[ SECRET POST #2238 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2238 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 097 secrets from Secret Submission Post #320.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fauxkaren]

I thought I haaated Steinbeck because I hated Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, but then I read East of Eden and I LOVED it.

So now I'm wondering if there are other Steinbeck books I would like or if East of Eden is just a fluke.

[cassandraoftroy]

I didn't find The Pearl or The Red Pony to be much better than Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men. (Wow, I had to read a lot of Steinbeck in school.) So maybe there's something else out there that he's written that you might enjoy, but I've found everything I've encountered by him to be unrelentingly horrible, and it's really not worth it to me to go looking further.

[(Anonymous)]

THANK GOD, someone else hated The Catcher in the Rye! I wanted to shove Holden Caulfield's face through a window THE ENTIRE TIME. The WHINING and the PRENTENSION in that boy...

However, can't agree with you on Frankenstein - but to be fair, I didn't begin to like it until I wrote a paper on how the monster developed Reactive Attachment Disorder (and felt like a nerd).

[cassandraoftroy]

With The Catcher in the Rye, I think I just kept waiting for the main character or anything he did to have a point. The whole time I was suffering through that book, I feel like I was screaming at Holden Caulfield, "WHY DO YOU EXIST? WHAT IS THE POINT OF YOU?" For me, a protagonist has to be either likable or interesting, if not both. Holden was neither.

[visp]

Sooo much hate for The Red Pony. I read that one when I was 9 and was like, "Yay, the boy has a pony! It's so pretty and... what? Oh, I'm sure he'll get better and... No! No, no, nononono! Why?"

[cassandraoftroy]

There's an entire genre of children's literature that I like to call, "...And Then the Dog Dies," that makes me want to print out warning labels and go into the nearest elementary school and stick them on every copy of every book that pulls that crap. (Where the Red Fern Grows, I'm looking at YOU.)

[visp]

At least Red Fern has a whole story full of adventures and happy times, and so if the dogs do die, it's still kinda 'Bittersweet Ending,' 'Circle of Life.' Red Pony is just a long, drawn-out story of suck.

[cassandraoftroy]

It's true. There was what, maybe half a chapter of happy-horsey-times, and then everything in the kid's life started dying and shit? I read the book when I was 12, but I remember it being a pretty unrelenting torrent of despair. Like most of Steinbeck.

[truxillogical]

Where The Red Fern Grows stands out to me as the book. As in, once we read that (in 5th grade, I think), we were Never Again going to read any book that had anything like a happy ending.

Which is just ricockulous the more you think about it, because sheesh, there are plenty of good "classic" stories out there that have happy endings too. But nope, no time for Midsummer Night's Dream, let's go through Romeo and Juliet. Oh. May we?

Also, the image of one of the bully brothers falling onto his own axe, looking up at the protag, and trying to speak but just making a bubble of blood before dying is forever ingrained in my mind.

[(Anonymous)]

His Mallory adaptation -- The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights, iirc -- is amazing, and gets better with every story he adapts; I wish he'd finished it.

It always surprises me to think about, because as far as all his other work goes I completely agree with you.

[cassandraoftroy]

Huh. I guess it's just that hard to screw up King Arthur? Or maybe he's better when he's not making up his own source material? IDK.

[(Anonymous)]

Duuuuuude. The Pearl SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKED. I say this as an avowed bibliophile.

[ginainthekingsroad]

Me too! I had to read Steinbeck pretty much every year from 7th to 12th grade (except the year of BritLit), perhaps because he was a Californian? I hated every thing of his we read, until in 12th grade I read East of Eden. I've heard from someone else who generally dislikes Steinbeck that Travels with Charley is good, and funny to boot. Don't know if I'll go out of my way to read it any time soon, but still.

[sienamystic]

East of Eden is so, so good.

On the other hand, The Red Pony seriously traumatized me in a way that would not be repeated until Bless the Beasts and the Children. So.