Soppy Books?

[cacian]

which book or story made you cry/upset?

[G L Wilson]

Chick Lit makes me upset without having read any.

[cacian]

Chick Lit makes me upset without having read any.

what upset you about it? The fact that is separatist/for just women only?

[G L Wilson]

what upset you about it? The fact that is separatist/for just women only?

Because it's weak and ineffectual.

[cacian]

Because it's weak and ineffectual.

you have not read any so how can you tell it is ineffectual?

[G L Wilson]

you have not read any so how can you tell it is ineffectual?

I have heard enough about them to know that they are a curse.

[cacian]

I have heard enough about them to know that they are a curse.

Haha...a curse LOL
I have to say that I have not read any but I can imagine they can separatist.
I still don't get what you mean though.

[Varenne Rodin]

Wizard and Glass made me cry.

[Delta40]

I read Tuesdays with Morrie and I got teary eyed toward the end but I wouldn't read it again - not because of the cry factor but because I don't think it was that great a book by the time I finished it. I couldn't escape the feeling that the book was more about the author than his old professor which annoyed the crap out of me.

[Charles Darnay]

I read Tuesdays with Morrie and I got teary eyed toward the end but I wouldn't read it again - not because of the cry factor but because I don't think it was that great a book by the time I finished it. I couldn't escape the feeling that the book was more about the author than his old professor which annoyed the crap out of me.

Agreed. I'm not a fan of Mitch Albom.

The only book I remember making me cry was David Copperfield. I picked a terrible time to read that book. When life is going downhill fast, don't read David Copperfield.

[Delta40]

Agreed. I'm not a fan of Mitch Albom.

The only book I remember making me cry was David Copperfield. I picked a terrible time to read that book. When life is going downhill fast, don't read David Copperfield.

To be honest Charles, I haven't got much into the classics in years. When I had young kids I just didn't have the concentration for them and life seemed too fast paced so I read paperbacks like Agatha Christie. I'd read some Dickens, Austen and Bronte earlier but perhaps due to motherhood, I focused on classic childhood books like Children of the New Forest and The Secret Garden. None of these stories made me cry. Then I was studying at uni and my energy went into reading textbooks on Sociology and I've yet to get around to reading for pleasure again. Each time I pick up a book, I start critiquing it!

[G L Wilson]

Haha...a curse LOL
I have to say that I have not read any but I can imagine they can separatist.
I still don't get what you mean though.

Chick Lit demeans women.

[AlysonofBathe]

Flowers for Algernon; though I did read it when I was considerably younger so I may react differently now.

[cacian]

Wizard and Glass made me cry.
Hi Varenne

I have never heard of the book ...will check it out.


Chick Lit demeans women.

How is that?
It is written for them I am assuming it can only reinforce theiroutlook on life.
do you have an example in mind?

[kasie]

.....perhaps due to motherhood, I focused on classic childhood books......

Perhaps you'd better avoid Little Women and Good Wives, Delta - Beth's death had me in floods of tears at the age of seven!

I still get a lump in the throat each time I turn the page and see 'Reader, I married him.' Aahhh, happiness at last for poor Jane! And any man who proposed to me as Gabriel Oak did to Bathsheba in Far from the Madding Crowd would have me melting into his arms: my copy is in a packing case atm but from memory the gist of it is: Every evening sitting beside the fire I shall lift my eyes and there thou'lt be; and thou will lift thine eyes and there I shall be. And yes, I've been married and know it's not all a bed of roses, before anyone accuses me of sentimentality over the institution of marriage but the promise of a solid developing relationship in those words moves me every time I read it.

So it is hardly surprising that I will defend, albeit weakly, the genre of Chicklit - weakly, because some of it is badly written and impoverished in subject matter, not because it 'demeans women', by which I take it GL means it presupposes women have a limited outlook and are interested only in shopping and how to get a man. Some of the books I have read that fall into that genre (and I admit that's not many) have acute perceptions of life and while I'm no longer a Chick, by any stretch of the imagination, I find it useful to have an insight into how younger women see their lives. That's one of the reasons I read - to see the world through someone else's eyes. I can at least access the mindset of some of the younger female members of my family....However, it's a brand of Escapism - and far be it from me to condemn reading for escape, I've done enough of that in my time! - and as such has the danger of all escapist literature imo: it is so easy and pleasant that the readers may be reluctant to leave it for meatier mental sustanance.

[G L Wilson]

Chicklit presupposes that women have limited brain power. It may be right.

[kasie]

By your own admission, GL, you haven't read any Chicklit so I'm wondering how you can pronounce upon its value or lack thereof. You can only say that, by what you've heard, you don't think it is a genre that would appeal to you: by what I've heard, I don't think Kerouac or the Beat Generation would appeal to me so I've never gone out of my way to read any of that genre, but I'd hesitate to condemn it as worthless merely because it would seem not to be to my taste and requirements in literature.

[cacian]

Chicklit presupposes that women have limited brain power. It may be right.

I beg your pardon...and how is anyone to calculate the amount of brain power within an individual let alone a woman?
It migh be right but it certainly not true.
Let see what brain power means first...


