legacy they have left from generation to generation.
At seventy-five I can honestly say that I've read a goodly share of classic literature. And, I am not afraid to give low points to a book I don't like. When I choose to read a piece of classic literature, I don't read any reviews of what I am going to read. What I will do is read about the life of the author and of what events were going on in the world when the book was written. This helps to put the work in context. Right off the top of my head, the only classic book I truly disliked and may have given a one star review was Dostoevsky's The Bothers Karamazov. The reputation and adulation people give this book is not warranted in my opinion. On BookTube it seems that all you have to do is say that a book is written by either Dostoevsky or Tolstoy and the gushing begins. It could be absolute swill yet because it was written by either of these men, it is going to get a reverential review. In other words, the merit rests on the reputation of the author and not always on the quality of the writing. As for The Brothers Karamazov, I read the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation and I think that was a large part of why I did not like this book. I've read two other books by Dostoevsky and liked both of them. The translation I read was more academic than approachable. Your take on why people are disappointed with classic literature are probably very true. But, I don't think it's anything that's new. In my experience the main complaint people have about the classics is the point of view of the characters is too far removed from the reality of the world in which they live. My reply to that criticism is that the biggest reason for reading any book from any time period is to engage the imagination. If one can enjoy science fiction genre books where nothing relates to the world we live in, why is it so hard to engage with a history that is a past reality - not supposition - of mankind? It makes no sense.
Sometimes I've found myself reading Amazon reviews of some pretty deep cut classic English literature - not books that anyone has to read for a class, but seemingly books only the thoughtful and knowledgeable would seek out in the first place. Pretty amazing to see some of the reviews by people who really shouldn't be commenting. I wonder why they even buy these books.
2:04 "But these kind of one star reviews beg a question: how are we being taught to read and engage with literature?" My brain: WE'RE NOT. Good thing I live/work alone, because I couldn't stop myself from saying it out loud.
Crime and Punishment boring? We all seem to be suffering a bit of ADHD. Screens do that. TV has done that for decades, but in the world of Tic Tok a good dense book doesn’t stand a chance. Or does it?
That's a topic that we could discuss for a long time. We all succumb to the quick hit influence (I know that I certainly do) but perhaps if we were taught differently about various subjects we would enjoy them more and spend more time on them. 😀❤️
I am mid 50s which means I grew up in the Dinosaur Age, before the internet existed. (It's hard to even remember that world!) I've also loved reading since I was a child. But even I have seen my own attention span progressively shrinking through the years. I used to think I was imagining it. Years ago, I did an experiment. I turned on a random video. I paused it the moment I felt that little "itch" of my attention wandering. At that time, it was about 2 minutes. I have not done that experiment again. But I honestly don't think I can do even 1 minute. Again, this is someone who grew up pre-internet. If it's that bad for me, I can't imagine how it is for the younger generations, especially those who have never known anything different. People give their screens to BABIES now. It's all so horrifying.
I had mixed experience with literature as a curriculum at school. We had three things to study; a short story collection, a poetry collection and a play. While the short story and the poetry collections were okay overall, I had a mixed experience with the plays. We had The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare and Arms & the Man by George Bernard Shaw. While I adored the latter, I didn't really enjoy reading the former.
I think that rather than telling people how to analyze, comment on, and discuss books in a way you believe is appropriate, just show people how you do it. There is room for these other perspectives, and they don’t reveal anything about whether they lack critical thinking skills or how to get deeper meanings from books.
