/lit/ - Literature

i liked it. now i have to go. but i'll come back and post what i think about it. especially regarding a couple of passages that impressed me in a way or another.

meanwhile i wish my fellow /lit/izens a merry christmas, the whole three of you.

It's a pretty weird book. The confrontation between scrooge and the nephew at the beginning sums it up. Neither of them are willing to accept, or at least be patient with each other.

Marley isn't any better. He gets angry at Scrooge's joke, after scaring him, and before scaring him some more. When Scrooge sees his dead body, something tries to scare him with archaic English, of all things. In the end, he is as much persuaded as he is intimidated.

Marley mentions the wise men, but no ghost directly mentions God, or directly tells Scrooge that he would go to heaven if he's good. The way they manipulated time so they all meet him in one night is something usually done by evil.

The whole book reads a lot like a weird story.

Did anyone participate because of the tea party?

>>8133

>Neither of them are willing to accept, or at least be patient with each other.

that's not true. the nephew tries to involve scrooge in his life. and he's somewhat in good faith, the way i see it. those jokes at his christmas party though… if i were scrooge, i would not have taken them kindly. but i'm a brooding kind of guy.

as for god, dickens as a narrator mentions him several times.

>or directly tells Scrooge that he would go to heaven if he's good

but marley is quite clear about that. when he shows and explain his chain and all the other chained people.

> The way they manipulated time so they all meet him in one night is something usually done by evil.

like the one time G-d prolongued the day so that the slaugther could go on?

i agree, my gnostic brother.

and he's more persuaded than intimidated.

one of the things that didn't go as i expected them was probably due to the fact that i knew ACC from its countless adaptations.

most of which featured scrooge really resisting the ghosts or after being persuaded by them he kinda seems to go back to his old ways as soon as he's left alone. i guess for dramatic purposes.

here he seems very much more receptive and probably just meeting the ghost of chrismas past alone would have operated a visible change in him.

>“Spirit,” said Scrooge submissively, “conduct me where you

will. I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which

is working now. To-night, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit

by it.”

if anything, i would have wished to have more backstory, why did he became…scrooge.

there are only hints.

then again, seeing the long digressions on how christmas is celebrated all over england, i'd say that the story is more about christmas than it is about scrooge. i would have prefered otherwise, but what can you do?

and i'd say that it would be plausible that you could plausibly eschew the supernatural angle, since the ghosts pretty much don't show scrooge anything he couldn't plausibly know or could plausibly imagine.

it's not strange to get to a point in life when you sum and detract what you have done.

doing it much later in life can be crushing, depending on the life you've lead.

also

PLUMP SISTER

PLUMP SISTER

PLUMP SISTER

PLUMP SISTER

PLUMP SISTER

>>8140

I'm just saying it makes more sense when read as a story of a malevolent whatever manipulating Scrooge to make him help the poor inefficiently, rather than through taxes. That nephew has demagogue written all over him; I bet he's in on it.

>>8149

Not really. With all the stalling, Dickens probably said that just to avoid getting to the point.

>>8150

helping the poor through taxes is inefficient.

when it's done badly by corrupted people the money doesn't get to those in need.

when it's done well it's likely to create professional poors.

i'd say that you have the subsaharian section of the african continent to prove both.

and i really doubt that scrooge became a tax evader after his mystic crisis.

>>8149

It's interesting though that it became a first person narrative from third person. I didn't notice if he interchange narratives along the novel until now.

This is the only passage I read more than once because of your weird interpretation. On my first read, he probably thought of his pristine moments and how he is going to act like a beta cuck in front of a little girl instead of following these brigands. The second time I've read it, I thought dickens wanted to have a daughter, but I looked at up his genealogy and found out he has 2-3 daughters already upon publishing Christmas Carol (1843) unless he was writing Christmas Carol at that time–1837 was the earliest year he had a child.

Your interpretation also holds true or what this anon said >>8150

I enjoyed it. I hadn't ever read it before, although obviously I had a general idea about the story, but I liked the actual execution. I think often classics are watered down in their retelling, and that the actual story is far more engaging than the stories about the story (certainly I had the same experience with Moby Dick).

Also, I have to say that after days and days of Christmas stuff to do (I have a large family on both sides), I think I wouldn't be particularly persuaded by ghosts showing off lots of communal events.

On a more positive note, I hope everyone else had a merry Christmas and got a few more books for the backlog.

>>8158

Both of those happen no matter who does it.

All that's clear is that the only major change in the future is that a child doesn't die because of Scrooge's money.

>>8176

yes, but "charity" through taxes has the aspect of not being really a moral choice. it's enforced on people whether they like it or not. and it's all up to the decision of politicians, whether it's the right choice or not, whether there are more pressing matters or not and so on.

when one is donating his own substances, it's easier to exercise judgnement.

but on the other hand this really doesn't apply to scrooge, since he really gave a shitload of money to a guy who simply got in his office and said with no proof given that he would give it to the poor.

also i think that the whole cratchit family benefited not little from scrooge's change.

>>8174

thanks, anon.

>>8173

he does that more than once.it felt a little dispersive.

still enjoyed the book, though.

>>8128

>what did you think?

I read it with wtf most of the time due to the style. I haven't read any books published before 1900s so I had to get used to this style. I did get used to it by the time the spirit of the present time appeared.

>What did you like?

I liked the spirit of what had passed when he showed him Scrooge's solitude and reading books. I might've seen myself during that portion. I liked the story flow during the spirit of the future.

>Dislike

The exposition shit. Yeah, I know how merry Christmas is. I especially disliked the portion during the spirit of the current time before the Corchits. I also disliked what happened after the Corchits.

>If you hadn't read it before, how did it match up with your expectations?

I had a vague memory that I watched a cartoon of this when I was a kid. The ghost was a little bug and the characters were like donald duck IIRC. The only memory I remember was the grave and the bug with an umbrella. So, I sort of know the events that will transpire. Nothing surprised me although the middle and the beginning was a journey.

>Do you prefer Scrooge to the Grinch?

I only watched the grinch starring Jim Carrey. I prefer scrooge. Grinch is odious about Christmas and Scrooge just doesn't practice it because Humbug!

>Do you think Die Hard is a better Christmas story?

wtf is die hard

>Can you tell that I'm running out of relevant questions?

yeah.

Overall, I liked it.

>>8212

>wtf is die hard

the best action movie of all time?