That article is the exact opposite of my experience with reading as a teen. I inhaled novels and found nonfiction utterly uninteresting. Real people's lives? Booooooring.
Tara: Do you have any books on robots? Giles: Oh, yes, dozens. There's a lot of research to be done in order to--no, I'm lying. Haven't got squat. I just like watching Xander squirm.
'Get It Done'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
erin_obscure - Jan 14, 2014 2:35:56 pm PST #21884 of 28365
Occasionally I’m callous and strange
erin_obscure - Jan 14, 2014 2:35:57 pm PST #21885 of 28365
Occasionally I’m callous and strange
Pix - Jan 14, 2014 2:41:33 pm PST #21886 of 28365
The status is NOT quo.
I think the English teachers just presume that everybody is miserable in high school and need literature that validates that. But Emmett is not by nature miserable.
Ouch.
Kat - Jan 14, 2014 2:45:17 pm PST #21887 of 28365
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
I only teach nonfiction and I love it. (Not in AP lit obviously). We do mostly text sets and the occasional full length non fic. To prepare most kids for college non fiction is way more relevant. As part of class, kids read full length works of whatever outside of class, mostly fiction. I have less if an issue with nonfiction than with a strict adherence to the canon. But my course title is Expository Reading and Writing. It is the only 12th grade option other than AP Lit. Unlike Emmett's school we don't do a lot of issue novels. We just finished Pygmalion and The Importance of Being Ernest.
Amy - Jan 14, 2014 2:45:21 pm PST #21888 of 28365
Because books.
David, which books would you suggest instead? Where are these happy happy joyful books?
Kat - Jan 14, 2014 2:46:48 pm PST #21889 of 28365
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
Pygmalion!
Kat - Jan 14, 2014 2:48:12 pm PST #21890 of 28365
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
Handmaids tale has a relatively redemptive ending too.
Kat - Jan 14, 2014 2:48:52 pm PST #21891 of 28365
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
For a dystopian novel that is.
Amy - Jan 14, 2014 2:49:55 pm PST #21892 of 28365
Because books.
I've never read it! Although I know the basic story. (Pygmalion, I mean.)
Where do you draw the line between an issue novel and a non-issue novel? I just can't think of a lot of books about generally content people that wouldn't be incredibly boring, but I also find books cathartic. Even something like Little Women has plenty of conflict and drama in it.
I don't think I would classify i A Handmaid's Tale as a *happy* read, though, despite the ending.
Sophia Brooks - Jan 14, 2014 2:50:51 pm PST #21893 of 28365
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
As long as we are talking about this-- did Archer actually have sex with Countess Olenska or were they just hangingout outside the bounds of convention.
I can't really think of many happy joyful novels that we would study in English lit, but maybe the canon should include genre fiction?