High school
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The Great Gatsby was a very influential book, so even if you didn't like it, you still need it to understand more recent works. I thought it had a great writing style but was OK because I could identify with it. One of friends from a previous school was basically Daisy. We got to read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in the same class so that made up for it, especially since I had already read a book on it and wrote an analysis of it.
I did have to read one book that was so bad the teacher apologized for having to make us read it. It can't even remember the title but it took place during the Civil War in the South. It had a bad case of historical revisionism and it took the Angela?s Ashes approach of not having a any quotation marks. Only in this case, it made it impossible to figure out if the character was thinking to herself or talking. The most obnoxious scene was when she needs a hat, so walks out side and someone accidentally dropped a hat out the window right on her head.
I did have to read one book that was so bad the teacher apologized for having to make us read it. It can't even remember the title but it took place during the Civil War in the South. It had a bad case of historical revisionism and it took the Angela?s Ashes approach of not having a any quotation marks. Only in this case, it made it impossible to figure out if the character was thinking to herself or talking. The most obnoxious scene was when she needs a hat, so walks out side and someone accidentally dropped a hat out the window right on her head.
We had to read The Odyssey freshman year and that was just torture. Going in, I already sort of knew the exciting parts of the story- like with the cyclops and the mermaids and such, so I expected it to be like that. That whole section of the story takes up 70 pages of a 450 page book. The rest of it is about feasts.
Ok, I do agree it isn't the kind of book that gets you jumping out of your seat and if you are the person that likes action or has a short attention span, you might aswell go to sparknotes (which you've probably done already).hxcfreak said:
This might sound stupid, but here's my tipp: Read it again, unless you fit the description above
I disagree. I will concede that the first third of the book isn't terribly interesting, but once Nick meets Gatsby and the veneer that disguised his character is peeled (or ripped) off, seeing the lone man with ambition amongst an ocean of drifting aimlessness is worth that first third (in retrospect, that's quite a long sentence). Also, if you're the kind of person who is only interested by action and conflict, the description at the scene of the car accident and the accident itself is fairly gruesome.CaptainEgypt said:
All in all, The Great Gatsby is a well written book. Do I think it deserves to be on the syllabus? I'm not sure. What I would like to see on it is more modern books. If a high school class can handle a book like Fallen Angels, it surely can handle one like House of Leaves, which I highly recommend.
It's been said before, but welcome to school. And the majority of the stuff they get you to read in high school or whatever equivalent is there for a reason.
You know, the cultural impact and insight on society etc etc..and also..they're generally great books.
If you simply hate analysing books to the extent done in schools, I completely sympathise. I generally hated analysing books to the degree that it killed my love of that book, which is why I didn't continue English lit beyond high school.
But there is real quality in most of the stuff they get you to read.
..Most of the stuff...
You know, the cultural impact and insight on society etc etc..and also..they're generally great books.
If you simply hate analysing books to the extent done in schools, I completely sympathise. I generally hated analysing books to the degree that it killed my love of that book, which is why I didn't continue English lit beyond high school.
But there is real quality in most of the stuff they get you to read.
..Most of the stuff...
Just be glad they didn't have you read any of Ralph Emerson's work. My 11th grade English teacher was in love with the guy, and got real pissed when I basically called him out on being an asshole. I think that might be the reason I got a C- my last quarter.
The dude used fate as an excuse for him failing to extinguish his campfire before going to bed, and burning down an entire forest, and tried to use an unpopular war as a reason for his tax evasion. Not to mention the whole reason behind 'Walden' was because he wanted to get away from having any kind of responsibility.
Alright, I have stop before this turns into a full blown rant, but you get the idea.
The dude used fate as an excuse for him failing to extinguish his campfire before going to bed, and burning down an entire forest, and tried to use an unpopular war as a reason for his tax evasion. Not to mention the whole reason behind 'Walden' was because he wanted to get away from having any kind of responsibility.
Alright, I have stop before this turns into a full blown rant, but you get the idea.
It's a good thing if you have to read it. I've had professors who required us to buy a $200 textbook, and then most of us never opened the damn thing throughout the semester.Wouldukindly said:
fortunately i haven't been forced to read it in school(probably because I'm from Sweden!) but I have been forced to read several other books in school. like 1984, lord of the flies and..."the dwarf"
the dwarf: to quote my classmate when he told the teacher why he refused to read the remaining 2/3 of the book "the man who wrote this book is 50 times more evil than Stalin and Hitler combined!" and i have to agree.
now I really like to read, mostly sci-fi and fantasy but also philosophy, poetry and instructional books (the art of war for instance.) and both me and my brother (and father) agree the almost all the books you have to read are complete shit and some of the WORST books you can force someone to read in order to get them interested in reading.
as for why...well my father but it in a good way, "we had to read that c**p in school so why shouldn't you have to?"
the dwarf: to quote my classmate when he told the teacher why he refused to read the remaining 2/3 of the book "the man who wrote this book is 50 times more evil than Stalin and Hitler combined!" and i have to agree.
now I really like to read, mostly sci-fi and fantasy but also philosophy, poetry and instructional books (the art of war for instance.) and both me and my brother (and father) agree the almost all the books you have to read are complete shit and some of the WORST books you can force someone to read in order to get them interested in reading.
as for why...well my father but it in a good way, "we had to read that c**p in school so why shouldn't you have to?"
I really disliked most of the books we had to read for English in High School. I've always wondered if the books actually are that good and I'm just not getting them or if the people choosing them have a bad case of nostalgia.
Oh god, the only book I read that I hated more than the Great Gatsby was the Scarlet Letter. That book is the devil.
I was supposed to read Lord of the Flies. I didn't bother and instead read a summary i found on the internet. Still got an A.
Every part of the book was an intentional allegory (some more subtle than others). That and the fact it is still good from a non-allegorical perspective is part of why it is regarded as a classic. I read it by myself and missed most of the subtleties.gmer412 said: