• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    29 months ago

    Hardest book I’ve read was Sadly, Porn by Edward Teach. The footnote game in that book is intense, and the prose in which the body text is written is also often hard to follow.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      79 months ago

      Extremely disappointed to discover that this isn’t by the other Edward Teach. Please give me Blackbeard’s extensively sourced treatise on porn.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      29 months ago

      I just read a description and a few reviews. I’ve decided that, for me, it’s unlikely to be worth the effort.

      Do you think it was worth the effort for you?

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        59 months ago

        I would like for you to imagine Gregory House as a philosopher, with all his misanthropy, jaded sardony and ironic self-disparagement. Now imagine him writing a lengthy treatise on how all of modern media is pornography, and how we are all hopeless addicts.

        It’s certainly not a book for every reader. It’s challenging, it’s often quite insulting to the reader, but damn me if it hasn’t made me pause and consider my situation. There is some quality cultural critique in Sadly, Porn, and I do believe that this text is worth discussing.

        At the same time, I would not recommend it to a hobbyist reader. It’s a critical text and it requires a more specialized mindset to engage with it correctly. I wouldn’t casually pick it up as a break between books in the Twilight series. Myself, I haven’t even read the entire thing yet. I read some, I think on it, I put it down for a while. It’s the same as The Denial of Death by Becker, another book I would consider to be a very challenging but beneficial read.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          29 months ago

          Thank you!

          I appreciate the comparison and analysis. I’ll keep it in my “maybe I’ll tackle it someday” list, but I’ve mostly moved away from writing that is hostile to the reader.

          I don’t have a problem with complex concepts, even when they ultimately go over my head. I don’t even have a problem with stylistic weirdness in service of the message. I draw the line at writers who treat me like an imbecile, whether directly or through their own sense of superiority.

          Actually, the long “Giving Tree” excerpt in one of the reviews reflects my own views. If that means we might already share opinions, then I for sure don’t need to suffer abuse along the way. 😀

          An obvious problem with my attitude is that I then shut myself off from discussing the merits of a work.

    • Ricky Rigatoni
      link
      fedilink
      English
      09 months ago

      hardest book i’ve read was one fish two fish red fish blue fish :(