I’m talking works by Kurt Vonnegut, Isaac Asimov, Joseph Heller, Stephen King, Art Spiegelman, Elie Wiesel, Daniel Keyes, etc. I haven’t read any from these I’ve mentioned, I just have a bias that tells me they’re overrated trash. I think it’s quite common on american “classics” (not just books but also films) a certain political defeatism or instead a very liberal surface level criticism of “bad things” (Steinbeck stays winning). And then these barren ideas get louded as incredible literature classics (which makes sense as far as the rulling class’s efforts for maintaining the status quo are concerned).

But as I’ve said this is my analysis a priori of having read such novels, but are there actually redeeming qualities on those novels that make them worthy of pursuing? I’m not that interested in style but I can see that some of the authors mentioned have that idiosyncrasy going for them. Also I’m sure some do get the problems they’re writing about and maybe that analysis, even if it doesn’t go all the way, is a good enough quality.

(I write this about american novels in particular but it clearly expands to other ‘classics’. Unfortunately I have read stuff by that Orwell fella which is a clear perpetrator of the crimes I’ve mentioned. I focused on the american side because most of the ‘classics’ lists are filled with them (they’re anglocentric in general but more american-sided))

    • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
      2·
      1 year ago

      I think we have to pick up the right book at the right time. I say I’m quite the fan because I’ve enjoyed the books of his that I finished. But I’m stuck at number five or six in the Robots/Empire/Foundation series because I’ve tried and failed to get into the next one. I need the head-space to read 100 pages undisturbed and I’m sure I’ll get into it.

      IIRC I started with the standalone, The Gods Themselves. To paraphrase, he credits this as the most creative sci-fi book ever in one of his autobiographies (could’ve been I, Asimov—who writes multiple autobiographies? He did like to write… and it’s a good book). It’s certainly a creative novel!