As I've been assigned the Grapes of Wrath this summer, I'm struggling to find an ounce of motivation, interest or reason to start reading. Really not looking forward to it. This however gives me some context on Steinbeck and maaaybe I'll start soon.
Why aren't you interested? Is it because of summer reading or just a lack of interest in Steinbeck? He's one of my favorite authors so I'm just curious. I think I posted this a loooooong time ago, and it's a wonderful letter. Steinbeck has a succinct and fatherly way of putting things that comes across both in his letters and novels. My favorite part of this letter. Tangent incoming. I've been very good friends with a person from home for 6 years now, and have been seeing her quite a bit as of late, mostly with friends before I ship back off to college. She actually came out and visited in May while I was in Boston, and since then I've been trying not to have feelings for her since she's going to be staying home for a year since she just graduated college and I'll be at college (only two hours away, but still). At the same time, there's that nagging voice in my head that "maybe there's something good here".And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.
I don't want to suggest anything or give advice to further stir your mind, but I believe that 'something more' is yours to make, and somehow I've found myself regretting not makin something of it, which is funny because technically it never existed, you know? Its up to you, and good luck. Reading assignments for school murder the book for me. I've avoided having great books (1984 and brave new, dante's inferno,
catcher in the rye, etc.) spoiled for me by reading them well in advance of the grade level that required it, but occasionally i don't stay ahead and now I gotta deal with it. This happened with of mice and men ans to kill a mockingbird, both of which I have only sickening, repulsive, horrendous memories attached to. Im trying to erase that pressure and replace it wih genuine interest. I have utmost respect for Steinbeck's skill and influence, I just need to set out and begin learning about him on my own.
The regret of passed opportunities can become a heavy weight. There's always reasons or ideas to not do something in order to reduce stress or placate the mind, but is it always worth it? Probably not. I completely understand where you're coming from. Being assigned books to read results in people being completely matched with what they're capable of reading and what they would like to be reading. I, too, dislike To Kill a Mockingbird for the same reason you do. Regarding your last point, I would definitely recommend doing just that. I hope you enjoy the book.
I've never read To Kill a Mockingbird, but I saw the movie, and frankly I didn't find it particularly remarkable. Could it be that it's just one of those books that had social importance at the time, but isn't really that interesting any more? In Capote, Truman Capote says (about the book) "I just don't see what all the fuss is about." Sure, he was a narcissist, and almost never impressed by anyone else's work, but maybe he was right this time. I started reading Uncle Tom's Cabin a few years back, and even though it's a very simple and short book, I couldn't bring myself to finish it. It was that fucking bad. I can see how it made a big impact with its criticism of slavery while slavery was still in effect, but reading it today, all of that is fairly uninteresting in itself, and all that's left is a book filled with bland characters, and repulsively boring prose.
As a rule of thumb I generally don't watch movies for classic, renowned or otherwise highly acclaimed books if I haven't read the book. there's really no sense in drawing an opinion and conclusion on the book just by watching a movie, which could easily just be a loose interpretation backed by some producers, made for money by a random director a hundred years after the book came out.
That's a fair point, but this particular movie was made in contemporary times and critically acclaimed. The things that bothered me about the movie (boring story, flat characters) are things that could easily apply to the book as well. However, I won't claim to know the book, I was just raising the possibility that it's not that great.