Austen vs. Camus?
What book changed your life?
According to one survey of British academics, lit students, writers and publishers, women and men have very different ideas of what makes a 'watershed moment.'
I found the women's choices rather disturbing. Much as I like the Brontes I'm hard put to see how either Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights (not to mention Pride & Prejudice?!) could inspire any kind of real change in the reader.
Though I've only read two of the top 5 novels nominated by the males surveyed (Catcher in the Rye and Catch-22), the authors names--Camus (I'd have nominated The Stranger not having read The Outsider, which made it to #1), Vonnegut, Tolkien, Marquez, Heller and Salinger put --I think-- Austen and the Brontes (perhaps even Atwood, though not Eliot) to shame. Though I've read all the authors (not books) except Morrisson, on the women's list, none inspired me as have the likes of Camus, Salinger and other (dead or MIA) male authors. Well, well.
Read the LA Times oped here.
According to one survey of British academics, lit students, writers and publishers, women and men have very different ideas of what makes a 'watershed moment.'
I found the women's choices rather disturbing. Much as I like the Brontes I'm hard put to see how either Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights (not to mention Pride & Prejudice?!) could inspire any kind of real change in the reader.
Though I've only read two of the top 5 novels nominated by the males surveyed (Catcher in the Rye and Catch-22), the authors names--Camus (I'd have nominated The Stranger not having read The Outsider, which made it to #1), Vonnegut, Tolkien, Marquez, Heller and Salinger put --I think-- Austen and the Brontes (perhaps even Atwood, though not Eliot) to shame. Though I've read all the authors (not books) except Morrisson, on the women's list, none inspired me as have the likes of Camus, Salinger and other (dead or MIA) male authors. Well, well.
Read the LA Times oped here.
posted by shoshana at 1:24 AM
3 Comments:
Vonnegut, Tolkien, Marquez, Heller and Salinger put --I think-- Austen and the Brontes (perhaps even Atwood, though not Eliot) to shame.
Something to keep in mind: the most influential books or "books that change your life" are not necessarily the best books, or the highest quality of writing. This can be likened to how Hitler was chosen as one of Time magazine's most influential people of the century, not because he was good, but because he changed things (for worse in this case).
I can see how Austen and the Brontes might inspire "real change in the reader": they promote feminism, and make the independent woman out to be heroic.
Books that changed my life were certainly not written by Salinger, Heller or Marquez, or I take that back, they might have actually contributed to my negativity and cynicism towards life, however, I tend to hear the question of what books changed your life as what books changed your life for the positive. For me, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," and I hate to admit it, but Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" was the likely inspiration for my becoming an engineer.
i agree that 'the most influential books are not necessarily the best books. . '
but i still fail to see anything in Austen and/or the Brontes that would really make me thing in a deep way. . . and effect change
so feminism? i dont know, maybe 50 years ago. . . maybe.
for me that book was "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"
there were others too. "An American Tragedy," for instance, hardly one of the best written books. . . "The Lover". . by a woman:)
so yknow maybe its just a personal thing. maybe at this point austen and the brontes seem irrelevant to where we are, to me, at any rate.
but i still fail to see anything in Austen and/or the Brontes that would really make me thing in a deep way. .
Thinking deeply doesn't necessarily make you change...I mean in what way did "An American Tragedy" change you? I can't say it changed me in the slightest...Maybe I'm a bit more suspicious of people's intentions...Though "Of Human Bondage" might have made into more of a cynic and thinker...
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