#I feel like this is the wrong website to put this on bc tumblr blorbo-fies everything anyways so there's not usually the stress of that? bu

[justiceforplutoo]

the thing about reading classics is that people have really high standards of what makes a classic and expecting to understand everything really ruins the whole experience. I started with 1984 and, yes, that impacted me, but I put too much pressure on myself to like and understand it the first go round.

a classic book is just a book.

you don't have to understand it. you don't have to like it.

sure, you can read Frankenstein and be like, "Wow, I sure loved analyzing this text. I feel so smart." OR you can let yourself underline the part that says, "I was encompassed by a cloud which no beneficial influence could penetrate." and write 'no beneficial influence could WHAT NOW?!'

be silly. yeah, it's really rewarding and cool to read a classic and devote your whole life to understanding every sentence and making all the connections, but also... just let yourself read it? have fun with it? you're allowed to hate a classic book (Catcher in the Rye) even if it's a classic. you're allowed to be traumatized by a classic book (Of Mice and Men) even if it's a classic.

I think that a lot of this is common knowledge, but we also need to give ourselves the reminder! it is just a book! how it impacts you as a book should not change just because it's a classic!