I agree with you on almost everything that you say. There is no single way to analyse or comment on works. An open discussion where each can bring to bear their own questions, experiences, insights, and hear opposing ideas is far more important than just being told how to read a book. To judge a book as uninteresting and boring is also something I agree with, and like you feel that those perspectives are as welcome as praise. I am a great believer that people do have good reasons for their actions and opinions, which do not betray a lack of critical thinking. Something I have noticed in speaking with many about literature is how frequently they want the answer: What should I write in my exam; why I'd this meant to be a good book, etc. That seems to be evidence that we are being taught "the right way" to comment on or interpret a book. Like you, I'd like to know what these ones (school/college students) are getting from a book. How it makes them react and why they think so. While I do agree wholeheartedly that people can and should hold their opinions as valid as others, I have learned in my personal journey that, just as in any other field of the arts or sciences or life, some people have a better understanding and insight into how things work. I don't count myself as one of them, by the way.😀 My main idea in the video is that perhaps we are teaching reading as if it's something that each person does equally, which would make it unique amongst skills, or that all literature is the same, which I feel is a mistake. I think it was the prevalence of the same reason for the complaints that struck me. Individually, they mean little, but that there are repeated patterns suggests, and i could well be wrong, that there is perhaps something in the approach to literature that may be too narrow, maybe because of not being exposed to broader ideas earlier. It's only an opinion piece, and I'm grateful to you for your comment, which I agree with almost 100% 😀❤️❤️
Dude, there are entire University courses that teach you how to analyse, comment on and discuss books. The reason for this is that this type of thinking (close reading) doesn't come naturally to us. We have to be taught it. Which is, I guess, the point of this RUclips channel.
I'm dyslexic but I'll give books a chance, I first think through an older head....as I try and imagine the author of the time....and I'll give it a try!! I've just bought Les Miserables in book form and on Audible, thinking it'll possibly help me to read the book. Never thought I'd ever try Les mis until I discovered your channel!! People's interpretation of books these days annoys me!! If it's not on RUclips, or a screen people don't seem to have the time these days it seems!! Just my POV!!
I think one of the major disconnects is that people believe stories to be inherently action orientated. They believe the point of a story is to relay a series of events. So when the story is less focused on the action in the plot and more focused on conveying abstract ideas then people become disoriented. Not realizing classics aren't action oriented they just think the book is boring or poorly written. Look at any chat thread about Moby Dick and see how many people are asking: when does the story get going? Or, this book is boring what am I missing? Or, nothing even happens in this book why is it so highly rated? They have expectations about what books are and when one doesn't fit that pre-conceived notion they deem to be a failure. It's the knee jerk reaction when you don't understand something to say it's dumb instead of asking one's self what am I missing.
I started following you in hopes of finding encouragement to read more classics, and I'm still stuck. I wonder if that is why I struggle so much with classic literature, is that I am always contemplating & reasoning about the world, people's reactions & matters of life. In general I read to "get out of my head". Not going to stop trying, but this might help me feel less defeated.
I'm not sure if you mean you read more for escapism/enjoyment? If so, maybe classic children's literature might work better for you? Those count as "classics"! I know Tristan did at least one video with recommendations.
It reminds me of a saying I once heard: Reading a classic book is like gazing into a mirror. If an ass looks into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out.
Thinking is the stuff of life. That's what makes great literature so delicious. But you must have developed an inner world. Imagination needs time to flourish.
ah goodreads...one of my problem...when I get a slump in the book I read, I go check critics on GR. I tried not checking one or two stars, bu the middle, three. But clearly, I tried to find a opinion who give me the " right" to not guilt about DNF the book. Pathetic, I know...but do I am really alone to do that?
I admit that I don't care for _Great Expectations._ But I love _Tale of Two Cities_ and the _Mystery of Edwin Drood._ My key takeaway from reading lots of classics in my teens is that I don't have to like everything by a particular author. _Anna Karenina_ makes me angry. I read _War and Peace_ while recovering from appendicitis and adored it. My friend loved _The Idiot_ but couldn't stand _Crime and Punishment._ Do you like _Vanity Fair_? _Pilgrim's Progress_? _Robinson Crusoe_? _Middlemarch_?
Love Dickens, but you have to enjoy the ride. The "paid by the word" comment is an excuse lol. Dickens works were popular in his time and whatever he published was bought and read, it wasn't just for word count paycheck. He could always just write another work.
@@fabrisseterbrugghe8567First off, no pay for you, since “circumlucatory” isn’t a word. Second, Dickens (one of the greatest English-language authors ever) created immersive worlds in the minds of his readers. It requires many words to do so. No matter, whatever they paid him, the publishers got a bargain, and the world of literature got gifts beyond measure.
@@dennish.7708 I used the word the reviewer had used. I know it's not in the dictionary. I'm a huge fan of Dickens. There are some novels that I don't much like -- _Great Expectations_ being one -- but most are wonderful. The man knew his world-building -- as the kids would say today.
