It really, really is. The juxtaposition of Hurston's poetic narrative voice and the lyrical dialects of her characters is magic.
Well, lady, I must say-- You're my kinda stupid.
Mal ,'Heart Of Gold'
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."
Pix - May 21, 2008 6:09:39 am PDT #5849 of 28359
The status is NOT quo.
Kate P. - May 21, 2008 6:29:48 am PDT #5850 of 28359
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love
I *loved* that book when I read it for high school, and Kindred is another favorite. Great choices, Kristin!
Hayden - May 21, 2008 6:38:23 am PDT #5851 of 28359
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
I bought a hardback copy used last year. It's just sitting on a shelf now, but I'm going to cycle it into the reading list.
Fred Pete - May 21, 2008 6:38:45 am PDT #5852 of 28359
Ann, that's a ferret.
When I was a sophomore in high school, my English teacher passed around a list of books that some expert group had decided Every High School Student Should Read. (Of course, the list was 3 pages long, which meant no high school student would read them all.) The assignment was to read one book from the list and be prepared to discuss it in a small group setting.
I picked Brave New World, which was a bit daring for a town that held a referendum that year on an anti-obscenity referendum that would have defined the term so broadly that most fiction best-sellers would have been banned. (Okay, this was the heyday of Harold Robbins, but still....) The teacher had a problem in organizing the small groups because she didn't want any group to contain more than one person who'd picked Catcher in the Rye.
DavidS - May 21, 2008 6:44:18 am PDT #5853 of 28359
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
The most erotic scene in the Passion (as I recall it) is really all about kissing.
Hil R. - May 21, 2008 9:25:48 am PDT #5854 of 28359
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
Our AP English teacher wanted to assign us The Frogs in our ancient Greeks unit, but the only way it was published in a way that the school could buy a bunch of copies was in the same volume that that play that I forgot the name of, the one where the women refuse the sleep with the men until they end a war. The compromised reached was that we could read The Frogs as long as, when he handed out the books, he told us we were NOT supposed to read that other play. The teacher smirked throughout telling us this story, and explained just why the school board didn't approve of the other play. Of course, just about all of us went and read it.
Pix - May 21, 2008 9:26:58 am PDT #5855 of 28359
The status is NOT quo.
Bwah! That's Lysistrata.
Frankenbuddha - May 21, 2008 9:28:14 am PDT #5856 of 28359
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
the one where the women refuse the sleep with the men until they end a war.
Lysistrata by Aritosphones (Google is my friend - I knew the name but not the author).
X-post, natch. With a teacher, natch.
erikaj - May 21, 2008 9:28:41 am PDT #5857 of 28359
Always Anti-fascist!
I was disappointed in "Men and Cartoons" at least compared to "motherless Brooklyn" and "Fortress of Solitude"
amych - May 21, 2008 9:29:05 am PDT #5858 of 28359
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?
Yep, Pix beat me to Lysistrata.
I can't overstate just how much of my literary education came from seeking out the dirty bits. Don't these people get how badly they're shooting themselves in the foot when they Think Of The Children?