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Originally Posted by jorgelito
Good tip will, you make some good points. I will re-vist in a few years. I love "Old Man and the Sea", it's one of my favorites. But "Farewell to Arms", "Sun Also Rises" just don't do it for me. For me it was the feeling of nothingness, sort of hedonistic let's-all-feel-sorry-for-ourselves we-have-no-direction-in-life-but-we-drink,-eat,-travel-and-party-all-the-time mentality that really annoyed me. I didn't like any of the characters and felt they were unworthy. No redeeming value at all (to me at least). But Old Man was just awesome. I wonder why there's so much disparity between these books. Maybe age.
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You need to put Sun Also Rises in context, though, which was my point. War can break even great men (and women). While the physical manifestation of war's effect in Sun Also Rises is totally and completely obvious, the effect on the character's souls is deep and profound. It's like the canvas upon which the story is painted.
A good family friend had his right leg blown off by an IED in Baghdad. When he was recovering, he had to ask himself questions that I can't even fathom. The fundamental and visceral change in his life was something that would completely excuse what may appear as him feeling sorry for himself. Adding to his injury the fact that he had to take lives and saw terrible things... it creates a singular state of mind that you really can't find elsewhere. As for redeeming... you'll have to figure that out for yourself.
And yes, Old Man is probably one of the best pieces of literature ever written.
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Originally Posted by jorgelito
ood lord will! Reading War and Peace in Russian! Wow, that is awesome dude. Good for you. Keep it up.
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No, I'm not reading it in Russian, my friend is. He's sending me notes on what he sees are differences that were lost in the translation (boy would that make a great Russian Lit dissertation). I'm reading along and studying what the minor differences mean to the overall themes.
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Originally Posted by jorgelito
OOh, yeah, I've been meaning to pick some Ayn Rand up to read. Man, my reading list is backed up. What's her style like? Are the books fiction? I didn't know you were rejected from architecture school. Sorry to hear that.
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Careful with Rand. She's really popular among many readers, but her philosophy tends to get shat upon by philosophers. It's funny, she touts a certain hyper-rationality but just ends up demonstrating her strong and deep-running biases. And she has a holier-than-thou attitude that makes me look like the most humble, unobtrusive person in the world. Imagine a 70 page speech by a god-like main character that supports her philosophy and is being dragged down by those who don't agree with her... You might want to read up on objectivism before diving into Rand.