@@JohnAllenRoyce He needed the up front money that serialization, the pay by the word contracts, gave him. Yes, he wrote many books. But the books didn't provide as much of his fortune as lectures, public readings, and serialization did. This was at least partially because the U.S. didn't respect British copyright.
If literature is required for school, it feels like homework because that is exactly what it is. There's no other way to describe it. So, if you're lucky, you like the assigned reading, but much of it is not entertaining or even interesting to those with different tastes. Oh well, that's school for you. If you can get through it, you accomplish something that is better than the alternative.
I had an interesting experience with this topic a few months back. We were reading The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway as a group read on Discord. Someone who had read the book before, advised us newbies to look up the term The Lost Generation and read a little about the themes of the book in advance. That changed my reading of the book. I struggled with the text. I didn't like the writing and narration styles. The characters were so annoying, and the events of the book are just a series of gatherings where they drink, eat, and insult each other. Quite boring. And, oh, all the bull fighting. When I finished it, I was like: I'm never going to read this book again! But even though the reading experience was challenging, I found the book to be fantastic. It's brilliant! It says so much about the devastating effect of ww1 on the young people of the time. Loved it! (But also disliked it).
Thank you so much for this. Today schools don't teach common grammar skills, much less the finer points of classic literature. Face it we live in a tik tok World a shallow, short attention span sort of world.
Your passionate description of what classic literature is, what it is for, how it might be conveying larger ideas, how it might make one reflect on the human condition, etc … that’s something that should be discussed in high school literature courses in the first few classes. My recollection of high school is that on the first day, we were told what we’d be covering, and then abruptly “Turn to page 1 of Hamlet!”.
Tell me about this, even at the college level, writing instructors have to accept papers based on effort, meaning they are full of BRBs, Be right back, and even emojis now. My brother even remarked that starting in the late 90s, in his social sciences classes he had to accept texting/sms language from the pager era, and not grade on grammar. I come from a family of teachers, I myself am a tutor, but I stuck to maths.
In general, I understand that you're trying to deal with the avalanche of surface reading on social media. But my brother made my family listen to hours of The Brothers K on a family trip once. As far as I could tell, it was an obnoxious Christian soap opera featuring a dysfunctional family being terrible for no reason. I've gotten along with every other classic I've attempted, but not that one. I've tried to listen to book reviews and such about the book, which just made me disrespect the author. He sounded like the kind of guy who would be a Christian Nationalist if he were alive and living in the US today. Maybe that's not true, but that's the impression I've been getting.
"Christian Nationalist", LOL! Not every book will appeal to every reader. That said, just because you are an anti-Christian bigot doesn't necessarily mean the book was bad. Wow.
@Yesica1993 I'm just telling you the impression I got from someone else's review. I was trying to better understand the book so that I could potentially try it again. That doesn't make me a bigot. It does mean that you like jumping to conclusions instead of reading what people say.
Yes, The Brothers Karamazov is attempting to analyze the world views of Orthodox Christianity from the perspective of three different people who hold different rungs on the social ladder, even though they're brothers. I prefer every other book Dostoevsky wrote as they take less time to make the point.
![BRASIL vs. URUGUAY [1-1] | RESUMEN | ELIMINATORIAS SUDAMERICANAS | FECHA 12](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-hWBAuxF1eY/mqdefault.jpg)
I think who we are and what we have lived through can greatly affect our understanding and appreciation of many books, especially classics. I’m 61 and recently read Moby Dick. I loved every page. This wasn’t the case in my previous attempts, but now I’ve lived enough life to connect with the deeper meanings.
Are you me? That book hated me for YEARS. It became a bit of an obsession for me to conquer it. (Fitting, given the themes!) Why can't I just read WORDS on a page?! I'm not illiterate. I'm not stupid. I've read long books before. Why am I struggling with this one over and over? I can't even answer that. For whatever reasons, this time, it clicked. I finally read it in August. It still was a struggle in some parts. But this time I was wanting to keep going. I ended up loving it! That's why I'm almost always willing to give a book another try. You just never know!