Chicklit presupposes that women have limited brain power. It may be right.

the other way of looking at it is this way:
the brain power behind chick lit idea is the one with less brain to presume women need their literature at the first place.

[G L Wilson]

I am not alone in my condemnation of chicklit. Germaine Greer has had a go at it, I think.

[Scheherazade]

Chicklit presupposes that women have limited brain power. It may be right.Of course. Weak in the body, weak in the mind.

All goes together.

[G L Wilson]

"If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself." Friedrich Nietzsche

In life, it is much simpler being a man.

[cacian]

"If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself." Friedrich Nietzsche
says a man to a man or says a man to himself?
speaking from experience or is it a speech from negligence?

In life, it is much simpler being a man.
impossible to say so unless you have been both a man then a woman to presume such a statement.

[JuniperWoolf]

Night made me cry. When the son killed the dad for a loaf of bread, yikes...


Chicklit presupposes that women have limited brain power. It may be right.

Haha, said GL Wilson.

[Calidore]

Chicklit presupposes that women have limited brain power. It may be right.

No, it doesn't. It's simply written for women who want to read something light; there's no assumption that the target audience can't read anything higher. That makes no sense.

On the other hand, you have manlit like the Mack Bolan series, Nick Carter, et al. Same thing.

[Darcy88]

"If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself." Friedrich Nietzsche

In life, it is much simpler being a man.

Quoting Nietzsche as an authority on women is like quoting Ghengis Khan on peaceful diplomacy or Ron Jeremy on celibacy.

[G L Wilson]

No, it doesn't. It's simply written for women who want to read something light; there's no assumption that the target audience can't read anything higher. That makes no sense.

On the other hand, you have manlit like the Mack Bolan series, Nick Carter, et al. Same thing.

When your brain's slush, you're still vacant no matter your gender.


Quoting Nietzsche as an authority on women is like quoting Ghengis Khan on peaceful diplomacy or Ron Jeremy on celibacy.

That's your opinion, Darcy88, not mine.

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller made me cry just after the death of my father.

[Darcy88]

That's your opinion, Darcy88, not mine.

Yeah and its a pretty darn good opinion. Nietzsche didn't know squat when it came to women. He was without women most of his life. One's mother and sister don't count as a varied representative sample.

[G L Wilson]

Yeah and its a pretty darn good opinion. Nietzsche didn't know squat when it came to women. He was without women most of his life. One's mother and sister don't count as a varied representative sample.

Nietzsche was not a hater of women, just weakness.

[KCurtis]

Yeah and its a pretty darn good opinion. Nietzsche didn't know squat when it came to women. He was without women most of his life. One's mother and sister don't count as a varied representative sample.
Thankyou, Mr. Darcy

[G L Wilson]

Thankyou, Mr. Darcy

Yes, thank you, Mr. Darcy, you show your ignorance.

[KCurtis]

All the books I read make me cry. :cryin:
It is a problem when I am supposed to be reading aloud to my students. I did read Night in school (I work in a school) and it was a problem- I cried, silently, blinking a lot!
The books that didn't make me cry aren't as memorable for me. The Adventures of Augie March didn't make me cry- that doesn't mean I didn't feel emotions when I read it though.

[JuniperWoolf]

Nietzsche was not a hater of women, just weakness.

His ignorance of women was his weakness.

(I wonder if we can have an entire conversation in GL format)

[G L Wilson]

His ignorance of women was his weakness.

(I wonder if we can have an entire conversation in GL format)

If you read the quote properly, you will see that he was being neither ignorant nor weak. You are assuming the worst of Nietzsche purely on hearsay, he had a lot of enemies.

[Darcy88]

If you read the quote properly, you will see that he was being neither ignorant nor weak. You are assuming the worst of Nietzsche purely on hearsay, he had a lot of enemies.

I've read Nietzsche more than my old professor who did his thesis on Nietzsche, I am not "ignorant" about Nietzsche, and I say he knew very little about women. His 19th century, stupid even for that time views on women are especially not worth regarding in this day and age when "womanhood" has so much changed.

[Buh4Bee]

Chicklit presupposes that women have limited brain power. It may be right.

Maybe you have never been challenged by one.

[cacian]

Nietzsche was not a hater of women, just weakness.

well he certainly was not a woman imagine what he would have done if he was.
Maybe it best not to imagine, ignorance is faith sometimes.

[Bustrofedon]

I didn't cry but The Crossing made me very sad. Of course I am usually sad after a McCarthy novel but this was worse than normal.

To each their own on chick lit. Nietzsche would have liked it. :wink5:

[aliengirl]

The ending of "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" by Hardy made me sad and angry. I was upset for many days and decided never to read anything by Hardy. But I was only 13 then and looking back I think I overreacted. Since then I've read sadder and bleaker novels without shedding tears. Strangely I've kept away from Hardy all these years but this year I'm gonna read some of his novels.

Another one that wrenched my heart was "The Idiot" by Dostoevsky. I could not sleep whole night after finishing it. But unlike Hardy, Dostoevsky is one of my favorite writers and "The Idiot" is one of the greatest books I've ever read.

[louisgeorge]

harry potter and the deathly hallows make me cry :(