| Author | Message | ||
     Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.91.114 |
We all know that set texts at school tend to be a bit predictable, so if you could design your own course, which texts would you choose for kids to study? Include . . . *Three novels (one can be short stories) *Two plays *One poet's work | ||
| Rosswarren (Rosswarren) Username: Rosswarren Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 81.152.82.110 |
'Salem's Lot by Stephen King Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill Cat on A Hot Tin Roof The Taming of the Shrew John Keats | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.244.194 |
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon The October Country by Ray Bradbury Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams No Man's Land by Harold Pinter W.H. Auden | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
Life: a User's Manual by Georges Perec Zazie dans le Metro by Raymond Queneau House Mother Normal by B.S. Johnson Ubu Enchaíné by Alfred Jarry The Bald Soprano by Eugène Ionesco Rimbaud Why make it easy for the little brats? | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
'The Inheritors' by William Golding - to give them a respect for the natural world & a healthy scepticism about the role of the human race in it. 'His Dark Materials' by Philip Pullman - to make them fall in love with fantasy & put them off religion for life. 'The Collected Ghost Stories Of M.R. James' - to scare the living hell out of the little darlings. 'Titus Andronicus' by William Shakespeare - with compulsory acting out by all the class in old clothes with lots of ketchup, if that doesn't make Shakespeare fans out of them, nothing will... 'The Crucible' by Arthur Miller - because it still packs a righteous punch that may just inject a little morality into some of their souls. 'The Divine Comedy' by Dante Alighieri with illustrations by Gustav Doré - because it's the greatest work of poetry ever written and is bound to cause endless debate while entertaining their socks off with all that wonderfully nasty imagery. | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.209.217 |
The Therapy Of Avram Blok by Simon Louvish Smoking Poppy by Graham Joyce Struggling to think of a better choice of short story collection than Joel's... maybe Richard Matheson's 'Shock 3' or Harlan Ellison's 'Deathbird Stories'. Or indeed, Joel's 'The Earth Wire' or 'The Lost District.' ...Hey, are we allowed to nominate our own books? I think the syllabus would benefit from 'Pictures Of The Dark'. Plays: 'Macbeth' and David Rudkin's 'The Sons Of Light'. Poetry: Tempted to go for Wilfred Owen, just becuse he is a genuinely great poet. Failing that, how about Howard Barker's 'Gary The Thief'? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.91.114 |
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck Talking It Over by Julian Barnes Alone With The Horrors by Ramsey Campbell The Normal Conquests by Alan Ayckbourn King Lear by Shakespeare Collected Tennyson That lot should disillusion the little bastards. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.252.194 |
Concentrating on American/English authors.... Gulliver's Travels (Jonathan Swift) Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë) The Sun Also Rises (Earnest Hemingway) (each one of these the greatest single piece of fictional prose of that particular century [for the last one, you could pick Ulysses or Portrait by Joyce, but those are too difficult for different reasons, perhaps]) Hamlet (William Shakespeare) Romeo & Juliet (same feller) (why waste time with anyone lesser?) (poetry is so difficult - kids will viscerally hate it, for life, and it's best not to start that now - having serendipitously just read Robert Frost's North of Boston, I would heartily recommend that one, because it would actually make their first experience reading poetry effortless, enjoyable, and profound at once) | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 88.111.129.71 |
High Rise by JG Ballard Borderliners Peter Hoeg Nights at the Circus Angela Carter A Taste of Honey Shelagh Delaney Hobson's Choice Harold Brighouse Yeats and Swinburne. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.211.167 |
Craig, I get sick to death of the likes of S.T. Joshi claiming that Clark Ashton Smith's pseudo-medieval verses lost currency in the 1920s because of 'modernism', when Frost's North of Boston was already in print and having the same kind of irreversible impact on poetic language as Auden a few years later. Frost, like Auden and Rilke and Lorca and Neruda and yes, even Eliot, was continuing the tradition of lyrical poetry by adapting the language of his own generation within its own frame of reference. Smith was merely writing leaden, pompous imitations of poems written a hundred years before. If that's the only 'true poetry' then Egyptian mummies are the only true people. | ||
| Ian Alexander Martin (Iam) Username: Iam Registered: 10-2009 Posted From: 64.180.64.74 |
