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The Alchemist: a classic?
Apr. 6th, 2025 12:38 amI had bought The Alchemist at some point because I'd seen it recommended somewhere (and it happened to be on sale), and so I tried to read it not long ago - and I found that it's not really a novel, per se, at all, it's a self-help book masquerading as a novel. I guess you could call it a parable. I saw it on a list of "beloved classics" or some such list lately, and I was just, ugh. Certainly not a classic in my opinion. Anyway, I had quit reading somewhere in the middle - when it became clear to me it wasn't about to go anywhere I was more interested in - and apparently it's going to end up on the DNF list eventually unless I change my mind and start again, which seems unlikely.
(With this in mind, I thought about compiling a list of "beloved classics that I hate" to go with the list mentioned above but there's not enough that I feel really strongly about, I found. Hemingway and maybe The Giver, those were the only things I could really come up with that I'd go so far as to use the word "hate" in regard to, from the list I was looking at.)
And it occurs to me, belatedly, that The Giver is in the same genre as The Alchemist, in a way - that is, the point is not the story, the point is the lesson you're supposed to learn. Like a sermon. Sermons and I have never gotten along. (I liked The Giver, in fact, until I got to the end. I don't really even remember it all that well but I remember that much!)
(With this in mind, I thought about compiling a list of "beloved classics that I hate" to go with the list mentioned above but there's not enough that I feel really strongly about, I found. Hemingway and maybe The Giver, those were the only things I could really come up with that I'd go so far as to use the word "hate" in regard to, from the list I was looking at.)
And it occurs to me, belatedly, that The Giver is in the same genre as The Alchemist, in a way - that is, the point is not the story, the point is the lesson you're supposed to learn. Like a sermon. Sermons and I have never gotten along. (I liked The Giver, in fact, until I got to the end. I don't really even remember it all that well but I remember that much!)
