the_almighty_spehornoob wrote:

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Fuck that book. It's nothing but socialist propoganda, and completely abandons its plot near the end.

Aww, The Jungle has always been one of my quiet-favorite books. Not as much because of the message as just because I really grew to care about the characters, and felt bad about all they went through. And, for what its worth, the expose factor at the time was pretty important.

I also agree the Great Gatsby sucks, but I didn't go into it expecting amazing things either.

For my own answer, I'll say Great Expectations. I love Charles Dickens, his writing style, and almost all of his work. Then I read this. Its not that the concept, story, or execution is so bad, really, because its not; I just fucking, fucking, FUCKING HATED how wussy Pip was, and how he basically bent over and took everything that Estella gave him up the ass, then turned around and asked for more. I know he's supposed to be some kind of paragon of virtue or something, but god it pissed me off so bad I could barely finish the book.Then the ending happened, and I wanted to throw the thing across the room.

On a related note, if you know the story and haven't seen South Parks riff on it, oh my God you are missing out. Despite the fact that its totally out of left field and has nothing to do with ACTUAL South Park, the English major in me, combined with my loathing of the book, makes this one of my top three episodes of all time:

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103918/?autoplay=false

Dr. Jeebus wrote:

Great Expectations was originally published in newspapers with one chapter being published each week. People were so mad at the original ending that Dickins received numerous death threads (possibly attempts on his life, I forget), so he had to rewrite the end of it.

Yeah, I had come across that tidbit while reading up for an essay I had to write on it. We read a version with the "revised" ending, which is why I was so frustrated. Honestly, had he left the original ending intact, I would have been far less pissed with the whole thing.

For those unfamiliar, here's wiki's summary of the two:

Original ending:

Pip meets Estella on the streets. Her abusive husband Drummle has died, and she has remarried, to a doctor. Estella and Pip exchange brief pleasantries, after which Pip states while he could not have her in the end, he was at least glad to know she was a different person now, somewhat changed from the cold-hearted girl Miss Havisham had reared her to be. The novel ends with Pip saying he could see that "suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham's teaching and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be."

Revised ending:

Pip and Estella meet again at the ruins of Satis House:

'"We are friends," said I, rising and bending over her, as she rose from the bench.

"And will continue friends apart," said Estella.

I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.

Basically, the revised ending ends up with Pip walking off with the total fucking bitch who spent the entire fucking novel treating him like something lower than dirt. Not to mention the fact she convinced Pip to turn on Joe, which might be one of the most awful moments in literary history. And worse, it leaves open the idea that they MAY GET TOGETHER??? WHAT THE FUCK?

The original ending makes more sense. Estella learns empathy the hard way, Pip lets her know he's no longer wrapped around her finger, and they both move on with their lives. It doesn't make up for the rest of the book, but at least that ending made some sense. Boy does not always have to get Girl, particularly when Girl is a raging harpy from the lowest depths of hell, controlled by a female embodiment of Satan meeting Norman Bates. GOD I hate those characters. And Pip, for being such a damn wuss about the whole thing. Dickens needed to have some of his ghosts from Christmas Carol show up, and knock some sense into all three of them.

Syd Lexia wrote:

Even worse is the 1946 film version of Great Expectations. It isn't just hinted that Pip and Estella will get together; they do. I'm going to go with James Joyce's "classic" novel Ulysses. It is absolutely terrible.

Yep, that '46 movie version was the one we watched in class. God that sucked.

I've heard about Ulysses. I've read some of Joyce's stuff, but haven't enjoyed it enough to want to attempt to hack my way through his opus. From what I hear, its one of those books you have to invest a TON of time in careful reading, looking things up, and thinking about it to appreciate it. I have neither the time nor the inclination; his prose is difficult enough without having to decipher his ideas, too.