I haven't posted here in ages. I've been thinking about OSC's work a lot lately, and thought I'd stop in and say "what's up?".
I've just declared my major as English, in an attempt to teach secondary education. I know I'll have to get in the habit of writing and reading more, so I've started a few things on my blog. (warning: I'm ex-mormon, and I don't hide from that fact. I'm not mean, but I talk openly about it on my blog) Sample of my writing
I just wrote a short little narrative about OSC, and I thought it might be appreciated here.
posted
The problem with the reading you have to do to major in English is that so much of it is not for pleasure - and so much that WOULD have been a pleasure becomes mere work because you have to read it in a certain way and extract certain things from it. More like proofreading than reading, if you know what I mean.
I've known many an English major who spent years recovering from the degree program before they could read for pleasure again!
But as long as you don't get sucked into the "these are the great books all the rest is crap" mentality of many an English department, and remember that it's more important for your students to love reading than it is for them to despise the books that your professors hated, you'll come out of it OK. It's a noble work to help kids find the books they'll love, and I have a special place in my heart for the great English teachers who helped me find such books.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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posted
Thanks for the input. I've got a talent for the proofreading aspect, so I think that will be a piece of cake for me. In fact, my husband is more of a writer than I am, so he's lucky he has me!!! (I tell myself that every day!)
I hope beyond hope I don't get narrow-minded in my literary mentality. I do think reading (and writing, for that matter) is magical, and can be very therapeutic. And the broader one's range of reading, the more interesting he is, imo.
I hadn't even thought about getting sucked into that type of mentality. I think the heads up will actually benefit me, so thanks.
Oh, hey, pop quiz: do you remember what TMBG stands for?
Posts: 21 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I do hate the fact that in many schools teachers make people hate really good books by the way they teach them. When I got older, I went back and read many of the required readings from high school (the fun of AP English lit) and found that they were really very good...and I couldn't believe that I groaned about reading them in high school.
Of course, as OSC mentioned, reading for pleasure is a different sort of reading than reading for school. You don't have to stop and think about symbolism every 2 lines when you read for fun.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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I have been wanting to do that lately: go back and read things that were required.
All Quiet on the Western Front, My Antonia, The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev, Red Sky at Morning, etc. In fact, that's a brilliant idea. I'll start this evening...
Posts: 21 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I always try to read assigned books before the class starts the discussion or readthrough together. That way I can enjoy the story, before I have to rip it apart and painstakingly study it.
Posts: 973 | Registered: Apr 2005
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The worst part about English class is that the interpretation of the "story" is just as much "art" as the actually writing. Any book can be made to say anything you want, as long as you're creative enough. It can be very, very interesting, but at the same time, it can absolutely ruin a story if you have to disect it for every little thing. For one thing, a novel is not like poetry. I don't think there have been very novels written where ever single word was painstakingly chosen. I'm absolutely certain of this in specific works, like "Frankenstein". Some teachers however, make the biggest deals over every single phrase, that sometimes I think it would be fun to have someone like Mary Shelley come back and tell us that a printer put in the wrong word here or there and see what English professors made of that!!!! And it does happen, different printings of various books I've read do have slightly different phrases here or there. I don't know how it happens, but it does!
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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What I always did was this. Read the book as soon as I got it. I read very quickly, so I can first read the book for pleasure, then read it for analysis purposes.
Posts: 1594 | Registered: Apr 2006
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I usually read my textbooks (or parts from them that I like) before I start the class. Naturally I read anything fiction for class long before it's required (often, in fact, before I find out it's required--embarrassing moment telling my teacher that I could read the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the four hours we had that week when he was trying to make the point that of course we'd all need to make sure to read from it at home; I'd already read it a few times).
Posts: 283 | Registered: Jul 2006
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If you've got a good English teacher, the analysis can be fun. I automatically analyze anything I read now, and I like it better. I feel like I get more out of the book.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I hate English class. I love books, hate English. My teachers always find some way of making any book I like into something horrible and boring and so difficult that I rant about it in a run on sentence. We read 'The Egypt Game' in class. I really like that book, and I've read it at least five times since I found it. I could not wait to finish the book. She gave us worksheets on every single chapter and asked pretty much pointless questions that would have been better to discus with the class rather than put them on a worksheet and require you to write in cursive. Every single kid HATED the worksheets. Once or twice, she would ask a question out loud and we would all talk about it. We liked that, we could explain ourselves right away and not have to wait for the big red X over our answers. The book was completly ruined. I hate English.
Posts: 1164 | Registered: Feb 2006
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