So over on Unfogged it's a post up on whether all HS reading lists suck, and I'm thinking back to what I got made to read in HS, and, well, yes.
The Scarlet Letter, and Hawthorne's assorted short stories, I have no idea how many times. I don't believe I bothered to read any of them after the first time. Why would I? I hate Hawthorne. (That said, when I taught Am Lit I three semesters ago, I made my poor students read YGB. Suckers.)
Bartleby. Oh, did they adore to make us read Bartleby.
Faulkner's Rose for Emily. Every FUCKING semester. (Probably not. Probably I'm just remembering it that way.) We read nothing else by William F., but damn did we read the shit out of a Rose for Emily.
Great Expectations, three times.
Ransom of the Red Chief, I swear, every single English class I was in from fifth grade on. Eck.
To Kill a Mockingbird, once in Junior High, once in HIgh school.
Julius Caeser OR Romeo and Juliet. (Not both -- it depended on who you drew for English.
What's that you say? Modern fiction? Why, didn't you see To Kill A Mockingbird on that list? How modern do you want?
We did read the Great Gatsby when I was a senior, but I hated it as much as Hawthorne, frankly. I've never liked Fitzgerald and yes, I know I'm wrong, but there you are.
3 hours ago
4 comments:
Wow, a single woman existed in your high school reading! BLAH!!
The only woman author we read was Rachel Carson, and I didn't have the sense to get what she was after.
I detested high school English! Is there anything worse to have to read than stupid *Catcher in the Rye*?
Everything you read, both JC and R and J.... and Lord of the Flies....
yup, from jr high to high, some of it in sixth.
And Death of a Salesman...
Do you know how many times I've read A Rose in college? for the same teacher? man, I've bout memorized it.
Yes. Yes!
We read all of that but no women authors. Lots of blah and boring.
Except my senior year, in AP English only, the other kids didn't get to read it for some reason, we read the Canterbury Tales.
Loved that.
The only assigned reading I can remember from that long ago is Great Expectations, which I loved. I'm sure there was other assigned reading, but I do not remember it.
I have never read much Fitzgerald, but what I have read doesn't really do it for me.
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