WOTP: English Reading list (long)
JoanS
"Angel is soooo hot")
I have to read some books for English class, and I want to know what you guys
think would be best for me to read.
English/Western authors
Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights (sounds like a MST3K movie, to me....)
Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness OR Lord Jim
John Milton: Paradise Lost
Dante's Divine Comedy
Virgina Woolf: To the Lighthouse
James Joyce: A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man OR Ulysses
Henry James: Daisy Miller OR The Portrait of a Lady
Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility OR Pride and Prejudice
Thomas Hardy: Tess of the D'Ubervilles
H.G. Wells: The Time Machine
Daniel Defoe: Moll Flanders
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
American Authors
Maya Angelou: I know whay the Caged Bird sings
Arthur Miller: The Death of a Salesman AND The Crucible
Herman Melville: MOby Dick
Henry David Thoreau: Walden AND Civil Disobedience
William Faulkner: The Sound and The Fury
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The House of Seven Gables
Ernest Hemingway: The Sun also Rises OR A Farewell to Arms
Alice Walker: The Color Purple
Toni Morrison: Beloved
O.E. Rolvaag: Giants in the Earth
Joseph Heller: Catch 22
Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar named Desire AND Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
That's the list. Any opinions would be very appritiated.
-Joan(s)
"My parents belonged to the Slippery Slope school of thought. They had no doubt
at all that unless my life was made as miserable as possible, I'd be a junkie
whore by midnight." -Gemma (Smack)
To E-mail me take out the trash.
Jeffrey Johnson
Well, how many of these do you have to choose?
Anyhow, I would highly recommend Heller's 'Catch 22'. 'Paradise Lost' is
a bit difficult but is an intensely beautiful work. As far as 'The
Divine Comedy' goes, Inferno is really great, but I was so bored by
Purgatorio that I don't think I ever got to Paradiso. And it's long.
But if you just had to read Inferno I'd go for it. My personal
inclinations would have you stay *far* away from 'Heart Of Darkness'
(ugh!), and I would say that 'Ulysses' is an incredibly long and difficult
book (though rewarding in the end). I've never read 'Portrait Of The
Artist', and it's supposedly bad form to read 'Ulysses' before that - but
people I know who have read 'Portrait Of The Artist' really enjoyed it.
(But you have to get beyond the first few pages, I guess. I tried once in
high school and quit real fast...)
That's about all I feel confident to comment on.
JSJ1TG, good luck! Enjoy!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Rain - violent torrents of it, rain like fetid water from a God-sized
pot of pasta strained through a sky-wide colander, rain as Noah knew it,
flaying the shuddering trees, whipping the white-capped waters, violating
the sodden firmament, purging purity and filth alike from the land, rain
without mercy, without surcease, incontinent rain, turning to intermittent
showers overnight with partial clearing Tuesday." -David Hirsch, winner
of the Purple Prose award, 18th Annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven Thorpe
> On 19 Jul 1999, JoanS wrote:
> >Help me. You guys seem literary. (well, more literary than the Buffy
> >boards "Angel is soooo hot")
You must have missed our Mammie Van Doren threads. <G>
> Anyhow, I would highly recommend Heller's 'Catch 22'. 'Paradise Lost' is
> a bit difficult but is an intensely beautiful work. As far as 'The
> Divine Comedy' goes, Inferno is really great, but I was so bored by
> Purgatorio that I don't think I ever got to Paradiso. And it's long.
> But if you just had to read Inferno I'd go for it. My personal
> inclinations would have you stay *far* away from 'Heart Of Darkness'
> (ugh!), and I would say that 'Ulysses' is an incredibly long and difficult
> book (though rewarding in the end). I've never read 'Portrait Of The
> Artist', and it's supposedly bad form to read 'Ulysses' before that - but
> people I know who have read 'Portrait Of The Artist' really enjoyed it.
> (But you have to get beyond the first few pages, I guess. I tried once in
> high school and quit real fast...)
>
> That's about all I feel confident to comment on.
My quick picks would be:
Joyce: Portrait of the Artist
Wells: The Time Machine
Tennessee Williams: Streetcar & Cat
I would also include Melville's Moby Dick, but apparently I'm the only
person whoever actually *enjoyed* reading that book. <G>
--thor
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I tell you, Jonathan, that your melancholy is the highest fashion
of the day. The elegant young men of Copenhagen wear black
and speak with bitterness of the world, and the ladies talk of
the grave. --Isak Dinesen, The Deluge at Norderney
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Derek Janssen
>
> I have to read some books for English class, and I want to know what you guys
> think would be best for me to read.
>
> English/Western authors
>
> Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
> Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights (sounds like a MST3K movie, to me....)
If you can stand the good, steamy soap-opera stuff... : )
> H.G. Wells: The Time Machine
Believe me, you can always be grateful when they put Wells sci-fi on the
classics list...Tastes good, and good for you, too!
> Daniel Defoe: Moll Flanders
> Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
>
> American Authors
> Herman Melville: MOby Dick
Never said this before about any book/movie, but:
You could actually watch the 1956 Ray Bradbury-written Gregory Peck
movie version and get about 80-90% of the book experience...Might be
helpful before reading.
> Henry David Thoreau: Walden AND Civil Disobedience
Or, "How to Be A Hippie, One Hundred Years Before the Word Was
Invented"...
> Nathaniel Hawthorne: The House of Seven Gables
Hawthorne will ALWAYS surprise you, first time out--
Sort of a "Washington Irving meets David Lynch" style...
Derek Janssen
dja...@ultranet.com
The Midnight Rambler
JoanS wrote:
> Help me. You guys seem literary. (well, more literary than the Buffy boards
> "Angel is soooo hot")
>
> I have to read some books for English class, and I want to know what you guys
> think would be best for me to read.
>
> English/Western authors
>
> Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
> Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights (sounds like a MST3K movie, to me....)
I like these. (But personally, this is one of those times where you really CAN rent
the film. The '39 [I think] version of 'Heights' with Olivier has made me cry on
occasion. I'm a big wuss.)
> Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness OR Lord Jim
Outstanding, both of them.
> John Milton: Paradise Lost
Feh. I agree with Donald Sutherland in 'Animal House': He was dull, he doesn't
translate well to today's culture, and his jokes were terrible.
> Dante's Divine Comedy
Classic.
> Virgina Woolf: To the Lighthouse
> James Joyce: A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man OR Ulysses
I just can't get into Woolf or Joyce. I like subtlety, but I think these go a bit
overboard. And I'm not much on unraveling Ulysses. (sorry, Norb)
> Henry James: Daisy Miller OR The Portrait of a Lady
I do like these.
> Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility OR Pride and Prejudice
> Thomas Hardy: Tess of the D'Ubervilles
> H.G. Wells: The Time Machine
> Daniel Defoe: Moll Flanders
> Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
Okay, superlatives fail me. I love all of these. These really are deserving of the
canon.
(If I were to start with one, it'd be Austen or Bronte. Easily digestible.)
> American Authors
>
> Maya Angelou: I know whay the Caged Bird sings
> Arthur Miller: The Death of a Salesman AND The Crucible
> Herman Melville: Moby Dick
> Henry David Thoreau: Walden AND Civil Disobedience
> William Faulkner: The Sound and The Fury
> Nathaniel Hawthorne: The House of Seven Gables
> Ernest Hemingway: The Sun also Rises OR A Farewell to Arms
> Alice Walker: The Color Purple
> Toni Morrison: Beloved
> O.E. Rolvaag: Giants in the Earth
> Joseph Heller: Catch 22
> Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar named Desire AND Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Well, these are nice, too. I have my problems with Papa Hemingway (I always thought
he was better at the short story, but that's just me), and Melville can grate, God
knows, but I don't see any outright evil here -- no "Great Gatsby" or "Billy Budd"
or ... you get the point. And I must confess to being a huge Faulkner fan. No
Steinbeck, though. Hmph.
