05-08-2016, 12:53 PM | #31 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 11,732
Karma: 128354696
Join Date: May 2009
Location: 26 kly from Sgr A*
Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000
|
Quote:
But Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley transcends english literature. She is a global literary figure and Frankenstein is a transcendent work that focuses on primal elements of human nature as much as the Greek classics. That puts her on a higher plane than english literary figures. Or French, Spanish, or American, for that matter. |
|
05-08-2016, 12:56 PM | #32 | |
eBook Enthusiast
Posts: 85,544
Karma: 93383043
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: UK
Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6
|
Quote:
|
|
Advert | |
|
05-08-2016, 08:20 PM | #33 | |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 73,976
Karma: 128903378
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
Quote:
|
|
05-08-2016, 08:33 PM | #34 |
Wizard
Posts: 2,986
Karma: 18343081
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Sudbury, ON, Canada
Device: PRS-505, PB 902, PRS-T1, PB 623, PB 840, PB 633
|
I was actually shocked when I heard that play. Partly by its extreme violence, and partly by the fact that it wasn't modern. However, when you go back to the various European wars, it's clear that pretty much every conceivable atrocity was acted out at some point in the past. It's a conceit that we think that we're more sophisticated in violence than those "rubes" in the past.
|
05-08-2016, 10:53 PM | #35 | |
Wizard
Posts: 1,759
Karma: 30063305
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Singapore
Device: Boyue
|
Quote:
Fantasy to me is a great way of opening eyes to the fact that the religious texts and stories are as fantastical as the fantasy stories we read. We have comic books and characters today that are revered and have huge followings but in the old days these fantastical figures were in religious texts had powers the people of those periods could understand such as talking to animals, flying or curing illnesses. Now days we have Iron man and Captain America etc. |
|
Advert | |
|
05-09-2016, 07:52 AM | #36 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 27,549
Karma: 193191846
Join Date: Jan 2010
Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD
|
Moderator Notice
The criticism of (or support for) organized religion is a topic that belongs in the P&R forum. That's what it's for. Please move the conversation there if you wish to pursue the topic. |
05-09-2016, 08:25 AM | #37 |
Wizard
Posts: 3,108
Karma: 60231510
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Australia
Device: Kobo Aura H2O, Kindle Oasis, Huwei Ascend Mate 7
|
Have a think about your own family, friends and acquaintances. How many truly love to read? Very few in my own circle. My mother enjoyed reading very much. My father too enjoyed a good book but rarely got the free time. None of my siblings read. I have only two friends who are big readers. Two of my friends who are amongst the brightest and best educated people I know never read for pleasure.
Assuming my experience is fairly typical, we must face the fact that those who read for enjoyment are very much in a minority. OF those who don't read for enjoyment, there is, I think, a large group who who will never be readers. And also a large group who don't read because of their unpleasant experiences at school. I agree with Harry that a good teacher could make a lot of difference, But once again based on my own experience in my dim distant schooldays I don't think there are very many teachers who can inspire a love of reading.with the curricula which is served up. Shakespeare and Chaucer require effort to understand, not only because of the now archaic language but also the background and context. I'm not saying that Shakespeare should not be part of school curricula at all. Just that for far too many children he is as torturous as gym class to the poorly co-ordinated child. And making that Child read and dissect the classics is almost guaranteed to kill any possibility of that Child reading for enjoyment in the future. I think curricula first and foremost should aim to foster a love of reading. I am not a teacher and would not want to be, but too many times I have seen a possible love of reading killed by soulless English curricula. Who knows, if we foster the love of reading we may well see many who come to and enjoy the classics later in life. Last edited by darryl; 05-09-2016 at 08:27 AM. |
05-09-2016, 08:36 AM | #38 |
Bah, humbug!
