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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2015 21:08:56 GMT -5
Maybe we need a book board?
Ok. So the kids and I finished this today. What am I missing. This is a classic, but I didn't like it. I tried to view it as a product of its times, but I still guess I don't see why it's stll a must read.
We did audio. (That could be part of the issue as the voices weren't my favorite).
Anyone else have an opinion?
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Artemis Windsong
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Post by Artemis Windsong on Feb 17, 2015 21:20:27 GMT -5
There is a book board but I don't recall where it is. Maybe under hobbies.
It was under Hobbies with only 2 postings. There was another one "what are you reading" but I didn't find it.
You could start a new thread.
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Feb 18, 2015 8:57:30 GMT -5
I read Brave New World in high school and didn't particularly enjoy it but I remember parts of it very clearly 25 years later. I've found that there are books that make me think even if I don't enjoy the process of reading the material - perhaps that's a mark of a true 'classic' novel.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Feb 18, 2015 9:16:11 GMT -5
Maybe we need a book board? Ok. So the kids and I finished this today. What am I missing. This is a classic, but I didn't like it. I tried to view it as a product of its times, but I still guess I don't see why it's stll a must read. We did audio. (That could be part of the issue as the voices weren't my favorite). Anyone else have an opinion? I think this is part of the problem. For me it's beyond even liking or not liking the voices. With the written word (books) I immerse myself in the story. For the moments in time I'm reading the novel, I become part of that universe. No outside distractions (no music, I tune out anyone talking etc). With that total immersion I continue to build on the world the author is creating by filling in holes and completing the story in my head with my own thoughts. Can't do that when I'm listening to someone else talk. I've never been able to get into audio books.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2015 9:17:32 GMT -5
Honestly, I found the beginning interesting. Eventually the simpering mind numbing routine of the civilized was a chore.
Maybe I also didn't like that the savage turned to self flagulating religion? That the only choices i the book were extremes of baseness... that free thought, although eluded to, was absent.
Dystopia has been done so much better.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2015 9:20:09 GMT -5
We love audiobooks. So that in itself isn't the issue. I do question why certain voices were used and if I would have read the accents the same/that would have made a difference.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2015 9:21:16 GMT -5
gs11rmb... Which parts stay with you? If I can ask.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2015 9:22:26 GMT -5
I've never been able to get into audio books. Me either! I can't stay focused on them. I find myself tuning out into my own thoughts and then I miss a bunch and lose interest.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2015 9:27:13 GMT -5
I generally don't move between reading and listening to the same book. I'm usually listening to aome and reading others. I read when I drive, clean, garden, etc... I read when I'm sitting around. I know they aren't for everyone.
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Timberwolf
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Post by Timberwolf on Feb 18, 2015 9:33:42 GMT -5
I sometimes wonder how books get on that "Classic" list. I've tried reading many books that are on that venerated list and cant get past the first chapter. It's good to at least try to read it though, IMO.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Feb 18, 2015 10:25:56 GMT -5
Honestly, I found the beginning interesting. Eventually the simpering mind numbing routine of the civilized was a chore. Maybe I also didn't like that the savage turned to self flagulating religion? That the only choices i the book were extremes of baseness... that free thought, although eluded to, was absent. Dystopia has been done so much better. Agreed, but isn't this one of the first times it was done to such an extreme? The book was written (IIRC) in the 30's, right?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2015 12:21:46 GMT -5
Yes, 1932. Although HG Wells was writing before that... And Dystopia itself was much older. Still, trying to give it props for that. I guess
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Feb 18, 2015 12:44:03 GMT -5
oped - what I remember most clearly is the description of the room where babies are made; the lack of any normal human emotional attachment between members of the society; and the utter despair of the savage. The first time I went into a laboratory that was 'growing' jellyfish in these giant tanks, I immediately thought of Brave New World. I have never read any other novel by Huxley.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2015 12:49:25 GMT -5
I think that part would stay with me to. I thought that was wel crafted. I did enjoy the beginning.
Maybe it just went on too long for me. And as I said I didn't like the ending John turning so religious. I also felt his understanding Shakespeare, while necessary for the it, was an unlikely thing...
