Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die discussion
News--I thought this was interesting.
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The books have tremendous educational value, and can not only enlighten the readers on the mindset of different times, but also can open up lines of communication as to why we now know better.




My biggest problem is with his suggestions for replacements. I haven't read his suggested replacements yet (Snow Falling on Cedars; Going After Cacciato; Lonesome Dove) and I'm sure they are great reads (and I hope to get to them soon), but all 3 are by white men. His whole article is about how we have an African American president now and how improper it is to be reading literature that uses the N-word. So, we are going to be able to move forward with books written by white men??? I don't get it. (And from what friends have told me, the books he suggested have some offensive terms for other minority groups and women, so I don't see how that helps matters.)
Why not offer books written by African Americans or featuring strong African American protagonists? James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston...just to name a few...would be much better authors to back up his argument.
What about coming-of-age stories?? Kids relate to those kind of books because the characters are close to their age and thinking/feeling/dealing with similar things.
And I'm sorry, but Lonesome Dove? Again, while I'm sure it is wonderful...if you think that you have a hard time getting to kids to read the few short books they are assigned, push a copy of a 900+ page saga on them and see how well they do. Hell, a lot of kids read the Cliffs Notes versions of their required reading because they are too lazy to read a 100+ page book.
I do believe there should be more variety in the required reading curriculum. 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.


But then this was 1981...back when teenagers were still mostly trusted to be able to think for themselves, I guess.
I keep thinking it's probably a good thing I'm not a parent. My refusal to bubble-ize (enbubble? lol...I call both) my kids' reading would probably get me reported as unfit.
May God continue to save me from other people's knee-jerk reactions.


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.

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...

This isn't a new argument, this is something that has been going on since probably the publication of these books. I guess since we have a new president it gives media the desire to give these people a louder voice.
Everytime someone makes these arguments there are people to make rebuttals. The thing is that there have been parent teacher conferences all over the country in smaller settings where for a particular school district lots of these books have already been banned because someone found them offensive.
So same old argument, just a new way at going about it.
Snow Falling on Cedars is a very good book. It shows point of view of both sides in a form that can reach more people. It's well written love and crime story. I also think that it should be in curriculum.