Things I Learned In K-12 School Lit

[delcan]

I never liked my literature classes in high school. This is funny, because I've always loved reading. But I think I've pieced together why I never liked those classes. At first I was sure it was the "classic literature" angle that did it, because I can't stand contemporary or classic stuff; call me a philistine, but my tastes are 90% fantasy. I

Comments

[mithent]

That's a good point.. and the fantasy you mention is, in most cases, the opposite - with only relatively rare exceptions, fantasy heroes/heroines overcome challenges and the book ends on a broadly positive note. It's not too unusual for a character to die, of course, but at the end the world is usually saved or the goal is otherwise realised, justifying the effort.

I guess The Lord of the Rings as written by many of these authors of classic literature would have ended with the Fellowship defeated and evil overrunning Middle Earth, with some kind of moral about how individuals are powerless in the face of those with power and influence?

[heron61]

I completely & totally agree, and have discussed related issues here. From my PoV, the root of the equation of depressing and hopeless literature with great literature is closely related to the fact that (as I discuss here) western philosophy is mostly similarly bleak, as is most non-western philosophy

[ceruleanst]

Oh yeah, and A Separate Peace, and Catcher in the Rye, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest... and anything in the realm of science fiction is necessarily dystopian. And instead of ever examining Shakespeare's comedies, we hold up Romeo and Juliet as the ultimate romance, and wonder why, when they are called upon to be creative, teenagers seem to be singularly fascinated with suicide.

The one book assigned in school that it was simply beyond my power to finish reading, just for the sheer boringness of it, was Billy Budd. A slim book for Melville, but even the Cliff Notes were stultifyingly slow-moving. The story: Some guys are on a boat and absolutely nothing happens, but it is established that this one guy is great and everybody loves him, except for this other guy who is kind of an asshole and hates him for no reason. Eventually, everyone decides that, as much as they wish they didn't have to do it, they had better lynch the good guy to avoid further conflict. They kill him, and peace is restored, the end

On Romeo and Juliet

[frameacloud]

"And instead of ever examining Shakespeare's comedies, we hold up Romeo and Juliet as the ultimate romance, and wonder why, when they are called upon to be creative, teenagers seem to be singularly fascinated with suicide."

It is horrible that so many cultures define true love as being willing to die for or with someone. Plays the world over, East and West, are full of lovers who commit suicide, if for no other reason than to prove how much they love each other. It's weird, since in real life, it never feels like that. When someone you love kills xirself, you feel like they must not have loved you, or that you must have done something wrong to xir, or there must have been something that you could have done. One of my lifelong friends killed himself when xe was in xir teens, so I know how it feels to be around that, and it's nothing like in the plays. It's completely destructive to everyone around the person. Why is it portrayed so differently in fiction, and so consistently everywhere

[frameacloud]

(Continued, due to character length limit.)

Re: the nasty selection of literature in high school having to do with the institution's original purpose of training factory workers and enforcing conformism.

Absolutely possible. (Refer to Grace Llewellyn's Teenage Liberation Handbook for more gripes about the structure of high school and why it fails as an authentic place of learning.) I think some English classes probably use Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, excellent stories about happy rebels who know how to screw with the system and point out the problems with suicide, but I don't recall seeing those as forced reading in high school English.

My English classes had Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Black Boy, Flowers for Algernon, Glass Menagerie, and The Bean Trees. They're not as conformity-enforcing as Lord of the Flies... but I sure never liked a single one of them as much as the novels that I had chosen to read for myself. Sometimes I've wondered if it was just because the books were forced on us. Maybe I would have

[taldragon]

(i *like* Flowers For Algernon).

and...i dont remember reading any of the books you referenced in school (mind you, i only really remember my exam years). however, i did do teh whistlestop 'Dead White Classic Writer' tour and OMG BORING.

[delcan]

Flowers for Algernon is good, I'm sure. (I've read the short story that preceded it, it was enough for me.) But given my own on-again-off-again feelings about intelligence and worth, I get the feeling that if I _did_ read it I'd be compelled to jump off a bridge afterwards from sheer angst.

[baphnedia]

I'm using your rant to make a career change in my life.

Thanks a lot, Delcan.