Part of why I like to read classic books is to better understand the world at that time. I think today a lot of people want everything to fit into our current views, experiences and expectations, and they want instant entertainment. I take exception to any effort to modernize the work of literature - I don’t mean retellings, I mean anything that either condemns the book or changes the book in service of modern sensibilities. You can not like it, but you need to see it for what it is - a reflection of their own time and place.
Thank you for making these videos. I began reading and truly enjoying and understanding classics because of your channel.
"Had to read this book for class." *
"Had to read this book for class." *
"Had to read this book for class." *
"Had to read this book for class." *
"Daughter had to read this book for class. I read it and loved it. Five stars!" *
Great analysis, fully agree with all the points listed. It puts me in mind of the quote: "I read War and Peace... it's about Russia."
That's hilarious 😂 I want to frame that and put it on my wall. 🤣🤣🤣
Loved this video Tristan! I have been guilty of this back in early university. But now I want to learn how to read the classics for what they are, not how I make them fit my world. Thank you for all the work you put into these videos. You have truly opened my eyes about reading good books. ❤
My 25 year old self would never have read Jane Eyre. My 62 year old self loved it. Young self was too impatient. Old self is more empathetic and willing to let the novel reveal itself.
I avoided it forever because I assumed it was a sappy romance. (Which I hate.) I tried it again, kind of on a whim. It became an instant favorite! I think I've read it three times now. I will continue to re-read it the rest of my life.
I love this analysis. I recently picked up “How To Read A Book”, which covers how to read at a deeper level, and how this was an issue even back when it was written in the 1940s. This is such a great topic; we miss so much when read only on a surface level.
Great analysis, Tristan. I think today's society has created a desire for instant gratification. The beauty and intent of so much amazing literature is lost to a "speed read."
Tristan, your analysis is brilliant. So well put❤.
How quickly one goes from - “Of course! How anyone could read differently than from the perspective of learning: philosophy, critical thought and self-reflection?”
To 4 minutes later:
Surprising , immediate insight and self-awareness of my own reading experience and sometimes shallow criticisms.
Brilliant video, Tristan.
Thank you so much. I always appreciate the education I gain from your videos. 💙✌🏻
Thank you for this exploration! I'm currently slowly making my way through David Copperfield, and it's such an emotional roller coaster. 😯
Glad you enjoyed it. I haven't read Copperfield for years. Like, a long long time ago. I must revisit it.😀
You are so right. Copperfield is my favorite Dickens book. David’s relationship with his aunt has depth beyond mere words on the page.
I recently read it for my library book club along with Demon Copperhead. What an amazing experience both of these books were for me!
Only 4 chapters into crime and punishment and someone gets axed. That got me hooked. I do agree that if you sit down with a classic, it must be carefully, thoughtfully and meticulously read.
If you don't know, you better axe somebody
@@mikedl1105😂
Thanks, Tristan, another insightful video.
Pleased you enjoyed it, Nigel.
Bravo! I am continually impressed with the information you present. I have somewhat an opposite view of many others. After devoting most of my reading this year to the classics. When I then attempt to read a more recently published book…I become quickly bored with the recent offering.
In some states in the US, in order to teach to the test from No Child Left Behind, Bush Jr., they are only given maybe a few paragraphs to read and discuss in class. In my time in high school, we were to read books, and discuss them as a group, with the students leading the conversation once it got going. Yeah, the teacher would lead off with some discussion points, usually written on the board. If you did not like the book, and read the cliff notes, then yeah I can see these students even back then leaving one star reviews. Also, we were constantly writing our own reflections on what we were reading, with weekly essays. Both our writing and literature had essays written on texts we were assigned to read.
Tristan produces such excellent interesting vlogs. I would loved to have vids like these to watch when I was at school or even better a teacher like him.
Always love your video's to give me a new way of thinking and guidence into literature. Thank you so much Tristan for your thoughtful concepts and execution you put into your video's.
Thank you, Tristan. I think this can be a problem even for lifelong serious readers. Sometimes, I fear that my own attention span will shrink down to the length of a RUclips short. 😊
Idealogues both employed and the unwitting have rendered review centres like Goodreads redundant over the past decade or so. It isn't just in Classics, it's every genre and any path of 'entertainment'.
Truly a fantastic video!
So many great points here, Tristan!
I agree that the education system is lacking instead of nurturing……..one must think and extend one’s process of thinking! I love the Classic’s and have the greatest respect for the author and the legacy they have left from generation to generation.
