That's very interesting. Actually, I never read Huck Finn in schools either. They don't make us read Mark Twain, despite his influence on the American novel. For some reason, academia seems interested in forgetting him around here.Abandon4093 said:
My class read Huck Finn and spent a good month or so on Twain, but it was also an AP class. I had already read Tom Sawyer as a kid and I read Huck Finn on my own in 6th grade, though I didn't really catch most of the subtle points or even the more blatant satire.RJ Dalton said:
*eyetwitch*Sean951 said:
Anyone can read him, the whole point of the AP class in question was analyzing arguments and rhetorical analysis. The class also covered Of Mice and Men, Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, and in my case, Fahrenheit 451. There were other books and a play (I remember the setting, but not the name. It was around the time of the Salem With Trials and involved Goodie Adam.), but those were the ones that stood out and worth remembering. IRJ Dalton said:
Were this a game and not a review it would be immersion breaking. Thats the same feeling I get when I downshift from 5th to 1st instead of 5th to 3rd... without the engine damage.Fappy said:
Its funny how Americans assume that if it was required reading for them, it was for everybody. I was only vaguely aware of the existence of the book and only recently learned it was required reading through a joke on Failblog.RJ Dalton said:
That's the thing, though. Gatsby (the book) is about so much more than the shallow extravagance of the 1920s. People often say that Fitzgerald was trying to capture the spirit of the 20s in his book, but he really wasn't. He was writing in the 20s and, as a really freaking good writer writing a story set in modern times, his novel contains a great deal of that 20s lifestyle. There is a backdrop of opulence that is important and interesting to look at, but to say that is the point of the novel and making it the centerpiece of the film is missing the point. There are much more human themes at the center of Gatsby: ideas of imagining other people as you want them to be rather than as they really are, believing that achieving something can change the past and make you happy, the human condition of always needing something more.EnglishBlues said:
Personally, I got as far as "lesbian women can marry a man and have a child" before I got too disgusted to continue. Insisting that the ability to marry someone of the opposite sex is the same as marriage equality seems like entirely missing the point.Ukomba said:
If that was his point, he wasted a LOT of words trying to make it... and then still didn?t make it. No one?s taking away his free speech. Just like no one?s taking away freedom of speech or assembly from the KKK. He, like them, can always hide behind the first amendment. And I?ll gladly stand in front of it and protect it for him, should the situation ever arise.Ukomba said:
Or, perhaps we don't care? It's an American novel made into a movie by an American studio, primarily for an American audience. That said, most classic literature, and this is classic literature, is pretty well known. People might not know how Dracula gets killed, but they tend to know about Mina Harker and van Helsing. They might not know how or why people die in Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet, but they know it happens.imagremlin said:
No, not everybody. Just everybody who matters.imagremlin said:
It doesn't matter what Card says. While his rants are calm and not the mad ravings of a lunatic, though no less laughably pathetic and weak (We're not stopping gay people from marrying! ...someone of the opposite sex! Hrhrhr, I'm so clever and smart), he's still a board member of the National Organization for Marriage, the same one that passed Prop 8 and opposes both civil unions and gay adoption. Actions speak louder than any words, and Orson Scott Card is among those that are actively trying to impede the progress of the LGBT movement. It doesn't matter that he's "pro-heterosexual" more than "anti-homosexual." Changing the label doesn't make me think any higher of him. At the heart of the matter, Card is still an active member of those that are trying to harm what should be natural rights of American citizens.Ukomba said:
Sorry mate, I was originally going to post that remark as a general reply, aimed at Bob actually, then saw your post and went for it. My bad, should have read the whole thread before posting.RJ Dalton said:
I'm curious, when you say you don't care... is it about foreign literature? about the fact that the Great Gatsby isn't so big outside the US? Or the fact that there may be people out there who genuinely never heard of it and would like to see the movie? Just asking clarification, not trying to antagonize.Sean951 said:
