RedemptionZeni Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 I gave it a quick read for the first time since HS, and other than the rich language, religious symbolism, and imagery, it's so damn redundant. It's like reading The Bible or Homer's Iliad. It's appreciated in same way that like an Atari 2600 is appreciated compared to an Xbox Series X. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawdamizer Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 My contention is that prior to the Revolutionary War, the economic modalities, especially in the southern colonies, could be most aptly described as agrarian pre-capitalist. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedemptionZeni Posted February 3, 2021 Author Share Posted February 3, 2021 Do you like apples? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawdamizer Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 Fuck, I really do love apples. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poof Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 is that the one where they put the letter on her for being a big slut? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
André Toulon Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 I think my mother tricked me into watching it. I remember her saying "oh, this might be too adult for you" and she knew what that meant to me..... Sat through what felt like 5 hours of that shit 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bouvre Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 Redundant? Yes, but at least you know what ignominy means. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedemptionZeni Posted February 26, 2021 Author Share Posted February 26, 2021 On 2/3/2021 at 4:42 PM, Bouvre said: Redundant? Yes, but at least you know what ignominy means. Lol Hawthorne's favorite word, just like James Fenimore Cooper's favorite word is plaintive. Not that those guys weren't superior writers, but you can tell that they spent weeks or even months on end writing out elaborate backdrops and overly dramatized scenes of everyday interactions. They definitely didn't talk like that in person and a lot of those passages didn't come to them ummm perfunctorily I guess would be an ok word to use here. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chapinator_X Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 The Scarlet Letter’s problem was that much of the attention to detail was a way to cloak the short length of the plot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nameraka Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 let's call it what it is. hawthorne is a bloody snooze. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bouvre Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 2 hours ago, nameraka said: let's call it what it is. hawthorne is a bloody snooze. He remains pretty heavily didactic/moralistic in terms of his stories, but his short stories (Especially Feathertop) have much more charm than The Scarlet Letter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedemptionZeni Posted February 26, 2021 Author Share Posted February 26, 2021 (edited) 4 hours ago, Chapinator_X said: The Scarlet Letter’s problem was that much of the attention to detail was a way to cloak the short length of the plot. That's exactly one of the major problems with the book. Does he really need ALL of those pages to get a razor-thin plot across? Hawthorne focuses way too much on trying to flesh out the interior turmoil and psychoses of his characters, but how can anyone even care all that much about Hester when you can barely piece together what she even looks like in your head. Pseudo-Kantian Edited February 26, 2021 by RedemptionZeni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedemptionZeni Posted February 26, 2021 Author Share Posted February 26, 2021 1 hour ago, Bouvre said: He remains pretty heavily didactic/moralistic in terms of his stories, but his short stories (Especially Feathertop) have much more charm than The Scarlet Letter It's definitely one of the most misplaced works on The Great American Novel list (The Top 5 of which should be Huck Finn, Gatsby, Absalom, Moby Dick, and Lolita) and I agree completely. His short stories are more representative of him as a writer. Way more genuine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mthor Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 45 minutes ago, RedemptionZeni said: It's definitely one of the most misplaced works on The Great American Novel list (The Top 5 of which should be Huck Finn, Gatsby, Absalom, Moby Dick, and Lolita) and I agree completely. His short stories are more representative of him as a writer. Way more genuine Can you really consider Nabakov an American writer, though? (Just because the plot of Lolita sounds vaguely like the illegitimate offspring of Chris Hansen and Jerry Springer doesn't make it an American novel, even if Jeremy Kyle is off the air.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoobdog Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 48 minutes ago, mthor said: Can you really consider Nabakov an American writer, though? (Just because the plot of Lolita sounds vaguely like the illegitimate offspring of Chris Hansen and Jerry Springer doesn't make it an American novel, even if Jeremy Kyle is off the air.) Yes, considering his greatest influence on literature is here in the United States. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mthor Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 26 minutes ago, scoobdog said: Yes, considering his greatest influence on literature is here in the United States. But does one judge an author by who he influences, or on who influenced him? (Genuine question, born of ignorance - I took exactly one English course in college.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoobdog Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 56 minutes ago, mthor said: But does one judge an author by who he influences, or on who influenced him? (Genuine question, born of ignorance - I took exactly one English course in college.) It's not exactly a science. When it comes to artistic movements (literature, arts, music, performance) artists don't have to exclusively belong to one particular movement or group. Musicians in particular can belong to multiple movements in multiple areas, but even in literature movements are more defined by how the work's style is influenced than its locale. To an extent, subgroups exist (think of the Lost Generation as an example) to delineate parts of larger movements, but they're certainly not perfectly aligned. On top of that, it's also important to remember that artistic endeavor of all movements share mediums for this exact reason - how a work of art is influenced counts infinitely more for how its classified than either the artist or the work's subject / setting. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bouvre Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 On 2/26/2021 at 7:57 AM, RedemptionZeni said: It's definitely one of the most misplaced works on The Great American Novel list (The Top 5 of which should be Huck Finn, Gatsby, Absalom, Moby Dick, and Lolita) and I agree completely. His short stories are more representative of him as a writer. Way more genuine "Absalom, Absalom!" by Faulkner? I feel that's one of his slightly less read novels (compared to As I Lay Dying and The Sound and The Fury) I actually never met anybody who read that until I met actual Faulkner fans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bouvre Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 On 2/26/2021 at 10:07 AM, mthor said: But does one judge an author by who he influences, or on who influenced him? (Genuine question, born of ignorance - I took exactly one English course in college.) By technicality, he was an American and wrote Lolita in English, so it easily places Nabokov's novel as a candidate for Great American Novel. Beyond that, the Great American Novel is already a construct typically borne out of how a classic that reflects and interacts with cultural/historical values of America (and those values are part of the debate of what makes a Great American Novel) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new_disease Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 Maybe so. But I won't talk shit on the book because it was the inspiration for the great Emma Stone film, Easy A 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedemptionZeni Posted March 1, 2021 Author Share Posted March 1, 2021 On 2/28/2021 at 3:48 AM, Bouvre said: "Absalom, Absalom!" by Faulkner? I feel that's one of his slightly less read novels (compared to As I Lay Dying and The Sound and The Fury) I actually never met anybody who read that until I met actual Faulkner fans I had to read it for one of my classes at UVA. I had only read a little bit of Faulkner before then, but it got me to order all of his novels via Amazon Prime with my student discount. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poof Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 4 hours ago, RedemptionZeni said: I had to read it for one of my classes at UVA. I had only read a little bit of Faulkner before then, but it got me to order all of his novels via Amazon Prime with my student discount. zeni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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