Boy, does she speak the truth. How many books out there have not been enjoyed when it became ‘required reading’ in school? I mean, look at Victorian literature alone in High Schools.
I’ve read some pretty good books that I’ve had to analyze later. Totally ruins the experience to the point where I can’t read that book for fun again, no matter how good it was.
One of my wife’s majors was Eng Lit. She never wanted to read again, until I finally convinced her to try just one chapter of Harry Potter. Now I can’t get her to stop reading and come to bed.
I had to read “The Old Man and the Sea” for 9th grade English. Every day I would remind my teacher (who was AWESOME) how much I hated it, often citing several reasons why. My teacher seemed to pity and be amused by me at the same time
For me it was “Typee” and “Omoo”, because my 9th grade lit teacher thought “Moby Dick” had been “done to death” but still wanted to include Melville in the American lit portion of her curriculum.
Well, at least it wasn’t Faulkner…
I mean, c’mon, “Daisy doesn’t smell like trees anymore.”?
Really? JUST SAY THAT SHE LOST HER DAMN VIRGINITY AND DROP THE STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS CRAP!
I’ll take R.E. Howard & H.P.Lovecraft over the so-called “classics” any day.
Could have been worse… reading literature in the original can be hard and bothersome work, but being stuck with a “modernized” version can be incredibly painful.
Imagine having to read an “adaptation” of Hamlet, with all of the subtleties of the language stripped down to about sixth-grade-American standard, and all of the characters’ motivations reduced to the simplest burlesques.
In trying to make Hamlet “accessible” they turned it into just another stupid chick-and-Dane story.
What? Reading about paradoxes, mirrors and wormholes isn’t fun? Silly girl!
Boy, does she speak the truth. How many books out there have not been enjoyed when it became ‘required reading’ in school? I mean, look at Victorian literature alone in High Schools.
Oh, I can definitely agree with that. Literary analysis takes all the fun out of reading.
Especially when dragged out over the course of a month, *after* reading the book over winter break.
Or just 2 days lol
I’ve read some pretty good books that I’ve had to analyze later. Totally ruins the experience to the point where I can’t read that book for fun again, no matter how good it was.
One of my wife’s majors was Eng Lit. She never wanted to read again, until I finally convinced her to try just one chapter of Harry Potter. Now I can’t get her to stop reading and come to bed.
In high school, our Latin teacher somehow diddled the library acquisition list so that they got a copy of Pliny the Elder’s works. In Latin.
Turned out that Elder Pliny had compiled all of the dirty jokes of his time.
More students learned more Latin, and did better on the state tests, than ever before in the history of the school.
I had to read “The Old Man and the Sea” for 9th grade English. Every day I would remind my teacher (who was AWESOME) how much I hated it, often citing several reasons why. My teacher seemed to pity and be amused by me at the same time
For me it was “Typee” and “Omoo”, because my 9th grade lit teacher thought “Moby Dick” had been “done to death” but still wanted to include Melville in the American lit portion of her curriculum.
Well, at least it wasn’t Faulkner…
I mean, c’mon, “Daisy doesn’t smell like trees anymore.”?
Really? JUST SAY THAT SHE LOST HER DAMN VIRGINITY AND DROP THE STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS CRAP!
I’ll take R.E. Howard & H.P.Lovecraft over the so-called “classics” any day.
In literature – too many people too often assume that OLD = GOOD (or of value)
You do know H.P. Lovecraft was actually born seven years prior to William Faulkner?
@ DJenser: I resent that, R.E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft ARE classics =)
Could have been worse… reading literature in the original can be hard and bothersome work, but being stuck with a “modernized” version can be incredibly painful.
Imagine having to read an “adaptation” of Hamlet, with all of the subtleties of the language stripped down to about sixth-grade-American standard, and all of the characters’ motivations reduced to the simplest burlesques.
In trying to make Hamlet “accessible” they turned it into just another stupid chick-and-Dane story.