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Heaven: I feel I ought to like this but I DON'T

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  • Sorry KarlLB. How could I forget the great Kathryn Tickell. Oversight on my part.
  • Alfred Hitchcock wasn't so kind: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/alfred_hitchcock_125446.

    [Ducks to avoid variegated rustic effluvia being hurled from all parts of the Celtic world]
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    Golden Key wrote: »

    --Horror films.

    One of those things where I dislike it, but not for the same reasons as everybody else(if that's not too pretentious). The usual objection is that they're scary, but my problem is that they are now completely unoriginal, having been cannibalizing the same plots for about the last twenty years or so.

    The whole Ring thing from Asia was a bit of a boost for originality, but that has now gotten completely stale as well. And the "found-footage" schtick ceased to be interesting after Blair Witch Project(and I'm being charitable in saying that it was even interesting in that movie).

  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    Alfred Hitchcock wasn't so kind: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/alfred_hitchcock_125446.

    [Ducks to avoid variegated rustic effluvia being hurled from all parts of the Celtic world]

    I was actually thinking of putting Hitchcock himself on this thread, though I wasn't sure if he quite fits, because I do find him pretty interesting, in terms of the themes and motifs he uses(which are the gifts that keep on giving for trendy academic analysts), but I just don't find him all that suspenseful, which was supposed to be his calling card.

  • Golden Key wrote: »
    --The "Summa Theologica", by Thomas Aquinas. Dull--but, more importantly, totally anathema to my approach to God and faith.
    I thought it was a lot like drinking sand.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    KarlLB & Graven Image--
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Star Wars movie. I often like science fiction but this movie did nothing for me. I am also most likely the only viewer on the earth who thought the movie Forrest Gump was a waste of time.

    Not at all. The trailers were enough to make me not bother.

    If I may ask, which "Star Wars" film(s) did you dislike? Many people dislike some, but like others. I love the originals (eps. 4-6); dislike much of the next set (eps. 1-3), and love the newest, old-school-style set.

  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Golden Key wrote: »
    KarlLB & Graven Image--
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Star Wars movie. I often like science fiction but this movie did nothing for me. I am also most likely the only viewer on the earth who thought the movie Forrest Gump was a waste of time.

    Not at all. The trailers were enough to make me not bother.

    If I may ask, which "Star Wars" film(s) did you dislike? Many people dislike some, but like others. I love the originals (eps. 4-6); dislike much of the next set (eps. 1-3), and love the newest, old-school-style set.

    I was referring to Forrest Gump IIRC. I like Star Wars, up to a point - it's not IMV worthy of true fan adulation the way Lord of The Rings or Doctor Who are - but the whole Jahjah Binks stuff has to never have happened.
  • HugalHugal Shipmate
    Not a big football(soccer) fan but as a Brit I am supposed to be. Got passed Tom Bombadil in LOTR and gave up.
    Both my wife and I are massive musicals fans so I am supposed to adore A Star is Born (Judy Garland). Apart from a few songs I find it over long and mind numbingly boring. Don’t get me stared on the Les Miz film. A wasted opportunity.
  • I'm a music fan. Love it. Especially anything that stems from Blues, such as Blues, Blues-Rock, Country, R'n'R and so on. So I should like Led Zeppelin right? Blue-Rock straight down the line.

    Can't stand them.

    Between Robert Plant's screeching vocals and Jimmy Page's non-contextualised lead playing they really get on my wick. By non-contextualised lead playing I mean that his solos bear no relation to the song. It is as if he recorded a solo at some point, then decided to drop it on to whatever song they were recording, whether it fits or not. It drives me up the wall.

    But what really annoys me about Page is that he is a sublime rhythm player. His riffs are some of the best ever recorded. They work in every song. They needed to dump plant (before he was recruited the band were trying to get Steve Marriott from the Small Faces but it didn't work out, which is a pity), and get in a good lead player.

    Whenever I hear them on the radio I turn it off because they really annoy me.

    And breathe...

    As I said I love music. I also love plays. I hate musicals! I like apple pie and I like tomato soup. Musicals are like putting tomato... well you get the idea. I've never been to a proper opera so really don't know, but I suspect I would hate it due to it being a musical in a foreign language! The only musicals I have any time for are ones with music taken from proper musicians such as Buddy and Million-Dollar Quartet (about a recording session at Sun Studios in the 50's with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash - I would recommend that one. It really is good) and so on. But even some of these annoy me - the Queen musical and Mamma Mia spring immediately to mind.

    Funny thing is I can listen to the songs from musicals on CD and enjoy them. But not when some actor is singing them in the middle of a bleeding play!

