I got about 100 pages in and then chucked into the trash. I don’t throw away books, but I could not let anyone else suffer through it. Wondered the same thing as the kid in the last panel.
This strip is just pure brilliance! Thank you! I remember the Kennedy book from years ago; just ordered a new copy of it! Superb! Wow… a comic strip inspiring someone to read a book!
My English Lit class assignment was “Lord Jim”. This was written during the time when authors were paid by the word (according to my teacher). Tells you a lot right there. That book pretty much killed what little interest I had in reading. Teachers, if you want to promote reading in your students, don’t assign books like that.
Good for her! That’s my usual reaction to ‘Best Sellers.’ There are exceptions; but, most of the time, ‘Best Sellers’ are NOT great—or even good—literature.
And the greatness of the book lies not with Ignatius but with Toole’s mastery of dialect and his depiction of the people of Nawlins. Burma Jones is one of my favorite characters in fiction. Ignatius is a minor character compared to the rest.
“Confederacy of Dunces” may be the finest, and only, work in the pyloric valve novel genre. One of only two books I couldn’t bring myself to finish after I started.
Amazing stuff – absolutely floored that Caulfield actually chose to avoid doing something because it’d be insensitive. Now if only he could start showing that level of empathy to the rest of the school’s staff beyond the janitor…
I picked up ACoD shortly after Hurricane Katrina and then decided to wait until the tragedy wasn’t so fresh. From what others are saying, I might never enjoy it. Then again, I loved “The Catcher in the Rye.”
I was not thrilled when I found out the National Cartoonists Society was holding that year’s convention in New Orleans. Most of what I had heard about the city revolved around Mardi Gras and Bourbon Street, and that kind of hard partying isn’t my thing. Much of the rest of what I knew about New Orleans had to do with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which had hit a year and a half prior, and that didn’t paint the city in the best of lights, either (not completely accurately, I’d learn). This was rounded out by what I had learned from reading A Confederacy of Dunces. But I went, and immediately fell in love with New Orleans. It is a wonderful city, in big and small ways.
One of the small ways was on display near our hotel: a life-size statue of literary son Ignatius J. Reilly. When a city can laugh at itself like that, I’m impressed. But there was one thing wrong, and I still don’t know what to think of it. The statue was a little too small. It was more life-height than life-size, if you catch my drift. In the book, Reilly is portrayed as enormously, sloppily, gratuitously obese. This is played to hilarious effect in the book, but we’ve since, in I hope most corners of society, learned to be a little more sensitive about that. Whether that’s the reason, or if they were working within a budget for only so much bronze, the sculpted figure is relatively svelte. It’s inaccurate, but it’s nice, and you can still tell who it is from the other cues. It’s an oddly flattering representation of an unflatterable character. Not that the world is short on that kind of statue — think of the monuments of those we’ll cautiously describe as conquerors — but this one is done right.
I miss New Orleans. I want to go back even more than I wanted to avoid it.
amethyst52 Premium Member over 4 years ago
I have tried numerous times to read that book. Just can’t do it.
milam4 over 4 years ago
I got about 100 pages in and then chucked into the trash. I don’t throw away books, but I could not let anyone else suffer through it. Wondered the same thing as the kid in the last panel.
e.groves over 4 years ago
Hot dog flatulence?
sandpiper over 4 years ago
Seems much ado about not much
RRad over 4 years ago
This strip is just pure brilliance! Thank you! I remember the Kennedy book from years ago; just ordered a new copy of it! Superb! Wow… a comic strip inspiring someone to read a book!
maser over 4 years ago
Yes, it won a well-deserved Pulitzer. One of the funniest books I’ve ever read!
ComicRelief over 4 years ago
While I enjoyed the book myself, it is an adult book and not suitable for the elementary school kids depicted here.
jmcenanly over 4 years ago
He could go as Holden Caulfield, who wore a similar cap. Hopefully what happened to Salinger ‘s Caufield won’t happen to this one.
