I'm almost wondering if it's come off the standard curriculum, possibly having been replaced by The Outsiders now...? (I was alright with the entirety of the plot being 'a week of teenage existential flailing' myself. *g*)
No idea, didn't do that one either, may just be non-standard education on my part. We didn't do many American authors iirc and no Canadians until 6th Form.
Ah, that's going to be a big difference right there, as a big ol' helping of Canadiana was pretty much mandatory up here all the way through. Your Canadian author... I'm guessing Atwood? *g*
Catcher in the Rye....bah. Stupid, pathetic character whom I just hated from word one. Self-indulgent little asshole. God, I wanna take Holden Caufield and smack him upside his arrogant, self-absorbed head.
I read Catcher in the Rye in high-school, but I get the impression that it was the choice of my English teacher for us to read it because other people from my high-school didn't read it. Plus, she was overly gleeful about all of the symbolism (she spent almost a whole class talking about James Castle, writing his initials on the chalkboard and saying, "don't you see what he was up to here?"). In light of this instruction, I can't help but appreciate it.
Just as a point of reference, based on the comments here, I read Outsiders much earlier in my school career (grade eight I think). I absolutely hated it. I wrote a scathing book report of it because at the time I saw it as glorifying the people I really disliked at school and wished would go away, and I still personally have a strong dislike for it although I see that it has its place.
Hee! I mentioned to someone while I was reading it that I almost would've liked to study this one properly, just because I knew there was a lot of symbolism and nifty bits that were going right over my head. Reminds me of Stephen King's little preamble to The Green Mile: "Yes, John Coffey's initials are 'J.C.' It's not rocket science, people."
Yeah, we did The Outsiders in grade eight as well... It just seemed like the closest thing to Catcher that we had read in terms of genre. (If 'teenage existential flailing' can be called a genre. For which I cast a hearty vote of "Yes!" *g*) Iiiiinteresting reaction! I loved the hell out of it and have read it a couple times since then because, for me anyway, I found it humanized the type of people I tended to be afraid of. But I can definitely see where you were coming from with that too!
Yeah, I was really glad to have had the teacher I did. A total English geek herself, she really got me into a book I would have otherwise totally ignored.
The symbolism! Holden Caulfield? HOLD-IN Caul(?) FIELD??? THE CATCHER IN THE RYE??! That was a great class. As a side note, this teacher only really had this effect on me for books. She didn't really sell me on Shakespeare (that came later).
I hated the Outsiders, at least in part, because the horrible kids (boys and girls, mind you) took it as license to just keep smoking outside the school or whatever, and I didn't think their life needed any glorifying. I see the point now, but I still don't like the book. Plus, I blame it for my middle sister's inexplicable Ponyboy-chaser tendencies (it turned out to be her favorite book, at least). Too bad she always ends up with Dally instead.
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Just as a point of reference, based on the comments here, I read Outsiders much earlier in my school career (grade eight I think). I absolutely hated it. I wrote a scathing book report of it because at the time I saw it as glorifying the people I really disliked at school and wished would go away, and I still personally have a strong dislike for it although I see that it has its place.
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Yeah, we did The Outsiders in grade eight as well... It just seemed like the closest thing to Catcher that we had read in terms of genre. (If 'teenage existential flailing' can be called a genre. For which I cast a hearty vote of "Yes!" *g*) Iiiiinteresting reaction! I loved the hell out of it and have read it a couple times since then because, for me anyway, I found it humanized the type of people I tended to be afraid of. But I can definitely see where you were coming from with that too!
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The symbolism! Holden Caulfield? HOLD-IN Caul(?) FIELD??? THE CATCHER IN THE RYE??! That was a great class. As a side note, this teacher only really had this effect on me for books. She didn't really sell me on Shakespeare (that came later).
I hated the Outsiders, at least in part, because the horrible kids (boys and girls, mind you) took it as license to just keep smoking outside the school or whatever, and I didn't think their life needed any glorifying. I see the point now, but I still don't like the book. Plus, I blame it for my middle sister's inexplicable Ponyboy-chaser tendencies (it turned out to be her favorite book, at least). Too bad she always ends up with Dally instead.
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*still baffled that Nano is less than two months away* My third Nano!!
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Eeeeee! *is certainly not lurking around the forums already* Sadly, that's going to be about the most consistent writing I've done this year. Argh.
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