#high school reading

[cl-uttered]

i don’t want to hear about lord of the flies this and animal farm that. i want to hear about holes by louis sachar.

[skullvis]

Me, listening to Lorde's 'Green Light': What a fun song that I sure do love and have no reason to associate with high school reading assignments :)

My subconscious, screaming at me, even though it's been literal years since I was in high school: THE GREEN LIGHT ACROSS THE WATER REPRESENTS GATSBY'S DESIRE FOR DAISY AND COULD ALSO BE INTERPRETED AS THE IDEA OF THE 'AMERICAN DREAM'

[an-anchor-for-the-soul]

[abigailspinach]

Can I also ask 4 and 12 for the book asks? 💜

4) what sections of a bookstore do you browse?

A stroll through the literature / general fiction to start. Sci-Fi and Fantasy is the best section. I rarely buy in store but I love a peruse of the cookbooks. Then the knickknack table of journals and bookmarks even though I don't buy those either. I'll peek at the kids section in case I need gifts for upcoming nephew birthdays.

12) did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings?

I enjoyed almost all of them (the ones I bounced off of is a shorter list. Mainly Heart of Darkness? The Great Gatsby I skipped becuase my copy was moldy. And I didn't finish Grapes of Wrath cause I just forgot it was due. The Tempest wasn't my cup of tea but I liked all other Shakespeare I read).

Some ones that jump out in my memory as old favorites

Watership Down

Red Sky at Morning (never heard of anyone else getting this one but it's great coming of age set in New Mexico during WW2. It's got great voice and humor)

Siddhartha and Demain by Herman Hesse

Romeo and Juliet was my first Shakespeare, loved it.

Pride and Prejudice

A Tale of Two Cities (I cried!)

All Quiet on the Western Front

Things Fall Apart

I had this English teacher who looked exactly like Milton from Office Space and he had a rep as a weirdo. After initial trepidation, he was an awesome teacher. He made us do a daily dairy to just write as much as possible. He had us do exercises to mimic an author's style (sadly i was like oh can I write Dune fanfic? and it was more an exercise in like.... make a sentence that is verb noun subclause preposition exact match to the existing sentence but your own ideas and we all failed at it except one guy.) And he fully went rogue as he was the only Honor English teacher (versus the 2 AP Lit teachers) so we spent months doing African literature and he introduced me to the phrase "F the dead white man canon." Fairly radical for the time. He let me run hog wild with Herman Hesse and William Goldman for projects. Kudos to you Mister J.

[demianlapointe]

I am so excited to become a board member of the Secondary Reading Leauge: Leaders for Literacy!

[cashmoneyhon]

Confession

I completely agree that Jane Austin is amazing for being a female author in her time and how all her scenes have women in them and how she SHOOK the writing world but by god I can’t STAND “Pride and prejudice”

[electronictragedy]

Books I Read in High School Summed Up + Themes

Things Fall Apart: Hubris-laden African man is pissed that white people are fucking up his culture; TOO MUCH PRIDE IS BAD

Nectar In a Sieve: Local Indian Woman Never Catches a break; PERSEVERANCE!!!

Henry V: King heir ain't like that now, leads war; MATURITY?

Macbeth: Pride consumes man and wife, kills people, nearly destroys country in process; PRIDE IS STILL BAD

To Kill a Mockingbird: Local children learn injustice, as per usual. Man comes out of house to save them; DON'T KILL INNOCENT PEOPLE

Lord Of The Flies: Private school boys get stupid on deserted island; BOYS ARE REALLY DUMB

Huck Finn: Boy has misadventures with black man, learns tolerance; TAKE A WILD GUESS

The Great Gatsby: Mysterious man lusts after rich old flame, dies alone, only the narrator gives a shit; FUCK RICH PEOPLE, THE AMERICAN DREAM, AND THE JAZZ AGE