AJ Griffin's Reviews > Beowulf

I dunno dude, I thought Beowulf was pretty awesome.

you obviously didnt understand it

Oh come on, AJ, don't hold back! Tell us what you REALLY think!

Really enlightening review, dude...
:(

Stay in school, kids.

I didn’t like this book either but I can at least admit that I didn't like it because of my own limitations. Add a little humor and pass the book on to someone else if you find it so offensive. You might spend some energy improving your own writing style and vocabulary and focus less on name calling and negativity. Perhaps your teacher achieved what he/she set out to do, after all, you aren't likely to forget this book anytime soon.

RE: 5-7.

Well, aren't we a bunch of smug pedants?

I'm sure AJ will see the "error" of his ways based upon your kindly edification.

David didn't call you a pennant or a pendant. He called you a pedant. I call this irony.

Wow, you're right, Chris! You can't buy irony like that in your average discount department store.

Here you go...

ped⋅ant   /ˈpɛdnt/ –noun
1. a person who makes an excessive or inappropriate display of learning.
2. a person who overemphasizes rules or minor details.
3. a person who adheres rigidly to book knowledge without regard to common sense.
4. Obsolete. a schoolmaster.

Based upon definition number one, I guess I was wrong about your being a pedant after all. But who knows? Maybe you'll still amount to something.

No problem, Mack.

Now let's all hug. Hands above the waist.

I can't agree to that, David. When I hug, I grab as much ass cheek as I can.

Um, okay. But please don't doubt my friendship if, after reading your comments in the Winesburg, Ohio thread, I don't reciprocate the cheek-grabbing... although I'm certain (through interwebs rumors) that they are eminently grabbable.

The language of this post -- the kind people use when they know very few words and have to rely on obscenities -- is just pitiful. The president hopes to improve education and literacy; in this case, no effort would succeed.

At first I thought this was a serious website; nope, it's degenerating into just another amateur sex burbling.

Hey, kid, I never read the book, sorry, but if it hurt your feelings so much for you to turn whiny, I guess it's pretty bad.
Never crossed your head to tell your teachers after reading it why it is so, did it? You felt so depressed and hurt and wronged you had to start cussin' everybody. In life you have two choices: you don't like something someone did to you, well either you fight or you resign yourself to your fate. Guess all the balls you claimed weren't enough for the first one, so it's the second but you didn't have the guts to admit the other, either. Try for some dignity, will you?

PS. Out of sheer curiosity I'll read it

Mada, you might want to get a modern prose translation. Old English is beyond the average modern reader's grasp, as Shakespeare is quickly becoming, unfortunately. OE is like a foreign language, even though it was the forerunner of what we speak today -- when we're not gibbering naughty words.

BTW, the film "Beowulf," while of some interest and excitement, doesn't follow the original story very closely, so it's useless to depend on it.

If there's no other reason to respect Bewulf, try to do so because it's the first written text in Old English, though written centuries after the events of the story were supposed to have occurred, which gives it great antiquarian value.

It's a good story, too, if you like right against might. And it's about the first "superhero," when you come right down to it. Please post what you thought when you've read it.

Sure, thanks. I watched part of the movie before and I didn't like it. I'll search now for an modern prose translation. If I can't find one I have an edition of Beowolf in roumanian, anyway.

Mada wrote: "Sure, thanks. I watched part of the movie before and I didn't like it. I'll search now for an modern prose translation. If I can't find one I have an edition of Beowolf in roumanian, anyway. "

Do you read roumanian? How cool! That's what I love about this country, diversity. Perhaps if you Google it, you'll find an online English translation. I hope you enjoy it.

Ah well. I'm not going to officially "like" this because I really don't think it ought to be as far up the page as it already is, but I have to admit, it makes me chuckle every time. Nothing like a puerile, unreliable review to snap you out of your complacency.

AJ, I hope you do take the time to write up that list. Just for the sheer glorious perversity of it. (But you don't have to e-mail it to me or anything, I'm all right.)

This review should be taken off, you don't belong here.

I just get a kick out of the guy cos he gave five stars to Infinite Jest... I'm like, ugh, how is it that you like the one and not the other? Are they not key points in the same tradition? I don't get people who can't appreciate all good English literature.

Oh, and BTW, the movie version sucks and is not representative of the quality of the poem. Read the Heaney translation.

dk® wrote: "RE: 5-7.

Well, aren't we a bunch of smug pedants?

I'm sure AJ will see the "error" of his ways based upon your kindly edification. "

No, I'm sure he won't, nor will he realize obscenities aren't the only important words in our enormous vocabulary.

