Thanks for making me feel deficient in yet ANOTHER way, Vladimir Nabokov.
Of course as with so many of his pronouncements, I think Vivian Darkbloom was onto something here (a name I would never have known for an anagram the first time I read Lolita); the first time we read a book, we're plowing ahead for plot, trying to understand the fundamentals of character, and otherwise focusing on what's HAPPENING...it's only later that we can appreciate the minutiae of any really great work.
But what about only-maybe-great works? Do they benefit from this kind of careful attention, or would they shrivel up and die under such intent, scrutinizing light?
I'm especially scared to not-read-but-reread some of my childhood favorites.
The ones I've gone back to over and over throughout the years, of course, are safe--nostalgia has built a wall of "always gonna be awesome" around them (I'm looking at you, Lord of the Rings series).
But what about all those books I tore through at 8, 10, and 13--the John Bellairs novels that defined my 3rd-grade experience? Or the Victoria Holt romances my mom (possibly ill-advisedly) put me onto in the 5th-grade, and which made me feel so desperately grown up? Or all the "aren't I so SMART" real-literature-books I dutifully worked my way through in middle and high school?
I'm afraid to go back to those, and also desperate to--there was a period between ages 15 and 19 where I actually thought I liked Ayn Rand because it was a "grown-up" book I understood. I needed those four years to realize that simply identifying an author's dear-god-with-a-sledgehammer messaging wasn't the same as agreeing with it (or enjoying the prose).
...but I needed to reread it to realize that.
I'm having the thankfully fantastic experience of liking Harriet the Spy even more than I remembered right now--what other "classics" (or even just "ubiquitous offerings") hold up as well when you're an adult as they did when you were a kid?
Maybe more importantly, which ones don't?
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas/Campaign Trail '72 still hold up for me. Salinger is sturdy (though I've come to realize Catcher in the Rye is my least favorite). Off the top of my head, these are the folks I end up re-reading the most often.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to see how I'd feel about Siddhartha and Damien by Hesse, especially cos since the only time I read those I've eliminated any and all spiritual leanings.
I haven't re-read Gatsby in at least 8 years. My theory is that I will hate it.
I Am Better Than Your Kids by Maddox has unlimited replay value.
Oh, I think you'd still like Gatsby. Maybe?
ReplyDeleteI'm especially interested in the stuff we read as kids (which def includes some Salinger, though not, for me, Hunter S.)--any of those that you've gone back to?
I can go back to 'Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger' and 'Go ask Alice' time and time again, they are still great!
ReplyDeleteThe 'Goosebumps' series and 'The Pearl' unfortunately could not be saved by nostalgia.
Jay
OOOH! All the sideways stories are SO MUCH BETTER as an adult!
ReplyDeleteAs far as "Go Ask Alice," I haven't reread it recently, but this article cracked me up: http://the-toast.net/2014/04/25/fake-lines-from-go-ask-alice/
R.I.P., Goosebumps. I will not see you again...
OH MY GOD you have just shattered that book for me! thanks a lot! ... I will now let 'Go Ask Alice' join 'Goosebumps' and 'The Pearl' at the place of no return
ReplyDeleteHaha sorry to be the total childhood destroyer. But it WAS a funny article...
ReplyDeleteI am in the process of re-reading The Chronicles of Narnia, with mixed results. The Great Gatsby totally holds up! I haaated Catcher in the Rye as a 14 year old, and I think I'd actually like it a bit now.
ReplyDeleteNarnia I have mixed feelings about; some of it is really magical, but some of it is so overtly religious that I want to ask for some communion wine to wash it down.
ReplyDeleteAs far as CITR, I'm afraid; I had such a crush on Holden when I was a teenager, and considering what else I liked...WHAT IF HE'S TERRIBLE?