NOW READING

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The Flash said:
It took me one month to finish reading Lord of the Flies but I've finally done it. Not that it was boring or anything in fact I really loved the book, but that I didn't have much time to read. Great read.
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Glad you liked it - as you can tell from the custom title under my avatar, I'm a fan of the book too. Agree with Black Wizard that you probably shouldn't overanalyze it. The resonant themes don't require a lot of digging.
 
Forostar said:
Forced on a secondary school (or high school whatever) to read a specific book while there are so many options.
A dated dogmatic approach in the 21st century.
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I'm sorry, but I disagree. There are certain books that are simply part of the Western Canon and should be read by everyone. Every high school kid should read The Odyssey. Period. Every high school kid should read The Lord of the Flies and Huckleberry Finn. Period. Every high school kid should read the two Orwell novels. Period. Everyone should read Shakespeare. Period. There are just certain works that are not only bona fide classics of literature, but are also a part of our shared culture and inform a lot of the art and literature that comes after it. Students will simply miss out if they haven't read those books. For example, I'm sure there are some teenagers that have seen the film Easy A with Emma Stone (pretty good flick, btw), but nevertheless did not even catch the reference to The Scarlet Letter. That's pathetic. Such people are culturally impoverished. If they choose not to have read those books, then they have themselves to blame. But if their schools choose not to assign those books, then the schools are to blame. I will agree that certain "assigned" books benefit from rereading later, but that's as much a function of being older and wiser. They should still be assigned while people are in school. I realize I'm old-school, and the books written by dead white men can be supplemented with books by Toni Morrison or Wolff or Achebe, but those books are nevertheless critical to an education and should be required reading of all students.
 
I agree, 100%, with Cornfed. I think in our diverse world it's really important to augment traditional white male-written classics with the emerging classics of other diasporas, absolutely. But you have to look at it this way: everything in English literature starts at Shakespeare. Shakespeare was to English lit as the Beatles was to music. Everything before (with the possible exception of the Canterbury Tales) is essentially irrelevant unless you have a hard-on for medieval lit; everything after is different and changed.

The public school system can't have you read every classic book, as well as every modern book of note, but that's not a failure of the public school system - it's a failure of our culture to convince kids there's more to read out there than what a teacher puts in front of our noses. I didn't read The Iliad or The Odyssey in school - I read them on my own. Same with Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. I understand why I didn't get to read those classics, because there wasn't always time (and because the racial language in the Twain books offends high-class white people here, who like to believe that they are above such things).

Here's a really good example: the current show Sons of Anarchy, which I adore, because it is based on Hamlet (as well as other Shakespearean plots). A lot of the people I see who watch it online have no idea. They don't chuckle when the main character is called a "Prince", or when the Claudius-analogue calls his wife his "queen". I've read Hamlet once and I didn't particularly relish the experience, but I do understand when Hamlet makes it into the mainstream. It's pathetic when people can't see it on their own.
 
Agreed. I recently had a discussion with a Mexican friend of mine over Mexican Soap Operas. He lambasted them as the lowest form of entertainment and basically as mindless crap. I told him that I once thought that too, until very recently. The Mexican soap opera or Telenovela is a direct descendant of Greek Comedies. My Grandmother still calls them Comedias... Comedies. It's not that they're funny, though many are meant to be comical. They are Comedies in the sense that they have a happy ending. Like Romeo and Juliet is a Tragedy, yet take a similar plot, give it a happy ending and you get the "Comedy" Much a do About Nothing.They are also prime vehicles for sociological/psychological theories.

Going all the way back to the beginning of Soap Operas (or as far back as I can remember personally) one theme is extremely prevalent in Telenovelas, that of hypergamy or "marrying up." The poor maid, the peasant girl or laborer falls in love/marries the rich boy, company owner, etc. Statistics show that for a relationship to be successful it must share at least 5 things: education, income, race, religion and, believe it or not, level of attractiveness. If there is a big disparity in any of them the chances of success diminish, unless the person in the "lower" position rises up to meet their partner. For example, someone with a Ph.D dating someone with a high school diploma. the disparity in education levels can be the Achilis heel of the relationship unless the person with the high school diploma at least eventually gets a Masters. Thus the maid, peasant and/or laborer always ends up shedding their "improper" speech (becomes educated), somehow, either through hard work or a secret inheritance becomes rich (levels the income) and since they are already a knock-out they are now "at the level" of the protagonist and the relationship has greater opportunity for success.

A very recent one, Tomorrow is Forever, is basically a mix between The Odyssey and The Count of Monte Cristo. FANTASTIC writing, but as LC said, that sort of thing is lost on the average viewer
 
Seriously mañana es para siempre? Seriously? I mean, I know they have to have some actual basis or reference to the past and higher forms of literature, but they are too low, made to make people not think, stablishing fake views and hopes in people's minds. And too bad acting a lot of times, I've only "liked" 2 or 3 telenovelas in my whole life, and I know what I'm talking about since my grandmother is always watching them. For example, all novels have the same figure of the "priest with a secret" that there was in greek literature, the tragic hero who lost their parents or comes from a humble family, yet they are made to make people only reafirm the status quo of the society. What I mean, they are made by people with studies, but they are made to dominate and to make people ignorant, that's why I hate telenovelas.
 