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Feb 18, 2015 13:05:17 GMT -5
Yes, 1932. Although HG Wells was writing before that... And Dystopia itself was much older. Still, trying to give it props for that. I guess I found Brave New World to be more 'social commentary'? rather than "love story/lite entertainment' like the modern "dystopia' books I've read -- Ok, I've only read two --currently reading the Hunger Games - which is soooo very much better than the Divergent books. I only ventured into this genre because a friend wanted to read them.... reading the Hunger Games BECAUSE Divergent was such a painful read and my Friend felt that maybe we shouldn't give up on the genre. Atleast the Hunger Games seems to be better written (and a better put together 'universe'). Neither story/book seems to any sort of social commentary (other than maybe teenage girls (and boys) are angsty? but that's a given isn't it?)
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2015 13:10:31 GMT -5
Have you read The Giver Tiny?
1984 was better too.
What are people's favorite dystopian novels? I'll have to think.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Feb 18, 2015 13:43:58 GMT -5
Have you read The Giver Tiny? 1984 was better too. What are people's favorite dystopian novels? I'll have to think. Yes, I read 1984 in HS and remember having many lively conversations about it - I wasn't in the AP class that read it - but my friends were - I read it along with them. (Not to worry, I discovered I could get myself out of the 'remedial' courses I got placed into by visiting with a counselor and being obstinate and annoying until they cared enough to look at my test scores -- and by the second half of my Sophomore year I was in higher tracking courses and in AP classes... which were REALLY hard as I wasn't totally prepared - but a couple of teachers took pity and got me up to speed and then I ran with it   It's a good thing I fell in with the 'smart kids' when I went to HS (from a GS with a total of 200 kids to a HS with close to 2K kids total). I read The Giver a handful of years ago because my nephew/neice had to read it for school and were willing to talk about it. I felt I had a little too much life experience for The Giver, or maybe that it was alittle too 'hit you over the head' with what the author is SAYING that's not a story... but I did enjoy the discussion with the kids. In that same vein, I enjoyed The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin a bit better.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Feb 18, 2015 13:55:09 GMT -5
I had to go look for a list of Dystopian novels: I'm a big Ray Bradbury fan (love Something Wicked This Way Comes and the Halloween Tree) but I barely remember Fahrenheit 451. Even though I know I've read it in HS. I read Anthony Burgess A Clock Work Orange as an Adult and it just about gave me Nightmares. Probably should have read that as Teen .... less live experience is NOT a bad thing sometimes. I recently read Kazuo Ishiguro Never Let me Go I really disliked this book. It was Science Fiction LITE, and I felt like the author kept hitting me over and over and over again with what he was trying to say. I whined and complained about it because I had read so many older books that told this story/made it's points so much better. I was doing the B&Ming about it to a College Librarian who said that "it was a way to reach today's kids... they don't like the 'geekiness' of true Sci Fi and it needs to easy to read. or they won't read it." <-- yeah, she's a bit cynical too. From that point of view - a novice reading some sort of 'sci fi' with a moral/social commentary component it wasn't that bad of a story.
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Feb 18, 2015 14:47:05 GMT -5
Maybe it just went on too long for me. And as I said I didn't like the ending John turning so religious. I also felt his understanding Shakespeare, while necessary for the it, was an unlikely thing... I didn't remember either of those parts of the book - probably the boring sections
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2015 15:24:06 GMT -5
I liked Farenheit better than this too! Lol. We did that one a year or two ago. I don't like Clockwork Orange. Son does. But we didn't try book, just movie.
I had had never heard of Never Let Me Go...
sci ci fi is hard. We did 2001 this year. And we've done i robot in the pas, but older sci fi is a different thing than like Ender, which is a big favorite here.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Feb 18, 2015 16:51:55 GMT -5
Not really in the dystopian theme - but more from the "society needs to change" theme - I just read 3 of Dicken's Christmas stories - A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, and A Cricket on the Hearth. I'm not a big Dicken's fan - but the first and 3rd stories were quite fun to read and thought provoking in light of all the discussions of welfare/the poor etc that goes on on these boards. I wasn't quite clear of what The Chimes was trying to convey - but that's what the Google is for.
There were also some truely wonderfully put together sentences and paragraphs in these stories. ::sigh::
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