High School Literature

[Resurrexi]

I also liked [i]Turn of the Screw[/i], [i]Daisy Miller[/i], and [i]Lord of the Flies[/i].

[Luigi]

[u]The Scarlet Letter[/u] - "It's not nasty, Ma - it's litra-cha!"

[Nihil Obstat]

I actually didn't get much in the way of books to read in high school. I had The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, and Hamlet, then October Sky, Great Gatsby, and this crummy Canadian one called Crow Lake. We spent a lot of time on poetry and short stories, as well as studying 'media' itself. Also there was a film studies segment, which was cool because I got to do Blood Diamond and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

[SaintOfVirtue]

Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

[Resurrexi]

I forgot to mention [i]The Importance of Being Earnest[/i].

[Luigi]

[quote name='notardillacid' date='16 June 2010 - 12:40 AM' timestamp='1276663252' post='2129731']
I slmost killedd myself when I read "The Old Man and the Sea"
[/quote]

Teachers all over the nation make high schoolers - especially males - read that, thinking that it's about fishing (Yeah... boys like to fish.... this is about fishing... they'll love this...) It's not. It's about solitary writers who pursue the big, beautiful, majestic, but oh so elusive great American novel, applying all their knowledge, skill, and patience, working with one young assistant (editor) who admires them and brings them coffee; they physically suffer to produce their work, and as soon as they hook it and reel it in, the sharks - I mean the critics - tear it to shreds until there's nothing left but the skeleton and the tail. And they gets up the next morning and do it again.

The whole thing is an extended metaphor for being an author. Writers write about what they know, which is writing.

[Resurrexi]

[quote name='Luigi' date='15 June 2010 - 11:55 PM' timestamp='1276664132' post='2129742']
Teachers all over the nation make high schoolers - especially males - read that, thinking that it's about fishing (Yeah... boys like to fish.... this is about fishing... they'll love this...) It's not. It's about solitary writers who pursue the big, beautiful, majestic, but oh so elusive great American novel, applying all their knowledge, skill, and patience, working with one young assistant (editor) who admires them and brings them coffee; they physically suffer to produce their work, and as soon as they hook it and reel it in, the sharks - I mean the critics - tear it to shreds until there's nothing left but the skeleton and the tail. And they gets up the next morning and do it again.

The whole thing is an extended metaphor for being an author. Writers write about what they know, which is writing.
[/quote]

Hemingway wrote about writers too much. [i]The Sun Also Rises[/i] is all about writers, as are many of the stories in [i]Snows of Kilimanjaro[/i].

[Vincent Vega]

"The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro, "The Plague" by Albert Camus, and "Metamorphosis" by Kafka topped my list.

At the bottom was probably "So Long a Letter" by Mariama Ba, "If this be Man" by Primo Levi, and particularly "The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born" by Ayi Kwei Armah, "Women of Sand and Myrrh" by Hanan Al-Shaykh, and "Heat and Dust" by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (the latter two having themes which were very disturbing and very contrary to Catholic morality).

[Vincent Vega]

I also found "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe (an independent read) the most interesting of the post-Colonial novels I've read.

[ThePenciledOne]

[quote name='Resurrexi' date='16 June 2010 - 01:57 AM' timestamp='1276664244' post='2129744']
Hemingway wrote about writers too much. [i]The Sun Also Rises[/i] is all about writers, as are many of the stories in [i]Snows of Kilimanjaro[/i].
[/quote]

Yet, they are great books and classics.

Sounds like he was onto something.

[i]The Sun Also Rises[/i] was an excellent book.

[ardillacid]

[quote name='Luigi' date='16 June 2010 - 12:55 AM' timestamp='1276664132' post='2129742']
Teachers all over the nation make high schoolers - especially males - read that, thinking that it's about fishing (Yeah... boys like to fish.... this is about fishing... they'll love this...) It's not. It's about solitary writers who pursue the big, beautiful, majestic, but oh so elusive great American novel, applying all their knowledge, skill, and patience, working with one young assistant (editor) who admires them and brings them coffee; they physically suffer to produce their work, and as soon as they hook it and reel it in, the sharks - I mean the critics - tear it to shreds until there's nothing left but the skeleton and the tail. And they gets up the next morning and do it again.

The whole thing is an extended metaphor for being an author. Writers write about what they know, which is writing.
[/quote]
I understand/understood that it is one giant metaphor. It was still croutons.

[Luigi]

[quote name='notardillacid' date='16 June 2010 - 01:08 AM' timestamp='1276664937' post='2129756']
I understand/understood that it is one giant metaphor. It was still croutons.
[/quote]

I didn't find it suicide-inducing, the way you did, but I wasn't impressed with it either. And SO many people who claim to understand and love literature - including a good many high school lit teachers - make such a big deal out of it that it makes me think they didn't understand it when they read it. Or something.

[Hilde]

The Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy by sigrid undset
Elling by Ingvar Ambjørnsen
Narnia
Plays: a dolls house or the wild duck by Henrik Ibsen
Håvamål and hemskringla

[ardillacid]

[quote name='Hilde' date='16 June 2010 - 01:22 AM' timestamp='1276665764' post='2129768']
Håvamål and hemskringla
[/quote]
My favorite


JK lol

[Vincent Vega]

[quote name='Hilde' date='16 June 2010 - 01:22 AM' timestamp='1276665764' post='2129768']
Plays: a dolls house or the wild duck by Henrik Ibsen
[/quote]
Ibsen is on the approved list for IB World lit. We didn't read him, but he is an option.