Wednesday, July 27, 2005

unclassical CLASSICs

Hithhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Catch-22
Gone With the Wind
David Copperfield
Midnight's Children

Above is a list of classic books, which made it to the top 100 great books in English. I bought these books with a curiosity to enjoy the literary values of these classics and to have a satisfactory feeling of classical readings. But my tiny brain is not yet tuned to enjoy the literary values or the classical contents of these books.

Review said H2G2 (Hithhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) as the funniest novel of the century. I read that book, it was funny, a non-sensical funny. I was not able to enjoy the non-sensical funny. It's true that I laughed out loud many times while reading. And the story was very creative too.
But I wouldn't put it at 4th place among top 100. Recently Hollywood made a movie based on this book, with same title. I think the movie did not go well in box office.

'Catch-22' is at 11th position in top 100. This is also one of the "funniest" novel of the century, as per the reviews. I am half way through reading this book. I am reading this book just because I started reading. I have to admit that this book has a unique way of story telling. Again my tiny brain is too tiny to appreciate and enjoy that style.
(Story runs during the Second World War time, and it goes to Bologna, Italy.....hmm?).

Remaining three books are at the 21,34 & 100th positions respectively. I have read at least 2 chapters from these three books and kept aside before continuing further. It was too difficult to toil over the pages. But still I have not given in yet. Waiting for a good moment to go back and enjoy the 'literary values' of these books.

Recently I saw a classic film 'Taxi Driver' (1976) directed by the great Martin Scorsese and acted (lead role) by Robert De Niro. I did not have patience to watch the movie without Fast FWDing it. Same with another classic 'Ben Hur' (1950's), which won 11 academy awards.

What is a classic? Generally anything's very old seems to be called as Classics. Books & movies, which were made long long ago were made for the target audiences of that period. Over the period definitely the taste have changed a lot. That is the reason why it was so difficult for me to read/watch those classics. I was wondering whether was it only me or other people also have the same kinda difficulties. I checked with two of my friends who, unlike me, are voracious readers. They also have similar opinion as me.

Let me wait till my tiny brain grows up some what big enough to enjoy those classics and come back again.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

who's the other one? Just curious!!!