Overated?
Even just a bit?
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- Dan
- Father, musician, trail runner, reader, geographer, craft beer aficionado, meditator.
On the Bookstand
In the DVD Player
The Roll
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Three Day Weekend14 years ago
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King New Year 201214 years ago
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Perfect Things.17 years ago
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13 comments:
It is reference a lot. I have never seen it. Do I want to? Maybe if the mood struck me.
I was actually referring to the book. I don't recall seeing the movie, myself.
I was debating that very idea as I made my comment. I am going to take a 50-50 chance and assume he is talking about the movie. Wrong! Will never read the book.
Not to say that it is a good book or not, I really don't like to read. Crazy to hear that from a teacher? Well it's true, and I am not going to pretend that I do like to read.
It is a great thing to do. I am glad that you like it and your children will benefit from seeing you read. You are great men! All of you.
You're a great man, too.
I've always liked that you are what you are. Hey, so you don't like to read (this is not news to me). What would be sad is if you didn't like to read but pretended you did.
All that said, I would not put it out of the realm of possibility that you could develop an interest in reading non-fiction someday (history, ecology, et. al)
I like to dabble a bit. The Escalante book that I borrowed from Gibbs was one which I enjoyed reading parts of now and again.
I just get so sleepy after just a couple of pages.
Haven't read it, nor seen it, at least not much of it. I've seen the scenes from the movie where Gregory Peck talks to his daughter about doing the right thing regardless of the odds, and the end of the courtroom scene where he's lost but earned the respect of the black townsfolk.
Reading a bit on Wikipedia, it seems to have hit a nerve pretty quickly, released in 1960 (later than I thought) and winning the Pulitzer Prize shortly thereafter. I suspect, regardless of the quality of the book, that it his upon a significant change in our cultural zeitgeist, a couple of years after Brown Vs Topeka Board of Education and amongst the upheavals that led to. It may well have encouraged people to stand up to racism by making the nobility of that act more accessible.
Just spitballin'.
I love it. I really do think it is a wonderful book for many reasons.
“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience” – Atticus
the ultimate justice requiring the greatest bravery
love it
Mixx: Yep, my feeling is that your Wikipedia research has revealed some truth. No one that I know denies the significant of the book. I wonder sometimes if it's significance does not perhaps exceed the quality. Maybe just a bit.
Gibbs: Sure. But a book can be a fine book (with an amazing sentiment and powerful words) and not necessarily be deserving as a consensus "BEST BOOK EVER!" by, like, everybody. That's what happens, I guess, when I read a book like this or "Beloved." I can't help but to be let down just a bit. I feel that I've read better than both. Now, if I could have just stumbled across either without all the hype...
I suppose there always has to be a best ever list and as such, something has to be at the top. TKAM certainly has a great deal going for it. I find it very difficult to rate books - compared with music or movies - possibly because I do not repeat book readings nearly as much as music or movies.
It would be a tragedy though, I think, if you let high praise detract from your enjoyment - how could you ever be a Beatles fan?
They meet & exceed the hype, in my eyes. And that's saying something. I am somewhat averse to hype, in just about any form.
I agree about the Beatles and then there is Star Trek, which is a freaky brand of hype.
And cross-bloggin' here...yesterday morning (Tues.) I saw a bit of Savage Curtain - gotta love that Abe - now Kirk and crew really played into the Lincoln hype, dress uniforms and all - despite the fact that as you and I know - Lincoln! Still alive! In Space! No way!
I would say that the Beatles analogy is a fair one, especially as it concerns Sgt Pepper. Out of its context it's a really good album. Within it's context it was revolutionary.
TKAM may have been the same.
Conversely, critical praise for anything has to be weighed pretty heavily against the general pull of the cultural zeitgeist. Why do we put so much trust in people on such subjective things as 'art'? It's best to both find critics that seem to share a consistent level of interest with stuff you like, AND to allow the test of time to take have its way.
Hype surrounding a 47 year old book is probably worth checking out. Hype surrounding the latest band from Omaha (or wherever) is probably not.
I read the book in 1989, too long ago for me to comment on how I "feel" about the book. The movie I loved back in high school, Gregory Peck being the Man of Integrity. I think I need to go back and re-experience both.
As for the Beatles analogy, I find no pleasure in deconstructing or arguing about the quality: the bottom line for me is that I grew up with the Beatles, still listen to the music, still love everything they did. I read books to learn about all their pressed recordings. Hell, there's that definitive book about their every recording session at Abbey Road. So, I've weighed myself down with baggage. Very few artists in any medium do I hold in such esteem. I'm not gonna hate on the Beatles just because eveyone else loves them.
The trick with any book/movie/music I haven't "discovered" is the dilemma Dan has.. how best to have the experience while setting aside what others have said. It's worse when the hype is negative. Take T-Clog: A Niel Diamond fan, despite some of the most negative infamy for any recording artist I'm aware of.
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