At seventy-five I can honestly say that I've read a goodly share of classic literature. And, I am not afraid to give low points to a book I don't like. When I choose to read a piece of classic literature, I don't read any reviews of what I am going to read. What I will do is read about the life of the author and of what events were going on in the world when the book was written. This helps to put the work in context. Right off the top of my head, the only classic book I truly disliked and may have given a one star review was Dostoevsky's The Bothers Karamazov. The reputation and adulation people give this book is not warranted in my opinion. On BookTube it seems that all you have to do is say that a book is written by either Dostoevsky or Tolstoy and the gushing begins. It could be absolute swill yet because it was written by either of these men, it is going to get a reverential review. In other words, the merit rests on the reputation of the author and not always on the quality of the writing. As for The Brothers Karamazov, I read the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation and I think that was a large part of why I did not like this book. I've read two other books by Dostoevsky and liked both of them. The translation I read was more academic than approachable.
Your take on why people are disappointed with classic literature are probably very true. But, I don't think it's anything that's new. In my experience the main complaint people have about the classics is the point of view of the characters is too far removed from the reality of the world in which they live. My reply to that criticism is that the biggest reason for reading any book from any time period is to engage the imagination. If one can enjoy science fiction genre books where nothing relates to the world we live in, why is it so hard to engage with a history that is a past reality - not supposition - of mankind? It makes no sense.
Sometimes I've found myself reading Amazon reviews of some pretty deep cut classic English literature - not books that anyone has to read for a class, but seemingly books only the thoughtful and knowledgeable would seek out in the first place. Pretty amazing to see some of the reviews by people who really shouldn't be commenting. I wonder why they even buy these books.
2:04
"But these kind of one star reviews beg a question: how are we being taught to read and engage with literature?"
My brain: WE'RE NOT.
Good thing I live/work alone, because I couldn't stop myself from saying it out loud.
Crime and Punishment boring? We all seem to be suffering a bit of ADHD. Screens do that. TV has done that for decades, but in the world of Tic Tok a good dense book doesn’t stand a chance. Or does it?
That's a topic that we could discuss for a long time. We all succumb to the quick hit influence (I know that I certainly do) but perhaps if we were taught differently about various subjects we would enjoy them more and spend more time on them. 😀❤️
I am mid 50s which means I grew up in the Dinosaur Age, before the internet existed. (It's hard to even remember that world!) I've also loved reading since I was a child. But even I have seen my own attention span progressively shrinking through the years. I used to think I was imagining it. Years ago, I did an experiment. I turned on a random video. I paused it the moment I felt that little "itch" of my attention wandering. At that time, it was about 2 minutes. I have not done that experiment again. But I honestly don't think I can do even 1 minute.
Again, this is someone who grew up pre-internet. If it's that bad for me, I can't imagine how it is for the younger generations, especially those who have never known anything different. People give their screens to BABIES now. It's all so horrifying.
I had mixed experience with literature as a curriculum at school. We had three things to study; a short story collection, a poetry collection and a play. While the short story and the poetry collections were okay overall, I had a mixed experience with the plays. We had The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare and Arms & the Man by George Bernard Shaw. While I adored the latter, I didn't really enjoy reading the former.
I think that rather than telling people how to analyze, comment on, and discuss books in a way you believe is appropriate, just show people how you do it. There is room for these other perspectives, and they don’t reveal anything about whether they lack critical thinking skills or how to get deeper meanings from books.
I agree with you on almost everything that you say. There is no single way to analyse or comment on works. An open discussion where each can bring to bear their own questions, experiences, insights, and hear opposing ideas is far more important than just being told how to read a book.
To judge a book as uninteresting and boring is also something I agree with, and like you feel that those perspectives are as welcome as praise. I am a great believer that people do have good reasons for their actions and opinions, which do not betray a lack of critical thinking.