I'd start with the plays, esp. Miller. You can't go wrong with those.
--
Another corrupting influence on our children from
Lonesome Rob Fontenot, The Midnight Rambler
------------------------------------------------
http://home.earthlink.net/~rfontenot
------------------------------------------------
"Trifles make perfection and perfection is no trifle."
-- Michealangelo
Joe Blevins
on your list. This reminds me of the Modern American Literature class I
took in high school. My memories are bittersweet. The teacher always
had us read the plays aloud (with our desks arranged in a semicircle).
In "Death," I got the extremely boring, minor role of Bernard, who is
more of a plot function than a character. Dullsville. But when we read
"Tin Roof," I was Big Daddy and received classwide acclaim for my
triumphant performance... except for this one guy named Randy who sat
next to me and was always picking at the scabs on his forearms. He
preferred Burl Ives' interpretation of the part. Somehow, he just
didn't think I was convincing as the patriarch of a Southern family and
said as much (politely) in a class discussion afterwards. That pretty
much ended my acting career. If I couldn't win over the scab guy, what
chance did I have with the ruthless school newspaper critics?
--Joe--
Norb42
>Help me. You guys seem literary. (well, >more literary than the Buffy boards
"Angel >is soooo hot")
>
>I have to read some books for English >class, and I want to know what you guys
>think would be best for me to read.
Not knowing your tastes, I can't recommend anything with certainty. All I
can do is comment on the books here that I've read, and let you know whether I
liked them. I warn you, I can be a terrible lit snob, the kind who *rereads*
Ulysses. It comes with being an English major, I fear...
>Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights (sounds >like a MST3K movie, to me....)
Not many people seem to like WH, but I do. Sure, the plot is bizarre and
implausible, the characters are mostly unlikable, and there's none of the
red-hot moorland action you see in the movies. But the structure has a
dreamlike, pre-Freudian logic that I really dig (lots of stuff on the
degeneration of family lines and the sins of the fathers et cetera), and many
scenes are incredibly vivid and powerful. I still get creeped out thinking of
the dream (OR IS IT?) near the beginning, in which the narrator is visited at
night by the ghost of young Catherine.
All in all, it's just the sort of novel you expect might be written by a
young woman with an overactive imagination who lived with her dysfunctional
genius siblings in an isolated house in the middle of a cemetary.
>John Milton: Paradise Lost
Every year, the Vassar English department holds an all-night reading of PL in
the college chapel, with drinks and plenty of free apples. Every year, a
certain professor reads the last chapter entirely by herself. Every year, she
weeps at the end. It does that to some people. It does it to me. Others may
wonder what's so great about an incredibly long-winded poem in which the only
interesting character is Satan and no one seems able to figure out who the hero
is. (Is it Lucifer, as Blake famously argued? Is it Christ, and if so, why
does he have almost no screen time? Is it Adam, and if so, why is he such a
dip?)
William Blake and his wife were once discovered reading PL aloud to one
another in their garden, totally nude. I think that's one of the most romantic
anecdotes I've ever heard. But you know me.
>James Joyce: A Portrait of an Artist as a >Young Man OR Ulysses
Okay, I'm the biggest James Joyce groupie since F. Scott Fitzgerald. I
toured the James Joyce Centre in Dublin (twice), I visited Sandymount Strand
and Oliver St. John Gogarty's tower, and I own the *Ulysses* tie-in poster and
t-shirt. (You think I'm joking, but you're so wrong.) So I can't really judge
the J-man objectively.
That said, *Portrait of the Artist* is definitely the easier of the two to
get through, except for the twenty-page hellfire-and-brimstone sermon in the
centre, which many people skim through anyway. (But those are the same kind of
people who skip the discriptions of whaling history in *Moby Dick*. Wusses.)
Still, if you have to choose just one, I much prefer *Ulysses*. If you can
handle the stream-of-consciousness narrative, the shifting perspectives, and
the overall wackiness of style, it's much richer and more interesting. It
helps to get a companion book that explains what's going on in each chapter and
what it all has to do with *The Odyssey*. I made do on a sheet of one-sentence
synopses handed out by my Irish Lit prof. It's really not as difficult as
everyone makes it out to be. *Finnegan's Wake*, on the other hand...
Bobo can tell you all about a critic on a Columbus paper who's been reading
*Ulysses* for over a year and posting regular updates on his progress. Last
time I checked, he was about on Chapter Four.
But you really should read *Portrait* first, because *Ulysses* picks up where
it left off. Without *Portrait*, you can't really appreciate who the secondary
character is or why it matters that he meets up with Leopold Bloom.
Man, sometimes I'm really sorry that I missed the big Bloomsday celebrations
in Dublin on June 18.
>Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility OR >Pride and Prejudice
Oh, Austen's so much fun! The movies always make her books look like stuffy
period dramas, when they're really incredibly wicked satire, like "Clueless".
(I'm not sure if that's a plug or not. But I liked "Clueless".) Austen lived
in a world of "marriage markets" where courtship consisted mainly of financial
dealings and gossip ran rampant because everyone in the eighteenth century was
so incredibly bored. ("Eighteenth-Century Literature: Fueled By Boredom" was
almost the topic of my senior thesis.) Lots of authorial sarcasm and funny
dialogue in between all the hand-wringing over who will propose to who.
>H.G. Wells: The Time Machine
Not bad stuff at all. It's interesting to read Victorian-era scifi and see
where my favourite literary genre came from. I think *War of the Worlds* is
more interesting, but there's plenty in *The Time Machine* to keep anyone
reading. Sadly, however, the book has no quick-changing dressmaker's dummies.
>Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
If there were no Joyce, Swift might be my favourite Irish writer. The
Lilliput section isn't even the best in the novel (my money's on the talking
horses). When I was in Armagh, Northern Ireland, I got to see Swift's own copy
of GT, with his annotations in the margins. I also saw the Land of Lilliput
children's exhibit, which was really creepy.
>Arthur Miller: The Death of a Salesman >AND The Crucible
I haven't read or seen *The Crucible*, but DoaS is wonderful. It's a
heartbreaking portrait of a Dustin Hoffman shattered when he is forced to face
the fact that the philosophies that have shaped his life are flimy delusions.
Needs some catchy tunes, though.
Herman Melville: MOby Dick
I love *Moby Dick*. A lot. I don't think anyone else does, except maybe the
guy who draws *Bone*. What's more, my favourite parts aren't the narrative
about Ahab and the whale, but the endless digressions into the history,
biology, and psychology of the sperm whale, the structure and roots of the
whaling industry, the nature of the ocean, representations of the whale in fine
art, folk art, and literature, and miscellaneous stuff like the description of
the whale skeleton standing bleached on an island. I like a book that you can
finish with the impression that you are now ready to join a whaler and
successfully bring down your first whale.
>Henry David Thoreau: Walden AND Civil >Disobedience
*Civil Disobedience* is short and sweet. *Walden* is... well, nobody should
go through life without reading *Walden*. Hey, even Cartman read it!
>William Faulkner: The Sound and The >Fury
I haven't read TSatF, but I love Faulkner. The man was seriously odd. Odder
than Joyce. Odder than the Brontes. My mother is a fish.