    Also LOTR - I tried a number of times over the years to read it but gave up. It was the bloody poetry and songs that bored me to tears. I did manage to get through it when I was in my mid-forties. It wasn't worth it.

    Friends. My wife and daughter are watching the repeats on NetFlix but I find it annoyingly tedious. I love The Big Bang Theory so it isn't a general downer on American sit-coms (although TBBT is probably the only one I really do like - it has more "bite" than most US sit-coms).

    And finally (until I think of some more things!) Rugby (league or union). I like sports. I can watch pretty much anything in terms of mainstream sports. I can even watch and enjoy American Football and baseball and golf, which most people hate on television. But I cannot watch rugby. It bores me. I have tried and tried to get into it, but it's just stop-start for me. Big blokes run at one another, the referee blows his whistle an big blokes run at one another again. For 80 minutes. It just doesn't flow as a spectacle. I know it is popular and millions of people love watching it and I'm happy for them, but it is a mainstream sport that I should like, but really don't.

    tl;dr; Led Zeppelin, musicals, LOTR, Friends and rugby. All annoying in spite of me liking other similar things.
  • Hugal wrote: »
    Don’t get me stared on the Les Miz film. A wasted opportunity.
    I love musicals, but I've never understood the appeal of Les Miz. There are some good moments, but overall . . . eh. That said, it's better than Phantom of the Opera or Cats.
    The only musicals I have any time for are ones with music taken from proper musicians such as Buddy and Million-Dollar Quartet (about a recording session at Sun Studios in the 50's with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash - I would recommend that one. It really is good) and so on. But even some of these annoy me - the Queen musical and Mamma Mia spring immediately to mind. other similar things
    Okay, I'll need to take issue with "proper musicians."

    But seriously, this got a laugh from me, because I was just explaining to my daughter the other night why I had no interest in seeing Mamma Mia!: Here We Go Again, and was reminding her that I never saw Mamma Mia!. "But you love musicals," she said. But, I told her, I really, really don't like jukebox musicals. Million-Dollar Quartet, Buddy, Jersey Boys . . . . no thanks.

    To each their own. :relaxed:

  • Also LOTR - I tried a number of times over the years to read it but gave up. It was the bloody poetry and songs that bored me to tears. I did manage to get through it when I was in my mid-forties. It wasn't worth it.
    I've read it 33 times, but for the last 15 at least I've just skipped the "poetry." His comic verse is great. His serious stuff is dreck.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    mousethief wrote: »
    Also LOTR - I tried a number of times over the years to read it but gave up. It was the bloody poetry and songs that bored me to tears. I did manage to get through it when I was in my mid-forties. It wasn't worth it.
    I've read it 33 times, but for the last 15 at least I've just skipped the "poetry." His comic verse is great. His serious stuff is dreck.

    Funny thing was he could do it sometimes. It's just he was rubbish at knowing when he'd done a decent job.
  • Dostoyevsky? Loved Crime and Punishment, loved The Brothers Karamazov ... I struggle with the rest.

    Dickens I find over-rated but good in parts.

    Joyce? Yeah, well, in places ... Dubliners is great. 'The Dead.' Wonderful.

    Portrait of the Artist ... not so much and whole swathes of Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake ... aaaarghhhh!

    Anything by Tolkein, nein danke.

    I could handle Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy but LoTR left me cold. Yawn, yawn, yawn ...

  • Conrad? Heart of Darkness I did like. 'The Horror! The Horror!'

    Could have been a teenage thing, though.

    The Secret Agent I struggled to get through. Thought the TV adaptation was interesting, but it's all very, very bleak.
  • Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Interesting but wrong-headed.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Do people ever read a post on this thread and feel as if their kitten has just been drowned?
  • Dostoyevsky has to be read in a good translation. I started C&P in five different translations and crapped out at about the same point in each. Then I found Pevear and Volokhonsky, and sailed right through. I highly recommend them for all Russian classics. Their Master & Margarita is especially good.

    Agree with Gamma. I loved C&P and BK (the latter is the most Orthodox book not actually marketed as such that I've ever read). I found Notes from Underground dreadful, and haven't managed to get very far into anything else. Even in P&V translation.
  • KarlLB wrote: »
    Do people ever read a post on this thread and feel as if their kitten has just been drowned?
    When you're a Tolkien fan your kitten dies early and often, and you get over it.
  • mousethief wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Do people ever read a post on this thread and feel as if their kitten has just been drowned?
    When you're a Tolkien fan your kitten dies early and often, and you get over it.
    This.

    mousethief, you're the first person I've encountered who's read LOTR more times than I have. (I estimate that I've read it around 25 times; it's coming up on time for 26.) I salute you, sir.

