Thread 24642901

Fitzgerald, Dickens, Hemingway, so on. They get a bad rap because tenth graders read them, but they were written for adults and only became staples of high school lit curricula because they were deemed to be exemplary novels. What're your favorite high school lit authors, books, stories, etc?

>>24642901 (OP)
Lord of the flies and Heart of Darkness.

>>24642901 (OP)
Let's see we did 2 books each grade and many short stories i remember lord of the flies, the most dangerous game short story, Harrison Bergeron, a sound of thunder short story, of mice and men, to kill a mocking bird, Shakespeare of course, specifically Macbeth and Twelfth Night. That's about as much as I can remember, kind of an eclectic smorgasbord of common core desu, I went to high-school in northern Virginia.

Not a mutt, but when I grew up I read a lot of the high school authors that I ignored when I was a teenager and most of them turned out to be pretty good. School literature is wasted on the teen retards.

>>24643101

I hated The Great Gatsby when I had to read it in high school. Re-read it in college, on my own initiative and at my own pace, and loved it.

Its the "forced" part of the reading that makes people hate it. Probably the best solution is to let (at least the brighter kids) pick which books they want to read from an approved list. It gives them some options, choice, and preference in what they are required to read, while maintaining standards. Plus you don't force people to read significantly above or below their level.

>>24642926
>>24643048
>Read Lord of the Flies in high school
Were you guys in remedial classes?

>>24642901 (OP)
The Mid Gatsby is more like it, if you actually get it

>>24642901 (OP)
I was homeschooled and remember writing a 3000 word essay near the end of high school comparing the themes, structure, and characters of Emma and David Copperfield. I also read Ivanhoe, a bit of Shakespeare (though I didn't really "get" Shakespeare till I read Hamlet for fun in college), and the Iliad.

>>24643151
It was well-loved by the girls in the class and hated by the boys because they thought Gatsby was a simp. Teens think in simplistic memes

This nigga has the answer >>24643101
I mean holy shit I didn't want to read Faust when I was like 16. Ruined this work for me. I am revisiting it now and enjoying it. But I would probably enjoy it more if I wasn't forced to "read" it before.
Same for Nathan the Wise or Woyzeck (probably won't be able to enjoy them because school fucked them). Wish there wasn't any reading in school.

>>24643151
I think the 'forced' part is only a part of the reason.
The way the teachers teach this shit is also horrible. When reading the Diary of Anne Frank the teacher just wanted to skip 100 pages because we didn't have enough time to cover everything. Similar with Faust.
Another reason is the stigma with students. 'Nobody actually likes this stuff. So who likes it must be pretentious.'. No one has enough knowledge at that age to actually understand any shit he reads (apart from slop like 'The Hate You Give'). But actual literature is too high and thus everyone who seems to like it just looks like a wannabe.

>>24643151
we did this on middle school
they'd set out a bunch of books in disorganized piles and the kids would pick through them and pick what to read
I read hatchet this way and was way more engaged than if I were forced to read it

I re read The Grapes of Wrath last year. It was pretty good. High school me was just being a whiny faggot

I was pretty much just a Agatha Christie, Stephen King, and Sherlock Holmes reader until 10th grade English. I read Clockwork Orange and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and became a /lit/izen ever since.

>>24643398
>(apart from slop like 'The Hate You Give')
this made me think that kids could benefit from studying YA novels in school instead. they won’t be introduced to as many “deep” themes and it won’t be as “literary,” but studying narrative and character through their expression in the written word will still be
>entirely possible
>entirely possible
>entirely possible
and most kids would be interested in reading The Hunger Games or Harry Potter or something like that.

Catcher in the rye and lord of the flies. Also bless me ultima was pretty decent

>>24642901 (OP)
i'm on the other side. i loved reading all the school lit books and it ruined my taste in "fun" books

when i read gatsby in high school i immediately loved it just because the prose was so beautiful. most high school lit has dry and boring prose. but gatsby really stood out.

>>24643220
I got a great Gatsby for you right here pal if you catch my meaning

How about this fellas, let's say you're teaching English literature to kids somewhere in the 14-16 range, let's say the kids are slightly above average intelligence, nothing special but not retarded. What are some books you would read and why?

>>24644152
I don't :(

>>24644168
It's my big penis

>>24642901 (OP)
see picrel
http://www.google.com/search?q=great+gatsby+reference+lothrop+stoddard

>>24643196
It was my AP 11 summer reading lol

>>24643384
They loved it because Gatsby was played by DiCaprio (fair)
I remember in my end of the year presentation I really wound them up prepping them for the sexual explosion they'd receive from the Gatsby slide, then all the stills I used from the 70s movie

boring tarantino-core

>>24646831
forgot pic

>>24642926
Lord of the Flies is awful but Heart of Darkness is an all time classic and obviously so are Dickens and Hemingway. Anyway this is only true for Ameriturds since every nation focuses on its own literature.

>>24645091
Jesus Christ how old are you? We read it in 7th grade in the intellectual utopia of........ Joliet Illinois.

>>24646854
>Lord of the Flies is awful
Big Piggy vibes desu

>>24643151
i loved great gatsby in school
hated to kill a mockingbird

>>24643594
I had the same path as you. I read those at 12 or 13 and then Anthony burgess was probably first real writer I read at like 14 maybe but even that I outgrew. I’d say the first thing that got me into the Greeks and Romans was watching Roberto Rossellini’s Apology of Plato at age 20 or so. It is the trial speech of Socrates pretty much word for word.

>>24648576
Every person on this site was Piggy at some point in their lives. Some never grow out of it.

In high school (grade 7 because I'm not some fourth world American) I was forced to read Lord of the Flies, Artemis Fowl, and Of Mice and Men. Artemis Fowl was the only good one of the three. Anyone who claims to enjoy Of Mice and Men or Lord of the Flies is doing so only because they think it will make them sound as if they have good taste.

>>24648817
>it's impossible to enjoy things and have original thoughts
>only i can

>>24648581
It's fine, we have room for retards like you on this board

>>24648781
Piggy was the only smart one

>>24642901 (OP)
It's extremely well written so I get why it's considered a classic but I hated the pacing, almost nothing happened in the first half. If it wasn't so short I probably would've skipped it. Also tom is literally me

>>24649125
>Also tom is literally me
Who is your mistress?

>>24649020
I wouldn't go that far, but it is true that I'm the only person whose taste is always faultless. I've never met anyone whose opinions are as consistently perfect as mine and neither have you.

>>24643594
>[I read] One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and became a /lit/izen ever since.

Give Sometimes a Great Notion a try. It's terrifically good.