Quote :

"There are plenty of movies based on classics."

Yes. "Based" on. It's about as close to the classics accuracy wise as a Southern Baptist Preacher describing Islam.

7/2/2012 12:50:03 AM

Siddhartha

7/2/2012 1:11:13 AM

Quote :

" I am an English teacher. There are certain books I will never teach: The Scarlet Letter Wuthering Heights The Return of the Native -- This was my summer reading assignment for AP English Lit when I was a senior, and I couldn't even get through the CliffsNotes. anything by Dickens any novel by Faulkner (although I always teach "A Rose for Emily" when I have juniors)"

You represent everything that is wrong with the North Carolina educational system.

7/2/2012 10:06:20 AM

The Scarlet Letter & Nectar in a Sieve

7/2/2012 10:09:10 AM

Quote :

"Yes. "Based" on. It's about as close to the classics accuracy wise as a Southern Baptist Preacher describing Islam."

Really? Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Last of the Mohecans, Huck Finn, Les Miserables, Count of Monte Cristo, Little Women, Dracula, Frankenstein, Peter Pan, A Christmas Carol, Of Mice and Men, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Color Purple, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Sense and Sensibility, Wuthering Heights, A Streetcar Named Desire...

None of those stay close to the book?

7/2/2012 10:12:23 AM

Well you got to admit the recent remake of Count of Monte Cristo is nothing like the book!

7/2/2012 10:14:13 AM

Haha, I wasn't talking about the 2002 version.

7/2/2012 10:15:26 AM

omg was it that long ago!

7/2/2012 10:19:47 AM

Quote :

"Yes. "Based" on. It's about as close to the classics accuracy wise as a Southern Baptist Preacher describing Islam."

LOL

it's okay to admit that you had no idea that these movies have come out

but a lot of them are very faithful to the books, even perhaps to a fault

[Edited on July 2, 2012 at 11:14 AM. Reason : also yes, fuck Hemingway]

7/2/2012 11:12:41 AM

Again, probably not considered a classic, but it's definitely a book that everyone who I've talked to who've read it, absolutely loved it, but I really hated it with a passion.


Watership Down


ugh

7/2/2012 11:19:58 AM

Quote :

"You represent everything that is wrong with the North Carolina educational system."

Please tell me more, smart guy.

7/2/2012 11:56:16 AM

Quote :

"Haha, I wasn't talking about the 2002 version. "

Is there a newer one? I have seen a few older ones and the 2002 one. The only decent film/tv adaptation I have seen that also stayed pretty true to the source material was actually a french miniseries in the 90s but it wasn't spectacular, just more accurate.

I kind of wish that someone like HBO would do a newer miniseries because a movie just doesn't work well. It's one of my all-time favorite books and I have yet to find a film/tv version that is both faithful and very good at the same time.

7/2/2012 1:19:57 PM

It's not really that complicated. Here we have a so called educator, who can't understand the artistic merits of the best writers humanity has produced. That's all.

7/2/2012 1:23:04 PM

Last of the Mohicans. And that was before I discovered Twain on Fenimore Cooper and felt totally validated.

http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/rissetto/offense.html

Oh, and I too disliked Moby Dick. I gave up after 100 or so pages.

7/2/2012 2:32:31 PM

Quote :

"Watership Down"

We need to have a chat...

7/2/2012 2:37:31 PM

Quote :

"the best writers humanity has produced"

that's just, like, your opinion, man

7/2/2012 2:41:17 PM

^^hahaha

7/2/2012 3:25:06 PM

Yeah. It's damn near criminal of me to have an opinion about literature. I should probably teach the six works/authors I listed instead of, you know, teaching any of the literally thousands of other options out there and doing so with any measure of passion.

You really got me, champ.

7/2/2012 3:54:38 PM

Yeah, Watership Down is beyond reproach.

7/2/2012 3:57:30 PM

I love how Young Adult Fiction always gets mixed up in Tdub's discussions of Classic Literature

7/2/2012 4:05:36 PM

The only part of classic lit that I like is everything Shakespeare and Hemmingway: everything else sucked.

7/2/2012 4:07:20 PM

^^
You love it?

7/2/2012 4:08:57 PM

the only thing TWW has good taste in is tits.

7/2/2012 4:10:19 PM

I see this thread as more of a "Beloved works of literature that you hate" thread

7/2/2012 4:10:27 PM

I still feel like most of that Night book by Eli Wiesel is bullshit

(not that the holocaust was bullshit... but that book definitely is)

7/2/2012 4:32:11 PM

Quote :

"Catcher in the Rye (to his credit, I actually like Franny and Zooey)"

eeesh i did not enjoy franny & zooey. i was so disappointed. franny was decent but zooey just dragged on for-ev-errrr

7/2/2012 4:33:00 PM

Forget the name of the book, but it involved prep school kids climbing into trees and breaking limbs. I just remember having to read it in 9th grade and hating it.

7/2/2012 4:46:16 PM

^^^ a fair number of Holocaust scholars would agree

[Edited on July 2, 2012 at 4:46 PM. Reason : .]

7/2/2012 4:46:31 PM

^^a separate peace. Loved it!

7/2/2012 5:11:12 PM

^beat me to it.

7/2/2012 5:11:46 PM

Probably only considered classic in North Carolina, but Look Homeward, Angel is awful. Fuck Thomas Wolfe.

7/2/2012 5:21:38 PM

recently read "the picture of dorian gray" .....it was painful to get through..

Also do not like:
The Old Man and the Sea
The Scarlet Letter (although i did name my dog prynne, and she is the bestest dog ever)
Shakespeare
The Iliad or the Odyssey

there's probably more that i was forced to read during grade school, i just can't think of them..

7/2/2012 6:03:30 PM

Tale of Two Cities
Catcher In The Rye
Into The Wild (possibly one of the few instances in which the movie was better than the book)
The Importance of Being Earnest

And honestly, I was never a fan of Huckleberry Finn

7/2/2012 6:25:04 PM

Quote :

"Yeah. It's damn near criminal of me to have an opinion about literature."

no, it's not criminal for you to have an opinion and not like the books. but some that you listed are considered some of the best works (or authors) in literature, and you're apparently trying to pass your opiniona on to your students by refusing to cover those works in your english class. and your job is to teach objectively, not pass your opinions on to your students.

[Edited on July 2, 2012 at 6:32 PM. Reason : and i thought "things fall apart" was pretty decent]

7/2/2012 6:31:14 PM

I can see the artistic/literary merit for each. Doesn't mean I like them. If I were to teach any one of the books I listed, I would be doing it an injustice precisely because I don't care for it. I don't sit at the front of my room telling kids how much I hate Hawthorne just because I think reading his novel is akin to being hit in the head with a symbolic sledgehammer. Oh look, another scaffold scene! Time to get excited!

There are plenty of options that I love teaching, and I can hopefully pass on a love of literature by covering material that I actually like -- whether classic or contemporary. I hope that's not too complicated for you to understand.

What is wrong with you people?

7/2/2012 7:17:58 PM

Fair enough, you've changed my opinion, i retract my statement.

7/2/2012 7:20:20 PM

I still love the Scarlet Letter

7/2/2012 7:29:55 PM