  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    mousethief, you're the first person I've encountered who's read LOTR more times than I have. (I estimate that I've read it around 25 times; it's coming up on time for 26.) I salute you, sir.
    <Returns salute>

    Also, speaking of dying kittens, I like Bombadil and think the episode at Bombadil's house serves an important purpose in the story.
  • 'Drown thyself? Drown cats and blind puppies.'

    Shakespeare: Othello

    On LoTR. I have tried. It's turgid in the extreme. The films likewise.

    Most overrated bollocks in the history of bollocks.

    Other than that ...

    I like the Ents though. Those are those tree things, right?

    Golum is rather sweet but you can keep the rest.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I couldn't get past the first page of The Hobbit, so I'm assuming LOTR would be quite beyond me. My Better Half, on the other hand, reckons he reads the whole trilogy about once a year. I don't know how old he was when he started, but he's now 62 ...

    I've seen the films (D. obviously wanted to see them, and I went along to keep him company), but apart from the spectacular scenery, they left me completely cold.

    Sorry about that. :blush:
  • Golden Key wrote: »
    KarlLB & Graven Image--
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Star Wars movie. I often like science fiction but this movie did nothing for me. I am also most likely the only viewer on the earth who thought the movie Forrest Gump was a waste of time.

    Not at all. The trailers were enough to make me not bother.

    If I may ask, which "Star Wars" film(s) did you dislike? Many people dislike some, but like others. I love the originals (eps. 4-6); dislike much of the next set (eps. 1-3), and love the newest, old-school-style set.

    I was bored with the first one, I liked the second one a bit better, saw the third one then gave on going to any more.
  • I got past the first page of The Hobbit, but have regretted it ...

    Worse than LoTR.

    Or perhaps just as bad.

    As for the filns, they are a great cure for insomnia.
  • I always admired Jabba the Hutt and sort of got off on the religious overtones of "the force". But otherwise Star Wars did nothing for me either.
  • mousethief wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Do people ever read a post on this thread and feel as if their kitten has just been drowned?
    When you're a Tolkien fan your kitten dies early and often, and you get over it.

    The most unremittingly tragically sad book ever written IMO is The Silmarillion. I love it, I read it at least once a year and bawl my eyes out.

    LAFF
  • mousethiefmousethief Shipmate
    edited August 2018
    The most unremittingly tragically sad book ever written IMO is The Silmarillion. I love it, I read it at least once a year and bawl my eyes out.
    I forced myself to read it through once. I have tried again numerous times and can never finish. It's the most unremittingly dull book ever written. It makes Ulysses look like an exciting page-turner.

  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    The longer plays of Eugene O'Neill, specifically A Long Day's Journey Into Night and The Iceman Cometh, I find to be just long-winded and meandering. Especially Iceman. Even when I was reading it, I wasn't sure what the point of having all these characters from different backgrounds converging in the same bar was.

    His shorter, socially conscious metaphorical stuff is pretty good though, The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape.
  • I was given The Hobbit as a birthday present, a 7th birthday present, so read it very young (probably not 7, but not long after) and read The Lord of the Rings as light entertainment around my GCSEs at 15 (yes, I sat them at 15). I haven't reread it since, although I tried to as a bedtime story to my daughter when she was aged 12 or 13. The Hobbit was earlier. Only she took off reading to herself so a few nights in I was told, "We're not there, we're here"; I pointed out that I had hoped to reread it myself, so wasn't up for reading a bit several pages after the last time I'd paused, and time she stopped having bedtime story.

    I have only seen one film from The Hobbit and bits of the Lord of the Rings, as someone else was watching and I wandered past. I think I started sitting down and watching, but wandered off to get on with something else. I don't like seeing films of books I've read, I get irritated by the variations from the text and the portrayals of characters I have not visualised the way the director has.

    I quite like the first (original) Star Wars film, which I saw when it came out, four times, as everyone I knew wanted to see it - for a while meeting up with people tended to mean that I saw it again. I then saw the sequel, which was OK, didn't bother seeing the third (or 6th) and really have no interest in seeing any of the others.

    I read War and Peace around my A levels, and I'm the only person I know in real life who has read War and Peace - it became a running joke at work, when someone made a comment about it, and then asked if anyone had read it, and there was only me. I suspect many more people on the Ship have read it, but I got to the end because I'd started it, not because I was enjoying it.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Re "War & Peace":

    I started reading it on my own in grade school. I think I could probably handle the story. But I kept tripping over the anononyms: "Count Z--", etc. So I quit.
  • MMMMMM Shipmate
    edited August 2018
    Is this about stuff we feel we should like but don't or just stuff we don't like? 'Cos I've got plenty of the latter (music, Lord of the Rings, Terry Pratchett, fish and seafood) but nothing I feel I should like.

