Which commonly studied writers or thinkers do you absolutely hate?

[ohgoodness]

I love cheesy American poetry. Billy Collins, ee cummings, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, even Emily Dickinson. Even Robert Frost! I seriously love that stuff. But I don't study it, I just read it for pleasure. Such pleasure.

 

You must hang in some really really hip circles for this to be cheesy  

[NowMoreSerious]

I love cheesy American poetry. Billy Collins, ee cummings, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, even Emily Dickinson. Even Robert Frost! I seriously love that stuff. But I don't study it, I just read it for pleasure. Such pleasure.

Mayyybe I can see your point with Billy Collins, but the rest are nothing to be embarrassed about. Standard excellent stuff.

I heard Billy Collins read "The Lanyard" at the Dodge Poetry Festival some years ago and it was hilarious.

[rems]

Does anyone else have commonly studied writers/thinkers that they're kind of embarrassed to like? Joyce, for me. The criticisms are valid.

 

Sylvia Plath. 

[bluecheese]

There is NOTHING embarrassing about liking Sylvia Plath. She is amazing.

[rems]

 I find it very interesting how much we all differ on what is "embarrassing" and what is not. Says a lot about us, really. 

[DontHate]

I'm just generally embarrassed to be who I am. So everything I do/think/say/feel is embarrassing. Sigh. It's so hard being an emo teen

[bluecheese]

it's too hard 

 

http://www.youtube.com/embed/hNXL0SYJ2eU

Edited January 17, 2013 by bluecheese

[beet-nik]

Sylvia Plath. 

 

Though this seems to have turned into the "Which writers are you embarrassed to admit you like?" thread, I definitely have to agree with this. I love her work, but I could never write a lengthy work on it for fear of drowning in my own sorrows and wanting to stick my head in an oven (seriously kidding about the second part!).

 

As for which commonly studied writer I can't stand, it has to be Emily Brontë. Her sentence structure and use of language is stunning -- I just can't handle the simplicity of her characters.

[beet-nik]

 or maybe, "What Happens When White People Go To Africa."

 

If I could upvote this, I would. Made my day (and I'm pretty sure plenty of people in the library now think I'm a little bit odd for laughing out loud at my computer).

[Datatape]

Though this seems to have turned into the "Which writers are you embarrassed to admit you like?" thread, I definitely have to agree with this. I love her work, but I could never write a lengthy work on it for fear of drowning in my own sorrows and wanting to stick my head in an oven (seriously kidding about the second part!).

 

I actually did a major seminar paper on Plath for a poetics class.  Because I am a dork, I cooked food every time I had to lead class in my Master's program and I made a ton of food based on the three poems I concentrated on: mushroom flatbread for "Mushrooms," sacrilicious (cheese and sausage on challah bread) pressed sandwiches for "Daddy" and worms in dirt for "Lady Lazarus."

[bluecheese]

I actually did a major seminar paper on Plath for a poetics class.  Because I am a dork, I cooked food every time I had to lead class in my Master's program and I made a ton of food based on the three poems I concentrated on: mushroom flatbread for "Mushrooms," sacrilicious (cheese and sausage on challah bread) pressed sandwiches for "Daddy" and worms in dirt for "Lady Lazarus."

 

awesome!

[DontHate]

Sounds like a fun and fattening class

[lisajay]

I actually did a major seminar paper on Plath for a poetics class.  Because I am a dork, I cooked food every time I had to lead class in my Master's program and I made a ton of food based on the three poems I concentrated on: mushroom flatbread for "Mushrooms," sacrilicious (cheese and sausage on challah bread) pressed sandwiches for "Daddy" and worms in dirt for "Lady Lazarus."

 

severed lady fingers for "cut"? perhaps with ketchup?

[Datatape]

severed lady fingers for "cut"? perhaps with ketchup?

 

Ooh!  No, raspberry coulis.  YES.  Now I know what to do if they ever have me teach an intro to American poetry class.

