I just read "Of Mice and Men."

[Darth_Ole]

Goddam, the end was so damn depressing. And when Lennie was shot it practically brought me to tears.

Anyone else have the same reaction?

[FlashHarry]

1. Just about everybody who's ever read it, my friend.

I doubt anyone said, 'woo hoo, George finally blew away that sonofabitch Lenny!' Except maybe Governor Bush.

[pocoloco]

2. Yep, sure did ,about 40 years ago and I still remember it!

[David Zephyr]

3. Steinbeck Rules!

I was in Monterey and Salinas last week. I love Steinbeck. Have you read any other of his books? I have been slowly trying to purchase first editions of his works over the years. I finally got the first edition of "Grapes of Wrath" with Dust Cover/Jacket on EBay this year.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

7. Great aquisition!

I envy you, what a nice collection you must have.
I have an early (5th printing) copy of "Grapes of Wrath", nowhere near yours.
Nontheless, I sure enjoyed reading it–depressing–but insightful about human nature.
Steinbeck is wonderful.

[Redneck Socialist]

4. It did bring me to tears and...

I was a wiseass sophmore in high school at the time. Way too cool to cry.

[oneighty]

5. You are

not alone.

180

[speckledgator]

6. It's sad!

and then there is the Yearling lordy

[baby_bear]

12. Hey speckledgator

I read "The Yearling" when I was in fourth grade. It was the first book I checked out from the adult section of the library. I don't even know why I picked it.

I spent an hour in the bathroom crying when Jody had to kill his deer.

Back to the point, Steinbeck is also a total tear-jerk author. Of MIce and Men, East of Eden....

:cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:

gotta love it. It's great literature and it affects your life forever.

s_m

[Journeyman]

8. Lennie was shot?!?. . .

Damn, that about does it for anyone else who's never read the book.

[xJlM]

9. All Steinbeck's books are like that.

Horrible, depressing storylines that bring no real benefit to my own life. After reading Of Mice And Men in high school, I vowed never to read any other of his work.

[Clete]

11. You'd hate "Tortilla Flats" then.

All that reality. Something that a lot of people don't like to look at if it has nothing to do with them.

[Clete]

10. Steinbeck is sooo thought provoking and for me

he writes about places I have been to and people I could have known.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

13. For as much as I might enjoy some Steinbeck

I really did not like Of Mice and Men. We read it sophomore year and I just didn't really think it was that great. I understood it fine, but just... eh one of those books i've been on the fence about. i might have to read it again.

[ironflange]

14. I had a neat experience with OMAM in high school

The teacher had us read up to the point where Lenny kills the girl. We then got into groups and tried to come up with the rest of the story. My group had Lenny sneak up on Curly and brain him with a big rock. George and lenny are caught and sentenced to death. Later, as they are led to the gas chamber, George is thinking about the farm with the rabbits. Kinda poignant, I guess, but Steinbeck did it a lot better.

Good thing we didn't have to do this assignment with The Grapes of Wrath.

[MissMarple]

15. That's why I won't read it.

I don't need my consciousness raised in that particular way. Kind hearts don't need such things to build awareness, what we really need is protection from the pain of knowing it happens every day, and to find ways to make it better.

I'm discouraged by the ignorance, the cultivated stupidity, and the needless cruelty we see every day. It is so part and parcel with what we see with George and Co.

Sometimes I forget it's part of the human condition, it will always be with us in some form or another. And, so it goes. As do we.

[baby_bear]

16. Steinbeck didn't want you to avoid or forget

that is, the human condition as you so describe. We need to read these books. Think of it this way: do you think George W. Bush ever read literature, especially anything that would give angst and looking inward to oneself?

Those are reasons enough to remember why we read Steinbeck, Kafka, Joyce, Sinclair Lewis, et al. Speaking of Lewis, George Babbit may have considerable overlap with George W. Bush. The truly transparent, vapid "business man." Only Babbit was a much better orator.

s_m

[MissMarple]

18. I've read Lewis, Steinbeck and Kafka, didn't do much Joyce.

And why do you think I need more angst and inward looking? That was my point. I won't read Dalton Trumbo's "Johnny Got His Gun" either, although I do recommend Harlan Ellison's, " I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream".

I can handle dark and acerbic better than that other stuff. Otherwise, I would curl up in a little ball of depression, and be of no good to anyone. I'm a member of the choir. Some of us don't need to have our consciousness raised anymore than it already is.

I'm not saying that no one read it, just that not everyone must. "Of Mice and Men" is an excellent book on the human condition. But, I have to sleep at night, George and his cabal is enough to deal with today. I'm reading political science, and a little Hamish MacBeth and Cadfael. And I'm not doing it because I'm a shallow twit. I might be sometimes shallow, but I'm not often a twit. :D

[baby_bear]

23. I didn't mean to imply twitishness!

(I think I just made up a word.) Maybe the best time to read such books is when one is young (as in 15 or so) and still forming opinions about the human condition, and man's inhumanity to man.

I agree that what with Bush destroying the world, there's plenty of despair to go around. My sister escapes by reading pulp fiction. Maybe she's on to something.

:toast:

s_m

[alphafemale]

17. Those things happened, It was a tragic era for working folk. Bush wants

to return to those days when working people were abused like that.

[boilerbabe]

19. Yes, and the movie is also worth a look...n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

20. Two versions: 1930's and 1990's.

1930's had outstanding actors: Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney,Jr. and excellent soundtrack by Aaron Copeland. Incredible.

1990's had Gary Sinese and Jon Malkovich. Different from original movie adaptation but still very good.

Both are recommended.

[trof]

22. Also a 1981 version

made for TV with producer and actor Robert Blake, Pat Hingle, Randy Quaid.
Available on DVD here:
http://www.moviesunlimited.com/musite/frameset/index.asp?frame=product%2Easp&sku=D31323++

[RebelOne]

21. Yes, the movie was very good.

Saw it a couple of weeks ago on TV for the 10th time.