    And, CK, I read War and Peace donkey's years ago - made myself read a certain number of pages a day just to get it done. Actually, I think I did the same for Anna Karenina, The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment, so I shall add Russian novels to my list.

    MMM

    Edited to add - I've just remembered I read Crime and Punishment for a bet.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited August 2018
    I find the Silmarillion one of the best books I've ever read. This doesn't seem to be a popular view, but it just scratches an itch for me. Especially the Narn a Hîn Hurin. But I'm the sort of person who wants to know why a world is the way it is, and that's what Ainulindale and Quenta Silmarillion explain.
  • KarlLB wrote: »
    Golden Key wrote: »
    KarlLB & Graven Image--
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Star Wars movie. I often like science fiction but this movie did nothing for me. I am also most likely the only viewer on the earth who thought the movie Forrest Gump was a waste of time.

    Not at all. The trailers were enough to make me not bother.

    If I may ask, which "Star Wars" film(s) did you dislike? Many people dislike some, but like others. I love the originals (eps. 4-6); dislike much of the next set (eps. 1-3), and love the newest, old-school-style set.

    I was referring to Forrest Gump IIRC. I like Star Wars, up to a point - it's not IMV worthy of true fan adulation the way Lord of The Rings or Doctor Who are - but the whole Jahjah Binks stuff has to never have happened.

    I refused to watch 1-3 after watching the second series of Spaced with Tim’s dislike of The Phantom Menace.

    Another one who doesn’t get the appeal of Austin.
  • Golden Key wrote: »
    I started reading it on my own in grade school. I think I could probably handle the story. But I kept tripping over the anononyms: "Count Z--", etc. So I quit.
    The wot?
  • I started War and Peace with some trepidation but found I thoroughly enjoyed it.

    I can't say I had the same reaction to other classic novels nor much vaunted contemporary ones.

    Midnight's Children I found a complete bore.

    I struggled with Middlemarch but know people who rave over it.

    It's difficult to assess why we respond well to some novels, films, plays and visual art and not others.

    Perhaps it's a bit of a Blur or Oasis, Beatles or The Stones thing.

    I never understood how I got on so well with Peake's Gormenghast novels but Tolkein left me cold.

    But that's what happened.

    I didn't enjoy Ulysses but Dubliners blew me away.

    I recently reread Joyce's A Portrait of The Artist ... and found it irritating in the extreme.

    Perhaps our reactions change over the course of our lives?

    As a young un, I loved everything by Laurie Lee, Cider with Rosie, A I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning ...

    Plenty of other people I knew hated it.

    Now, I'm ambivalent about his work.

    Things change.

    Perhaps I ought to try Tolkein again but the prospect doesn't fill me with glee.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Do people ever read a post on this thread and feel as if their kitten has just been drowned?

    Yes. I love Bonhoeffer, thought everyone did. The OP here broke my heart.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    MaryLouise wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Do people ever read a post on this thread and feel as if their kitten has just been drowned?

    Yes. I love Bonhoeffer, thought everyone did. The OP here broke my heart.

    I've never read him so have no opinion.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    KarlB, I'm being mildly facetious because of course I do understand quite well why some might find Bonhoeffer unreadable. It is just that pang at seeing favourite books or films not appealing to others. When I discover a new-to-me and exciting writer, I rush out to buy extra copies for close friends and assume everyone will be equally thrilled. Not so.
  • Beer, Wine, Whiskey, Gin, Vodka, Prosecco, *insert alcoholic beverage here*

    people are shocked when
    - I say I don't like any of it, or
    - if they it's "an acquired taste" and and i say "it's one I don't want to acquire"
  • MMM wrote: »
    Is this about stuff we feel we should like but don't or just stuff we don't like?
    Unless you love all other fantasy books, but not LOTR, or all SF films but not Star Wars, most of the stuff above is not that surprising and like you I'm struggling to think of something I 'should like'. It's a bit like the opposite of a 'guilty pleasure', although that phrase is a bit pompous.

    The only possible thing is I have a bit or a reputation amongst my friends for eating unusual thing, cooking, being interested in food from other countries etc but absolutely can't stand garlic. The smell of it (also coffee) makes my stomach churn. *shudders*


  • TrudyTrudy Heaven Host
    I have one that will definitely make me an outcast among almost all Shipmates: most choral music bores me. I can sit through ONE good song by a good choir, but a whole program of them puts me to sleep. I do better with music in the African-American "gospel choir" tradition than, say, English cathedral or other "classical"-sounding stuff, but on the whole, for me, I feel like I'm just not getting what's supposed to be great about it.

