So I'm re-reading Dante's Inferno, and I can't help but feel I'm reading highly regarded fan fiction. It has all the typical tropes of bad fan fiction:
+Author insert main character.
+Author insert main character is super special and invited to join a super special club of intellectuals (the five poets)
+All of the author's enemies are punished.
+A bunch of characters from other works make appearances for no real reason, other than the fact that the author admired those works.
I mean, the poetry's nice, and his vision of Hell is... creative... but maybe some English major here could tell me why it's considered a "great" work.
I'm also reading Lev Grossman's The Magicians. God, what a missed opportunity. Shitty protagonists, underdeveloped characters, underdeveloped plot. And then he's got some excellent writing here and there, and some really great ideas.
I feel like I'm reading an outline for a book, not a proper novel.