Subject: Hard to Understand
Posted by: peach12
Date: Sep 04 09
What is the hardest book to understand that you have ever read. Mine is the book "Summerland".
Posted by: peach12
Date: Sep 04 09
What is the hardest book to understand that you have ever read. Mine is the book "Summerland".
40 replies. On page 1 of 2 pages. 1 2
Dee30 
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Bible especially Revelations Reply #1. Sep 04 09, 4:29 PM |
Ilona_Ritter
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I have to agree, the Bible, in certain parts is very hard to understand. But then again, I've always believed that we are not expected to understand everything becasue we are not God. Reply #2. Sep 04 09, 4:35 PM |
bionic4ever
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My Philosophy textbook in college. I was a freshman in a mostly junior/senior class...and way over my head. Dropped the course before the week was out and picked up an extra Psych credit instead. Reply #3. Sep 04 09, 4:40 PM |
aya3098
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I picked up an older version of 'Robinson Crusoe...' within the first few pages it was put down again. Reply #4. Sep 04 09, 6:30 PM |
adams627
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For me, that would be a tie between "Ulysses", "The Sound and the Fury", and "Heart of Darkness". Of the three, I only managed to get through the third, and that's only because it's less than 100 pages long! Reply #5. Sep 06 09, 6:13 AM |
terbear528
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For sure the Bible. Also Shakespeare. Reply #6. Sep 06 09, 10:39 PM |
dsimpy
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Agree with adams627 on Ulysses. Mighty fine, damned hard. I did actually manage to finish it, but it was after 30 years of trying. Finnegans Wake is on the agenda, for the next time I have a spare decade. Reply #7. Sep 07 09, 7:01 PM |
lesley153
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I've only spent twenty years trying to get past the first page of A Confederacy of Dunces, so perhaps there is hope yet? Reply #8. Sep 07 09, 7:37 PM |
Deunan
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Shakespeare has been the hardest. Reply #9. Sep 07 09, 8:42 PM |
Cymruambyth
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Any of James Joyce's books, Tolstoi's 'War and Peace' (largely die to the fact that keeping track of the characters who are known by different names to other characters) and any science textbook (in any area of science) or mathematics textbook I ever opened! Reply #10. Sep 07 09, 10:07 PM |
PatsyNYC
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Lesley, do give A Confederacy of Dunces another try. I promise you it's worth it. It's one of the funniest novels I've ever read. I had a hard time getting through The Recognitions by William Gaddis. At over 1,000 dense pages, it was slow going but I managed it. But I gave up on the same author's JR. I just could not get into it. Reply #11. Sep 08 09, 8:19 PM |
papasmurf13
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i found alot of Plato's writings hard to understand; forms here, essences there; realms over there; took about a week to grasp a concept and then you'd turn the page and something would be there to challenge what you just grasped! hair-pulling out stuff! hehehe Reply #12. Sep 09 09, 9:54 AM |
| lesley153
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Patsy, you've talked me into it. I think I know where it is. If you hear sobbing - I don't. Reply #13. Sep 09 09, 11:23 AM |
REDVIKING57
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"V.A.T. For The Small Business,Made Easy". Published by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. I bet even Steven Hawking would be lost in that tome of wisdom! Reply #14. Sep 09 09, 11:40 AM |
EmmaF2008
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Jaques Lacan. A French psychoanalyst - had to read some of his writings (in translation). Difficult wasn't the word! Reply #15. Nov 04 09, 4:38 PM |
jolana
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2001 Space Odyssey by A.C. Clarke. Read and watched it several times and never understood the ending. And Star Wars - I never know who is good and who is bad. James Bond - completely lost in what´t going on. Reply #16. Nov 04 09, 5:11 PM |
Pagiedamon
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I found "Ulysses" and "Finnegan's Wake" by Joyce difficult to understand. Reply #17. Nov 04 09, 5:15 PM |
| jolana
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Yes, Pagie, you are right and moreover these two works are challenges for translators all over the world - they are practically untranslatabe. Reply #18. Nov 04 09, 5:28 PM |
daver852
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Can't figure why "A Confederacy of Dunces" would be hard to understand. Just a little piece of social satire. As far as Joyce is concerned, I think he's hard to understand because there's really not much there. Even his wife thought his writing was drivel. Ditto for Faulkner. Usually, writing that's difficult to understand is just bad writing, at least as far as prose goes. Poetry is a different matter. Some of Yeats' work is very complicated. Reply #19. Nov 04 09, 6:17 PM |
| lesley153
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I didn't find it difficult to understand: I just didn't find it engaging. One day perhaps I shall see what all the fuss was about. Reply #20. Nov 04 09, 7:11 PM |
40 replies. On page 1 of 2 pages. 1 2
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