Here we go again. I honestly believed - foolish me - that the high-handed arrogance of the most fervid of TLD apologists here had been put to bed and that he had *finally* worked out that reactions to art are necessarily subjective
and therefore are destined to differ, possibly hugely.
But no... here we are again, back to the messianic "Aaah, grasshopper. You simply aren't profound enough to understand these weighty matters. If only you'd read all the works of André Breton/taken more mind-expanding hallucinogens back in the day/spent a decade self-administering peyote enemas whilst contemplating the mysteries of the cosmos/owned a matching SRD pyjama and comforter set, you'd truly get what a masterpiece the Last Chrons are...". Sorry, but that's utter horseshit.
lurch wrote:..ha haaa....you all remind me of the guy in back of the English Lit class going on about how Shakespeare sucked and didn't make sense. Yea yeaaa,,trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole and then blame the carpenter because its not working.
The issue isn't whether you like TLD or the End or not. The issue is your own words on why you have concluded what you have. Not one of you brave souls have answered my question...Do You Like being Disappointed, Confused, Bitter etc etc.? If you like that ,,what can I say, you've said it all.
If you want to do something about that unpleasant state, then there are ways being offered here. After all, this is a fan site...If you throw your hands up in the air , and say,,I can't do that,,or won't do that..to me, thats a lot of negative that is easily overcame with just another try. But once again, its easier to blame the messenger than heed the message.
There's a fairy tale that deals with this exact thing... the possibility that there are some so blinded by adulation that they cannot accept that their favourite author/painter/band may have released a clunker... it's called "The Emperor's New Clothes".
I've mentioned this before in other threads where anyone daring to suggest that the LCs - and particularly TLD - have faults is instantly set upon by one notable foaming-at-the-mouth SRD mouthpiece. What invariably ensues is that said self-appointed John the Baptist in turn insults, patronises and demeans anyone expressing dissatisfaction, banging on and on about how the critic must have a personal problem in being "closed" to the book's message, or must masochistically "enjoy bitterness and disappointment", or must be in some way intellectually or experientially benighted, or must be ill-read or ill-educated, or most often, a combination of all such slights. Well, newsflash here - that's interpretative fascism of the highest arrogance.
It is a matter of the most unabrogated hubris to tell people that they're duty-bound to find the good in something and that, if they cannot, then they're the one with the problem. That's ludicrous - what happens if to them that alleged "goodness" is simply not there? What are you suggesting? That they hurtle down the road of self-delusion??? That's farcical and fan-boi-ism taken to laughable extremes. If someone served you a turd sandwich, what are you gonna do... find the good in that??? Please...
Lurch, I strongly disagree with your take on the LCs but I freely acknowledge your right to have such an interpretation. What I cannot tolerate is your instantly talking down to anyone who expresses a differing opinion. For someone who goes banging on and on about the core message being one of Love and Humanity and the need to "open oneself", your uber-patronising and dismissively contemptuous approach to anyone at variance to yourself leaves a whole lot to be desired in terms of open-mindedness, respect and sheer good manners. That's truly ironic.
Despite your veiled accusation to anyone disagreeing that they just don't have enough of an education to appreciate the LCs, I'm certainly not going to vaunt whatever level of education in/experience of modern literature that I may or may not have. I don't see the point. However, as to your frenzied attempt to jam the entirety of the LCs kicking and screaming into an interpretative mould of Breton-esque surrealism - even though I believe SRD himself recently informed that he'd never even heard of André Breton - I will say that yes, I'm quite aware of Breton's works. In my personal opinion - and do please note the connotations of those two words "personal" and "opinion" - in attempting such a forcing, all you're displaying is your own fervid confirmation bias. I actually also think that you're doing both the author and the oeuvre a disservice, but hey, each to their own.
Am I pleased for you that you've found things in the LCs that delight you? Of course I am. Do I think you're "right"? Yes I do - BUT for you only, and NOT necessarily for anyone else at all. That's an attempt at being both open-minded and respectful, but you just don't get it. And from reading this thread and several others, it's not just me who finds your self-aggrandizing sermonising distasteful - your dictatorial didactic stance was memorably and amusingly lampooned by someone in another thread as being a classic example of "only my palantir is clear enough", but it sadly seems that this too has failed to register. Take a step back and look at yourself for a second, huh? Perhaps you should
actually ask yourself "Who am I?" You certainly go banging on and on about it enough - why not do it?
My take on the LCs and TLD in particular is that SRD let his readership down - and sure, admittedly against his own self-set extremely high standards. Okay, I find his use of symbolism to expound his own personal view of metaphysics of intellectual interest - to me, it's pretty obvious that SRD likes his Jungian psychology, as I've opined upon elsewhere. But where SRD fails for me in the LCs is with a lack of attention to the vitally important narrative level of his allegory. I don't like the pacing, I don't like the paper-thin characterisation of all but the central protagonists, I don't like the blatant plot devices and I really don't like the clunker of an ending. It fails to emotionally engage me, leaving me seeing the LCs as not much more than a sermon or lecture from a polemicist - cerebrally of interest, but massively insufficiently clad in any involving and engaging narrative. Compared to the culminations of both the First and Second Chrons, TLD is emotionally speaking the weakest of shadows.
But that's just my opinion. As I keep saying when confronted by compulsive SRD wannabe messiahs who trumpet that they and only they are the way the truth and the life when it comes to appreciating/understanding the LCs - hey, other opinions are available. And they'll be equally at least every bit as valid.
Vive la différence, remember?
