osprey_archer | Editions of classics

My high school friends are still in town for Thanksgiving vacation, so Emma (an English/philosophy major who plans to support her poetry habit by baking scones) and I went on a bookstore tour.

Barnes and Nobles first, because I found a long-lost gift card. We fetched up by the Shakespeares:

Emma: The Signet Classics always fall apart.
Jin: And sometimes the print is smudgy. But the Penguins are sooooo expensive.
Emma: The Barnes and Noble editions are cheap.
Jin: But they have those annoying footnotes.
Emma: True.
Jin: I think this conversation means we’re…
Emma: I think the word you want is awesome.

Yes. Yes we are.

And then we repaired to the local bookstore and denuded the shelves.

Emma: You should read the Aeneid. And The Merchant of Venice. Also everything D. H. Lawrence ever wrote. And Middlemarch!
Jin: But Middlemarch weighs more than I do!
Emma: You say that like it’s a bad thing?
Jin: *edges away* Oh look! It’s Steinbeck! You should read –
Emma: GET THEE BEHIND ME SATAN.
Jin: ….I was going to say The Moon is Down. But I’ll see if they have a copy of that other one.

And then later we rendezvoused with her college friend Ryan and had a long, long discussion about literature – and to what extent literary quality is subjective – and is there a distinction between a book being literature and a book being good – and can a book be beautifully written without in fact being good, or be good but poorly written?

I’ve decided if nothing else works out next year, I’m moving into their house and we will discuss literature far into the night.