A Hope For More

I feel kind of guilty. It seems like all I do in these blogs is speak negatively about our readings. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy them for the most part. I loved both Beowulf and the Canterbury Tales (once I actually understood it) and would not be opposed to reading them again in the future, but unfortunately, for Utopia at least, I must speak about my lack of interest.

I understand the reading this time . . . mostly. It is written in a more “classy” and “sophisticated” voice than which we speak in normal everyday life, but one can find the meaning of the words with only a little extra thought. But the length of the lines just kills my brain sometimes. I keep thinking to myself, “ok, clearly you missed the period somewhere. You skipped a line and that's why it seems never ending.” No, it seems long because it is long. But you know what? I can learn to deal with that.

However, the thing that I am truly having trouble accepting is the pace of the book. Everything just seems to be going way to fast. The characters all seemed to be introduced at once causing me (and my exhausted college brain) to mix them up, and the vagueness and lack of details of the story actually cause me pain. I don't understand how there can be so many long sentences that seem to drag out, yet the story flies by. Books that you can just fly right through are amazing and stick with you. Those are the ones that you can gush to your friends about and eagerly read them again and again with the same intensity and excitement that it was read with the first time. Sadly, Utopia does not seem to have that same quality. After learning that Utopia was going to cover the politics of the authors time, I was extremely excited to begin reading. I love learning and discussing social and political aspects, but I'm really disappointed with the way this book is playing out.

Perhaps I had too many high hopes for this read and pictured it to be something that it was not. Honestly, it wouldn't be the first time. But I am still hopeful. I keep hearing wonderful things about Utopia and I figure that if so many other people enjoy it and praise it, maybe I should keep an open mind.

Who knows?

This might end up being one of my favorite books. That wouldn't be the first time either.