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UNGAINLY_MESSES

                                             May 3, 2019

                                                      ARISTOTELIAN_LINES
It's a relatively common thing with me
to get around to reading one of the
Great Classic Novels and discover that          ANTIAMERICAN
they're kind of a mess, they often
register as lumpy, ungainly and poorly          QUIXAND
thought out-- I go off complaining
about how they're grossly overrated.

I resort to the theory that most people
can't even *see* what's there-- if they        MOBY_DICK
take the trouble to read them at all, they
do so with a knowledge that they're            My comments on Moby-Dick at
supposed to be Great-- there's no chance       the reddit books group are
at making anything like a fresh appraisal      invariably met with downvotes.
of their own, because of their awareness       Not disagreement or
that in-group approval requires that they      discussion, just downvotes.
oooh and ah over the greatness.
                                                             DOWNVOTE_CLUB

   Of late, I've been wondering if I
   might be missing something here:

   It could be that I'm making a mistake
   in trying to judge the classics by
   classical standards-- I'm looking for
   tightly crafted masterpieces that fit
   together into a unified whole, but it
   could be that what people really *like*
   about them has to do with the fact
   that they're ungainly messes.


   Disparate elements that are only loosely
   linked together might provide a sense of
   depth, a range of hooks to engage your mind--
   they make the work more open-ended--

   In comparison, a flawless expression of
   a single theme might be impressive in
   some respects, but ultimately a boring
   dead-end.



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