The dot "."
It has ended more sentences than anything else.
I see a lot of people, especially people around my age, talking about how lit classes in high school "ruined" reading for them. This is a sentiment I empathize with, since I didn't read for pleasure for a while after I left high school. I'd definitely learned to associate reading with required work rather than pleasure.
However, where I stop short is with the idea that middle and high school literature classes should be about just letting you read books that you like, or helping you find books that you like. "Literature" is an unfathomably vast array of works that spans just about every culture on earth. If you only ever stick to books that you like right away, you'll end up with a very limited view of literature, and of the world.
Now, I know that plenty of lit classes don't live up to the diversity of literature as a whole. However, I still think that there's good value in the "classics", as they're called. Reading complex literature (and no, most YA is not complex) and learning to analyze media through a critical lens is one of the most important skills a human being can have, especially nowadays when we're more personally responsible than ever for filtering the information we receive.
I think reading for fun is a wonderful thing, and I'd never judge someone for liking a book, provided it wasn't written by Ayn Rand, but literature classes are there to teach you something, to help you develop critical thinking skills. And odds are, the books that you like as a middle/high schooler aren't going to be books that can teach you those.
Most average Germans supported the Holocaust—or, at least, looked away from it and ignored the horrors happening to Jews around them. Most white Americans disapproved of MLK and believed he was a race-baiting malcontent sowing division. In the 1940s, two thirds of white Americans supported segregated schools.
Everyone likes to think they’re exceptional, but in reality the simple odds are you’d be in the majority—especially if, today, you’re in the large group of Americans who think disadvantaged minorities complain to much and white straight males are the real victims. (A view shared by the Nazis and segregationists, incidentally.)
Everyone needs to examine what horrific beliefs they have now that will be looked back on with shame in 50 years.
Yes, I'm Canterburied.
I love reading, but I don't get why i should care about some "deeper meaning" in books or give a frick about what genres of literature there are.It won't help me at all.At least with math i can at least see how it can be useful.It wouldn't bother me if literature was on the same level as art or music class.But to have it have the same importance (or more) as physics for example,that's just bullcrap.
Also (something i didn't think of until i posted this) how do good characters contribute to the strength of a novel? Ihave to say some of my favourites maybe the best from some of my favourite novels would be:
The brothers karamazov by dostoevsky has alot of characters competing for my favourites of all time - ivan, alyosha karamazov and smerdyakov. I find smerdyakov the creepiest fucking character i've ever experienced with his uhhh.... evil antics (religious convos and his torturing dogs) ivan i can relate to with his intense and futile search for meaning and psychosis (i've also experienced psychosis) and alyosha is just a great guy with his sermon at ilusha's funeral and his love for everyone. Then raskolnikov in crime and punishment.
The sound and the fury by william faulkner has 2 or 3 of my fav characters, the best 2 being quentin and jason compson, quentin because i relate to his thought patterns a ton and jason because no book has made me hate their protagonist as much as i hate him with the exception of smerdyakov from above. Goes to show good characters aren't always good people. then maybe caddy too, it made me so happy she ended with lil quentin and they escaped from jason. Also anse from as i lay dying and how subtly manipulative and lazy he is. Maybe addie bundren and whitfield too because he's hilarious.
Too probably mr ramsay mrs ramsay and lily briscoe in to the lighthouse by virginia woolf. Mr ramsay (and i can't remember a book depicting this except to the lighthouse) demands emotional support from mrs ramsay (who always gives it to him) because of his desire to be remembered after his life, and lily briscoe for reasons i can't really name. Stoked to read more woolf.
Captain ahab from moby dick by herman melville, mostly for his attitude and his unwavering committment to catching moby dick and also the scene where he dips his harpoon in blood and baptizes it in the name of the devil as the mast is burning on the ship.
And for the last author i'll talk about is f scott fitzgerald. Gatsby and also daisy. Daisy buchanan knows so much more than she ever lets on throughout the great gatsby (see the quote where she says the best thing a girl of that era could be is a beautiful little fool or something like that) and gatsby is the poor sucker who just believes he can repeat the past and come on, who hasn't ever wanted to do that, you know? Also from tender is the night, the characters dick and nicole diver are just as good, and dick's do
... keep reading on reddit ➡
edit:thanks for the recomendations.I will make sure to check every single one of them out.
Depression
Edit: it has come to my attention that the great depression is in the 1930’s. My bad.
This is a question that has been on my mind lately and I thought I’d put the question to r/truegaming!
There are certain classics in literature that all (American) students have to read at some point in school: Romeo and Juliet, How to Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm, and so on.
Imagine it's 2050 and you are designing a unit or course for high school students (or younger grades if you prefer) called Classic Video Games as Literature.
You have been asked to include historical and/or culturally significant video games for students to academically analyze and discuss, as they would with classic novels.
Which video game titles would you choose from the past for this purpose and why?
No time range limit. You could talk about the very first video game if you want to. You might explain how a game reflected a country's zeitgeist of the time, certain cultural values of a society, how it portrayed a historical event, why a certain game's plot makes it a timeless classic, etc.
For me Okami will be a forever classic thanks to its portrayal of Japanese art and folklore. It opens a window directly into the mythology of another culture!
Edit: I’m happy folks like the question! If you also liked my recent front page posts about female support players and player agency in character customization, I would humbly recommend visiting my small but growing archive of video game culture posts based on my academic research in college. Cheers!
We’ve all seen the data about how hard it is for English PhDs to get TT/professorial jobs, so I’m curious to know what those with a PhD in literature have moved into. Maybe it’ll help those who are soon to graduate or who are considering entering a program.
For example, a colleague of mine had a PhD in women’s literature and ended up becoming the director of a women’s center at a US university. Still in higher ed, I suppose, but not as a professor.
