I hated Steinbeck, with the exception of Travels with Charley.
Tom Send a noteboard - 07/02/2010 03:22:11 PM
I thought The Grapes of Wrath was typical of American fiction - uninspiring and petty. It was obviously a betrayal of Steinbeck's pro-communist sympathies, but it may have helped to stop the excesses of Californian farm owners against the Okies, the same way that Sinclair's The Jungle helped lead to better regulation of the meat industry. However, neither book is really spectacular.
I think Lord of the Flies is a decent book, but it's overrated and overtaught. I think it is a popular choice because it deals with children (and educators seem to think that children like to read about other children, something I have NOT noticed after the age of, say, 12) and because it is short (because educators, probably correctly this time, anticipate that the longer the book, the less likely their students are to read it).
I think Lord of the Flies is a decent book, but it's overrated and overtaught. I think it is a popular choice because it deals with children (and educators seem to think that children like to read about other children, something I have NOT noticed after the age of, say, 12) and because it is short (because educators, probably correctly this time, anticipate that the longer the book, the less likely their students are to read it).
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
Censorship, promotion of books and dissemination of ideas.
05/02/2010 05:15:17 PM
- 1314 Views
Tough Subject, censorship
05/02/2010 07:24:39 PM
- 851 Views
I think I would be worried if a school had more than one copy of Mein Kampf
06/02/2010 06:30:08 PM
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I was mostly just using it as an example, since it was what the article talked about
06/02/2010 10:20:08 PM
- 781 Views
I actually ran into this in high school.
05/02/2010 08:33:10 PM
- 967 Views
I found that we covered a lot about American Indian issues in US History.
06/02/2010 06:23:16 PM
- 746 Views
Anyone interested in German history in particular and European history in general should read it.
05/02/2010 08:47:14 PM
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I think jane austen and the brontes would be good to leave in
06/02/2010 03:44:10 AM
- 652 Views
I read a great number of books I don't necesarily agree with, so I'm on your side.
06/02/2010 06:19:21 PM
- 751 Views
Hmm.
05/02/2010 09:11:13 PM
- 801 Views
It's interesting that many of the most influential books are hardly ever read.
06/02/2010 06:15:19 PM
- 732 Views
Love the survey.
05/02/2010 09:42:29 PM
- 909 Views
Interesting. Do you really think that Nineteen Eighty-Four is plausible?
06/02/2010 10:13:56 AM
- 755 Views
Re: Censorship, promotion of books and dissemination of ideas.
05/02/2010 11:09:41 PM
- 880 Views
Re: Censorship, promotion of books and dissemination of ideas.
05/02/2010 11:47:08 PM
- 878 Views
I agree with most of that. But to quote our eminent Camilla...
06/02/2010 10:30:15 AM
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Re: I agree with most of that. But to quote our eminent Camilla...
06/02/2010 12:25:37 PM
- 766 Views
I agree on the Shakespeare (and mentioned that below).
06/02/2010 05:54:50 PM
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Re: I agree on the Shakespeare (and mentioned that below).
06/02/2010 06:05:48 PM
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I don't think high school students need to discuss possibilities for staging.
07/02/2010 01:36:03 AM
- 700 Views
nice post
06/02/2010 01:27:23 AM
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Re: nice post
06/02/2010 01:29:34 AM
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A lot of people think von Clausewitz is important.
06/02/2010 05:51:44 PM
- 662 Views
More than Sun Tzu? *NM*
06/02/2010 08:31:44 PM
- 267 Views
Sun Zi was relatively unknown in the West until recently.
07/02/2010 01:30:06 AM
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Sure, but he could still have influenced world history by influencing Asia... *NM*
07/02/2010 01:35:17 AM
- 299 Views
Doubtful.
07/02/2010 01:41:01 AM
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In many ways, books are like automobiles or power tools...
06/02/2010 11:08:01 AM
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The interesting thing, to my mind, is that the BBC article talks about "Lebensraum".
06/02/2010 04:46:34 PM
- 737 Views
And nary a thing about Alois Hitler, no?
06/02/2010 05:52:50 PM
- 935 Views
I have yet to see a literature teacher in schools teach history through literature.
07/02/2010 01:33:57 AM
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But yet I know several history teachers who have done this
07/02/2010 10:38:49 AM
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Viewing history through a literary prism is usually an injustice to the study of history.
07/02/2010 03:16:30 PM
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No, the opposite: viewing literature through historical lens is what I'm interested in
07/02/2010 03:31:04 PM
- 785 Views
Hmm.
06/02/2010 11:33:02 PM
- 756 Views
I will answer yiour survey but may I ask a question first? What did you think of Steinbeck?
07/02/2010 06:20:52 AM
- 688 Views
I hated Steinbeck, with the exception of Travels with Charley.
07/02/2010 03:22:11 PM
- 714 Views
The Grapes of Wrath was required in Sophomore English in HS. And I loved it.
07/02/2010 03:25:55 PM
- 785 Views