No, you are definitely not the only one! The funny thing is, I only realized the frenzy surrounding the show after I started watching season 1 a couple of days ago (due to lack of otherwise good evening television). I'm going to have a marathon TV viewing tomorrow to finish up the first series before catching up on season 2 Sunday night - thankfully PBS is replaying the first episode before the new one. I love it! Even my husband is excited to watch it.
Earlier this year I read a book about lit theory (I think it's the same one Jillian mentioned). The day before I read the book if you'd asked me if I analyze what I read I probably would have said, "yeah, sure." The day after I read the book if you'd asked me the same question I would have said, "Not even close." At first I felt really overwhelmed and discouraged by this thought.
I often refer to my reading as my "literary journey" or my "classics adventure" on my blog. When I think of what I'm doing as a journey, I feel less discouraged. This is the process that I need to go through to get where I want to be. As you alluded to, even if I "get" something I sometimes have difficulty expressing it. But I've accepted that. It's okay. Everything that I think and appreciate about a work might not come through in every post that I write, but I'm still learning from the process. The thoughts are still there. Perhaps another author or another book will inspire the words for those thoughts, or bring out new ones. It's okay, it's a journey. An adventure.
Thanks for reminding me that I really need to read this. I've been so absorbed in my classics reading that I've almost totally neglected graphic novels - I haven't read any yet this year. I need to remedy that.
I like your thought about literary fiction being about what's happening beneath the surface. That's what I was trying to get at too but I think you successfully phrased it more succinctly that I did.
I think it's interesting just to compare. And it won't take up much time - if I remember it isn't more than 5 pages - possibly even less. In fact, you can probably find the entire story online.
I read this last year and really enjoyed it. Hale's writing is simple without being simplistic, quite elegant actually. It has that fairy tale feel to it without feeling cliche or overdone. The original Brothers Grimm tale is really short, cut and dry - so Hale definitely gave it the breath of life!
I posted my previous comment in haste because I was about to burn dinner but I meant to add that I also love the quote that you included. In fact, years before I started reading Hardy, a coworker and I used to joke that we actually enjoyed our pessimism because it meant that we could only ever be pleasantly surprised - never disappointed. :)
I second your thoughts. Thanks for reminding me that it's his birthday. I no doubt read it at some point but hadn't made a note of it.
I thought I'd chime in on what Ellen said about favorite posts not generating as much traffic or responses. I've experienced this a number of times. I'll post something just thinking, "Aw, what the heck" and it quickly gets a dozen comments. While another post that I really thought a lot about and worked hard on, gets two. For me, these are the posts that tend to be the longest and most rambling -so that could be one factor. However, my wordpress stats also indicate that more people might be reading these posts than are commenting on them.
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