haha, I never even thought of that ... but no, I meant 'the' olympic torch.
Get your mind in the gutter.
I don't necessarily know that I even need to ultimately get all of the themes to have that effect happen to me, though. I had it happen with Don Quixote when I read it last year, and I would be lying if I claimed to have any real understanding of the literary milieu in which it was written. I know on that it is parodying those sorts of novels (and it really is funny), but without that background I know a great deal of it goes right over my head. Or something like Love in the Time of Cholera, I think any subtext in it went right over my head, but I enjoyed the story and the characters and the prose and the atmosphere and the subtle magical realism elements so much that my sense of not really understanding what he was trying to say (if anything) didn't bother me so much.
Hm, I've been meaning to give Don Quixote a read. I'm glad to hear that it stands as a book itself as well as serving as satire. I don't remember all the background information from my English lit on it but hopefully it'll come back if I pick it up.
The Rape of the Lock by Pope sounds similar. I hadn't read much epic poetry, having only gotten so far in Beowulf and Paradise Lost, but that poem was really entertaining on its own that even without the excellent satire it was still really enjoyable. I'm often surprised when these classics provide entertainment in their own right without needing all the background context with them.