I see a lot of posts about Classic books here and I’m just curious, have you always been a classic reader or did you get into them as an adult? Are classics better as an adult or did you always appreciate them?
I had to read a lot of classics for school but they never resonated with me. I just figured I wasn’t a classic kind of person but I’m starting to think I just read them too young. I remember reading Pride and Prejudice in high school and it was okay. I had to read it again a few years later and it was a completely different experience, couldn’t put it down. So much to talk about! I had to read Beloved in high school, it was whatever, kind of weird. I had to read Song of Solomon in college and Toni Morrison is a genius. Read The Bluest Eyes a decade later and Toni Morrison is a literary goddess. There’s a difference between reading Metamorphosis in high school and being told that it’s about capitalism and reading it as a working adult and *feeling* that it’s about capitalism. I had to read the Scarlet Letter in 9th grade and was told that it’s about ostracization and bullying. Knowing what I know now about the Puritanical culture, misogyny, patriarchy, etc, I’m sure my reading experience would be a lot different.
by Anxious-Fun8829
3 Comments
If Catcher in the Rye counts, then sure.
I tried to read Moby Dick as a teen. That was a mistake. On the other hand, Moby Dick is pretty opaque. It’s not clear what the guy is really trying to say. It may be that the book hasn’t really been understood yet at all.
I read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a teen. I didn’t really get the message until I was an adult though. As with Moby Dick, you really have to be an adult to even begin to make sense of it. It poses as a children’s book and it’s really not. It kind of pretends not to have a message.
Lord of the Flies the same way. It seems to me to pose as a children’s book and not be one. In addition to which, there’s some mysticism to it and a child may not pick up on that either.
On the other hand, some classics really work even if you’re a teen or younger. I would say LOTR is a classic. But it’s a classic children’s tale. And so it works for all ages.
I couldn’t enjoy any classics in school because I was always too preoccupied thinking about what random material the teacher was going to pull for graded assignments. Everything is way more enjoyable when you can just read the book in a natural way.