>Ernest Hemingway: The Sun also Rises >OR A Farewell to Arms
Gah! Hemingway is the root of all evil, the source of all my pain, quite
possibly the Beast of Revelations! I read both of these novels and wish to
never allow Papa into my life again! Away, foul Hemingway, away!
Then again, your mileage may vary.
Actually, *A Farewell to Arms* isn't bad (although Vonnegut, in *Timequake*,
provides a scathing analysis of why some people find it so touching). Pulling
myself through TSAR was three weeks of pure hell. I finished *Ulysses* more
quickly than I did this slim ninety-page volume. The characters sit France
around being bored, then decide they need a change and sit around Spain being
bored. The emptiness of their lives is the point of the novel, but it's also
incredibly dull. It's like an episode of "Seinfeld" without jokes.
>Joseph Heller: Catch 22
You'd like this one. I think most ratmmers would. It's funny and satirical
and deeply depressing. Kind of like M*A*S*H* ( the movie, anyway. I haven't
read the book) or *One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest* (the book, anyway. I
haven't seen the movie). Plus it has a character named Major Major Major
Major, who hates being a major so much that he hides out in the woods rather
than give any orders. You can't not like that.
Norb
No Douglas Adams? No Terry Pratchett? For the love of God, no Daniel
Pinkwater? What kind of reading list *is* this?
And meesa will executen wit' grrrrreat vengance upon thosen wit'
furry-us rebuken; an' thosen shall knowen dat meesa be da Lorrrrrd, when
meesa layen minen vengance upon thosen.
Kevin "Professor Bobo" Mowery
Norb42
>> Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
>> Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights (sounds like a MST3K movie, to me....)
>
>CAN rent
>the film. The '39 [I think] version of 'Heights' with Olivier has made me cry
>on
>occasion. I'm a big wuss.)
The problem is that, while the WH movie is indeed great, it doesn't have all
that much to do with the book. I reread it for a class at Trinity this past
year, and everyone familiar with the movies (and popular perception of the
story in general) was surprised that the novel was so brutal, the romance so
sadistic.
Solution? Read the book *and* rent the movie. Or rent the movie first
(that's what Kevin does, as he believes that, since the book is almost always
better and invariably more complex, it should be saved for last).
>> Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness OR Lord Jim
>
>Outstanding, both of them.
I couldn't get into *Lord Jim*. But that's probably just me.
>> John Milton: Paradise Lost
>
>Feh. I agree with Donald Sutherland in 'Animal House': He was dull, he
>doesn't
>translate well to today's culture, and his jokes were terrible.
Man, you and Donald Sutherland are both so high. And you both probably just
say that to score with sorority chicks. :)
>> James Joyce: A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man OR Ulysses
>
>I just can't get into Woolf or Joyce. I like subtlety, but I think these go a
>bit
>overboard. And I'm not much on unraveling Ulysses. (sorry, Norb)
WAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! I want a divorce!
No, wait. Are we married? I can't remember. We'd better get married just
to be sure. And for the sex.
>Well, these are nice, too. I have my problems with Papa Hemingway (I always
>thought
>he was better at the short story, but that's just me),
Definitely. For instance, I love "Hills Like White Elephants". But *The Sun
Also Rises*, which deals with similar characters and similar themes (both
involve ennui which prevents the characters from making a life-altering
decision) makes me hurt. Physically.
> and Melville can
>grate, God
>knows, but I don't see any outright evil here -- no "Great Gatsby" or "Billy
>Budd"
Hey, I liked *The Great Gatsby*! But I agree about *Billy Budd*. How can
*Moby Dick*, which clocks in at over 300 pages in most editions, be easier to
get through than the eighty-page *Billy Budd*? I think English teachers only
assign it because they have a vague idea that their students ought to get some
Melville into their systems, and everything else is too long.
Norb
Yeah, Rob's right. Where's the Steinbeck?
It was like seeing how Mr. Hong must have felt when he opened the Three Jolly
Luck takeaway fish bar on the site of the old fish-god temple on Dagon Street
on the night of the winter solstice under a full moon.
David Ramirez on "The Blair Witch Project"
Tuttle
Anything Orwell would be good. I thought Catch 22 was remarkable. Heart
of Darkness was the basis for Apoc. Now in case you were wondering. For
more English authors, Anthony Burgess is great if you'd care to read A
Clockwork Orange. And who can forget Lolita, the amazing Nabakov novel/
And, if possible, read The Trial by Franz Kafka.
Mike
>"Angel is soooo hot")
>
>I have to read some books for English class, and I want to know what you guys
>think would be best for me to read.
>
>
>Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
>Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights (sounds like a MST3K movie, to me....)
>Dante's Divine Comedy
>Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
>
read any of these! Well, I saw the movies of "The Time Machine" and "Gulliver's
Travels", and heard the Kate Bush song based on "Wuthering Heights"...I'm
digging my grave ever deeper, aren't I? Oh well, here's my "Insufferable
Intellectual" card...I don't suppose I warrant owning it anymore. ;-{)>
> American Authors
>
>Maya Angelou: I know whay the Caged Bird sings
I read this ages ago, but remember little about it. Don't let that stop
you.
>Arthur Miller: The Death of a Salesman AND The Crucible
These were excellent, especially "The Crucible", an allegory of
McCarthyism. I didn't get that when I read it in high school, but I didn't
"get" symbolism until fairly recently, anyway.
>Herman Melville: MOby Dick
Haven't read this, but I have read other Melville. I'd recommend him, but
his themes are very much of their time, and it may be a little hard to relate
to.
>Henry David Thoreau: Walden AND Civil Disobedience
Haven't read "Walden". "Civil Disobedience" highly recommended.
>William Faulkner: The Sound and The Fury
Ick. I've never liked Faulkner. I don't think I've ever related to any of
his characters...the only thing I felt even remote affinity with was "A Rose
For Emily", and that's mainly because it's a takeoff on the style of Edgar
Allan Poe.
>Nathaniel Hawthorne: The House of Seven Gables
Haven't read this one, but I have read some of his stuff, "The Scarlet
Letter" and "Young Goodman Brown" stick out as being particularly excellent. He
didn't shy away from the darker imagery, which is what makes him work for me.
>Ernest Hemingway: The Sun also Rises OR A Farewell to Arms
I've read lots of Hemingway, but never these. He has a spare style that's
easy to read, which comes as a relief after reading really dense stuff like
James Joyce. Probably why he crops up on lists like these all the time, that
and his keen understanding of human nature.
>Alice Walker: The Color Purple
Well, I saw the film...feeling suddenly dumb again.
>Toni Morrison: Beloved
>O.E. Rolvaag: Giants in the Earth
Well, I've heard *of* Toni Morrison, which is more than I can say for
Rolvaag.
>Joseph Heller: Catch 22
"Catch-22 was a movie. It was very long. Originally it was a novel, but I
never finish those things..." (15 points)
>Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar named Desire AND Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Now you're talkin'! I've read these (and "The Glass Menagerie", and
probably others, but I can't remember what offhand). A lot of tortured souls in
Williams' work (gee, wonder why that could have been?), the dramatic thrust is
always strong and profound and easy to relate to, though it can be a bit much
at times. Lots of his plays were made into films...some of which (in
particular, I'm thinking of "Suddenly Last Summer" and "Boom!") look a bit
silly nowadays, but occasionally the filmmakers get it right. The film of "Cat
On A Hot Tin Roof", though sanitized, has very, very strong performances all
round, especially Liz Taylor, one of her best performances this side of "Who's
Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" Which reminds me, why isn't Edward Albee on the
list? Oh, and as for Liz, some of her 70's films could have been on MST.
