Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I am generally of the same mentality when it comes to literary critics. I think that's the nature of their profession and the competition that exists among critics feel compelled to say something profound and new in each work but as you say, sometimes the author says it all.

Yes, yes, yes, times infinity to the power of a Google. Notice the first part of that word? No wonder anal-yzing is such a pain in the assonance!

I love reading. I hate English class. Sounds weird, right? English class sucks because they make you read all this boring crap and you can't just talk about it, no, you've got to write about it. Write about it. As in dissect it like a frog. Or an experimental mouse, as you'll see below...

One of the books I read in senior English (AP) was called Maus, a graphic novel by this Jewish cartoonist from New York named Art Spiegelmann. I liked the story; I liked the pictures; hey, I like mice, otherwise I wouldn't love both Brian Jacques' Redwall and...An American Tail. (Lol, I just LOVE that song from Linda Ronstadt. It's so beautiful.) I know the book is about the Holocaust but I didn't want to get into all the gruesome stuff. We had to watch Schindler's List to put it in context. I got so sick I actually skipped lunch. I mean, Spielberg does a remarkable job capturing the horror of what happened in the WWII death camps, but I guess -- it sort of ruined it for me. Reminds me of when Anastasia came out and all these historians were blah, blah, historical inaccuracy, this is not the true story of the Romanov dynasty and it doesn't go in-depth about the communists...

IT'S. A. FREAKIN. CARTOON. For FIVE YEAR OLDS. I should know, I was 5 when I saw it. (Oh but then I snuck a peek at John Cusack's other movie Gross Point Blank which came out the same year and was rated R...But I digress.)

I liked Maus and I'd still go back and read it again. It's an easy read, as comics/graphic novels usually are. (You don't find a 400pg graphic novel because most of the page is filled with pictures.) But if I were teaching the class, I might actually show American Tail. It's also a Spielberg movie, and it's also about a Jewish mouse. (And Feivel is soooooo cute!!!) Weird, all these came out in 1986: American Tail, Maus, the first Redwall, and Disney's The Great Mouse Detective. (I think Walt Disney didn't like Jewish people, and that was one of the things we had to talk about, something about cultural irony and Mickey Mouse.)

Booooring. This is why I hate what's called "literary fiction." They're trying too hard to prove a point. Well, point blank indeed. Give me a good story and forget all that overbearing themes stuff, and maybe, just maybe, you'll get a cookie and a glass of milk. And about school, just let me read the damn book and I'll "draw" my own conclusions, Mr. Garrison. Harold Bloom can go bloom somewhere else out there.

Btw, did Give A Mouse A Cookie come out in 1986 too? Must've been a good year for mice I guess.

^^ I think I'd agree with most of that--from a modern writer's standpoint. Because the point of what most of us here do isn't to convery deeply layered messages; it's to tell a story. Unfortunately for me and my English grade, F Scott Fitzgerald decided that his book wouldn't be good unless green lights, eye doctors, and fancy shirts had deeper meanings to them. I guess that, by analyzing it, I understand it better, but I don't like it as much as I otherwise would have.

Falls Apart wrote:^^ I think I'd agree with most of that--from a modern writer's standpoint. Because the point of what most of us here do isn't to convery deeply layered messages; it's to tell a story. Unfortunately for me and my English grade, F Scott Fitzgerald decided that his book wouldn't be good unless green lights, eye doctors, and fancy shirts had deeper meanings to them. I guess that, by analyzing it, I understand it better, but I don't like it as much as I otherwise would have.

I hope you didn't get the grade minus "Scott" and "Fitzgerald." (Little bit of an "analyzing" riddle for ya.)

Btw, just look at the four-letter word at the front of "analyze," which really goes somewhere...at the end. This is why it's called an anal eyes' view!

^^ XD funny