    In the last few weeks I have attended one performance by a gospel choir (very good and uplifting) and two Choral Evensong services in different Anglican churches, both of which left me feeling "I know this is being done very well, but I don't want to keep listening to it for too much longer."

    It makes me feel like such a philistine, but I've had years of trying to expose myself to choral music to see if I get better at appreciating it, and it's really only the very rare piece or performance that I can say I actually ENJOY.
  • Trudy wrote: »
    I have one that will definitely make me an outcast among almost all Shipmates: most choral music bores me. I can sit through ONE good song by a good choir, but a whole program of them puts me to sleep. I do better with music in the African-American "gospel choir" tradition than, say, English cathedral or other "classical"-sounding stuff, but on the whole, for me, I feel like I'm just not getting what's supposed to be great about it.

    In the last few weeks I have attended one performance by a gospel choir (very good and uplifting) and two Choral Evensong services in different Anglican churches, both of which left me feeling "I know this is being done very well, but I don't want to keep listening to it for too much longer."

    It makes me feel like such a philistine, but I've had years of trying to expose myself to choral music to see if I get better at appreciating it, and it's really only the very rare piece or performance that I can say I actually ENJOY.

    Yup. Get thee behind me: thou art anathema.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Trudy wrote: »
    I have one that will definitely make me an outcast among almost all Shipmates: most choral music bores me. I can sit through ONE good song by a good choir, but a whole program of them puts me to sleep. I do better with music in the African-American "gospel choir" tradition than, say, English cathedral or other "classical"-sounding stuff, but on the whole, for me, I feel like I'm just not getting what's supposed to be great about it.

    In the last few weeks I have attended one performance by a gospel choir (very good and uplifting) and two Choral Evensong services in different Anglican churches, both of which left me feeling "I know this is being done very well, but I don't want to keep listening to it for too much longer."

    It makes me feel like such a philistine, but I've had years of trying to expose myself to choral music to see if I get better at appreciating it, and it's really only the very rare piece or performance that I can say I actually ENJOY.

    Nope. I enjoy performing it but listening to it bores me to tears. Occasional great moments separated by acres of tedium.
  • It amuses me that in conversations such as this thread, a disproportionate amount of space is used in attacking, defending, or ambivalating Tolkien. Often people who don't hate him but just don't find him interesting will devote paragraphs to their ambivalence. I wonder what there is about his works, or his place in our society, that invokes such a response.
  • Easy. The reason Tolkein evokes such a reaction is because there are so many Tolkein bores out there.

    He wouldn't get anywhere near the kind of reaction he gets here if people didn't keep going on about LoTR and wasting 25% of their waking life by reading the tedious shit about Orcs, Hobbits and fucking Elves.
  • Other than that ...

    ;)
  • Meh. This phenomenon existed before the movies, when Tolkien fans were hiding in catacombs and sending one member out to buy bread.
  • mousethief wrote: »
    The most unremittingly tragically sad book ever written IMO is The Silmarillion. I love it, I read it at least once a year and bawl my eyes out.
    I forced myself to read it through once. I have tried again numerous times and can never finish. It's the most unremittingly dull book ever written. It makes Ulysses look like an exciting page-turner.

    The Silmarillion is Wagner's Ring cycle of literature. Same tone, same sturm und drang same interplay of gods and monsters, same high tragedy and inescapable doom.

    Perhaps it is best consumed on the first go like one should first experience The Ring: In four parts, spaced a year apart. Not over a four day weekend at Bayreuth.

    AFF



  • ThunderBunkThunderBunk Shipmate
    edited August 2018
    This is not to say that much choral singing doesn't make me grind my teeth; it does, especially unmusical singing. But I digress.

    My own entry is Charles Dickens. With the sole exception of Hard Times, his novels bore the pants off me. Always have, always will. He uses language as if he was on piecework, and paid by the shovel.

    ETA: Sorry, I just remembered that I managed to read David Copperfield without wanting to do myself an injury. I thought I was on a roll, but then Our Mutual Friend restored the status quo ante.
  • I have read LotR, The Silmarillion,Unfinished Tales, and volumes 1-12 of 2The History of Middle Earth"

    I think I could as a fan. And yes, I understand that others might not appreciate it, but it clicks for me. I love the escape to another world.

    Choral Music - never got into into it. There are parts of the Messiah I like (and I do have a copy of it), but it just bores me.
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