"Driver's Seat", anyone? ;-{)>
MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")
make GEORYN disappear to reply
"Parece cosa de maligno. Los pianos no estallan por casualidad." --Gabriel
Garcia Marquez
N.P.:"I Am The Tide"- E c h o l y n / S u f f o c a t i n g T h e
B l o o m
Mike
>Artist', and it's supposedly bad form to read 'Ulysses' before that - but
>people I know who have read 'Portrait Of The Artist' really enjoyed it.
>high school and quit real fast...)
They're assigning James Joyce in high school now? I would think that even
his short stories were too dense and complex for high-schoolers to grasp
(especially dense ones like me, who didn't understand symbolism at the time).
MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")
make GEORYN disappear to reply
"Parece cosa de maligno. Los pianos no estallan por casualidad." --Gabriel
Garcia Marquez
N.P.:"Those That Want To Buy"- E c h o l y n / S u f f o c a t i n g
EvilJen
<19990719185959...@ng-fs1.aol.com>...
> Help me. You guys seem literary. (well, more literary than the Buffy
boards
> "Angel is soooo hot")
>
> I have to read some books for English class, and I want to know what you
guys
> think would be best for me to read.
*snip list*
Having read both The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, I would
definitly go for The Sun Also Rises. Farewell to Arms was forced on me in
high school junior year, and I hated it. Every time I hear the words, "Code
Hero", I go into convulsions. I give the EJ "I've read these books more
than 3 times and loved it every time" thumb up to Walden, Catch 22,
Gulliver's Travels, Wuthering Heights and...Tess of the d'Ubervilles.
*hides from jess*. In fact, I own the last 3 and they stand proud in my
antique bookshelf. I read James Joyce's A Portrait of an Artist as a Young
Man...*much* more readable than Ulysses. I couldn't even start to get into
Ulysses.
Also, beyond these lists, for fun reading, I highly recommend any and all
books by Tom Robbins and John Irving. They are my favorite modern American
writers. Also, I suggest for a mind-enlightening time exploring the Beats.
Non-comformity in the decade of Ike.
EJ, ah, the memories of AP English.
--
Your Local Friendly Neighborhood EvilJen
jlh...@theshop.net
Now Open: EJ's Wild Okie Ride
http://www.theshop.net/jcorley/
JoanS
>his short stories were too dense and complex for high-schoolers to grasp
>(especially dense ones like me, who didn't understand symbolism at the time).
You'd be suprised. This is an Advanced Placement class, though....
Last year, we watched Dead Poet's Society and had some discussions about it,
which really rang home when a member of our class committed suicide later that
year.
James LeMosy
wrote in message news:3793CA51...@csulb.edu...
> I would also include Melville's Moby Dick, but apparently I'm the only
> person whoever actually *enjoyed* reading that book. <G>
Well, you and Fone Bone anyway.
--
James "Scotch Magictape" LeMosy
******************************************
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself...
and bees... and hot dogs talkin' their crazy hot
dog language."
******************************************
scotchmagictape.com - http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Cape/5271
The Unofficial Tex Murphy Web Site - http://www.unofficialtexmurphy.com
JoanS
First of all: THANK YOU to all of you who responded. I think this is the most
response I've ever gotten. (What's next? A mention in the FAQ? A place on
Jello's website? I'm takin' RATMM by storm! Or by light wind and a 30% chance
of rain.)
We have to read one of these per semester, in addition to anything our teacher
assigns. (Literature overload! Gah! No, I cannot think of a single theme for
this work!)
As for Rob and Norb, who wanted to know where the Steinbeck was, The Grapes of
Wrath was on the list, but I read four Steinbeck books last year (including
TGoW) and I'm just about Steinbeck'd out.
I also had to read The Good Earth *right before* TGoW, so I couldn't care less
about the land or it's immigrants. (Disclaimer: I really do care about the
environment, and immigrants.)
And I also forgot to mention that we could choose another book if we wanted, as
long as we can justify it to our teacher. ("Is it Ok if I read the adaptation
of 'Star Wars'? Its a classic!)
Oh, and for Bobo, who mentioned One Flew Over the Cuckoos nest, we have to
watch the movie (or read the book, if R rated movies offend us.) and write an
essay about it. If anyone wants to know, here are the topics:
~A microcosm is a miniature world where individual people represent groups of
people in the larger world. Explain how the characters in One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest represent a microcosm of our society. Support your ideas with
examples from the film.
~Consider the following characters: Mr. Turkle, R. McMurphy, Mr. Sefele....
(the list goes on to include more people than a movie should have)
~Consider the following ideas: freedom-control; hope; fear; escape; heroism;
victory; self-sacrifice; and, insanity-sanity.
~Consider the following literary elements: setting, point of view, style, and
form.
that's it.
Heck, why don't all you people *come* to my class with me? It'll be fun. Like
Exoticon, only, not.
Again, THANK YOU, for the responses.
-Joan(s)
Oh, did I forget to mention that we have to read Animal Farm before school
begins, and be prepared to discuss it?
EvilJen
> Ok... this is going to be one of those group replies...
>
> First of all: THANK YOU to all of you who responded. I think this is the
most
> response I've ever gotten. (What's next? A mention in the FAQ? A place on
> Jello's website? I'm takin' RATMM by storm! Or by light wind and a 30%
chance
> of rain.)
Ratmmers come running for the great taste of intellectual conversation and
brilliant wit!
> Again, THANK YOU, for the responses.
> -Joan(s)
> Oh, did I forget to mention that we have to read Animal Farm before
school
> begins, and be prepared to discuss it?
Animal Farm is a great book. I loved it. I would also suggest Aldous
Huxley's Brave New World. Read it first, and then look at the copyright
date. It's scary.
EJ, man, I almost wish I was in this class!
Steven Thorpe a.k.a. thor
> Last time, on "The Crocodile Hunter," Steven Thorpe wrot:
> > I would also include Melville's Moby Dick, but apparently I'm the only
> > person whoever actually *enjoyed* reading that book. <G>
>
> Well, you and Fone Bone anyway.
Did you know that the Fone Bone Action Figure comes with
a tiny copy of MOBY DICK which fits into his backpack?
--thor (It's true!)
bookw...@my-deja.com
mjcr...@aol.comgarbage (JoanS) wrote:
Don't feel bad, Mike. I haven't read most of these either. As for the
ones I have, here are my views...
> Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness OR Lord Jim
I've read Heart of Darkness, and it was pretty good. Not the sort of
thing I'd choose on my own, but I was glad afterwards that I'd read it.
> Dante's Divine Comedy
Love it, love it, *love* it. You'll especially enjoy it if you can find
an edition that explains all the historical allusions.
> Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility OR Pride and Prejudice
I've read and enjoyed Sense and Sensibility.
> Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
Oooo...this is one I *really* want to read, but I haven't gotten to it
yet.
> Arthur Miller: The Death of a Salesman AND The Crucible
Read 'em both. They're both quite good, and you'll get a lot out of
them.
> Herman Melville: MOby Dick
Started to read this one once, but I got busy with other things and
didn't get back to it. I really should one of these days...I *was*
enjoying it. *wry grin*
> O.E. Rolvaag: Giants in the Earth
Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Stay away from this one. Heck, I'm half-Norwegian
and all-Minnesotan, and I couldn't stand it.
