because i'm a hyperlexic i love to read. in fact AS a hyperlexic you could say i'm predisposed to reading. but my English classes were hell for me. not because it was hard for me, rather the opposite. i found most of it base level. it's because of these classes i tend to resent looking for symbolism in any work, written or otherwise. i kind of see it as intellectual BSing cause i would just write whatever came into my head during the essay portions and that seemed to do it.
it also probably doesn't help that most of the books we read seemed to come from Oprah's book club. books we covered were The Color of Water, The Color Purple, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and There Are No Children Here. Basically a bunch of books about the suffering of others (mainly black people and women). Not to diminish anything the authors put into their works but...sheesh, isn't there anything else? as if reading for a class wasn't enough of a chore already this makes it worse.
I've had a few English classes since that have the Oprah's book club reading list and I've resented all of them. My last one we had to read The English Patient, a book I hate with a white hot passion. But it sums up the kind of books I wish classes didn't make kids read: books that use the oppression or suffering of others to manipulate our emotions. we might as well have sat around and watched Lifetime.
my English classes also almost turned me off Ray Bradbury. I remember because we had to read Dandelion Wine in class and that was my first Bradbury book. and let me tell you, I hate analyzing symbolism and the symbolism is so thick in this book you could drizzle it over waffles. I hated Bradbury for the longest time until I read Farenheit 451, which was WAY better. why couldn't we read that in class?
oh yea, and cause my school was so PC we never read Catcher in the Rye. i read it on my own before i graduated and going through that book in a week or two was better than four years of high school English.
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OH GOODIE! - Three Chords in Three Panels
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NEVER NORMAL - Saving the World Between Sketchbooks
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