Kroykali over 4 years ago
My English Lit class assignment was “Lord Jim”. This was written during the time when authors were paid by the word (according to my teacher). Tells you a lot right there. That book pretty much killed what little interest I had in reading. Teachers, if you want to promote reading in your students, don’t assign books like that.
matzam Premium Member over 4 years ago
felt the same way about Catcher in the rye & On the road. Don’t know what people see in these “masterpieces”
atajayhawk over 4 years ago
Good for her! That’s my usual reaction to ‘Best Sellers.’ There are exceptions; but, most of the time, ‘Best Sellers’ are NOT great—or even good—literature.
Plods with ...™ over 4 years ago
What sneaky way to get in a phart joke.
ronhagg over 4 years ago
“Confederacy of Dunces” by John Kennedy Toole is great book.
kmasters21 Premium Member over 4 years ago
And the greatness of the book lies not with Ignatius but with Toole’s mastery of dialect and his depiction of the people of Nawlins. Burma Jones is one of my favorite characters in fiction. Ignatius is a minor character compared to the rest.
That Other Guy over 4 years ago
“Confederacy of Dunces” may be the finest, and only, work in the pyloric valve novel genre. One of only two books I couldn’t bring myself to finish after I started.
Not the Smartest Man On the Planet -- Maybe Close Premium Member over 4 years ago
I’m with her.
Ubermick over 4 years ago
Amazing stuff – absolutely floored that Caulfield actually chose to avoid doing something because it’d be insensitive. Now if only he could start showing that level of empathy to the rest of the school’s staff beyond the janitor…
Stephen Gilberg over 4 years ago
I picked up ACoD shortly after Hurricane Katrina and then decided to wait until the tragedy wasn’t so fresh. From what others are saying, I might never enjoy it. Then again, I loved “The Catcher in the Rye.”
dbmail545 over 4 years ago
I love that book but didn’t get the reference yesterday. Well done, Jef!
k1floren over 4 years ago
I don’t know where you’re going with this, but I do love “Confederacy of Dunces”, so I’m intrigued!
sufamelico over 4 years ago
@HASH, I wouldn’t even by mistake say that I wanted to read a fools story of his imbecility, much less Bragg about it! (offense nor disrespect meant)
childe_of_pan over 4 years ago
Being a big Ian Hunter fan, one book I wanted to read out of curiosity but was sorry I couldn’t get through was Willard Manus’s “Mott The Hoople”
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] over 4 years ago
Blog PostsFrazz20 hrs ·
I was not thrilled when I found out the National Cartoonists Society was holding that year’s convention in New Orleans. Most of what I had heard about the city revolved around Mardi Gras and Bourbon Street, and that kind of hard partying isn’t my thing. Much of the rest of what I knew about New Orleans had to do with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which had hit a year and a half prior, and that didn’t paint the city in the best of lights, either (not completely accurately, I’d learn). This was rounded out by what I had learned from reading A Confederacy of Dunces. But I went, and immediately fell in love with New Orleans. It is a wonderful city, in big and small ways.
One of the small ways was on display near our hotel: a life-size statue of literary son Ignatius J. Reilly. When a city can laugh at itself like that, I’m impressed. But there was one thing wrong, and I still don’t know what to think of it. The statue was a little too small. It was more life-height than life-size, if you catch my drift. In the book, Reilly is portrayed as enormously, sloppily, gratuitously obese. This is played to hilarious effect in the book, but we’ve since, in I hope most corners of society, learned to be a little more sensitive about that. Whether that’s the reason, or if they were working within a budget for only so much bronze, the sculpted figure is relatively svelte. It’s inaccurate, but it’s nice, and you can still tell who it is from the other cues. It’s an oddly flattering representation of an unflatterable character. Not that the world is short on that kind of statue — think of the monuments of those we’ll cautiously describe as conquerors — but this one is done right.
I miss New Orleans. I want to go back even more than I wanted to avoid it.