--
Sarah "Bookworm" Heiner
bookw...@my-dejanews.com
MSTie #53681
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
susan_...@my-deja.com
Joe, you've won me over, and I never even saw you play the part! You
are way better than Burl Ives in so many ways. The first one that leaps
to mind is you are alive! Wow! There are so many others, but I don't
want to take up too much bandwidth. You are Big Daddy! Not Adam
Sandler!
Susan
Derek Janssen
>
> JoanS <mjcr...@aol.comgarbage> wrote in article
> > -Joan(s)
> > Oh, did I forget to mention that we have to read Animal Farm before
> school
> > begins, and be prepared to discuss it?
>
> Animal Farm is a great book. I loved it.
It's good, old-fashioned Orwellian sarcasm/social satire--
Oh, and they're working on the obligatory big-budget NBC Halmi
miniseries, too (with "Babe"-style talking Snowballs), but probably
won't be out before school starts...
Derek Janssen
dja...@ultranet.com
Rachel Ward
mjcr...@aol.comgarbage (JoanS) wrote:
>Help me. You guys seem literary. (well, more literary than the Buffy boards
>"Angel is soooo hot")
>
>I have to read some books for English class, and I want to know what you guys
>think would be best for me to read.
It depends on what you have to *do* after reading them. Do you have to
write an essay? Or are you supposed to be absorbing Great Literature so
that you can pontificate about it on the AP exam? Or is it for a
discussion?
(Oh, and I have to read almost all of these this summer in preparation for
the "breadth exam.")
> English/Western authors
>
>Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
>Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights (sounds like a MST3K movie, to me....)
I like the Brontes. Good choices for writing essays, too, because you don't
have to read them a bunch of times to absorb them. And, being widely known,
good choices to discuss on the AP exam.
>Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness OR Lord Jim
It's been ages since I read HoD, but I liked it.
>John Milton: Paradise Lost
A great book, but more difficult in some ways to write an essay about.
Plus, if you can't absorb blank verse as well as prose, not a good choice.
>Dante's Divine Comedy
Hm. The big problem here is that the DC is of course translated from
Italian, so you are at the mercy of the translator. Could be great, could
be horrible. It would be hard to write an AP exam essay on it, because it's
not particularly plot-driven..."first, I saw this. then, I saw this." Kind
of hard to remember everything.
>Virgina Woolf: To the Lighthouse
Very cool, very weird. The perspective keeps changing. This is one that
you have to read at least twice to understand.
>James Joyce: A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man OR Ulysses
I defer to Norb.
>Henry James: Daisy Miller OR The Portrait of a Lady
I started reading Portrait and never finished it (I will have to this
summer, though).
>Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility OR Pride and Prejudice
Austen is good for many of the reasons the Brontes are. The role of women
in her books is fascinating, too.
>Thomas Hardy: Tess of the D'Ubervilles
Saw the movie. It dragged something fierce.
>H.G. Wells: The Time Machine
Mmm! (However, may not be the best choice for taking the AP exam. Sadly,
some of the readers may think it's not literary enough.)
>Daniel Defoe: Moll Flanders
My friend Laura loves this.
>Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
Satirical, funny, scary, weird. I especially like the part where the giant
handmaidens balance him on their nipples.
> American Authors
>
>Maya Angelou: I know whay the Caged Bird sings
Angelou writes beautifully.
>Arthur Miller: The Death of a Salesman AND The Crucible
The Crucible is beautiful. I learned more about the Salem witch trials from
this play than from anywhere else.
>Herman Melville: MOby Dick
Loved it when I was in seventh grade.
>Henry David Thoreau: Walden AND Civil Disobedience
>William Faulkner: The Sound and The Fury
>Nathaniel Hawthorne: The House of Seven Gables
>Ernest Hemingway: The Sun also Rises OR A Farewell to Arms
Personally, eh. Especially Hemingway. (I'm not much of an Americanist,
though.)
>Alice Walker: The Color Purple
Well, if you don't mind reading about a rape in the first chapter....
Again, I'm not sure that this would have the broad usefulness you need for
the AP exam.
>Toni Morrison: Beloved
I'm re-reading Beloved at the moment. It's stark and beautiful, and I will
have to read it again to figure it all out. The perspective shifts, the
time shifts, it's very confusing.
>O.E. Rolvaag: Giants in the Earth
>Joseph Heller: Catch 22
Haven't read these.
>Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar named Desire AND Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Streetcar is weirdly painful to me. I feel sorry for Blanche--and I simply
can't decide whether she hallucinated the rape scene or not.
>That's the list. Any opinions would be very appritiated.
Where's the Shakespeare? The Chaucer? The Dickens?
For the AP exam, you will need to be able to *remember* enough about a book
or three to write cogently about it. Shorter books or books with fairly
straightforward plots are therefore ideal. I think I wrote my AP exam essay
on Hamlet.
Rachel
Got a 4, too.
Rachel Ward \ Isolde Budweis / Bodacious Sylph O' Nekkidity
RATMMistress / MiSTie #91289 \ Rainum amo meque amat
Wench #422 \ English Lit, UCD / Assoc Designer, Titanium Art Studios
"A blisful lyf, a paisible and a swete,
Ledden the peples in the former age." Chaucer, "The Former Age."
green...@my-deja.com
>
> Having read both The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, I would
> definitly go for The Sun Also Rises. Farewell to Arms was forced on me
in
> high school junior year, and I hated it. Every time I hear the words,
"Code
> Hero", I go into convulsions.
Funny. I do that just when I hear "Hemingway."
>I give the EJ "I've read these books more
> than 3 times and loved it every time" thumb up to Walden, Catch 22,
> Gulliver's Travels, Wuthering Heights and...Tess of the d'Ubervilles.
> *hides from jess*. In fact, I own the last 3 and they stand proud in
my
> antique bookshelf. I read James Joyce's A Portrait of an Artist as a
Young
> Man...*much* more readable than Ulysses. I couldn't even start to get
into
> Ulysses.
>
> Also, beyond these lists, for fun reading, I highly recommend any and
all
> books by Tom Robbins and John Irving. They are my favorite modern
American
> writers.
I love them both, too. But I think her copies of Robbins and Irving
will automatically incinerate the minute she tries to bring them
through the front doors of the school.
Alicia - do read Tom, though--Still Life with Woodpecker is the *best*.
green...@my-deja.com
mjcr...@aol.comgarbage (JoanS) wrote:
> Help me. You guys seem literary. (well, more literary than the Buffy
boards
> "Angel is soooo hot")
>
> I have to read some books for English class, and I want to know what
you guys
> think would be best for me to read.
>
>
> Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
> Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights (sounds like a MST3K movie, to me....)
Haven't read Lord Jim, but I *loved* Heart of Darkness when I read it
many years ago. I found it totally absorbing. It's one of those books
everyone should read partly because it's so much a part of our cultural
consciousness. I see it referred to all the time.
> Dante's Divine Comedy
Loved it. Rich, imaginative, fantastic, and frightening.
> Virgina Woolf: To the Lighthouse
Enh. Didn't do anything for me.
> James Joyce: A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man OR Ulysses
Both are wonderful, but I recommend Portrait because Ulysses is a
struggle at any age. It's worth the effort it takes to decipher, but
you've got a life, other classes, other books to read. Buy a guide and
read Ulysses next summer. I adore Joyce's style of writing.
> Henry James: Daisy Miller OR The Portrait of a Lady
*choke*
*sputter*
*sign of the cross*
Interesting that he's listed under "English" authors, though.
> Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility OR Pride and Prejudice
I rather like Jane, but I don't find her books particularly memorable.
I read both of these, but they sort of trickled out of my brain as I
read them. But I'd certainly recommend giving them a try. Lots of
people love her.
> Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels
Very, *very* good. Lots of fun and silliness and wisdom in that book.
Lots of good insight into human behavior. Like Heart of Darkness, it's
a book you'll want to read partly because "everyone else has." It's
referred to a lot. (Yahoo.com?)
> American Authors
>
>Arthur Miller: The Death of a Salesman AND The Crucible
Death of a Salesman is great, but I'm afraid I never got around to
reading the Crucible. I would recommend you reading up on 1950's
politics--at least an article or a chapter in a book--before you delve
into the Crucible. I think it will make reading it a much richer
experience.
> Herman Melville: MOby Dick
If Henry James doesn't kill you, Melville will finish the job.
> Henry David Thoreau: Walden AND Civil Disobedience
Anything by Thoreau is marvelous. It's been ages since I've read him,
but I remember loving it. I think I also remember reading him is pretty
slow going.
> William Faulkner: The Sound and The Fury
Pretentious, snotty, and sexist. Loathed every word. A book that
actually nauseated me.
> Nathaniel Hawthorne: The House of Seven Gables
Really liked this one, but I like most of Hawthorne.
> Ernest Hemingway: The Sun also Rises OR A Farewell to Arms
Loathed every--oh, I already used that.
> Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar named Desire AND Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
I liked both of these tremendously. I think it's wonderful the way
Williams manages to portray southern people without resorting to
stereotypes. His plays are marvelous characters studies.
Just for fun, if you have a choice in what you read, I suggest you try
Dune by Frank Herbert. Don't be fooled by the movie. Just ignore its
existence completely and read the book.
I'd also recommend Little, Big by John Crowley. It's a fun book to read
for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is his references to other
works: House of Seven Gables, Alice in Wonderland, Midsummer Night's
Dream, Phantastes (by George MacDonald) the Mother West Wind stories
(and probably dozens of others I'm forgetting) and his use of
philosophy, architecture, and math. I think I've read it at least four
times, and every time I do, I find more fascinating stuff in it.
Alicia
Joe McMahon
JoanS <mjcr...@aol.comgarbage> wrote:
>I have to read some books for English class, and I want to know what you guys
>think would be best for me to read.
If you can find it, get Dorothy Sayers' (yes, Lord Peter Wimsey - THAT Sayers)
translation. Faithfully recreates the terza rima of the original Italian
(well, as well as one can do it in English) with excellent commentary,
analysis, and background. I have only the Inferno and Purgatorio; I believe
that the Paradisio was only partially completed by Sayers, but was filled out
into a complete translation by someone else. I have read them over and over
and still find them as wonderful as ever.
>Herman Melville: MOby Dick
You'll either love this or hate it. Laurie Anderson has done an opera about
Moby Dick (which I was alas unable to see). Moby Dick is a monument to
obsession, both on the author's part and Captain Ahab's,
--- Joe M.
--
"Joel, what are these movies supposed to teach us?"
"We live, we die, and there's a lot of padding in between."
Stephen Cooke
On Tue, 20 Jul 1999, Derek Janssen wrote:
> EvilJen wrote:
> > Animal Farm is a great book. I loved it.
>
> It's good, old-fashioned Orwellian sarcasm/social satire--
> Oh, and they're working on the obligatory big-budget NBC Halmi
> miniseries, too (with "Babe"-style talking Snowballs), but probably
> won't be out before school starts...
With Patrick Stewart as the voice of Napoleon. Stewart, who was working on
an adaptation for TV of Scrooge at the time, was asked how he'd feel about
playing Napoleon. Needless to say, he wasn't thinking of a talking pig.
But of course, he'll be perfect for the part.
swac
o/~"The English Civil War...."o/~ (5 pts for the ref, 20 pts for the
significance)
James LeMosy
news:3793D9AA...@earthlink.net...
> James LeMosy wrote:
> > Last time, on "The Crocodile Hunter," Steven Thorpe wrot:
>
> > > I would also include Melville's Moby Dick, but apparently I'm the only
> > > person whoever actually *enjoyed* reading that book. <G>
> >
> > Well, you and Fone Bone anyway.
>
>
> Did you know that the Fone Bone Action Figure comes with
> a tiny copy of MOBY DICK which fits into his backpack?
>
> --thor (It's true!)
It *is* true. In fact, my Fone Bone action figure, complete with tiny Moby
Dick, is sitting on the shelves up in my room right this very moment! Those
Bone toys are insufferably cute! :)
The Midnight Rambler
Norb42 wrote:
> >> Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre
> >> Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights (sounds like a MST3K movie, to me....)
> >
> >I like these. (But personally, this is one of those times where you really
> >CAN rent
> >the film. The '39 [I think] version of 'Heights' with Olivier has made me cry
> >on
> >occasion. I'm a big wuss.)
>
> The problem is that, while the WH movie is indeed great, it doesn't have all
> that much to do with the book. I reread it for a class at Trinity this past
> year, and everyone familiar with the movies (and popular perception of the
> story in general) was surprised that the novel was so brutal, the romance so
> sadistic.
Ack. Talking out of mine ass again, I see. I confess: it's been a long time since I
read the book.
> Solution? Read the book *and* rent the movie. Or rent the movie first
> (that's what Kevin does, as he believes that, since the book is almost always
> better and invariably more complex, it should be saved for last).
>
> >> Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness OR Lord Jim
> >
> >Outstanding, both of them.
>
> I couldn't get into *Lord Jim*. But that's probably just me.
>
> >> John Milton: Paradise Lost
> >
> >Feh. I agree with Donald Sutherland in 'Animal House': He was dull, he
> >doesn't
> >translate well to today's culture, and his jokes were terrible.
>
> Man, you and Donald Sutherland are both so high. And you both probably just
> say that to score with sorority chicks. :)
Well, Katy's hot. You can't really blame me. Let's all smoke this joint.
> >> James Joyce: A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man OR Ulysses
> >
> >I just can't get into Woolf or Joyce. I like subtlety, but I think these go a
> >bit
> >overboard. And I'm not much on unraveling Ulysses. (sorry, Norb)
>
> WAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! I want a divorce!
> No, wait. Are we married? I can't remember. We'd better get married just
> to be sure. And for the sex.
Well, I don't know. Oh, okay. Just for the sex, though.
> >Well, these are nice, too. I have my problems with Papa Hemingway (I always
> >thought
> >he was better at the short story, but that's just me),
>
> Definitely. For instance, I love "Hills Like White Elephants". But *The Sun
> Also Rises*, which deals with similar characters and similar themes (both
> involve ennui which prevents the characters from making a life-altering
> decision) makes me hurt. Physically.
Oh, yeah. I, as well.
> > and Melville can
> >grate, God
> >knows, but I don't see any outright evil here -- no "Great Gatsby" or "Billy
> >Budd"
>
> Hey, I liked *The Great Gatsby*!
I've come to accept that I'm virtually alone in hating Fitzgerald. Ah, well. Maybe
jess and I can start some sort of English Pariahs Club.
> But I agree about *Billy Budd*. How can
> *Moby Dick*, which clocks in at over 300 pages in most editions, be easier to
> get through than the eighty-page *Billy Budd*? I think English teachers only
> assign it because they have a vague idea that their students ought to get some
> Melville into their systems, and everything else is too long.
