Great Books We've Never Read
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
June 30, 2011 at 12:02pm
PJ's post about great books that are in truth tedious put me in mind of David Lodge's book Changing Places. Anyone remember that one? Dinner party at Euphoria University, Swallow proposes a brisk game of "Humiliation." The rule is you compete to name the classics of literature you haven't read. The greater the work, the higher the score. Ambitious Euphoria Professor Howard Ringbaum, seized by a spasm of competitiveness, bursts out that he's never read Hamlet, thus handily winning the game.
Because I've actually read that book, cover to cover, I know the punchline, so I'm sure not going to play. However, I encourage those of you who haven't read it to jump right in.
(I've read Hamlet, too, if you're wondering.)
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Re: Great Books We've Never Read
Kennedy Smith:
There was something netwide about a month ago which surveyed people about movies they claim to have seen, but haven't. The Godfather made the top of the list. How does anyone but that Amazon tribe not see The Godfather? OK, I haven't seen all of Casablanca (though have seen Citizen Kane, thankyouverymuch).
So up until a few years ago, I'd never seen The Godfather or Godfather II. Which is really weird, considering how much I love film. But I finally saw them and couldn't stop talking about them with anyone.
My husband would ask me if I also wanted to talk to people about this great new band The Beatles.
Anyway, watch Casablanca already and also my fave To Have And Have Not.
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
At what point do the people who've read Changing Places reveal how this game ends?
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
Dante is almost unbearable, at least in translation. Hell is interesting, but the rest of "Divine Comedy" can be finished only if your life, or your semester grade, depends on it.
Dec '10
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
I agree, Ken. I think I'll start something with my girls. What do you think about reading Shakespeare to kids? I'm no Shakespearean actor, but I think the language would be much more accessible to children with some proper expression and emphasis by an adult. Proper being the key and my biggest challenge. But, my girls will enjoy Mom making a fool of herself. Lionel's Shakespeare scene with his boys was one of my favorites in The King's Speech.
May '10
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
Claire, you always beckon me when you host a party. I will be seated at the table with katievs and Kervinlee, since I confess I have not read the masterworks of Dante or de Cervantes.
Aug '10
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
I'll go a different route than literary classics and suggest The Tipping Point and The Bell Curve.
Two books that literally redefined how we discuss society, intelligence, and information... but I bet 90% of the people who use the titles as terms don't even realize they were actual books. Of course fewer have read them to process the arguments behind the concepts, and just accept a summarized version of the ideas. (I'll admit I'm in the latter group.)
In 10 years we can add Nassim Taleb's The Black Swan to the list; sooner, if cable news talking heads continue to toss the term around every time they didn't see a big event coming.
Edited on June 30, 2011 at 5:44pmRe: Great Books We've Never Read
I think this is the appropriate thread to reveal one of my biggest, darkest secrets. I purposely leave the last 3% of a book unread. I just can't bear to read the last pages because finishing a book really upsets me. It's kind of like mourning the death of something. Didn't finish the last 30 pages of Atlas Shrugged, nor the last 40 pages of War and Peace, nor the last 30 pages of Brothers Karamazov. I think it must be some kind of illness...
Edited on June 30, 2011 at 5:48pmJul '10
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
BlueAnt: but I bet 90% of the people who use the titles as terms don't even realize they were actual books. Of course fewer have read them to process the arguments behind the concepts, and just accept a summarized version of the ideas.. · Jun 30 at 8:40am
Edited on Jun 30 at 08:44 am
I would add Catch-22 to the list.
Sep '10
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
I can't quite disagree with you, since I only finished Hell and Purgatory. (Didn't know enough medieval cosmography/theology to persevere with Paradise.) But Hell and Purgatory were great, and the ending of Purgatory, where Beatrice approaches and Virgil disappears, is breathtaking. The guy could write an ending.
Edited on June 30, 2011 at 6:27pmMay '11
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
Kennedy Smith: .
There was something netwide about a month ago which surveyed people about movies they claim to have seen, but haven't. The Godfather made the top of the list. How does anyone but that Amazon tribe not see The Godfather?
The people who have not seen The Godfather are probably the 9% of Republicans that pollsters say approve of Obama's policies.
Sep '10
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
Hey, I love Shakespeare. I've read Hamlet, Macbeth, 1&2 Henry IV, Henry V, Much Ado, The Tempest, and lots of others that I don't recall. But Romeo and Juliet? Gakk. Never could plow through it. I just want to tell them to get a room already.
Mar '11
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
You're crazy.
Sep '10
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
I cheated--looked it up on Amazon and searched for "Hamlet". Luckily my career doesn't depend on this.
Aug '10
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
The translator's note in my copy of Inferno claims:
"The only way I could see of trying to preserve that [complexity of language] was to try for a language as close as possible to Dante's, which is in essence a sparse, direct, and idiomatic language, distinguishable from prose only in that it transcends every known notion of prose. I do not imply that Dante's is the language of common speech. It is a much better thing than that: it is what common speech would be if it were made perfect... overwhelmingly it is a spoken tongue."
and:
"I have foregone the use of Dante's triple rhyme because it seemed clear that one rendering into English might save the rhyme or save the tone of the language, but not both. It requires approximately 1500 triple rhymes to render The Inferno and even granted that many of these combinations can be used and re-used, English has no such resources of rhyme."
I don't doubt Dante is better in the original Italian, but if Ciardi is accurate, I'll forgive translators' failings in a truly daunting task.
Sep '10
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
Dr Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Hamlet.
Sep '10
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
For Dante, try Hollander or Esolen and I'd suggest snagging a set of Teaching Company (Great Courses) lectures to go along with it and only do one book at a time. You'll also need to have done your work on Virgil's Aenid, which means you need a great translation of that as well and another set of lectures. I should really get some kind of remuneration for stumping for those guys.
(Can I say stumping on Ricochet?)
Mar '11
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
Dr Seuss - One Man or Many writing under a pseudonym?
May '10
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
Diane Ellis, Ed.: I think this is the appropriate thread to reveal one of my biggest, darkest secrets. I purposely leave the last 3% of a book unread. I just can't bear to read the last pages because finishing a book really upsets me. It's kind of like mourning the death of something. Didn't finish the last 30 pages of Atlas Shrugged, nor the last 40 pages of War and Peace, nor the last 30 pages of Brothers Karamazov. I think it must be some kind of illness... · Jun 30 at 8:46am
Edited on Jun 30 at 08:48 am
Harry Potter dies. Has to, really, being the 7th (unintended) Horcrux. Otherwise nobody could kill Voldemort. Oops, shoulda put a SPOILER ALERT on that.
How does not reading the end work with mystery novels? That's the Big Scene. Oh bravo, Mr Poirot, a very riveting tale. But you haven't a shred of proof. "Ah, monsieur, there you are mistaken"
Nov '10
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
This has been my experience. I even read Inferno once on my own, without some assignment or anything. Purgatory is OK, but gets less interesting as it goes on. I stopped at the garden at the end.
I tried skipping ahead to Paradise, but couldn't finish even the first page.
Re: Great Books We've Never Read
I've tried five times--count 'em, five--to get through The Brothers Karamazov.
On the other hand, I couldn't put The Devils down.
Baffling. (To me, anyway. Nobody else could possibly care.)