The Master and Margarita (sadly dropped)
this is going to be a weird one, TLDR, I sadly could not get through this book, although, I don't think the book is bad by any means, and it's definitively not going to stop me from talking at length from a related tho largely not directly relevant to the books topic.
The Master and Margarita is a masterpiece of global literature, a part of the literary canon, one of the best and most important novels from the USSR and in general that entire century, it's been discussed at length by many scholars, but sadly, myself, a 19yo, it student in a medium size city in spain, wasn't really vibing with it
whenever I made this thread I made it under a certain thought and philosophy, even tho I actually didn't directly think all of this back then. I just like to talk about stuff, not only that, but I do think of myself as someone who, compared with the rest in OT is well cultured, therefore making my thoughts and general analysis of certain works remotely interesting. In addition, it gets me to break new ground, get out of my comfort zone and try new things.
most media I interact with, and most media that was requested on this thread, are very friendly to that type of conversation, however, classic books are a different beast, not because they're long or wordy or complex, but because they feel
solved, as I said earlier, this is a book that has discussed at length by people way smarter than me. The edition that I got from the book even starts with a fairly long prologue that is just an essay of the editor about the book themes and message, that completely changes the way I engage with it, not just because the essay puts a certain expectation and ideals onto my mind, just that concept of that essay existing, and it having a wikipedia page as long as it is, that changes the dynamic
The way I feel is that I can't just read the book, enjoy it my way, and just interpret it here (which there probably will be a lot of very bad interpretations that just have not been corrected by other people, be that indifference, people not reading the review, or people thinking I was onto something, I do not know, probably a mix of all of them). But instead, it feels like i'm just trying to get and understand and follow that official explanation. That opinion feels like a authority, it feels like an exam
I don't read that many books, I enjoy them, but it's not my primary fix, and I feel that these people writing the wikipedia and the essay and the reviews are completely right. If I come to a different opinion, that's a failure on me as a reader, on my reading comprehension, at the end of the day, they got the historical context, they got a better view and general understanding on the medium, hell, they even studied that at university
I can't possibly come up with anything that they haven't alraedy said, and if I were to do so, I would probably feel like i'm reading it wrong. This thread has kinda conditioned to actually just look at everything with a critical eye, and just doing that in this book is stressful, that doesn't really happen in any other medium. The whole concept of the literary cannon and universal literature, the culture surrounding it, just doesn't exist in movies for example. Even if there are people who have studied movies as much as people do literature, and even if there are movies that have been discussed to earth and back, it stills feels legal to give your opinion, the sentiment is different
so what's my actual opinion on the book?, well, i've not got much of one, I actually just started reading this book during dead time in class, like I normally do with most literature. But be it the pressure of the final exames or whatever, I didn't get completely hooked into it, and I grew a bit distracted reading it, at some point my brain just stopped ing the words, and while I tried to get back in the groove, reading this book felt like a slog and I just wasn't enjoying it. I got to chapter 20 before dropping it. I bet that if I were to give the book a second chance, starting again from page 1, and force myself to not try to read it like I would a typical book I could probably enjoy it, I just don't reall want to do that.
it's just, i've learnt I don't like reading books like this, again, they just feel stressful man. Don't take it against universal literature tho, I think that's just a personal problem of me having the wrong mental, i've not met or read anything online that shares a sentiment like the one I have on this topic, so it's probably just a me thing.
Honestly this may just be a manifestation of my academical stress in book form LMAO
not placed on tier list
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