Onhell said:
Statistics show that for a relationship to be successful it must share at least 5 things: education, income, race, religion and, believe it or not, level of attractiveness.
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I find this very interesting. Can you give a reference to where this is taken from?
 
Sebas-hero1995 said:
Seriously mañana es para siempre? Seriously? I mean, I know they have to have some actual basis or reference to the past and higher forms of literature, but they are too low, made to make people not think, stablishing fake views and hopes in people's minds. And too bad acting a lot of times, I've only "liked" 2 or 3 telenovelas in my whole life, and I know what I'm talking about since my grandmother is always watching them. For example, all novels have the same figure of the "priest with a secret" that there was in greek literature, the tragic hero who lost their parents or comes from a humble family, yet they are made to make people only reafirm the status quo of the society. What I mean, they are made by people with studies, but they are made to dominate and to make people ignorant, that's why I hate telenovelas.
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Seriously. Did you not see the obvious similarities between "Franco Santoro" and Odysseus? Being away for 20 years and returning to claim his "throne" and "queen?" Taking on a different identity. Odysseus that of a beggar, Count of Monte Cristo as an aristocrat? I agree they are made, ultimately, to entertain the lowest common denominator, but the new wave of telenovelas are not "dumbed down" by any means, they are taking their audience much more seriously. Compare Manana es Para Siempre or Destilando Amor with say... ANY Thalia Soap from the late 80's.

Ariana said:
I find this very interesting. Can you give a reference to where this is taken from?
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Unfortunately My old college notes are in storage. I'll try doing a Google search to see if I can find the old article.
 
Just read a little book for english class, "The giver". It's a young adults book but it's good. It's part of a series of books about dystopian societies, in fact it's the first one. I recommend it, also it is very short, only 179 pages long.
 
OH man I LOVE the giver! I recommend you read the full trilogy. The second book, Gathering Blue, isn't that good, but the third, The Messenger, ties all of them together very well making the second essential reading. The giver is a bit like M Night Shamalan's the Village. Little village in the middle of nowhere, establishment insists there are no other communities out there, nobody questions it. At age 12 people are given what will be their jobs for the rest of their lives, Jonah gets appointed to The Giver, turns out the giver is the one who retains the communities memories... and Jonah is next. What unfolds is.... wow. Great book.
 
Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman — a satire about the apocalypse. Three-quarters done and very funny.
 
Just read Battles in the Dessert "Batallas en el Desierto" by José Emilio Pacheco as an assign for mexican and modern literature. Good book that talks about a boy in 40's Mexico City who falls in love with the mom of his best friend, and society demonizes him for it. Good and short book, I recommend it.
 
Read a book called Hitless Wonder: A Life in Minor League Rock and Roll. Very well written about a US band called Watershed, who briefly made it semi-big in the early 90s, but years later is still touring around playing to crowds of anywhere from 2 to 700. I had vaguely heard about these guys, but this band can really be substituted for about any band that had some talent, but never was able to push through. A really interesting read, I was looking for something to read on the plane yesterday, and this was an Amazon $3.99 Kindle special, took a shot at it, and am glad I did.
 
Currently reading Day By Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile, and after that one I'll read Day By Day Armageddon: Shattered Hourglass. Both are books about zombie apocalypse. Beyond Exile and it's predecessor called simply Day By Day Armageddon are written in journal style. Shattered Hourglass includes both journal and third person point of view style.

I bought a book called "Grey Wolf - The Escape of Adolf Hitler" by some unknown dudes, which describes a "true story" and "proofs" that Hitler didn't kill himself, but escaped Germany and lived in Argentina till his death. I'll read it next year, anyone else interested in this subject? :)
 
bearfan said:
Read a book called Hitless Wonder: A Life in Minor League Rock and Roll. Very well written about a US band called Watershed, who briefly made it semi-big in the early 90s, but years later is still touring around playing to crowds of anywhere from 2 to 700. I had vaguely heard about these guys, but this band can really be substituted for about any band that had some talent, but never was able to push through. A really interesting read, I was looking for something to read on the plane yesterday, and this was an Amazon $3.99 Kindle special, took a shot at it, and am glad I did.
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Speaking of Now Reading, I read this post twice. Just now and also last week. Both times I read:
Hitlers Wonder. I fact, the first time, I had to finish the whole post before getting it. First I thought: "WTF, what strange title!". :)
 
I started reading one of them and hated it. I haven't returned to them.

For Christmas I received books by Bernard Cornwell, Tim Severin and Mark Lawrence. I have begun the Cornwell book 1356.
 
I struggle to read historical stuff, probably because I studied history and I've had enough of it to last a lifetime. I always get frustrated by novels on a historical theme, though, because I often feel they try to throw in modern concepts, particularly the way the characters think.
Some of them are very well observed, but it does often put me off trying them
 
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