TV/Movies Megathread

[Sophie Scholl]

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[Grey Fox]

I learned of the existence of Poe from the Simpsons.

[FunkMonk]

Thanks all for the responses. The question occurred to me because my brother-in-law and I had a conversation about Poe a week ago. He said he didn't think Poe was culturally significant anymore and I took the opposite view.

[crazy canuck]

Late to the party, but we read Poe in high school English classes.

[Josephus]

So...and really this belongs in another thread....I'm a big horror books buff and I love Poe, and many other more contemporary writers, like Clive Barker.
I bring Barker up, because, and I'm getting to it, I never read Lovecraft before so very recently I picked up a complete anthology. I started to read it and... meh...he didn't do much for me. Besides the poor writing style, and odd spellings, and obvious racism, I found his stories where more or less the same: Entrance to another world, guy goes in, sees demons, doesn't come back.

I can see how he influenced modern day writers. which brings me back to Barker. For demons living in another world, (including carpets), Clive Barker is the master. I found Lovecraft to be a poor man's Clive Barker. I know Lovecraft came first and undoubtedly influenced Barker; but since The Books of Blood exist, you really don't need Lovecraft.

[garbon]

I would agree Lovecraft feels more important as an influence than good on his own right.

I think I've only read Coldheart Canyon by Barker. It didn't do much for me.

[Gups]

So...and really this belongs in another thread....I'm a big horror books buff and I love Poe, and many other more contemporary writers, like Clive Barker.
I bring Barker up, because, and I'm getting to it, I never read Lovecraft before so very recently I picked up a complete anthology. I started to read it and... meh...he didn't do much for me. Besides the poor writing style, and odd spellings, and obvious racism, I found his stories where more or less the same: Entrance to another world, guy goes in, sees demons, doesn't come back.

I can see how he influenced modern day writers. which brings me back to Barker. For demons living in another world, (including carpets), Clive Barker is the master. I found Lovecraft to be a poor man's Clive Barker. I know Lovecraft came first and undoubtedly influenced Barker; but since The Books of Blood exist, you really don't need Lovecraft.

If you like Barker's approach (I reread Weaveworld recently and very much enjoyed it), I'd recommend Arcadia by Iain Pears, which is a more literary fantasy/less horror style approach to an alternative world.

[crazy canuck]

The only reason I ever heard of Lovecraft is because people talked about him here.

[Sheilbh]

Define big thing.
What others are saying here may be right historically and amongst artsy sorts, but amongst the general public I don't think Poe is particularly known beyond references in The Simpsons et al.

The opinion of any writer is basically going to be largely by artsy sorts not the genereal public. It's the nature of it.

But I'd say the fact people might have an idea of Poe - from the raven and tell-tale heart bits of the Simpsons, or Vincent Price - still puts him ahead of the vast majority of writers who have no impresseion in the public opinion.

And I think most people's experience of Dickens is mediated by Lionel Bart and the Muppets - it's no less (or more) legitimate than the Simpsons. It's why those writers have a popular image - plus I think Dickens is still probably the great writer of London.

He's not really on the same level as the likes of Dickens, Austen, etc...
Certainly nothing I ever ran into at school (but then same too Dickens and Austen)

I did English to A-Level and then as a degree, and I don't think I ever had Dickens on a reading list. In part that was just luck of the draw of who my tutor was for that period - and in fairness there were entire Dickens optional units that I didn't take. So I avoided those specialists

I've read a lot of him since and I do actually really like him (albeit he does have issues).

[Barrister]

I did English to A-Level and then as a degree, and I don't think I ever had Dickens on a reading list. In part that was just luck of the draw of who my tutor was for that period - and in fairness there were entire Dickens optional units that I didn't take. So I avoided those specialists

I've read a lot of him since and I do actually really like him (albeit he does have issues).

I never had Dickens in high school (and I certainly didn't study English in university) so I stayed away from him like the plague.

One summer though I was doing field work, knew I would have a lot of time on my hands, so put together a bit of a "great works" reading list for myself.  One of the books was Tale of Two Cities.  I was really surprised how much I enjoyed it.  I later learned how Dickens really was a popular novelist of the time, making him more of a, I dunno, John Grisham of the mid-19th century.

[Sheilbh]

I never had Dickens in high school (and I certainly didn't study English in university) so I stayed away from him like the plague.

One summer though I was doing field work, knew I would have a lot of time on my hands, so put together a bit of a "great works" reading list for myself.  One of the books was Tale of Two Cities.  I was really surprised how much I enjoyed it.  I later learned how Dickens really was a popular novelist of the time, making him more of a, I dunno, John Grisham of the mid-19th century.

Yeah and he started writing serials which would come out every week. I think the story is (and no idea if this is true) that he was paid by the word which was a habit he never quite shaked. Also even once he moved to novels they were still released on a serial basis which I think showed because a lot of his plots are shaky af and very much just trying to get from point a to point b

I was also surprised how much I enjoyed him, I went in a little dubious - and he does overwrite, there are massive tropes that he always comes back to (some of which are from his life, like the experience of poverty as a child) and a lot of the plots are shaky. His characters do exactly what they say on the tin (Uriah Heep etc). But I think he's a very enjoyable writer especially on a scene by scene basis, which again may be from his time writing serials. Possibly why the scenes are so good is that he's great at atmosphere which is maybe why his shadow is so long over depictions of London. I think he's great as long as you don't think about it or step back and look at the book as a whole.

I wonder if he's like the 19th century, literary Shonda Rhimes?

There was a really interesting interview on the LRB's Past Present Future podcast between David Runciman and Zadie Smith on her latest book, which includes Dickens (and sounds great).

I also really enjoyed Wilke Collins, especially The Woman in White, which I hadn't expected and went to after Dickens.

[Admiral Yi]

Do you poor benighted Poms have any conception of the past participle?

[Sheilbh]

Do you poor benighted Poms have any conception of the past participle?

Absolutely not

I think I've mentioned before but I have no idea about English grammar. It is taught now at schools but I think when Jos and I were growing up it was not a thing beyond noun = naming word, verb = doing word, adjective = describing word

I have a better idea of the past participle in Spanish...

[Savonarola]

I never had Dickens in high school (and I certainly didn't study English in university) so I stayed away from him like the plague.

One summer though I was doing field work, knew I would have a lot of time on my hands, so put together a bit of a "great works" reading list for myself.  One of the books was Tale of Two Cities.  I was really surprised how much I enjoyed it.  I later learned how Dickens really was a popular novelist of the time, making him more of a, I dunno, John Grisham of the mid-19th century.

Dickens is wasted on the young.  Most people I've met who hate him were forced to read him in junior high or high school.

[Savonarola]

His characters do exactly what they say on the tin (Uriah Heep etc).

    Well put, but that's what makes Dickens Dickens (and it happens in real life too, Bernie Madoff for example.)