Page 1 of 3 [ 34 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3  Next

zeldapsychology
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 May 2008
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,431
Location: Florida

09 Feb 2011, 4:26 pm

Confusing sentences and terms and metaphors. I have my grammar issues but sheesh! I feel these people should get F's across the board. The first few pages of Moby Dick turned me off. Cato and sword?? Just say what you mean in PLAIN ENGLISH not jargon terms that the reader might not know. The latest assignment for my Literature of the Sea course really confused me and made no since AT ALL! Of course I grew up with Goosebumps and enjoy more popular reads such as Twilight and Harry Potter so old literature confuses me. Old movies (I enjoyed It's a Wonderful Life and King Kong) Both Black and White BTW and I also enjoy old videogames PONG,Donkey Kong,Pacman etc. but old literature is a MESS! There is a REASON people don't write that way anymore!!



Kaybee
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Oct 2009
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,446
Location: A hidden forest

09 Feb 2011, 4:28 pm

I enjoy old literature, and never found it difficult to read. Middle English can be quite a challenge, but anything after that is easy enough.


_________________
"A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it."


Dantac
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,672
Location: Florida

09 Feb 2011, 4:30 pm

Try reading the scarlet letter in its original form. Holy smokes that thing makes you want to poke your eyeballs out and sit on a blender blade to end the painnnnn

:lol:



MidlifeAspie
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Nov 2010
Age: 48
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,016

09 Feb 2011, 4:30 pm

Hwæt. We Gardena in gear-dagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

I got to study Beowulf in the original Old English and loved it :) Used the Seamus Heaney text.


_________________
Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.


zeldapsychology
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 May 2008
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,431
Location: Florida

09 Feb 2011, 4:33 pm

Dantac wrote:
Try reading the scarlet letter in its original form. Holy smokes that thing makes you want to poke your eyeballs out and sit on a blender blade to end the painnnnn

:lol:


I've never read it but it sounds like torture LOL!



Kaybee
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Oct 2009
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,446
Location: A hidden forest

09 Feb 2011, 4:34 pm

MidlifeAspie wrote:
Hwæt. We Gardena in gear-dagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

I got to study Beowulf in the original Old English and loved it :) Used the Seamus Heaney text.


Awesome. :) That sounds very interesting.


_________________
"A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it."


dunbots
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Jan 2011
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,721
Location: Washington, USA

09 Feb 2011, 4:44 pm

MidlifeAspie wrote:
Hwæt. We Gardena in gear-dagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

I got to study Beowulf in the original Old English and loved it :) Used the Seamus Heaney text.

Awesome, I have that book. 8) I also have a parallel text with The Canterbury Tales in Middle English and modern. I'm going to study OE and ME some day, but too busy now. :wink:



GoonSquad
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 May 2007
Age: 55
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,748
Location: International House of Paincakes...

09 Feb 2011, 4:48 pm

I generally like prose from the 18th century on.

I bought my kindle just to read old stuff from project Gutenberg.

Kindle also helps reading old stuff thanks to the built in dictionary. It really helped me to understand Alexander Pope and a few arcane passages from Jonathan Swift...

If you really can't "get it" try to find an entry for the work at sparknotes or cliff's notes.

For major stuff, they'll usually have summaries and analysis. That can really help a lot.

Also, if you have the time, try to summarize/translate the work every page or so. This method helped me understand Pope's Essay on Man...

Pope is quite sadistic... combining poetry and philosophy? What a bastard! :lol:


_________________
No man is free who is not master of himself.~Epictetus


Dantac
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,672
Location: Florida

09 Feb 2011, 4:58 pm

GoonSquad wrote:

Pope is quite sadistic... combining poetry and philosophy? What a bastard! :lol:



sounds like my type of bastard. Example? I cant get google hits on this



MidlifeAspie
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Nov 2010
Age: 48
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,016

09 Feb 2011, 5:07 pm

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;


_________________
Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.


MidlifeAspie
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Nov 2010
Age: 48
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,016

09 Feb 2011, 5:11 pm

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between, in doubt to act or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much;
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!


_________________
Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.


jmnixon95
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Dec 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 20,931
Location: 미국

09 Feb 2011, 5:19 pm

Not only is 'old' a subjective term, but most 'classic literature' (I believe that is the proper term) is fantastic.



GoonSquad
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 May 2007
Age: 55
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,748
Location: International House of Paincakes...

09 Feb 2011, 5:33 pm

Dantac wrote:
GoonSquad wrote:

Pope is quite sadistic... combining poetry and philosophy? What a bastard! :lol:



sounds like my type of bastard. Example? I cant get google hits on this


Heh.... What midlifeaspie said! :lol:

You can download Pope's Essay on Man from Manybooks.net

My favorite quote:

Quote:
To be, contents his natural desire;
He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire:
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.


_________________
No man is free who is not master of himself.~Epictetus


Last edited by GoonSquad on 09 Feb 2011, 5:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ambivalence
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Nov 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,613
Location: Peterlee (for Industry)

09 Feb 2011, 5:45 pm

<-- translated the entire Alliterative Morte Arthure (badly) out of Middle English for kicks. :)

I agree about Moby Dick, but its incomprehensibility is not a function of its age; there's a faction within high literature that venerates obscurely written crap like Ulysses, Gravity's Rainbow, All The Pretty Horses and suchlike garbage. The literary equivalent of a high-priced restaurant where they serve three sticks of asparagus and a toasted lemon as aperitif for a minuscule portion of caramelised bat droppings.

Another horrible bane of 'old' literature is that half of it was written in serial form - in the worst cases, such as the execrable Count of Monte Cristo (I've only read it in translation but that didn't leave me gagging to try the original!), written in serial form by many different writers with apparently different ideas as to how the story should turn out. It can work, but usually doesn't.

Natheless, there's lots of good stuff, even so; try The Manuscript Found In Saragossa or A Hero Of Our Time.


_________________
No one has gone missing or died.

The year is still young.


Moog
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Feb 2010
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 17,671
Location: Untied Kingdom

09 Feb 2011, 5:47 pm

There's good and bad written in all ages.


_________________
Not currently a moderator


MidlifeAspie
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Nov 2010
Age: 48
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,016

09 Feb 2011, 5:52 pm

I must disagree with your opinion on Ulysses and anything written by Cormac McCarthy. There is something nice about literature that is meant to be hard to read. :nerdy:


_________________
Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.