Unpopular Literary Opinions You Hold

Amy March is much less terrible than a lot of characters I have read in literature, and burning a manuscript as a child is, objectively speaking, not that terrible. But I was a Jo who wrote (and still does write) ALL the time, and I am unable to be objective about someone burning someone else's writing. Kirsten Dunst is the only reason I don't hate Amy.

queenofdenile wrote: burning a manuscript as a child is, objectively speaking, not that terrible.

I don't understand those words in that order.

That whole "Dan's not good enough to even think about being in love with Bess" stuff in Jo's Boys drove me crazy. What's so freaking special about Bess anyway? She's pretty? She's nice? She's got some artistic talent? She doesn't even have a personality!

To be fair, Bess does have a personality. It just sucks. One of my least favorite parts of Jo's Boys would be when she politely informs Dolly and Stuffy (who--again, to be fair--ARE being tools) that she doesn't really know how to talk to them because she's been speaking to "superior" people all her life.

I don't understand those words in that order.

HEE!

I'm trying to pretend to be fair, okay?!

We're supposed to believe that Bess is perfect because...everyone loves her. That's basically it. She doesn't need a personality as long as everyone else in the book puts her on a pedestal and lets the reader know she's somehow worthy of adoration.

I loved Amy March and I'm glad she's the one who got to go to Europe with Aunt March because Jo shot her mouth off.

She was my favourite too.

I loved The Hunger Games movie and books, and Josh Hutcherson won me over, but I don't get the appeal of BookPeeta at all. He always struck me as a personality-free, milquetoast plot-contrivance, there to keep the love-triangle angle going. He's an okay character, but no foil for Katniss in my opinion. I felt like Collins was trying to shove his awesomeness down our throats to counter the much more natural dynamic between her and Gale. I know that the romance was forced upon Katniss but then Haymitch (I think) says something along the lines of 'You could live a thousand years and never deserve him.' Really? I mean REALLY? I know she's angry and fractured and whatnot, but Peeta isn't Jesus, okay? I think I only started to like him when

Spoiler:

At least he had some dimensions after that. Yes, I was sort of Team Gale.

I've been trying to get into The Golden Compass for, hm, 150 pages now, and I'm just not feeling it. This book is taking itself way too seriously.

I swear Moneyball is the Atlas Shrugged of sports, just without the tease of its insufferable adherents potentially disappearing into the dessert.

I felt bad for being bored to death by Life of Pi when I read it two years ago. I made myself finish the whole thing, but it was agonizing.

The Dude wrote:I swear Moneyball is the Atlas Shrugged of sports, just without the tease of its insufferable adherents potentially disappearing into the dessert.

Yeah, I gave up on that one about 3/4 the way through, and I LOVE reading about baseball.

The Dude wrote:I swear Moneyball is the Atlas Shrugged of sports, just without the tease of its insufferable adherents potentially disappearing into the dessert.

I know very little about baseball, but now I have this image of players vanishing into a God-sized bowl of bread pudding or something, like a sugary Field of Dreams but in reverse.

Cynara wrote:

The Dude wrote:I swear Moneyball is the Atlas Shrugged of sports, just without the tease of its insufferable adherents potentially disappearing into the dessert.

I know very little about baseball, but now I have this image of players vanishing into a God-sized bowl of bread pudding or something, like a sugary Field of Dreams but in reverse.

That actually happened with the Red Sox last year, but instead of pudding, it was fried chicken and beers. And they all ended up in LA.

Grainne Mhaol wrote:I loved The Hunger Games movie and books, and Josh Hutcherson won me over, but I don't get the appeal of BookPeeta at all. He always struck me as a personality-free, milquetoast plot-contrivance, there to keep the love-triangle angle going. He's an okay character, but no foil for Katniss in my opinion. I felt like Collins was trying to shove his awesomeness down our throats to counter the much more natural dynamic between her and Gale. I know that the romance was forced upon Katniss but then Haymitch (I think) says something along the lines of 'You could live a thousand years and never deserve him.' Really? I mean REALLY? I know she's angry and fractured and whatnot, but Peeta isn't Jesus, okay? I think I only started to like him when

Spoiler:

At least he had some dimensions after that. Yes, I was sort of Team Gale.

I honestly didn't like either of them that much. The whole time I was reading I was thinking, "and why for once can't a female heroine not have 80% of her character arc be a will they/won't they situation? Just once?"

I can see why someone might find Peeta boring, but man, I loved that character so much and rooted for him more than anyone else throughout the series. I loved how good and kind and courageous he was whereas I felt like Gale wasn't given enough time to develop on his own as a character. He fell more flat to me.

I didn't think Peeta was flat or boring; I just thought he was too good to be true. It wasn't until I saw the movie that he actually seemed like a real character to me.

I love The Hunger Games, and it honestly never occurred to me that 'who will Katniss choose' was even really a thing until I got into Tumblr. It's brought up now and then in passing the books, sure, but it feels like mainly a fandom thing.

draco, that makes sense. He really did need actual solid flaws so I totally understand that criticism.

Pop'n'Fresh wrote:I love The Hunger Games, and it honestly never occurred to me that 'who will Katniss choose' was even really a thing until I got into Tumblr. It's brought up now and then in passing the books, sure, but it feels like mainly a fandom thing.

I actually felt like it was a pretty big thing in the third book, enough for it to annoy me.

The current state of fantasy literature. It feels like everyone took the wrong lesson from Ice & Fire. Everything is so dark these days. If the characters are likeable or sympathetic in the least, all the goodness is going to be tortured out of them. However, some people don't even bother, making them horrible to start with.

For example, Joe Abercrombie. The most interesting character to me was a Conan-like figure, a barbarian encountering the big city for the first time. However, it felt like we got to spend a lot more time with the torturer. I didn't bother picking up the second book, or anything else he's written.

You know what I feel a good model for a character is? Han Solo. He's a drug smuggler who kills people in cold blood and abandons his allies in a time of need. But he's still damn fun when he's doing it. Let us like a character. And when we do, don't put them through the meatgrinder either physically or mentally.