Werther's World, Werther's World, party time, excellent!

I hated this book when we were reading it in school, and didn't even finish it, so don't expect me to stay until page 50.
I mean - from the point of view of today's 16 year olds, this story is shit. He falls in love with a girl, they do basically nothing interesting, until he kills himself. Didn't look like a role model to me; I used to prefer actually doing interesting things with girls, instead of yearning for them and killing myself.

Not really familiar with Goethe's poems (blame the science degree!), but awesome thread title anyway!

You know what would've cheer Werther up though? Cuddly polar bears!

ahh, the universal themes of literature ...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uwK3R8jwhY"]YouTube- Henry Rollins Band Gun In Mouth Blues NYC Cat Club 5/12/1987[/ame]

From Werther's Wiki entry:

Wow....I had no idea Goethe started the Emo trend, the bastard!

Don't you follow youtube?
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPzoh-UHGZI"]Goethe was Emo[/ame]

I never had to read boring stuff like that. The only other book I refused to read in school was Isabel Allende's House of the spirits; couldn't connect to it, it just didn't become interesting or important to me.
Well, I can't complain about my German (or to some point English) teachers, we've read a lot of good stuff, also then-contemporary works like Eco or Havel, and I did my exam in German. I just don't like books about people doing nothing.

Is this a book worth purchasing? I am attempting to self educate myself on German history and culture so any classics that I can grab I would.

Well, I don't like it; but it's definitely among the Top 50 German literature all-timers, arguably among the Top 10. And you should really have a good knowledge of German, it isn't today's everyday language.

Can anyone explain to me what "emo" means? Never heard that over here in the Land of Hope and Glory.

Think goth, without guts (with even crappier music). It really caught on a few years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo

Gruftis are the best, however.

I only 'had' to read Faust in high school, but never Werther. Really liked Faust, and from what I heard it's the better Goethe classic.

But 16 year olds suck. Without exception. And it's sad that we let kids read all that modern crap in school theses days.

And reading Eco in a German class is a travesty.

Is the sky blue? Do bears shit in the woods?

There are cheap editions of all of Goethe's works, and no reason not to get them (Faust I&II are a must if you want to learn about German culture).

Personally, I've always preferred Schiller over Goethe, Faust however is definitely a must read. Almost every other sentence has become a proverb or a figure of speech in the German language.

Wilhelm Meister is worth a gander as well

Nimm meine Verehrung und meinen Dank, fühle, daß wir alle dich bewundern, und vertraue uns, wenn du etwas bedarfst!

Just saw that Theo Albrecht of Aldi Nord died. There is an Aldi less than a mile form my house, but I just discovered that it is part of Aldi Süd, at least according to how the sign looks.

speaking of young and destructive, the Replacements in Minneapolis in '81

The Twin/Tone showcase
http://www.twintone.com/video/mats/

for example:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwLJwHRJcn4&feature=related"]YouTube- The Replacements '81 Somethin' To Du[/ame]

Aldi Nord sucks. Aldi Süd even beats Lidl (if you leave work ethics aside)

I've only read Faust in English (obviously), but loved it. Actually come to think of it, it's the only Goethe work, I've read.

The 1926 film is a classic too, but it's loosely based on Goethe's version.