Crosslisting On The Endangered Species List
At my job, I shelve the "classics". In our system, the definition of "classic" is any piece of literature regularly assigned in a junior high, high school, or college English class.
I became surprised at how many of these I hadn't read, even after getting a graduate degree in Literature. I made a list of the ten I'd like to read most some time in the future:
* In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
* Moby Dick by Herman Melville
* The Color Purple by Alice Walker
* Dracula by Bram Stoker
* Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
* The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
* Cane by Jean Toomer
* A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines
* My Antonia by Willa Cather
* War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
I look over this list and see certain trends, of course, in my tastes.
I wondered, then, if I shouldn't read these in a fever-pitched, sweat-browed, all-fired, mother-fuckin' hurry when a friend at work passed this on to me:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1369643,00.html
Under the settling chalk of our memories of our own educations, it might be difficult to remember, but a lot of our current "literature" was singled out because it has fucking teeth and wasn't afraid to bare them.
Imagine generations having never read anything like these books. Imagine generations chewing on their toothless gums from cradle to nursing home bed, flexing their empty fists and waiting to be fed ... whatever is given them.
What is actually possible if we all just lie down?
I became surprised at how many of these I hadn't read, even after getting a graduate degree in Literature. I made a list of the ten I'd like to read most some time in the future:
* In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
* Moby Dick by Herman Melville
* The Color Purple by Alice Walker
* Dracula by Bram Stoker
* Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
* The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
* Cane by Jean Toomer
* A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines
* My Antonia by Willa Cather
* War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
I look over this list and see certain trends, of course, in my tastes.
I wondered, then, if I shouldn't read these in a fever-pitched, sweat-browed, all-fired, mother-fuckin' hurry when a friend at work passed this on to me:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1369643,00.html
Under the settling chalk of our memories of our own educations, it might be difficult to remember, but a lot of our current "literature" was singled out because it has fucking teeth and wasn't afraid to bare them.
Imagine generations having never read anything like these books. Imagine generations chewing on their toothless gums from cradle to nursing home bed, flexing their empty fists and waiting to be fed ... whatever is given them.
What is actually possible if we all just lie down?