bete-noires
Dec. 10th, 2005 08:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
truepennyI have a confession to make.
I hate John Milton.
And when I say, I hate John Milton, I don't just mean that I find him actively boring to read--although I do--or that I disagree with his politics, morals, ethics, and philosophy at almost every conceivable point--although I do--or even that I feel he personally would be someone to avoid being trapped in an elevator with, no matter what it took--although I certainly do. I find George Eliot actively boring to read, but I admire her and her work intensely. I disagree with John Bunyan, perhaps even more vehemently than I do with Milton, and yet I can't help having a kind of grudging half-respectful fondness for him, nutball that he was. And the list of authors who were, on all the evidence, complete assholes in their personal life probably starts with the first person who decided that a writing system could be used to write down things other than cargo manifests.
No, when I say I hate John Milton, I mean that the personality that rises off the pages of his work is as repellant to me as the stench of a pole-cat. This isn't a reasoned hatred, or a defensible hatred; it has nothing to do with the biographical facts of Milton's life or with my opinion of his artistic merits. It's a simple, flat-out, gut-level loathing.
I should admire John Milton's work; I know that, and objectively I can see it. But I don't. I just don't. Because my hatred gets in the way.
And my question on this Saturday, which is cold and snowy and peaceful where I am, is: does anyone else have an author they feel this way about?
Who are your bêtes noires?
I hate John Milton.
And when I say, I hate John Milton, I don't just mean that I find him actively boring to read--although I do--or that I disagree with his politics, morals, ethics, and philosophy at almost every conceivable point--although I do--or even that I feel he personally would be someone to avoid being trapped in an elevator with, no matter what it took--although I certainly do. I find George Eliot actively boring to read, but I admire her and her work intensely. I disagree with John Bunyan, perhaps even more vehemently than I do with Milton, and yet I can't help having a kind of grudging half-respectful fondness for him, nutball that he was. And the list of authors who were, on all the evidence, complete assholes in their personal life probably starts with the first person who decided that a writing system could be used to write down things other than cargo manifests.
No, when I say I hate John Milton, I mean that the personality that rises off the pages of his work is as repellant to me as the stench of a pole-cat. This isn't a reasoned hatred, or a defensible hatred; it has nothing to do with the biographical facts of Milton's life or with my opinion of his artistic merits. It's a simple, flat-out, gut-level loathing.
I should admire John Milton's work; I know that, and objectively I can see it. But I don't. I just don't. Because my hatred gets in the way.
And my question on this Saturday, which is cold and snowy and peaceful where I am, is: does anyone else have an author they feel this way about?
Who are your bêtes noires?
no subject
Date: 2005-12-10 04:54 pm (UTC)