Are novels worth to read?

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I can see that my reading list and yours would have no overlap whatsoever. My greatest preference is science fiction (Heinlein, Sterling, Niven and hundreds of others). Recently I decided to read the Stieg Larsson crime novels everyone is talking about and loved them.

My favorite author from many decades ago is Somerset Maughm. Going back farther I loved "Candide" by Voltaire...hilarious. I think he made it shallow, vulgar and trifling very much on purpose, bless him. Going back further still and I like "Lysistrata" by Aristophenes (a play, but novels weren't invented yet). Also hilarious. And sooooooo vulgar.

Our taste is apparently precisely the opposite. My greatest joy in college literature classes was ferretting out the shallow, vulgar and trifling offerings from times past and reveling in them. My favorite Shakespeare play? "A Midsummer Night's Dream" of course. Anytime classic authors wallowed in silliness (or vulgarity, etc.) I made sure to find it.

There is trifling silliness in modern fiction too. Scuience fiction and crime fiction tend to be very self-serious genres, but trifles can be found there, too. Douglas Adams wrote a fine trifle trilogy (quadrology?).

Just because you don't understand the depth in Jane Austen does not mean it is shallow!

OK. Please tell me where is the depth in her?

Are you British?? As what you told me before? Then I can understand that your opinion may based on your patriotic heart...

If the' truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife..." is deep enough in your opinion, then what can be shallow?

I am so curious...

Much of the value [depth depends on where YOU are] in Jane Austen and others like her lies in her often accurate and occasionally friendly observations on how different types of people interact.

She is not dealing with deep feeling or with vast philosophical issues, but there is some depth in humans and their interactions.

It will be very interesting to see how you find Ulysses - what you hear.

I like Stephen King.
I know his books aren't considered "literature", but I usually read novels to relax.

As James Joyce has been mentioned, I will add that I did enjoy "Dubliners".

Metaphysics? Isn't that Greek for sh*t?

ruveyn

Pretty much.

But I think Philologos was refering to the user named metaphysics rather than actual metaphysics.

no I think the word is σκατά (skatá)
as in the phrase that is very popular in Greece these days
τρώνε φασιστική σκατά.

Are Novels worth reading?

A friend I had once [and greatly respected the mind of] told me that to know the idea of a culture one needed to read their history, philosophy etc but if one wanted to understand the soul of a culture one needed to imerse oneself in thier art.

I read a mix of fiction and non fiction for this very reason, literature [I will choose to expand the term 'novels' to include shorter fiction but exclude narrative driven 'genre' fiction by shifting to this definition] are indeed worth reading.

I find/have found as an aspie that my understanding of the human condition has been greatly expanded through the study of humans through good literature. I choose articulate character driven rather than narrative driven stories generally for this reason.

@ metaphysics, I find it amusing that you have dived into Joyce at his most self indulgent, the above mentioned friend dismissed Ulysses as the least finished 'classic' of Irish literature, I myself never finished it nor Finnegans Wake and know very few people who have and if I recall correctly they all finished it under accademic duress

Dubliners does indeed include a couple of good stories but I find Joyce altogether too self indulgent, George Moore is to my mind the far better writer of the two and his insights are more rewarding.

Literature in the form of the short story is by far my favourite diversion, Chekov, Tolstoy, O'Faolain, O'Connor, Bowden, Lavin all masters/mistress' of the form and this is to just name the obvious. Annie Proulx, 'Postcards', 'Heartsongs and other stories' and 'Accordian Crimes' are masterfull works, Ron Rash's short fiction is understated genius. As for my own compatriots Kiwi writers have long mastered the short story and the Oxford collections give an excellent survey of the last century or so.

peace j