Something I have noticed in speaking with many about literature is how frequently they want the answer: What should I write in my exam; why I'd this meant to be a good book, etc. That seems to be evidence that we are being taught "the right way" to comment on or interpret a book. Like you, I'd like to know what these ones (school/college students) are getting from a book. How it makes them react and why they think so. While I do agree wholeheartedly that people can and should hold their opinions as valid as others, I have learned in my personal journey that, just as in any other field of the arts or sciences or life, some people have a better understanding and insight into how things work. I don't count myself as one of them, by the way.😀 My main idea in the video is that perhaps we are teaching reading as if it's something that each person does equally, which would make it unique amongst skills, or that all literature is the same, which I feel is a mistake. I think it was the prevalence of the same reason for the complaints that struck me. Individually, they mean little, but that there are repeated patterns suggests, and i could well be wrong, that there is perhaps something in the approach to literature that may be too narrow, maybe because of not being exposed to broader ideas earlier.
It's only an opinion piece, and I'm grateful to you for your comment, which I agree with almost 100% 😀❤️❤️
Dude, there are entire University courses that teach you how to analyse, comment on and discuss books. The reason for this is that this type of thinking (close reading) doesn't come naturally to us. We have to be taught it. Which is, I guess, the point of this RUclips channel.
I'm dyslexic but I'll give books a chance, I first think through an older head....as I try and imagine the author of the time....and I'll give it a try!! I've just bought Les Miserables in book form and on Audible, thinking it'll possibly help me to read the book. Never thought I'd ever try Les mis until I discovered your channel!! People's interpretation of books these days annoys me!! If it's not on RUclips, or a screen people don't seem to have the time these days it seems!! Just my POV!!
I think the fact that I didn’t grow up in the U.K., made me love the classics? 😅 as I have discovered them by myself, outside the school system. 🤔
The fact that there are more and more RUclips shorts shows the direction we are going.
Love the video, but next time please can you slightly straighten the picture frame behind you? 😂
I think one of the major disconnects is that people believe stories to be inherently action orientated. They believe the point of a story is to relay a series of events. So when the story is less focused on the action in the plot and more focused on conveying abstract ideas then people become disoriented. Not realizing classics aren't action oriented they just think the book is boring or poorly written.
Look at any chat thread about Moby Dick and see how many people are asking: when does the story get going? Or, this book is boring what am I missing? Or, nothing even happens in this book why is it so highly rated?
They have expectations about what books are and when one doesn't fit that pre-conceived notion they deem to be a failure. It's the knee jerk reaction when you don't understand something to say it's dumb instead of asking one's self what am I missing.
I started following you in hopes of finding encouragement to read more classics, and I'm still stuck. I wonder if that is why I struggle so much with classic literature, is that I am always contemplating & reasoning about the world, people's reactions & matters of life. In general I read to "get out of my head". Not going to stop trying, but this might help me feel less defeated.
You might want to start with classics with a first-person point of view.
@@randolphpinkle4482 thank you for the advice.
I'm not sure if you mean you read more for escapism/enjoyment? If so, maybe classic children's literature might work better for you? Those count as "classics"! I know Tristan did at least one video with recommendations.
It reminds me of a saying I once heard: Reading a classic book is like gazing into a mirror. If an ass looks into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out.
Thinking is the stuff of life. That's what makes great literature so delicious. But you must have developed an inner world. Imagination needs time to flourish.
ah goodreads...one of my problem...when I get a slump in the book I read, I go check critics on GR. I tried not checking one or two stars, bu the middle, three. But clearly, I tried to find a opinion who give me the " right" to not guilt about DNF the book.
Pathetic, I know...but do I am really alone to do that?
I admit that I don't care for _Great Expectations._ But I love _Tale of Two Cities_ and the _Mystery of Edwin Drood._
My key takeaway from reading lots of classics in my teens is that I don't have to like everything by a particular author. _Anna Karenina_ makes me angry. I read _War and Peace_ while recovering from appendicitis and adored it.
My friend loved _The Idiot_ but couldn't stand _Crime and Punishment._
Do you like _Vanity Fair_? _Pilgrim's Progress_? _Robinson Crusoe_? _Middlemarch_?
Also, Dickens was paid by the word. OF COURSE he was "circumlucatory."
Love Dickens, but you have to enjoy the ride. The "paid by the word" comment is an excuse lol. Dickens works were popular in his time and whatever he published was bought and read, it wasn't just for word count paycheck. He could always just write another work.
