My decision not to study English literature beyond GCSE leveled a wise one; I had just started reading more widely and couldn't have coped with being forced to read and dissemble the 'classics'. It clearly gets worse the further along the academic route one goes; a near miss indeed! I am keen to get back to the travels and anecdotes; Geoff's procrastination clearly includes mental wanderings!
I would burn the Canterbury Tales. Did it in third year and thought I'd really enjoy it but it left me cold. The reading outloud in seminars having never read it before. I did chuckle at Dullford and digging the graves of literature.
For me, the part on reading Lawrence's letters was what struck me most in this section, reminding me how easily and thoroughly we have allowed that art to slip away. Not only that reading letters provides insight into the interior life of the subject we're interested in, as it does here; but regular letter-writing must have been such a useful practice, whether the letter-writer realised it or not (I didn't at the time!) - a space to relive, relish and reflect in the tranquility of your own mind. Not to mention the deepening of the relationship between correspondents. I am romanticising, of course, but something significant seems lost. You could hypothetically have an email correspondence of equal depth, but I'm not sure if anyone does.
The Boy in Striped Pajamas, on behalf of every Y6 that has to 'do' it as part of WW2. One of the two books I have wanted to hurl across the room screaming, 'This is sh*t!'
Well had to kick start my reading after this email as had forgotten. So much to chew over especially for me the freshness of writing rather than writing from notes. No obvious books to burn though maybe my German grammar book in gothic font that killed a foreign language for me. Thankfully my lovely tutors on mA as mature student erased the memories of pontificating A Level teachers and their red biro and set me free to enjoy literature and writing. Read the Snake yep could be edited but it is what it is someone rambling his thoughts around a subject.
I loved that part where he rants against literary criticism. I studied lit in college and I didn’t have the confidence to question it - I just thought I had to learn it and that I wasn’t smart enough to understand it. I remember one time after a professor did what amounted to a performance of analysis on a passage in Anna Karinina, one student asked if authors planted all these puzzles in their work for other people to decode. I think people laughed at the question as being naive, but it was refreshing. If only I had had the courage to say “this is BS!”
My decision not to study English literature beyond GCSE leveled a wise one; I had just started reading more widely and couldn't have coped with being forced to read and dissemble the 'classics'. It clearly gets worse the further along the academic route one goes; a near miss indeed! I am keen to get back to the travels and anecdotes; Geoff's procrastination clearly includes mental wanderings!
Those Norton anthologies. I saw one in a thrift store recently and had flashbacks!
The Norton anthologies!
I would burn the Canterbury Tales. Did it in third year and thought I'd really enjoy it but it left me cold. The reading outloud in seminars having never read it before. I did chuckle at Dullford and digging the graves of literature.
For me, the part on reading Lawrence's letters was what struck me most in this section, reminding me how easily and thoroughly we have allowed that art to slip away. Not only that reading letters provides insight into the interior life of the subject we're interested in, as it does here; but regular letter-writing must have been such a useful practice, whether the letter-writer realised it or not (I didn't at the time!) - a space to relive, relish and reflect in the tranquility of your own mind. Not to mention the deepening of the relationship between correspondents. I am romanticising, of course, but something significant seems lost. You could hypothetically have an email correspondence of equal depth, but I'm not sure if anyone does.
The Boy in Striped Pajamas, on behalf of every Y6 that has to 'do' it as part of WW2. One of the two books I have wanted to hurl across the room screaming, 'This is sh*t!'
Well had to kick start my reading after this email as had forgotten. So much to chew over especially for me the freshness of writing rather than writing from notes. No obvious books to burn though maybe my German grammar book in gothic font that killed a foreign language for me. Thankfully my lovely tutors on mA as mature student erased the memories of pontificating A Level teachers and their red biro and set me free to enjoy literature and writing. Read the Snake yep could be edited but it is what it is someone rambling his thoughts around a subject.
Definitely would burn “Le Morte d’arthur”, the horror of being in the tutorial with nothing to say! Still can feel the shame in my body.
I loved that part where he rants against literary criticism. I studied lit in college and I didn’t have the confidence to question it - I just thought I had to learn it and that I wasn’t smart enough to understand it. I remember one time after a professor did what amounted to a performance of analysis on a passage in Anna Karinina, one student asked if authors planted all these puzzles in their work for other people to decode. I think people laughed at the question as being naive, but it was refreshing. If only I had had the courage to say “this is BS!”