Great post. I love the experience of reading The Canterbury Tales. There’s something so pleasurable about reading Chaucer’s English, which one can almost-but-not-really understand.
On the other end of the spectrum, I recently read a light popular thriller by Freida McFadden and enjoyed it thoroughly.
I just had an unsubscribe request on my own blog (not on Substack, I have a separate blog on my own Wordpress server). I replied to that e-mail request, and it turned out that the subscriber died and it was his daughter cleaning up things.
I know! I guess that Heath Ledger vehicle Knight's Tale had a very CT vibe. And they made that Dev Patel Gawayn recently. I think a lot of the best CT stories, like the Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale, are about ordinary life, while the more high-register, fantastical stories are not the best. I don't think studios really want to make movies about, say, a woman and her lover cuckolding her husband in 14th-century England.
As a fond reader of classic literature, I'm just glad I found your work.
Thank you!
Great post. I love the experience of reading The Canterbury Tales. There’s something so pleasurable about reading Chaucer’s English, which one can almost-but-not-really understand.
On the other end of the spectrum, I recently read a light popular thriller by Freida McFadden and enjoyed it thoroughly.
I'd say you're managing to walk that tightrope between democrat and snob!
I disagree with modern influence: Infinite Jest, House of Leaves, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are all heavily influence by the modern.
I just had an unsubscribe request on my own blog (not on Substack, I have a separate blog on my own Wordpress server). I replied to that e-mail request, and it turned out that the subscriber died and it was his daughter cleaning up things.
Bummer. Readers die, too.
I know! I guess that Heath Ledger vehicle Knight's Tale had a very CT vibe. And they made that Dev Patel Gawayn recently. I think a lot of the best CT stories, like the Miller's Tale and the Reeve's Tale, are about ordinary life, while the more high-register, fantastical stories are not the best. I don't think studios really want to make movies about, say, a woman and her lover cuckolding her husband in 14th-century England.