Bishop's comments (member since Mar 11, 2008)

Bishop's comments from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die group.

Pynchon is pretty amazing. Not for everyone, but amazing.

Some are good, some are not. When they are good, I really enjoy them.

I am reading an annotated version of War of the Worlds that is absolutely horrible. I am an obsessive footnote/endnote reader and it annoys me when they a) suck and b) contain ridiculously unnecessary spoilers.

For example, in one passage, Wells uses the word "titan" to describe the Martians. I read the footnote expecting to see a discussion of parallels to Greek Mythology or something, but no... Instead, all it says is "giant." Seriously, you had to footnote THAT?!? Ugh....

Kathryn wrote: "...instead of trying to find some seam in my entrails and and widen it...I do that too, when I'm profoundly depressed and I think I'm despicable--I take out others. Not much of a stretch to assume similar conditions underlying your thread. "

Ha!

Right...because why would anyone actually check to see what group they were in before posting? That's crazy talk. Thanks for setting me straight.

Oh yeah, now I AM trying to be a jerk.

(Admittedly, its not that much of a stretch for me.)

YEah, the Delores Claiborne/Gerald's Game duo put me off King for a bit as well.

I would not consider Coelho to be a Nobel-caliber writer. If he won, I'd be very disappointed.

That's just one man's $.02...what do I know?

John Updike is dead.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/books/01...

Charity wrote: "More often than not, they push the dead white guys. I don't think they should stop teaching those books, I just think they could START teaching books written by women, Jews, African Americans, Native Americans, Africans, Asians, South Americans, etc., in addition to the traditional required reading. Mix it up a bit."

I agree. Unfortunately, if your district requires a survey course of literature (which most do), based on canonical texts, there is not a significant pool of minority literature to draw from until later on in the course (Harlem Renaissance, etc), for what should be painfully obvious reasons. There are some great slave narratives that we DO often teach (I like Douglass and Harriet Jacobs), but again, supplies are limited. Native American lit? Extremely limited. Female authors are commonly taught, I think. Not as prevalent as males, to be sure, but present nonetheless (Shelley, Austen, Wharton, Chopin, Dickenson, etc.).

Another issue to deal with is that most curricula do not include coverage of world literature (in any meaningful way). Unfortunate? Sure. I tell all my students to look out for those courses in college.

In the end, the decision is all too often NOT made by the instructor. It is made by the school board, the superintendency, and/or the district. Sadly, teachers have very little influence in those circles. We fight for curriculum changes all the time and lose...

Kate wrote: "If I were teaching Huck Finn in high school, I'd do a whole exploration of the N-word: its etymology, its historical usages, its uses today in hip-hop and rap, the way students use it or don't--as..."

I have taught Huck Finn many times and that's EXACTLY what I do.

Huck should be taught as a representative sample of that time period. Contextualize it. Don't hide from it. Does he even try to explain that part of the originality and genius of this book is the narrative voice (flawed as the world viewed through the lens of a young southern boy is)? By the time students finish reading the novel, if they can't see that Jim is obviously the most noble character in the entire book, then that teacher is doing something wrong. And Lonesome Dove? Seriously? Not even in the same ballpark. Wasn't it Hemingway that is credited with saying something along the lines of: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn." Yeah, let's get rid of important authors like Steinbeck and Twain because we're too f'ing scared to deal with the issues they present. Coward.

Welcome to Pynchonland. My advice is to wait a year, read some criticism on the book and then read it again. New doors will open, I promise.

Uh...I'm not trying to rain on your parade (oh, maybe I am a little), but I think you guys might be in the wrong group. Read the description a bit more carefully.

Matt wrote: "Jesus Christ! It's a secular list! If that isn't apparent then too bad. I'm going to the nearest christian book group and ask them to recommend me some good books about Satan."

Unfortunately, they would have a huge selection of books about Satan that they would LOVE you to read...

Stewart wrote: "I would be interested in the 1,001 books a Christian should read befor..."

Read Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion a thousand times.

"

Ha! So what would be the 1001st?

Isn't the group description pretty clear on this point? I'm not trying to be a jerk, but it's right there in black and white.

There's even a picture of the book and a link to the list. What is it exactly that is not "generally accessible?"

Read Watchers. The Husband was pretty predictable, I thought.

I'd also like to throw Hideaway on the list of creepy ones. Heavy on the religious imagery/allusions/implications/etc., but good. How can you go wrong with an evil serial killer living in an abandoned amusement park? If that's not enough, the little girl is pretty hilarious.

I also seem to remember liking Servants of Twilight, which was also made into an awesomely bad TV movie.

Although, I own them all, I have avoided reading the Odd series simply because it has gotten so much hype that I'm afraid I will hate them...some day, maybe.

Kristi wrote: "I read both Coelho novels on the list, and I didn't like them at all. Everyone else I've met thinks they're awesome, though. "

Coelho = Way, way, way, way overrated. People are dumb. :) Just kidding!!!!


Sorta.

Seeing this thread juxtaposed with the "A Modest Proposal" thread made me throw up in my mouth a little.

I sure would hate to see a "1001 books..." list that has these books on it. I am not now, nor have I ever been a teenage girl, but I don't get it. It's cool that it gives kids something to read; I just hope they move on to bigger and better things.

I'm game. I was home all day yesterday by myself and I watched no TV. It was strange. Good, but strange.

Slayermel wrote: "Now I'm intrigued, I'm gonna have to read it ;op"

Don't get too excited. The idea was better than the execution, although it was nice to see King get back to a good old fashioned horror story. Fun...but not much more.