Whoever read Beowulf to AJ (as he surely didn't read it himself!) must have done a poor job. Both of them should make sure they wear their cowboy hats and boots when they go out in public, although their ignorance will probably be evident without wearing either.
And ever they shall so remain.

I'm really sick of all the obscenities ignorant teenagers foul up the Internet with, especially on sites such as this one, which provide intellectual
stimulation to those who are capable of being so stimulated. "Dirty words" just show limited intelligence when discussions of fine literature are going on.

You really have to focus on this book to truly like it. Maybe you should just avoid books that were written in this era... and try being a little less crude in your analysis. I believe we all would appreciate it. Thanx.

If, instead of writing actual book reviews of actual books under consideration, we instead write lists of things we don't give a shit about, then let me offer what, at the present moment, is number one on my list of things I don't give a shit about, and that thing is: that I don't give a shit about things you don't give a shit about.

I can't decide what's funnier, your reviews or the reactions people have towards them.

deleted user wrote: "No problem, Mack.

Now let's all hug. Hands above the waist."

You guys area all far too cute. I'm glad we can all get along, this is a great community. Carry on. lol

In the interest of educating the young man, the area between your balls and your asshole already has a name: nifkin.

Holden Caulfield is a book critic now? Holden or AJ or whatever your name is, people are just stupid, aren't they :-)

Well fuck me, I think the kid writes pretty concisely despite... or maybe in spite of his subsequent lack of schooling... and I don't see what all your fuss is about his employing the word Fuck for dramatic effect. It works nicely. I think you're all carrying on like a bunch of grandmas. Anyone with any kind of freewill and creativity about them has an experience such as this in their past. In my view the English teacher that causes such grievous injury to the adolescent mind deserves to suffer in return... you would do better to blame him/her for the rage this lad must now express. My own nemesis was Wuthering Heights, quite what bolt of inspiration brought my English teacher round to thinking we'd find that interesting aged 13 I cannot fathom. It may well be a masterwork but it is forever ruined for me, neither have I enjoyed ought from that period since, nor I doubt shall I in the future. I too am cursed by the FUCKING class room.
Oh get over it, this is the internet not Mrs Grimbles Tea Room.

"Beowulf" doesn't sound anything like "perineum" or "taint."

Maybe you should read Grendel. It's from the monster's perspective. He hated Beowulf as well.

I have to go with Elizabeth on this one. Some of the reactions are no better than this "offensive" review. You don't belong here? Come on! "Dirty words?" Listen, he didn't like the book and expressed as much. It's his right. Ironically enough, I would never have seen this review if you all didn't leave so many comments on it. You have only yourselves to thank for all the publicity it's getting. Look at it this way, thanks to you, EVERYONE will see this review. As far as the cursing goes, I'm well-educated and well-rounded; however, I've also been known to "swear like a sailor." Am I less intelligent for dropping "f-bombs?" You want to argue over the appropriateness of cursing on this site? How about the appropriateness of all the gay porn on this site that members use as their profile pics? I'm sure we'll rationalize how one is completely different from the other, though.

Now, on to the review. Although you could have put it more eloquently AJ, I also found the book lacking (see my review). As an educator, though, I'm glad to see you read it and even more elated to see yet another reader from a somewhat younger generation on this site (myself included), in spite of the fact that some may feel that "you don't belong here."

I'm sorry dude but you're totally off base. I love this poem. The epic thrill of the fight and the nobler the seed, the better the hero. I just think you might not have understood it for your reasons for disliking it were pretty crude.

Welcome to Mrs Grimbles FUCKING Tea Room, internet.

The snobbery on this feed is nauseating.

Stay in school, study hard and watch your grammar or Beowulf will come after you.

Beowulf was pretty cool. But to each their own

Thank gods for the Internet. Any asshole can have his/her say.

Damn, boy, you need more fiber in your diet.

Hahaha

This review is so salty, I love it. I totally disagree but I love spirited disapproval.

According to who you recommended this book to in your review, you would recommend this book to yourself. So why all the hate?

As soon as I saw the number of stars assigned on this review, I thought, "I'll bet he had to read it in high school, and because it was assigned and doesn't read like a contemporary sword-and-sorcery graphic novel, and thus isn't easy, he decided to hate it."

Sometimes world-class literature isn't easy.

Have you ever read anything else?

I'm almost certain that this review was meant to be satirical and you guys all just took it way too seriously.

@Kirsten As bad as I want it to be satire, Poe's law tells me it probably isn't.

So in short, you're recommending it for yourself!

Oh, and I do think you should try Beowulf again. Just get a better translation.

Haha completely agree