Maybe we didn't do Gwendolyn Brooks in Black History Month, maybe I just kept getting that one poem in successive reading books. It's short and punchy and by an African-American author so you can feel good about being inclusive, what's not to like if you're an editor.
Heh, I really enjoyed reading the readers through and I knew we were never going to get to even half of it in class, and none of the poetry. Though it did mean I was always bored for the rest of the year in reading class.
Ah, interesting. I did read Great Expectations at around that age (on my own, not for a class... I don't remember reading any novels in middle school in class, only short stories, though we did get To Kill a Mockingbird in 9th grade and started reading novels in class thereafter), but I suspect I didn't understand it really. (I remember reading Pride and Prejudice a year or two earlier -- I must have been in fifth or sixth grade -- and understanding the love story plot perfectly well, but completely not understanding anything about the wit or the societal examination, and being super surprised when I read it again in my 20's and found it was hilarious.)
But don't you still want spoilers for things like Ash (I thought I had remembered something along those lines) or am I totally remembering incorrectly?
But yes, thank you for not inflicting that style of teaching on me :) I think at least one difference for me is that I get enough intrinsic enjoyment from novels (partially because of the predetermined structure) that I'm willing to go along with being confused while I don't understand what's going on, especially if I know it'll pay off in the end. With history I don't necessarily get that intrinsic enjoyment (unless it's a skilled writer, including both of you :P ), and I'm pretty sure it is not going to pay off narratively in the end anyway :PP But also I wonder if it's the context thing again: when I consume fiction, especially SF, I do have a certain context of tropes and shared literary history (so e.g. if you toss me a Biblical or Shakespearean reference, I'll usually dutifully catch it), so it is that I have some context, too.
if we'd assigned you The War of the Spanish Succession in the first month of salon. Then had you read one chapter at a time, and made you come to salon after each chapter prepared to express your opinions about the battle tactics in the chapter you'd just read.
Hee. I'm imagining the AU where I was invested in the War of the Spanish Succession, and came to salon after each installment and capslocked at you guys about WHAT JUST HAPPENED AND WILL THIS SHOW UP IN CANON LATER. (kinda makes me wish I was invested in the War of the Spanish Succession, ngl)
no subject
Heh, I really enjoyed reading the readers through and I knew we were never going to get to even half of it in class, and none of the poetry. Though it did mean I was always bored for the rest of the year in reading class.
Ah, interesting. I did read Great Expectations at around that age (on my own, not for a class... I don't remember reading any novels in middle school in class, only short stories, though we did get To Kill a Mockingbird in 9th grade and started reading novels in class thereafter), but I suspect I didn't understand it really. (I remember reading Pride and Prejudice a year or two earlier -- I must have been in fifth or sixth grade -- and understanding the love story plot perfectly well, but completely not understanding anything about the wit or the societal examination, and being super surprised when I read it again in my 20's and found it was hilarious.)
But don't you still want spoilers for things like Ash (I thought I had remembered something along those lines) or am I totally remembering incorrectly?
But yes, thank you for not inflicting that style of teaching on me :) I think at least one difference for me is that I get enough intrinsic enjoyment from novels (partially because of the predetermined structure) that I'm willing to go along with being confused while I don't understand what's going on, especially if I know it'll pay off in the end. With history I don't necessarily get that intrinsic enjoyment (unless it's a skilled writer, including both of you :P ), and I'm pretty sure it is not going to pay off narratively in the end anyway :PP But also I wonder if it's the context thing again: when I consume fiction, especially SF, I do have a certain context of tropes and shared literary history (so e.g. if you toss me a Biblical or Shakespearean reference, I'll usually dutifully catch it), so it is that I have some context, too.
if we'd assigned you The War of the Spanish Succession in the first month of salon. Then had you read one chapter at a time, and made you come to salon after each chapter prepared to express your opinions about the battle tactics in the chapter you'd just read.
Hee. I'm imagining the AU where I was invested in the War of the Spanish Succession, and came to salon after each installment and capslocked at you guys about WHAT JUST HAPPENED AND WILL THIS SHOW UP IN CANON LATER. (kinda makes me wish I was invested in the War of the Spanish Succession, ngl)