1. Kessie says:

    Alas, I haven’t read much Poe, to my detriment. I think it comes of Dad reading the the Cask of Amontillado aloud when I was young, and it creeped me the heck out.
     
    But on the whole, I love reading older books, because, being from a different time and dealing with different issues, they give me a look into our culture and how it got this way. So many ideas that started out noble (like the Women’s Liberation movement) have become such atrophied, warped reflections of their original intent.
     
    I can’t say I really liked Fahrenheit 451–it’s not really a book you “like”–but there are elements in it I find fascinating. Like the horror of being hunted by the Mechanical Hound. It’s kind of like the agents in the Matrix–you see one, you run, and it WILL catch you. Elements like that are ones I try to ape in my own writing.
     
    I didn’t like Brave New World or 1984 either, but as future forecasts go, I think Brave New World was closer to our culture (enslaved by our entertainment). Same goes for Animal Farm. Not really books you like, but they’re fascinating just the same.
     
    What? No Arthur Machen? 🙂

  2. bad_cook says:

    I’d have to read more of his stuff, but I from what I have read of Heinlein, I think I could write an essay on his female characters and his view of female sexuality in his works. One recurring character type I’ve noticed is a femme-fatale-ish sexpot who knows her appeal to men and how to use it to manipulate them to get what she wants. Evidently Heinlein could imagine a sexually liberated universe, but not necessarily a feminist one where women didn’t have to resort to coquetry to get ahead (even in romance).
    /tangent

What do you think?