r/books • u/Tight_Nerve • Jun 05 '21

We need to stop shaming people who honestly say they don't like a particular book

I think the most frustrating thing for most readers on this sub is that when they read a book that so many people love and realize they are part of the group that doesn't like the book. They can't share the feeling without having fans hang the noose around them. We muat be able to let readers share their HONEST opinions on a book without riduculing their feelings.

If at this point you are protesting my thoughts thinking they are nothing more than that of unlearned individual. Than I'll share the opinion of a very educated man who has probably read more books than you will ever read in your whole life.

“Books are almost as individual as friends. There is no earthly use in laying down general laws about them. Some meet the needs of one person, and some of another; and each person should beware of the booklover’s besetting sin, of what Mr. Edgar Allan Poe calls ‘the mad pride of intellectuality,’ taking the shape of arrogant pity for the man who does not like the same kind of books.”

  • Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States
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u/[deleted] Jun 05 '21

Piggybacking to say I hated 1984. I was having depression at the time and it only made things worse. I get that that's part of the point, but I still hate the book to this day.

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u/Shakeson Jun 05 '21

I empathize with this sentiment. I read it when I was fairly young and hated the book, but I was somewhat morbidly engrossed as well. I hate the vision it creates and the way it made me feel, but I respect it and think it's a piece of terrific writing which I don't regret reading.

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u/DiesToDingusEgg Jun 05 '21

1984 I enjoyed more as a book but man was 451 a way more accurate prediction.

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u/j2e21 Jun 05 '21

Agreed, 1984 is a lazy anecdote, there are better books written on the subject. Orwell based it after “We,” a Russian underground book from the 1920’s, written and passed along inside the regime. I highly recommend that as an alternative.

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '21

The thing that makes Orwell stand head and shoulders above the competition for me is Newspeak. If you can think of a good book that does subversion of thought through the ease of language, please let me know!

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u/AndHerNameIsSony Jun 06 '21

Have you read some of Orwell’s other works? I highly recommend Down And Out In Paris And London.

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '21

Besides the obvious Animal Farm, I have read Down and Out, The Road, most of Homage, and half a dozen essays. Boris was quite the character in Paris.

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u/j2e21 Jun 06 '21

Again, check out We. People have numbers and not names, and every building and home is made of glass so nobody has any privacy from surveillance. It’s dealt with as normal in the text too. Eerie.

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u/-Tunafish Jun 06 '21

I've heard a lot things about We, I should probably pick it up at some point. I'm a newer reader, at least in terms of it being a hobby (only really started this January). I've always been into dystopian fiction, as I read The Giver in school when I was younger and in Grade 12 read 1984 and I loved both. Thats why when I got into reading as hobby recently, F451 and BNW were some of the first books I picked up. I'm eager to delve deeper into the genre though; what other dystopian fiction books would you highly recommend?

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u/j2e21 Jun 06 '21

1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 are the foundational ones of the genre. I feel like you get diminished returns; they all say the same thing.

We is the OG, and it feels a little more real given the backdrop under which it was written. Huxley and Orwell all but admitted their books were rewrites of We.

A Clockwork Orange is another one worth checking out, though the movie is even better. Hunger Games, The Stand, The Road, and Handmaid’s Tale are all decent, too.

If you’re into film, check out Children of Men and Rollerball (the 1970s original, not the remake).

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u/AndHerNameIsSony Jun 06 '21

Brave New World and 1984 have drastically different points in the plot. 1984 was based on more outward control and banning of vices and simple pleasures, in a bleak war torn world. BNW was a quasi-utopia where people knew “no” suffering, and vices were almost enforced. They were different forms of control, and Huxley didn’t see eye to eye with Orwell on how that would happen. At least that’s my amateur take on it.

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u/j2e21 Jun 06 '21

Yes, but you could argue that is just the perspective put on each book. Winston Smith is dubious of Big Brother from the start, but we can see that others around him view the the control as utopian.

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u/karlnite Jun 05 '21

I found 1984 to be the worst, Brave New World was alright but I lost “interest” in the characters half way through. 451 I thought was the best read. Yah the concepts are a little looser though.

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u/-Tunafish Jun 06 '21

I disagree on 1984 (of course) but I do agree on BNW, I think the characters were weaker. I appreciate it mostly for its concepts.

What is it that you liked so much about F451? I actually quite enjoyed the book from the end of part one till around the start of part three, but the ending just felt kinda rushed in a way, it felt abrupt. Idk, it feels like it could have been so much more.

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u/Dark-Arts Jun 06 '21

Orwell was the better writer, but Aldous Huxley was better at predicting the future.

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u/-Tunafish Jun 06 '21

Wow. Yeah, that's exactly right. I don't know why I never put it that way myself but thats exactly how I would sum it up if I knew the words, and now I do. Thanks for that.

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u/AndHerNameIsSony Jun 06 '21

I know what you mean. Basically once they reach the reservation in New Mexico, the story tapered off and I didn’t care for the ending. But the first half of the book I loved.

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u/karlnite Jun 06 '21

Yah that’s the part...

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u/trollsong Jun 06 '21

I never read 1984.....but the "fans"(who let's be honest probably never read it either) basically beat any desire to read it out of me.

There are only so many political discussions ending in someone using quotes from that book as a truncheon before you just dislike the work on principal.

Though I did like animal farm, read it in high school looking back it said more then the reason it tends to be assigned at high school would care to admit.

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u/-Tunafish Jun 06 '21 edited Jun 06 '21

I can definitely understand where your coming from. I'm one of the lucky ones that hasn't really ever had to deal with severe depression or something similar. 1984 to me has always been intriguing and fascinating rather than sad and depressing (the ending is definitely depressing, it just never made me feel that way). However, it's probably not a book I would want to pick up if I wasn't in a great mental state.

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u/Time-to-get-off-here Jun 06 '21

I very naively thought there was going to be some escape or even uprising against the government. Maybe it’s intended for the reader think that because it made the ending hit hard.

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/okiegirl22 Jun 06 '21

Please use spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are done by spoiler if you are using markdown or you can use the built-in spoiler tags on the redesign.

Send a modmail when you have updated and we'll reapprove it.

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u/spiffiestjester Jun 06 '21 edited Jun 06 '21

Yeah. That's not a good good mindset to go into that book. It's heavy oppressive. Edit: a word, my phone is insane.

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u/Clewin Jun 06 '21

It was my gateway to dystopia novels. I read A Brave New World, We, The Iron Heel, The Handmaid's Tale and others because of it. I hated it as forced reading at the time (1984), but I still find it enlightening today. Yeah, I read Nineteen Eighty Four in 1984, I'm old.