Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Good Call, Marx


I am pretty sure the classic novel, Robinson Crusoe, sucks. I am almost finished with it, and it has been a painful literary quest.

The book has very few redeeming qualities. It doesn't help that there are no chapters. The story just goes on and on, as Defoe explains the protagonist's three boring decades on an island in the West Indies. It seems like the same stuff keeps happening over and over again: Crusoe gets some supplies; he grows crops; he cures food; he fears the cannibals; he captures a cannibal and makes him his boon companion/slave; he gets some supplies; he grows crops...round and round we go, with no end in sight. So far, the best part of the book is when Robinson Crusoe drowns the kittens.

The fact that this book was published in 1719 does not mitigate its suckiness. I have read much older stuff that is way better and more timeless. Robinson Crusoe hasn't aged well, at all.

They say that Karl Marx disliked this book, because of its capitalistic slant. I wonder if Marx also found it boring.

Maybe the ending will blow my mind. I hope so. Please don't put me through any more descriptions of corn growing and raisins drying in the sun.

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