(no subject)

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one a little bothered by Dumbledore? Not only with the fact he could end up in the Guinness Book Of World Records for "Most Incompetent Headmaster of All Time" (though I'm sure there's worse. :P), but also because...he just bugs me. I know JKR was trying to write him as the "flawed Yoda", so to speak (and to be fair, he's nowhere near Yoda. XD), but it's also how...preachy he gets. Towards Fudge, for example. You know, in Goblet of Fire, with, "You place too much importance on purity of blood, yadda yadda et cetera et cetera" -- which considering how he treated Tom Riddle and the Slytherins is...slightly hypocritical isn't it? Probably bad writing on JKR's part, though. :/

Anyways, sorry 'bout the rambling. Thoughts?

Comments

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

I can imagine. :/

*Doesn't really read Joseph Conrad. Feels woefully uneducated. :P*

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Meh, don't worry about not having read Conrad. I only read the story because it was assigned. It was good, but Conrad definitely has a convoluted way with words sometimes.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Ah. Gotcha. :)

[sunnyskywalker]

I had to read Heart of Darkness. My class decided it was the longest short book ever - in that by page count, it should have been short, and there were some interesting things, but it dragged on and on and ON. Dude, we get it! The jungle is dark! This is a TERRIBLY MEANINGFUL METAPHOR!

But at least Chinue Achebe wrote an interesting critique about it.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

"I had to read Heart of Darkness. My class decided it was the longest short book ever - in that by page count, it should have been short, and there were some interesting things, but it dragged on and on and ON. Dude, we get it! The jungle is dark! This is a TERRIBLY MEANINGFUL METAPHOR!"

XD That's made of win. I salute you. :3

*Will check out critique when I have time* :)

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was pretty much the impression that I got. Lots of metaphor, but the story itself could probably be summed up in about a paragraph. But I suppose it wasn't about the story, was it?

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Probably not. *Shrugs* That, and literary works definitely have a different flow to them than more...commercial works. (I'm not insulting anyone, trust me! XD) The truth is, literary fiction has a different set of rules, and tends to be more character-based. Commercial works...well, they tend to be faster-paced. But it doesn't mean that they can't have great character development or thematic arcs, of course. They're more about escapism.

/end regurgitating every writing book I ever read. XD

[sunnyskywalker]

The Hunchback of Notre Dame has plenty of exciting plot - so do Pride and Prejudice and Huckleberry Finn and other designated classics - so there's some flexibility in the literary mould, but yeah. Conrad just went way to the contemplative and metaphorical end of the scale.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, there wasn't a whole lot of what we'd think of as "literary fiction" before the 20th century. Lots of good literature but, literature and literary fiction aren't the same thing. It's more of a modern or post-modern thing, with the contemplation and deeper development, meant to force people to think about things that maybe they wouldn't want to confront otherwise. If done well on a more prosaic level, they'll also entertain. (My opinion, of course. I decided a while ago that I'd rather not try for writing literary fiction and I'll only read it if the summary strikes my fancy.)

I didn't mind The Secret Agent. It really was a good book, got very nicely into characterizations and, the pay-off was just right. Slow start, though, and plenty of slower-than-molasses sections.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Good points. :)

And it is very true -- after all, genres/ways of style aren't set in stone.

[sunnyskywalker]

Good point. They just lumped them all together in the syllabus pretty often and told us they were all Literature :D

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

I think it's a very common trait in humanity that we crave simplicity. Or some degree of it. Or the teachers think so, so that's why they lumped Conrad and Twain and Hugo into the "literature" category. :D

^__^