Friar Bellows

Have you tried "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man?"

Starr

I feel mostly the same way, although I think the books are worth at least one readthrough. I liked the books (well at least the first trilogy) the first time I read them, but when I tried to read through the books a second time.... I just couldn't do it, I no longer felt sympathy for Covenant, I just wanted him to stop the incessant whining.

Another thing that is vastly overrated is Shakespearian works in their original form. When will English teachers understand that we don't speak the same English as they did in the 1500s and translate all his stuff. There is no reason high school students should have to slog through Shakespeare in its original form, it just obfuscates the stories.

Mediancat

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed the Thomas Covenant series, but to each their own.

As to what some people find genius that I can't understand:

Japanese animation, manga and manga-influenced comics, and most British comedy.

Rob aka Mediancat

Resistor

You should see the copy of Romeo and Juliet I have for English this year. The footnotes (they're at the side, but I don't know if sidenote is a word) telling you what the words mean take up more space than the actual words. The pages are divided into two columns, and the column with the play only goes about two-thirds of the way down the page so all the footnotes that accompany that section will fit. It's absolutely pointless, and it takes twice the time it should to read it because you have to look back and forward between the columns about every five seconds.

MrHambre

This is one of my pet peeves. You're saying two different things here, Ed. If you personally find all Joyce's works incomprehensible (though, like Friar Bellows, I think Portrait of the Artist and Dubliners are not difficult at all), that's your opinion and you're welcome to it. However, accusing all Joyce fans of deception and conformism is utterly inexcusable. To put it into IIDB terms, it's the difference between saying you hated the Matrix, and saying that you think everyone who liked the Matrix is a clueless poseur. Get my point?

Plognark

Gauguin. I really can't stand his paintings. There are a lot of artists I find painfully over-rated, but to each their own I guess.

trendkill

The point to me is that it's poetry. You can't dump the original language without dumping the point. Shakespeare in modern English would be a soap opera. :P You should know the plot before you read it, anyway. But yeah, it's better to read a hyperlinked version because then you can just flip back and forth instantly without having to look up each explanation.

MrHambre

I would tend to agree if you were talking about reading Beowulf or Chaucer in the original, but I personally don't find it difficult at all to read and comprehend Shakespeare. Obviously there are a lot of words and references that have to be explained initially, but once you have the basics, Shakespeare's a snap. I'll say the same thing about Burns and other poets who wrote in the Scots dialect: once you have a familiarity with the terminology, you can breeze right through.

I can't imagine reading a 'translation' of Shakespeare that I wouldn't consider a travesty. I think the stories of Shakespeare are inextricable from his poetic imagination: if you want one, you have to accept the other.

Resistor

You have a point. I'm just complaining because I didn't like the story much. I have a habit of blaming not liking something on anything other than the actual reason why I didn't like it.

Space Chef

What's spookier is that you have a copy of 1984 and you "understand" the 'genius' of Ayn Rand.

Amen on British comedy (especially Monty Python, for me atleast). It sucks ass!

Fellini. I loved La Dolce Vita, and his other movies that I've seen are alright. I'm not saying he sucks, but he's not a freakin' god.