Agreed! Of course, my particular college track required me to take one whole
semester of Melville and Hawthorne. (Well, mostly.) Then I had to decide: A
semester of Milton, or one of Chaucer? Guess which I picked. Heh.
> Norb
> Yeah, Rob's right. Where's the Steinbeck?
Yeah! And give Frank his money back!
Eve 008
>> had us read the plays aloud (with our desks arranged in a semicircle
I was Curly in the play version of "Of Mice And Men" and the "Brother With
The Metal Plate In His Head" in "Fences". Bizarre casting considering I'm
female, but who cares because I was goooood!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"That was a well-plotted piece of non-claptrap that never made me want to
retch!"
-Sideshow Bob
Mike
>as
>long as we can justify it to our teacher. ("Is it Ok if I read the adaptation
>of 'Star Wars'? Its a classic!)
In that case, allow me to suggest "Titus Groan" and "Gormenghast" by
Mervyn Peake. Two of my favourite books of all time, two that CHANGED MY LIFE.
;-{)> Theyr're out of print in the States, so comb the used bookstores (they
shouldn't be too hard to find, I got my copy of "Gormenghast" for 50¢ and
"Titus Groan" for free) and/or libraries.
Also recommended "The House Of The Spirits" by Isabel Allende (avoid the
movie, though) and pretty much anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (conversely,
the film based on "Erendira" is excellent, and is on Bravo later this week).
MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")
make GEORYN disappear to reply
"I don't do emotions. I just sing notes." --Wendy Smith
N.P.:"A Y o u n g M a n ' s G a s h" - G a s h
Tuttle
>
> JoanS <mjcr...@aol.comgarbage> wrote in article
> > Help me. You guys seem literary. (well, more literary than the Buffy
> boards
> > "Angel is soooo hot")
> >
> guys
> > think would be best for me to read.
>
>
> Having read both The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, I would
> definitly go for The Sun Also Rises. Farewell to Arms was forced on me in
> high school junior year, and I hated it. Every time I hear the words, "Code
> than 3 times and loved it every time" thumb up to Walden, Catch 22,
> Gulliver's Travels, Wuthering Heights and...Tess of the d'Ubervilles.
> *hides from jess*. In fact, I own the last 3 and they stand proud in my
> Man...*much* more readable than Ulysses. I couldn't even start to get into
> Ulysses.
>
> Also, beyond these lists, for fun reading, I highly recommend any and all
> books by Tom Robbins and John Irving. They are my favorite modern American
> Non-comformity in the decade of Ike.
>
> EJ, ah, the memories of AP English.
If you want to talk about great non-comformist American authors, Thomas
Pynchon and Kurt Vonnegut.
Stephen Cooke
On 21 Jul 1999, Mike wrote:
> >And I also forgot to mention that we could choose another book if we wanted,
> >as
> >long as we can justify it to our teacher. ("Is it Ok if I read the adaptation
> >of 'Star Wars'? Its a classic!)
>
> In that case, allow me to suggest "Titus Groan" and "Gormenghast" by
> Mervyn Peake. Two of my favourite books of all time, two that CHANGED MY LIFE.
> ;-{)> Theyr're out of print in the States, so comb the used bookstores (they
> shouldn't be too hard to find, I got my copy of "Gormenghast" for 50¢ and
> "Titus Groan" for free) and/or libraries.
Great books indeed. I believe it's a trilogy, but my copies are in
storage, so I can't give you the titles at the moment. I just have some
Penguin paperbacks that I found in a used bookstore, but they have the
Peake illustrations. Or some of them at least. If you go looking for these
books, try to find the ones with the illustrations.
BTW, they're making a live action film of Gormenghast as we speak, with
an interesting cast full of British character actors.
While we're on the topic of odd Gothic books, I'll toss in a
recommendation for Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, whose lesbian vampire
novella Carmilla predates Stoker's Dracula (and can usually be found in
anthologies) and whose Uncle Silas is a supremely creepy gothic thriller
(filmed as Dark Angel with Peter O'Toole).
swac
No relation to Silas Stingey
Norb42
>LIFE.
>> ;-{)> Theyr're out of print in the States, so comb the used bookstores (t=
>hey
>> shouldn't be too hard to find, I got my copy of "Gormenghast" for 50=A2 a=
>nd
>> "Titus Groan" for free) and/or libraries.
>
>Great books indeed. I believe it's a trilogy, but my copies are in
>storage, so I can't give you the titles at the moment. I just have some
>Penguin paperbacks that I found in a used bookstore, but they have the
>Peake illustrations. Or some of them at least. If you go looking for these
>books, try to find the ones with the illustrations.
In order, the three books are *Titus Groan*, *Gormenghast*, and *Titus
Alone*. I've never read them, but all the scifi nuts in Ireland and Britain
seemed to recommend them highly.
>BTW, they're making a live action film of Gormenghast as we speak, with
>an interesting cast full of British character actors.
They are? I know Disney held the movie rights for years and never used them.
Now there's a scary thought...
Norb
fond memories of "Disney's The Fountainhead"
Nuveeeeena
(Joe McMahon) writes:
>
>In article <19990719185959...@ng-fs1.aol.com>,
>JoanS <mjcr...@aol.comgarbage> wrote:
>>I have to read some books for English class, and I want to know what you
>guys
>>think would be best for me to read.
>>Dante's Divine Comedy
>If you can find it, get Dorothy Sayers' (yes, Lord Peter Wimsey - THAT
>Sayers)
>translation. Faithfully recreates the terza rima of the original Italian
>(well, as well as one can do it in English) with excellent commentary,
>analysis, and background. I have only the Inferno and Purgatorio; I believe
>that the Paradisio was only partially completed by Sayers, but was filled out
>into a complete translation by someone else. I have read them over and over
>and still find them as wonderful as ever.
>
OH YES!! The Divine Comedy has a beautiful sound in Italian, and while I have
never read Sayer's translation, I HAVE read (feverishly) all her Wimsey stuff.
Wimsey could have been a primordial Tom Servo.
As far as the reading list goes... I'd try to determine which books from the
list have been the subject of a "Wishbone" episode, and select those.
"Wishbone" _is_ the ultimate in Cliff Notes.
---c. bourgeois
Info Club #2724
Derek Janssen
>
> >>I have to read some books for English class, and I want to know what you
> >guys
> >>think would be best for me to read.
>
> list have been the subject of a "Wishbone" episode, and select those.
> "Wishbone" _is_ the ultimate in Cliff Notes.
Only two:
Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
H.G. Wells: The Time Machine
(Although Austen's "Northanger Abbey", Virgil's "Aeneid" and
Shakespeare's "Henry IV" were also added last season, though not on the
poster's reading list...)
Derek Janssen
dja...@ultranet.com
Mike
>Alone*. I've never read them, but all the scifi nuts in Ireland and Britain
>seemed to recommend them highly.
...except "Titus Alone", which is not thought highly of. Not wanting to be
disappointed, I've thus far avoided it. I do, however, have an anthology
containing "Boy In Wilderness", which I have yet to get around to.
>>BTW, they're making a live action film of Gormenghast as we speak, with
>>an interesting cast full of British character actors.
>
> They are? I know Disney held the movie rights for years and never used
>them.
> Now there's a scary thought...
>
Allow me to shudder violently... %-{)>
>Norb
>fond memories of "Disney's The Fountainhead"
Ouch! That wasn't Disney, was it? I tried to watch it once. I failed. It
was just so, so pretentious, especially Patricia Neal's performance; she
delivers evey line as though her life depended on it. Whoever described the
film as "people spouting philosophy to each other" was right on the money.
MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")
make GEORYN disappear to reply
"Siento que debemos saber para el sueño de quién brillará esta luz
o consagrar una propia estrella" --Alberto Felici
N.P.:nothing (watching "Daria")
Norb42
>> In order, the three books are *Titus Groan*, *Gormenghast*, and *Titus
>>Alone*. I've never read them, but all the scifi nuts in Ireland and Britain
>>seemed to recommend them highly.
>
> ...except "Titus Alone", which is not thought highly of. Not wanting to
>be
>disappointed, I've thus far avoided it. I do, however, have an anthology
>containing "Boy In Wilderness", which I have yet to get around to.
Yeah, I've heard that *Titus Alone* is a bit disappointing after the first
two, although most people seem to think it's still worth reading. YMMV.
>> They are? I know Disney held the movie rights for years and never used
>>them.
>> Now there's a scary thought...
>>
> Allow me to shudder violently... %-{)>
Thanks. Here at ratmm, we work overtime to provide the most violent shudders
in the business. But it's true. At one time, at least, Disney wanted to
animate "Titus". No doubt there would have been peppy musical numbers.
>>fond memories of "Disney's The Fountainhead"
>
> Ouch! That wasn't Disney, was it? I tried to watch it once. I failed. It
>was just so, so pretentious, especially Patricia Neal's performance; she
>delivers evey line as though her life depended on it. Whoever described the
>film as "people spouting philosophy to each other" was right on the money.
Heh. No, actually I was referring to a "Disney's The Fountainhead" thread
that went briefly through ratmm a couple years ago. I wrote some music for it.
It was inspiring.
Norb
But the "Fountainhead" movie *is* very bad. Noah?
Matt Mathis
>>Arthur Miller: The Death of a Salesman AND The Crucible
>
> These were excellent, especially "The Crucible", an allegory of
>McCarthyism. I didn't get that when I read it in high school, but I didn't
>"get" symbolism until fairly recently, anyway.
It's good even ignoring the parallel with the '50s happenings...
>>William Faulkner: The Sound and The Fury
>
> Ick. I've never liked Faulkner. I don't think I've ever related to any of
>his characters...the only thing I felt even remote affinity with was "A Rose
>For Emily", and that's mainly because it's a takeoff on the style of Edgar
>Allan Poe.
Only funny. Okay, darkly funny, but funny all the same. "The Sound and the
Fury," on the other hand, is just about impenetrable. An acquaintance of mine,
who was majoring in English I believe, once advised me not to try to read it as
she didn't finish it herself. I tried anyway, and didn't finish it either.
>>Ernest Hemingway: The Sun also Rises OR A Farewell to Arms
>
> I've read lots of Hemingway, but never these. He has a spare style that's
>easy to read, which comes as a relief after reading really dense stuff like
>James Joyce. Probably why he crops up on lists like these all the time, that
>and his keen understanding of human nature.
And his keen understanding of sheer rocklike boredom, and ease of translating
that to the reader. Hemingway annoys me. He's like that drunk uncle at family
gatherings who is always trying to corner you and impart some important life
lesson, but since he's a doddering lush, his teachings just don't inspire the
awe that he treats them with. And he gets angry and rough when you laugh at
his wisdom rather than respect it.
Sorry, had to vent a bit there. ;)
Trademark
(The Hackle Also Rises)
Noah Singman
[respectful snippage]
> Heh. No, actually I was referring to a "Disney's The Fountainhead"
thread
>that went briefly through ratmm a couple years ago. I wrote some music for
>it. It was inspiring.
It was truly a great thread.
>But the "Fountainhead" movie *is* very bad. Noah?
I may not be the most objective reviewer, Norb. :-) Actually,
considering how much I love the novel, and worship Ayn Rand, the movie was
better than I expected.
A fine cast - Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey - all directed by
King Vidor.
Noah
MST#59539
As I said, I'm not the most objective reviewer. :-)
A,A,M&K
<dja...@ultranet.com> wrote:
Really? I would've thought Gulliver's Travels would be perfect for
it...
Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, help! Mykeyboardis't workig1
Joe McMahon
A,A,M&K <pwe...@my-deja.com> wrote:
>On Thu, 22 Jul 1999 00:02:51 -0400, Derek Janssen
><dja...@ultranet.com> wrote:
>
>:Nuveeeeena wrote:
>:>
>:> >>I have to read some books for English class, and I want to know what you
>:> >guys
>:> >>think would be best for me to read.
>:>
>:> As far as the reading list goes... I'd try to determine which books from the
>:> list have been the subject of a "Wishbone" episode, and select those.
>:> "Wishbone" _is_ the ultimate in Cliff Notes.
>:
>:Only two:
>:Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
>:H.G. Wells: The Time Machine
>:
>:(Although Austen's "Northanger Abbey", Virgil's "Aeneid" and
>:Shakespeare's "Henry IV" were also added last season, though not on the
>:poster's reading list...)
>
has anyone else ever noticed Peter Wimsey's charming facility for
terrifically-apropos-but-totally-out-of-context quotations? All
he needs is a couple of robot pals. :)
=== Joe M.
Derek Janssen
>
> >:> As far as the reading list goes... I'd try to determine which books from the
> >:> list have been the subject of a "Wishbone" episode, and select those.
> >:> "Wishbone" _is_ the ultimate in Cliff Notes.
> >:
> >:Only two:
> >:Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
> >:H.G. Wells: The Time Machine
> >:
> >:(Although Austen's "Northanger Abbey", Virgil's "Aeneid" and
> >:Shakespeare's "Henry IV" were also added last season, though not on the
> >:poster's reading list...)
> >
> And pair the Aeneid with Dante for best effect. :)
No, wasn't recommending them, just noting that these were also available
in Wishbone Notes video version, along with "Great Expectations"--
(Homer's "Odyssey", however, sad to say, is perhaps better read in the
original.)
Derek Janssen
dja...@ultranet.com
Judith Jacobs
I wouldn't know. But it might be best of all, since Homer's
"Odyssey" was originally sung, not written down, to "read"
it on Books on Tape.
--Judith, it's Greek to me.
Carl Burke
...
> In that case, allow me to suggest "Titus Groan" and "Gormenghast" by
> ;-{)> Theyr're out of print in the States, so comb the used bookstores (they
> shouldn't be too hard to find, I got my copy of "Gormenghast" for 50¢ and
> "Titus Groan" for free) and/or libraries.
The trilogy may be out of print in individual volumes,
but I picked up an omnibus edition fairly recently
(within the last year or so). Didn't acquire it as
cheaply as you did, but at least I've got it all now.
--
--------------------------------------------------
Carl Burke, cbu...@mitre.org -- le nu ko batci mi kei cu zdile
My opinions are mine and mine alone, unless you
agree with them. Then I'll share.
--------------------------------------------------
"To intelligence... and beyond!" -- Epona Harper
--------------------------------------------------
Norb42
>The trilogy may be out of print in individual volumes,
>but I picked up an omnibus edition fairly recently
>(within the last year or so). Didn't acquire it as
>cheaply as you did, but at least I've got it all now.
>
And even though they may be out of print here, you could probably order them
at a pretty reasonable price from Amazon or some such place. The British
editions are still very much in print. Every bloody bookstore I visited in
Ireland had the new softcovers.
Norb
They also had all those Henry Potter books, but that's a different story.