what else do you do besides playing chess?

Least favorite books:  Pride and Prejucdice, Tom Jones, 20,000 leagues under the sea, Madam Bovary.

Over my head:  Faust, Milton and Dostoevsky's The Idiot

Favorite authors:  Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, except for The Idiot

I was thinking of doing a hurt/heal of the best Chess.com Forum Feuds. Guess which Afaf and which flagliker would certainly be on the list?

It would likely get locked or deleted anyway.  All of your sparring partners have left the ring, which is sad.

Afaf, you're so right about Atwood.  I guess I just want to lay claim to her.  Same with Munro, then.  She's also Canadian, I believe.  That may knock my argument down some, eh?  Maybe Pete Dexter can save me.

Back to Atwood, whether she's Canadian or not, I can't wrap my head around your criticism of her.  I can dig some Vonnegut, but to think that he is a better writer than Atwood in any sense is a pretty far out claim.  Vonnegut's plots are apt but a little cutesy.  As a sentence writer, I consider him ok.  Atwood is a bit darker, but there's also more humanity in all of her characters.  On the sentence level, she take a line like, "We have learned to see the world in gasps." and couch in such a way that the metaphor seems completely natural and void of self-conscious artistry.

ilikeflags, I'm a big fan of O'Connor myself.  I'm teaching A Good Man is Hard to Find here shortly.

eeekkkk, rednblack, that's a crazy story.

BP, I don't think they'd let us argue the way we used to. Any little contretemps and I expect the teacher to rush in and put a stop to it all.

I don't think I have to tell you what's even more uncharming.  starts with an i and ends with flags.

In my general defense, I think there must be something a person can relate to in a story...otherwise there is very little the writer can say that bounces off of you or makes you reflect on the analysis or experience.  How long can you care about events happening in a book if you are entirely detached from the events and characters?   

Junky is a great book because Burroughs finds a way to make you relate to a heroin addicted pederast.  If you can't relate, it's just not that interesting.    Lolita...well, this is just a whole different league.  Relating to Humbert Humbert doesn't even begin to touch upon brilliance of the writing.

I guess if you write a book about incestuous hillbillies and the trouble they have farming the land as an allegory for whatever...I might have a bit of trouble enjoying the ride. 

What is Margaret Atwood doing in a conversation about literature ?

Btw they said that in Canada her shopping list would become a bestseller.

yeah.  the fun one is going to be "A Temple of the Holy Ghost" when I get to explain hermaphrodites to a bunch of 15 year-olds.

I have not read that one.  I am certified to teach middle school language arts but I wish someone would have helped me understand that middle school teachers teach the mechanics of language, for the most part.  I should have gotten certified to teach literature.  However, I think after you do anything over and over again it gets dull and boring so I can certainly see why people get tired of Romeo and Juliet.

you got me!  yuck yuck, so witty and quick that Afaf.\

as far as your lazy approch to literature and characters--it's pretty ironic to me considering how much you claim to read.  but your world is your world, even if it is a dream.

I believe one may safely assume that AfafBouardi and Ilikeflags spend most of their non-chessplaying time answering each other's forum posts (besides the already mentioned eating and sleeping).

so, so good.  Afaf would hate it.  although maybe she would find someone to relate to--(the grandmother maybe?).  the river is pretty amazing as well.

Flags, I am going to tell on you, you meanie!

What would Denisov do?

i know, sorry.

In truth I never much liked reading James Fenimore Cooper. Whatever I was enjoying Twain struck a match to in his "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses."

i hate the scarlet letter

Women!

I tried to like The Last of the Mohicans, goldendog but I could only take so much description of the material world...I think that is a common denominator for me.  Authors that spend too much time describing the world instead of the characters annoy me.  It was the same with Conrad and Heart of Darkness.