The waveguide
Member
Did it ever happen to somebody that he/she is reading a good book, enjoying it - and suddenly, two or three lines in it suddenly spoil your feeling about a book? Kind of a fly in the ointment?
It happened to me with the "city of Djinns" by W. Dalrymple. I was happily reading the book, enjoying a lot. It was about India and Delhi. I was immerged into Indian athmosphere, my mind was 100% in a book. At some point in this book Dalrymple discusses Partition (of India into India and Pakistan). I was concentrated, feeling unhappy about this part of Indian history. But - OUT OF A SUDDEN!!!! Dalrymple writes:
"Their (Sikh's family) posessions they left locked up in the haveli (cortyard house) guarded by muslim servants. Like the Palestinians a year later, they expected to come back.... Like Palestinians, they never returned".
OK, that pissed me off. What the f..ck the Palestinians are doing in this my book about India? As if the author was saying: "look, I am sooo advanced, I am sooooo clever, look here: I am not only discussing India, I also know something about the Middle East!".
Actually this left me with a very bad taste in my mouth. The book was all about India and its history - so why are you now relating to something which is NOT related? Or if it is related, so please- at least make a chapter telling us about the middle east background, make a proper comparison - but not like that, not in this stupid jumping manner!
I managed to forget about this page for a while. But after 10 pages he stroke again with Palestinians, in a similar comparison. That time he also mentioned that he had been to middle east (Yeah, cool, we know that you are a traveller, may be you should not boast? We, the readers, got the point, skip it, PLEASE!). Again it was one line only about Palestinians. No background, no real relation, nothing. This was it. I could not recover the second time. I finished this book, I must say I liked it, but if after 5 years you will ask me what this book was about - I would say, "about Palestinians, I guess...." - because these three lines made the major impact in my memory, making me angry.
It was like about writing about potatoes, saying how wonderful and tasty potatoes are and how much one can cook from them and how they saved people from hunger for ages and how they were brought to Europe from America. And suddenly to say : but horses are even nicer than potatoes. They are faster and more noble. - What sence does it make? None, eh?
Did anybody have a similar experience in some books? Actually now that I am trying to write from time to time, it is interesting to see what may be annoying for the reader. Have you got any examples?
It happened to me with the "city of Djinns" by W. Dalrymple. I was happily reading the book, enjoying a lot. It was about India and Delhi. I was immerged into Indian athmosphere, my mind was 100% in a book. At some point in this book Dalrymple discusses Partition (of India into India and Pakistan). I was concentrated, feeling unhappy about this part of Indian history. But - OUT OF A SUDDEN!!!! Dalrymple writes:
"Their (Sikh's family) posessions they left locked up in the haveli (cortyard house) guarded by muslim servants. Like the Palestinians a year later, they expected to come back.... Like Palestinians, they never returned".
OK, that pissed me off. What the f..ck the Palestinians are doing in this my book about India? As if the author was saying: "look, I am sooo advanced, I am sooooo clever, look here: I am not only discussing India, I also know something about the Middle East!".
Actually this left me with a very bad taste in my mouth. The book was all about India and its history - so why are you now relating to something which is NOT related? Or if it is related, so please- at least make a chapter telling us about the middle east background, make a proper comparison - but not like that, not in this stupid jumping manner!
I managed to forget about this page for a while. But after 10 pages he stroke again with Palestinians, in a similar comparison. That time he also mentioned that he had been to middle east (Yeah, cool, we know that you are a traveller, may be you should not boast? We, the readers, got the point, skip it, PLEASE!). Again it was one line only about Palestinians. No background, no real relation, nothing. This was it. I could not recover the second time. I finished this book, I must say I liked it, but if after 5 years you will ask me what this book was about - I would say, "about Palestinians, I guess...." - because these three lines made the major impact in my memory, making me angry.
It was like about writing about potatoes, saying how wonderful and tasty potatoes are and how much one can cook from them and how they saved people from hunger for ages and how they were brought to Europe from America. And suddenly to say : but horses are even nicer than potatoes. They are faster and more noble. - What sence does it make? None, eh?
Did anybody have a similar experience in some books? Actually now that I am trying to write from time to time, it is interesting to see what may be annoying for the reader. Have you got any examples?
