Books that disappoint Page 4

Quote: Timbo @ August 1 2009, 2:50 PM BST

And when they did give us a decent book, we had to write utter shite about it, "Discuss Oscar Wilde's didactic intent in The Importance of Being Earnest.

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Could have fun with that Wilde question. The worst I got in a high school English exam was a Poetry Section, where the 'poem' was the Beatles' song She's Leaving Home (By John Lennon and Paul McCartney). The question was "What meaning due you think the poem's authors are trying to convey?" I had a field day, pointing out that the question was flawed because it is a song, not a poem. And there was only one author: McCartney, doing his typical Victorian melodramatic schmaltz; Lennon hated the song. After explaining Northern Songs' shared credits for the Beatles' frontmen, I ranted about how even a retarded spaniel could understand McCartney's simplistic lyrics, which should be seen within the context of the Sgt Pepper album as a whole. I concluded by writing that the teacher who set the poetry section of the exam was a stupid halfwit for not presenting students with a poem. Remarkably I was still given a mark of 15%.

Quote: Griff @ August 1 2009, 2:56 PM BST

I don't know about that. Maybe teaching literary theory should be banned. But introducing kids to books they otherwise wouldn't go near is a good thing. We can all argue about which books should be taught. But some books that I would never have read if it wasn't for school - and which I'm glad I did read - include Lord Of The Flies, 1984 and Shakespeare's plays.

Otherwise we might just as well give kids McDonalds and MTV all day to avoid the risk of them possibly not enjoying themselves for five minutes.

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Don't know about that, I think school does more to turn kids off of books than to turn them on to them. The important thing is to get kids reading books, pretty much any books, and then let them make discoveries for themselves. Problem is that even if people do read books, they tend to hear the word, 'literature', think back to school, shudder and decide it is not for them.

Quote: Tim Walker @ August 1 2009, 2:56 PM BST

...was the actual quote, I think you'll find.

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Ha, shooting is to good for them.

Gah! I hate it when people don't read my posts - I praised the Harry Potter books for getting kids to read again on another thread.

Quote: Timbo @ August 1 2009, 2:50 PM BST

The teaching of literature in schools should be banned.

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We might as well just bloody kill ourselves now.

I think the Harry Potter books have really helped kids get into reading, why it's been left to me to point this out is a mystery.

Quote: Kenneth @ August 1 2009, 2:42 PM BST

The Turn of the Screw was tedious.

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Oh bugger, I hope not. I was just about to start reading that.

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ August 1 2009, 2:57 PM BST

But then theere'd be no enjoyable lessons.

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I may have been biased by having English Lit teachers whom I loathed (and who loathed me). One was incapable of hiding his sneering contempt for the comprehensive school kids whom he was obliged to teach; the other, who happened to be his aunt, was a failed actress, whose lessons were mainly about, well, her. I think it is fair to say they had a problem with my attitude (though my ability to piss these two off rather endeared me to the rest of the teaching staff.)

Quote: Griff @ August 1 2009, 3:12 PM BST

Isn't that like saying if we just give kids crisps and pop all day, they'll discover salad and vegetables of their own accord?

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Well, the Jamie Oliver approach of forcing good food down their throats does not seem to be working either.

Les Miserables. Lives up to its name. Blech!

My favourite English teacher was (in some respects) completely loopy, but she was also the person who encouraged me to write my own stuff. She was incredibly enthusiastic and her lessons were a joy, they made school worth going to. When I left after A levels (she threw a brilliant party at her house for all of us), she said that she looked forward to reading my first novel. Unfortunately, she died of cancer a year later. (Jesus, that's brought the mood down...)

Quote: Griff @ August 1 2009, 3:18 PM BST

I have no problem with kids reading Harry Potter even though it looks like awful shite.

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Read the first one; it was. But I think we all agree that the success of the books is a good thing.

Quote: Griff @ August 1 2009, 3:23 PM BST

Good point well made. I have visions of red-faced chav mothers passing Nuts and Zoo magazine to their kids through the school railings.

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English was my favourite subject. Even though one of my teachers drew her eyebrows on and looked like a lifesize porcelain doll, and constantly said really embarrassing things to me.

My last English teacher was a young Cambridge graduate whom we liked to make uncomfortable by being incrediably nice. The poor bloke. I've seen him on a video extolling the virtues of my old school as somewhere nerds can come to study without ther threat of violence.

Literature should be taught at schools and the move to stop teaching complete Shakespeare plays is tragic.

I just don't think literature has to mean; dull, long and written by a dead person.

Plus my A level course permitted us to choose 25% of our books provided we could justify them, which worked well.

People forget how sharp and funny Shakespeare can be, where as Henry James is just senseless tree murder. Boring f**ker cost me an A grade I may shit on his grave.

Didn't work so well at GCSE I pity the poor examiner who had to read 100 course work disertations on Jmaes Herbert's the Rats.

All focussing on the bit with the shagging and the bit where the baby got eaten.

But the A level one was cool it was the bulk of the course work and you actually had to writer a proper disertation on one author's works.

I some times wander what my life would have been like if I'd followed onto an English degree.

I once one a school prize for a story about a paedophile killing himself in prison.
Trufax.