I've been pondering this question for much of the morning, so here goes: NOVELS (teacher to choose one from each pair) * Fahrenheit 451, so they learn how to spot mind control (1984 seems so cartoon-ish in its fear-mongering), as well as how to spell one of the toughest words around; OR Something Wicked This Way Comes so they learn about dreams and their importance, as well as reading and its (plus this could qualify at times for the poetry section) * Around the World in 80 Days, for the sheer wealth of knowledge it provides (albeit dated with historical bias as well); OR A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which will help with the history lessons as well as some of the science classes (plus it's funny) * The Maltese Falcon, providing a view of recent American history which has been Bowdlerized and romanticized too bloody much (plus there's great stuff the Bogart version couldn't have in it for the sake of time); OR Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, to provide the mystery/procedural in a sciety with stringent class structures, with a view to the Elizabethan period which has been Bowdlerized and romanticized too bloody much (plus it's funny) PLAY * Blue Orange, to examine the question of the state, medical care, and the place of morals in both of those * Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, giving a view to the structure of theatre from inside it, and questions of existence and science not often considered outside of philosophy class (plus it's funny) POETRY (although admittedly this is a bad one for me to weigh in on, as poetry doesn't do much for me) * Lorca, especially the poem about how even his hat pains him when thinking of his love. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
> ...Hey, are we allowed to nominate our own books? No, Simon. That would be very very wrong. In a fair world, a person who did that would be taken outside and quietly shot. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
The JLP Englsih exam would include qustions on: Novels: The Hill of Dreams - Arthur Machen Great Expectations - Charles Dickens The Devil Rides Out - Dennis Wheatley Plays: 6 Characters in Search of an Author - Luigi Pirandello Equus - Peter Shaffer Poetry: Cautionary Tales for Children by Hilaire Belloc | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
And as you can see from the above candidates would be required to imbibe half a pint of absinthe before starting to write | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
Novels - The Talented Mr Ripley - Pat Highsmith Millroy the Magician - paul Theroux Short stories The October country (or maybe Long After Midnight) by Ray Bradbury Plays Little Brother Little Sister by david Campton - but that's on'y a one act so I'd throw in The Life and Death of Almost Everyone also by Campton Sleuth - Peter Shaffer (Anthony Shaffer I can't remember) Poetry - Ogden Nash I actually did a Taste of Honey for school and hated it with a vengeance. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Novels: The Grapes of Wrath Brighton Rock 1984 Play: Pinter’s The Birthday Party Poetry: Charles Bukowski.  | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
My 2nd play would be: Brimstone & Treacle by Dennis Potter. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.230 |
Now here's the realistic list Cliff notes on Pride and Prejudice, including chapter summaries Cliff notes on Jane Eyre, including chapter summaries Cliff notes on Brighton Rock, including chapter summaries Cliff notes on King Lear, including Act summaries Cliff notes on Twelfth Night, including Act summaries Cliff notes on poems by Keats, including thematic summaries | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
Some people are cheating. *Three novels (one can be short stories) *Two plays *One poet's work Those are the figures, OK? Not two novels and one play; or three novels and one short story collection. As there has been so much cheating, I'm going to cheat too. I'm going to add another novel: The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey (to teach the little 'uns the usefulness of sabotage) | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
This thread is rather fun. Ally, do you really think Swinburne is a major poet or just a guilty adolescent pleasure like Fields of the Nephilim or [deleted by rude words moderator]? I see him as the Victorian equivalent of an 'alternative' pop star, churning out hit after hit with mildly sadomasochistic and 'suicide is erotic' themes, but with no emotional maturity or restraint. I'll make a partial exception for 'The Garden of Proserpine' because he was obviously on opium when he wrote it, which takes it closer to the likes of Nico or the Only Ones. For whom I have nothing but praise. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Novels: Lolita (or, if the theme precludes using that one, Laughter in the Dark) Brighton Rock Small World Plays: A Streetcar Named Desire King Lear Poet: Tennyson | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
Brighton Rock is a good choice. Excuse my ignorance but - Small world? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.230 |
David Lodge, man. Brill. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