[beet-nik]

I actually did a major seminar paper on Plath for a poetics class.  Because I am a dork, I cooked food every time I had to lead class in my Master's program and I made a ton of food based on the three poems I concentrated on: mushroom flatbread for "Mushrooms," sacrilicious (cheese and sausage on challah bread) pressed sandwiches for "Daddy" and worms in dirt for "Lady Lazarus."

 

Love the "sacrilicious" sandwiches! 

[Sadiespaw]

And Pynchon may suck - gravity's rainbow was soo booring - but the crying of lot 49 is still a great book.

Edited January 18, 2013 by Sadiespaw

[Troppman]

Someone please explain the resistance/opposition to Freud/Psychoanalysis

Edited January 18, 2013 by StephanieDelacour

[TripWillis]

I can only speak for myself, but as a scholar, I've learned to question the rigor and review of Freud's research; as someone invested in gender studies, I've learned to question the simplistic nature of his theoretical metaphors; and as someone who cares about the sociology of culture, studies in interiority seem like an outdated, bourgeois fetish when it comes to the exigency of literary scholarship. I mean, we don't study phrenology anymore either, do we (ouch)? Pathology has often been used to explain socially deviant behavior that we find undesirable, but has incurred a considerable amount of violence to discourse in the process. I realize those last points are a very harsh critique, but it's just where I'm coming from in terms of my own interests; it is my own aversion -- psychoanalyze me and figure out why  .

 

It is fairly common for people to primarily read Freud through Lacan now, and Judith Butler and Deleuze and Guattari have only furthered a radical revamp of Freudianism. I'm sure there are other people out there salvaging Freud and psychoanalysis in the humanities, but since I am not a psychoanalytic scholar, I wouldn't be able to tell you who they are.

 

Really, psychoanalysis is just not my bag, baby. Anti-Oedipus for the win*.

 

*to be fair, Anti-Oedipus has its own problems with overwrought metaphorical narrative drives, but I would venture that it's at least more rich and thoughtful than what Freud posed.

[TripWillis]

Oh, pffft, I forgot:

 

Malcolm Gladwell, Chuck Klosterman, et. al. -- basically anyone in armchair philosophy or pop philosophy or anyone who writes for Grantland. I once had to listen to two breeders on a Bolt Bus yammer on for hours about Blink as part of their mating ritual. Blech.

[DontHate]

I once had to listen to two breeders on a Bolt Bus yammer on for hours about Blink as part of their mating ritual. Blech.

 

I'm offended by your homo-normativity

[asleepawake]

 breeders on a Bolt Bus 

 

You are a poet

Edited January 18, 2013 by asleepawake

[DontHate]

You are a poet

 

Cuz poetry is just another word for alliteration?

[practical cat]

Oh, pffft, I forgot:

 

Malcolm Gladwell, Chuck Klosterman, et. al. -- basically anyone in armchair philosophy or pop philosophy or anyone who writes for Grantland. I once had to listen to two breeders on a Bolt Bus yammer on for hours about Blink as part of their mating ritual. Blech.

brb coming back tomorrow when I can up vote this.

[TripWillis]

I'm offended by your homo-normativity

 

I would be able to stomach this, except you are using that term incorrectly.

 

Edit: I think the term you're looking for is reverse-orientation discrimination.

Edited January 18, 2013 by TripWillis

[asleepawake]

Cuz poetry is just another word for alliteration?

 

+ the perfect cadence in my head. Allow me to adjust:

 

 

 

I once had to listen to

two breeders on a Bolt Bus

yammer on for hours 

about Blink

 

as part of their mating ritual.

 

Blech.

 

I'm okay with Gladwell, though. To me the sentiment of hating "anyone in armchair philosophy or pop philosophy" is basically hate for anyone who engages in philosophical pursuits in an accessible way, or outside of the confines of academic structure. Sure, I see why you might not like some of these folks, but hating all of them is your loss.

Edited January 18, 2013 by asleepawake