@@fabrisseterbrugghe8567First off, no pay for you, since “circumlucatory” isn’t a word. Second, Dickens (one of the greatest English-language authors ever) created immersive worlds in the minds of his readers. It requires many words to do so. No matter, whatever they paid him, the publishers got a bargain, and the world of literature got gifts beyond measure.
@@dennish.7708 I used the word the reviewer had used. I know it's not in the dictionary.
I'm a huge fan of Dickens. There are some novels that I don't much like -- _Great Expectations_ being one -- but most are wonderful. The man knew his world-building -- as the kids would say today.
@@JohnAllenRoyce He needed the up front money that serialization, the pay by the word contracts, gave him. Yes, he wrote many books. But the books didn't provide as much of his fortune as lectures, public readings, and serialization did. This was at least partially because the U.S. didn't respect British copyright.
If literature is required for school, it feels like homework because that is exactly what it is. There's no other way to describe it. So, if you're lucky, you like the assigned reading, but much of it is not entertaining or even interesting to those with different tastes. Oh well, that's school for you. If you can get through it, you accomplish something that is better than the alternative.
I had an interesting experience with this topic a few months back. We were reading The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway as a group read on Discord. Someone who had read the book before, advised us newbies to look up the term The Lost Generation and read a little about the themes of the book in advance. That changed my reading of the book. I struggled with the text. I didn't like the writing and narration styles. The characters were so annoying, and the events of the book are just a series of gatherings where they drink, eat, and insult each other. Quite boring. And, oh, all the bull fighting. When I finished it, I was like: I'm never going to read this book again!
But even though the reading experience was challenging, I found the book to be fantastic. It's brilliant! It says so much about the devastating effect of ww1 on the young people of the time. Loved it! (But also disliked it).
It’s okay to hate things if we all loved the same stuff the world would be much different
when you read those reviews...my first thought was...did they understand these books?
Thank you so much for this. Today schools don't teach common grammar skills, much less the finer points of classic literature. Face it we live in a tik tok World a shallow, short attention span sort of world.
So glad you enjoyed it, Kathy. You are right, we live in a short attention span world which is a shame. Do you teach?
Your passionate description of what classic literature is, what it is for, how it might be conveying larger ideas, how it might make one reflect on the human condition, etc … that’s something that should be discussed in high school literature courses in the first few classes. My recollection of high school is that on the first day, we were told what we’d be covering, and then abruptly “Turn to page 1 of Hamlet!”.
BTW, I love reading. I’m deep into Martin Chuzzlewit, and I’m looking forward to consuming War And Peace during the long winter months.
Tell me about this, even at the college level, writing instructors have to accept papers based on effort, meaning they are full of BRBs, Be right back, and even emojis now. My brother even remarked that starting in the late 90s, in his social sciences classes he had to accept texting/sms language from the pager era, and not grade on grammar. I come from a family of teachers, I myself am a tutor, but I stuck to maths.
It makes me despair. It truly does. I am so thankful for finding Booktube. Without it, I think I would lose my mind. And I do mean that seriously.
In general, I understand that you're trying to deal with the avalanche of surface reading on social media. But my brother made my family listen to hours of The Brothers K on a family trip once. As far as I could tell, it was an obnoxious Christian soap opera featuring a dysfunctional family being terrible for no reason. I've gotten along with every other classic I've attempted, but not that one. I've tried to listen to book reviews and such about the book, which just made me disrespect the author. He sounded like the kind of guy who would be a Christian Nationalist if he were alive and living in the US today. Maybe that's not true, but that's the impression I've been getting.
"Christian Nationalist", LOL! Not every book will appeal to every reader. That said, just because you are an anti-Christian bigot doesn't necessarily mean the book was bad. Wow.
@Yesica1993 I'm just telling you the impression I got from someone else's review. I was trying to better understand the book so that I could potentially try it again. That doesn't make me a bigot. It does mean that you like jumping to conclusions instead of reading what people say.
Yes, The Brothers Karamazov is attempting to analyze the world views of Orthodox Christianity from the perspective of three different people who hold different rungs on the social ladder, even though they're brothers. I prefer every other book Dostoevsky wrote as they take less time to make the point.
@fabrisseterbrugghe8567 So that's what he's trying to do. Thank you for explaining.