Posts: 39,073
Karma: 157049943
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA
Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.
|
The anonymous author of that piece states his conclusions as if they were facts but offers no support for them. He could just have easily argued that sippy cups should be banned because they lead to psychopathy in later life.
|
05-09-2016, 10:06 AM | #39 |
Wizard
Posts: 3,979
Karma: 38840460
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Minneapolis
Device: PWSE, Voyage, K3, HDX, KBasic 7 & 8, Nook Glo3, Echos, Nanos
|
Let's not forget MacBeth!! Kindof the most famous. My opinion is to simply let children read what interests them and discuss it. I agree that some things probably shouldn't be read by children. I recall reading Helter Skelter at 16...wish I had waited. In my Dad's time, comic books were melting the minds of children and my grandfather insisted my Dad could not have any comic books. Turns out he had the largest collection in the neighborhood.
Last edited by Tarana; 05-09-2016 at 10:08 AM. |
05-09-2016, 02:31 PM | #40 |
Addict
Posts: 281
Karma: 1593188
Join Date: May 2012
Device: Kindle Keyboard
|
My way in to a life long passion for the written word was through stuff like the Brothers Grimm, all the classic Victorian supernatural fiction by all the writers he totes no less, George MacDonald, Alfred Dunsany, JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. I was blessed with a few adults as a child who saw my passion for the weird and fantastic and feed it. If it was not for these writers I would never have grown up to be an english professor.
|
05-10-2016, 10:20 AM | #41 |
Zealot
Posts: 111
Karma: 7574010
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Canada
Device: Kobo Glo, Kobo Aura H2O Limited Edition
|
My mother never had issues with what I read. In my teens I read Bilbo and Lord of the Rings, Dracula, and Stephen King's and Dean R. Koontz's numerous novels. There was a dark fantasy serie for teenagers that I liked as well. back then called Twilight: Where Darkness Begins, I really wish I could find all the books.
Last edited by Nothingness; 05-10-2016 at 10:28 AM. |
05-10-2016, 01:45 PM | #42 |
Bah, humbug!
Posts: 39,073
Karma: 157049943
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA
Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.
|
Really, what the children see and hear should depend upon the children themselves. When the Nightmare on Elm Street movies were all the rage, I didn't want my then 13 year old fantasy-prone son watching Freddie Krueger movies, but had no problem with my then 8 year old daughter watching them. To her they were just movies. To him, Krueger was someone to obsess over.
|
05-11-2016, 10:43 AM | #43 |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 73,976
Karma: 128903378
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
Kids get exposed to things all the time that some might think are not good for them like news programs on TV where they get exposed to all kinds of violence. If they go to temple/church/etc. they can be exposed to the violence in religious books. There's violence when they are learning history in school. There is violence allover the place that kids get exposed to that's either real or said to be real.
|
05-11-2016, 03:47 PM | #44 |
Guru
Posts: 603
Karma: 12345678
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Canada
Device: none
|
The ironic thing is that the man making these statements will be teaching his elementary students various tales from mythology if he is truly following Stiener.
While not a follower of Stiener, I too read various folk tales and myths to my children (currently D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths) and even the adapted for kids versions contain plenty of material which is sensational and could be discribed as 'dark' (we will be reading about the death of Balder and Loki's punishment next). I don't think I've come across any idea that the Game of Thrones is suitable for children but I really think that if I'm willing to read stories about people being killed, magic being used, god's shapeshifting into various animals and siring/bearing children (the latest being Loki 'mothering' Slepnir) to my children that it would be silly to worry about them reading Harry Potter. |
05-11-2016, 05:37 PM | #45 |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 73,976
Karma: 128903378
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
If I had kids in the school this idiot runs, I'd be complaining big time.
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Little Ghostie (A Halloween Fantasy for Children) | PamelaMary | Self-Promotions by Authors and Publishers | 4 | 10-30-2016 07:46 PM |
Bad OCR... When spellcheck won't help | GrannyGrump | Workshop | 11 | 10-22-2015 08:42 AM |
Bad Fantasy | jgaiser | Reading Recommendations | 41 | 06-28-2013 09:54 AM |
Free Children's Book - Victoria Rose and the Big Bad Noise | stacyj | Self-Promotions by Authors and Publishers | 0 | 07-07-2011 12:46 PM |