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Bookpost. Cross-posted to my lj.
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As I was saying at the writing group meeting last night, I recently discovered Project Gutenberg, where they archive many pieces of literature that have passed into the public domain. They have ebooks (mostly in plain-text format) and also various audiobooks, both computer-generated and human-read. Definitely worth a look for you readers out there.
Current reading list:
- The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, H.P. Lovecraft (yes, still. Along with lots of other stuff by Lovecraft. I still owe someone an e-mail about this.)
- Tales of Wonder, Lord Dunsany
- The Sorrows of Young Werther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Regarding that last book...
Most of you probably already know how this story ends, but I'll cut this entry anyway. And it might be triggering for some people, due to a discussion of the suicide that occurs at the end of the book, so you should probably not read the rest of this if that sort of thing bothers you.
I'm at the start of the book where Werther is mostly waxing poetic about the countryside being absolutely lovely, and how he can't seem to get anything done artistically and doesn't care because it's so beautiful, and how the people there absolutely love him so very much and invite him to dinner a lot. I'll probably end up frustrated with the book when the sorrows start, because I already know how the story ends, and it's depressing.
If I had discovered The Sorrows of Young Werther as a teenager, I probably would have loved it, would have read it and reread it over and other again and probably scared my parents to death. I was not a happy teenager. Now, though... well, I seem to have left that behind, thank goodness. Now I'm mostly reading it out of curiosity, because this book was mentioned in my History of Psychology class back in the day, thanks to its cultural impact.
But here's what I found amusing about the circumstances surrounding this book. As I'm sure most of you know from high school or college lit classes, or whatever, Werther commits suicide at the end of the book, because his beloved Lotte is married to another man named Albert, and he can't stand the emotional strife of it all. Well, according to Wikipedia and several other sites, one of Goethe's contemporaries - a man named Friedrich Nicolai - was especially disturbed by the ending and the way that young readers reacted to it. He wrote another story, called The Joys of Young Werther. It's basically a happy ending for the kid, where he doesn't end up killing himself. Again, according to the book's Wikipedia page:
Goethe was offended by this. His response was to write a story in which Nicolai goes to Werther's grave and desecrates it.
I rather want to read The Joys of Young Werter now, if I could find it; it seems to have been lost. I appreciate good satire, after all. Besides, as I said last night, it's rather amusing that this happened back in the late 1700's among well-known authors. Those of you who read this and who are into fandom know about fans rewriting endings to suit their own desires, and also about flame wars and "bashing fics" written by amateur authors who are ticked off at some other author? Well, here's proof that those are not new and modern things. Isn't it a laugh?
I'll comment on the other stories later. I have things to work on tonight first, though.
--
As I was saying at the writing group meeting last night, I recently discovered Project Gutenberg, where they archive many pieces of literature that have passed into the public domain. They have ebooks (mostly in plain-text format) and also various audiobooks, both computer-generated and human-read. Definitely worth a look for you readers out there.
Current reading list:
- The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, H.P. Lovecraft (yes, still. Along with lots of other stuff by Lovecraft. I still owe someone an e-mail about this.)
- Tales of Wonder, Lord Dunsany
- The Sorrows of Young Werther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Regarding that last book...
Most of you probably already know how this story ends, but I'll cut this entry anyway. And it might be triggering for some people, due to a discussion of the suicide that occurs at the end of the book, so you should probably not read the rest of this if that sort of thing bothers you.
I'm at the start of the book where Werther is mostly waxing poetic about the countryside being absolutely lovely, and how he can't seem to get anything done artistically and doesn't care because it's so beautiful, and how the people there absolutely love him so very much and invite him to dinner a lot. I'll probably end up frustrated with the book when the sorrows start, because I already know how the story ends, and it's depressing.
If I had discovered The Sorrows of Young Werther as a teenager, I probably would have loved it, would have read it and reread it over and other again and probably scared my parents to death. I was not a happy teenager. Now, though... well, I seem to have left that behind, thank goodness. Now I'm mostly reading it out of curiosity, because this book was mentioned in my History of Psychology class back in the day, thanks to its cultural impact.
But here's what I found amusing about the circumstances surrounding this book. As I'm sure most of you know from high school or college lit classes, or whatever, Werther commits suicide at the end of the book, because his beloved Lotte is married to another man named Albert, and he can't stand the emotional strife of it all. Well, according to Wikipedia and several other sites, one of Goethe's contemporaries - a man named Friedrich Nicolai - was especially disturbed by the ending and the way that young readers reacted to it. He wrote another story, called The Joys of Young Werther. It's basically a happy ending for the kid, where he doesn't end up killing himself. Again, according to the book's Wikipedia page:
...Albert, having realized what Werther is up to, had loaded chicken blood into the pistol [that Werther borrowed to kill himself,] thereby foiling Werther's suicide, and happily concedes Lotte to him. And after some initial difficulties, Werther sheds his passionate youthful side and reintegrates himself into society as a respectable citizen.
Goethe was offended by this. His response was to write a story in which Nicolai goes to Werther's grave and desecrates it.
I rather want to read The Joys of Young Werter now, if I could find it; it seems to have been lost. I appreciate good satire, after all. Besides, as I said last night, it's rather amusing that this happened back in the late 1700's among well-known authors. Those of you who read this and who are into fandom know about fans rewriting endings to suit their own desires, and also about flame wars and "bashing fics" written by amateur authors who are ticked off at some other author? Well, here's proof that those are not new and modern things. Isn't it a laugh?
I'll comment on the other stories later. I have things to work on tonight first, though.