Read one david Lodge book - Thinks I really wasn't keen. I wouldn't voluntarily pick up another one. It wasn't horrifically bad, I just didn't find it entertaining in the least. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.230 |
There's a technical reason for that, Weber. You're a div. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.230 |
Therapy by Lodge contains one of the most moving scenes I've read in any piece of fiction. When the guy is reunited with his childhood sweetheart and what occurs during their most intimate moment . . . heartbreaking. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.230 |
I liked Thinks, too - is that the one with the duck race? | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
I just found it entirely predictable and dull. A couple of boring middle class people with no real problems whining about how hard their lives are and bedhopping with each other. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.230 |
>>>boring middle class people with no real problems whining about how hard their lives What, you mean like that utter drivel Anna Karenina? Or the self-indulgent bastards in Middlemarch? Or how about that set of utter tossbags in Vanity Fair? And plee-ase don't get me started on folk in Jane Austen novels . . . | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
"...and bedhopping with each other." If you mean they are the only two people involved, that's dull indeed. If you mean they take turns to be a witness, that sounds at least like an interesting narrative device. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
I'm only applying it to the one book. That's all I can remember of it. I found myself wanting to tell the characters to stop whinging for most of the book. I really just couldn't bring myself to give a damn about any of the characters. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.230 |
Fair enough. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
""...and bedhopping with each other." If you mean they are the only two people involved, that's dull indeed. If you mean they take turns to be a witness, that sounds at least like an interesting narrative device." If I remember correctly I guessed correctly within 10 pages of the spot in the book where she found out her ex(or maybe dead I'm not sure now) husband had been cheating on her and decided to sleep with the other main protagonist. It really was that predictable a storyline. Also - another thing that really niggled me at the time - the lead woman - whose chapters were written as her diary entries - wrote a four page flashback to her sister's wedding day in her diary. Now I don't keep a diary myself but I'm pretty certain it's not normal to write a four page flashback in the things... surely she wrote about it at the time, I'm pretty certain there were references to the fact she'd been keeping a diary for several years. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
The lead woman? Did she end up marrying the iron man? Did they end up permanently alloyed? (Rhys, eat your heart out.) | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.177.69.151 |
Pure gold. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.230.104 |
Joel, there's a bent in poetry, or was (I'm not up on current attitudes so much), towards obscurantism, or whatever one wants to call it, which is what I think of in "modern" poetry - like Eliot or Pound, poetry that is incredibly referential and inside-jokes/baseball and impossible to decipher and remote and abstract.... I think there's a place for all that, and I admire that kind of poetry too, betimes; but also the "simpler" poetry of Frost and others, who are profound every bit as much. In the end, whether simple or complex, the level of the poet will determine the poetry - if there's greater writing written by greater writers, there's surely greater poetry written by greater poets. Hence, perhaps, Smith vis-a-vis many other poets. ... er, reading that again, apologies, if I was too tangential to your point, or even completely off the mark altogether....  | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
I started to read a David Lodge book two weeks ago and abandoned it after two chapters: The British Museum is Falling Down. Like Weber I couldn't relate to the characters or situations. The guiding conceit of the novel (birth control without contraception) is too essentially Catholic to interest me. I just wanted the characters to say, "Fuck the Pope" and use condoms. Problem solved. End of book. Having said that, I did enjoy the TV adaption of Small World many years ago. Don't remember much about it, but it was good. I think it came out roughly at the same time as the TV adaption of Porterhouse Blue and for a short time both works got me into 'campus comedies'. There are plenty of worse sub-genres... | ||
| Skip (Wolfnoma) Username: Wolfnoma Registered: 07-2010 Posted From: 216.54.20.98 |
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand 1984 by George Orwell Brave New World by Aldus Huxley Macbeth by Bill S. Inhearit the Wind by Robert Lee Dylan Thomas |