Marjorie Writes a Book on Love

[Maggie Mae]

The only "romance" novels I enjoyed were written by VC Andrews and generally the romance was between siblings. (What on earth was wrong with "her" and me, for that matter?) 

As for school books, I LOVED almost everything we read that I remember. I wasn't a huge fan of The Crucible, I wanted to like it a lot more than I did. I think I wanted more witches and supernatural stuff, and less witch huntings and burnings. I really enjoyed Brave New World, which we read my freshman year, along with Animal Farm, 1984, and The Odyssey. We also read selections from other things. That teacher, who was very young, did not return to our school one day in the spring. The last few weeks we had a sub.  

We also read Hamlet (twice) MacBeth (3-4 times, also in college, UGH), Wuthering Heights (sophomore year, same year as Crucible, I believe) It was terrible. That might be the worst book ever written. Also The Great Gatsby was terrible and I had to read it again in college. And then the movie came out and everyone was all about Gatsby. YUCK. WHY. 

Junior year was british lit only, starting with I think Beowulf (again), and moving into the Canterbury Tales, some Jane Austin, some Les Mis (I remember watching the movie in class). Our final was to pick a book of a list of modern European fiction and present something about it. I choose Trainspotting and it was a terribly choice because it's written in dialect. We also watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail in that class and I was SO annoyed at my classmates for being so childish and stupid about the rabbit of Caerbannog. 

The second half of my senior year we read Hamlet again and watched movies. Movies included were Bowfinger, Chinatown, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Casablanca, North by Northwest, One of the old James Bond films, and Seven Samurai.  Oh, and Citizen Kane. 

[morri]

Harry Potter were the first books that I read in English when I was a teenager.

[Fundie Bunny]

6 hours ago, Maggie Mae said:

 

Junior year was british lit only, starting with I think Beowulf (again), and moving into the Canterbury Tales, some Jane Austin, some Les Mis (I remember watching the movie in class).

When did Victor Hugo became btitish? 

(I assume you meant general european literature)

[Maggie Mae]

7 hours ago, Fundie Bunny said:

When did Victor Hugo became btitish? 

(I assume you meant general european literature)

It was supposed to be British Lit,  and sophomore year was supposed to be American lit. That's the course listed on my report card.

I don't know if freshman year had a school wide theme,  but my guess is that that particular teacher had a theme of dystopia.

Junior year also had us read a Tale of Two Cities so maybe Les Mis was just a companion to reinforce our knowledge of fictional versions of the French Revolution? I think that particular teacher studied in France and was really into French culture. 

I changed schools my senior year,  and the curriculum wasn't quite as rigorous. 

[CreationMuseumSeasonPass]

The book that sticks in my memory like a thorn in my side is Love in the Time of Cholera. I had to read that for my lit class freshman year of college. Oh god, it was so painful. I hated every minute of it. I just wanted to throw the book against the wall and slap the shit out of the main characters. On the brighter side, I remember being in Brit lit in high school and getting a list of books to read to create individual projects over. I chose The Scarlet Pimpernel. Then, I made a board game out of it for the entire class to play during my presentation. Fun times!

[2manyKidzzz]

33 minutes ago, CreationMuseumSeasonPass said:

The book that sticks in my memory like a thorn in my side is Love in the Time of Cholera. I had to read that for my lit class freshman year of college. Oh god, it was so painful. I hated every minute of it. I just wanted to throw the book against the wall and slap the shit out of the main characters. On the brighter side, I remember being in Brit lit in high school and getting a list of books to read to create individual projects over. I chose The Scarlet Pimpernel. Then, I made a board game out of it for the entire class to play during my presentation. Fun times!

I loved The Scarlet Pimpernel. I think it was also a movie, or a TeeVee show maybe. Loved that. 

[CreationMuseumSeasonPass]

1 minute ago, 2manyKidzzz said:

I loved The Scarlet Pimpernel. I think it was also a movie, or a TeeVee show maybe. Loved that. 

Google informed me there was a 1982 TV movie with Jane Seymour, Anthony Andrews and Sir Ian McKellen

[2manyKidzzz]

1 minute ago, CreationMuseumSeasonPass said:

Google informed me there was a 1982 TV movie with Jane Seymour, Anthony Andrews and Sir Ian McKellen

Thank you!! I thought it was older than that, but I did love the story. I am a mystery reader and that was a great story. I remember the cape. 

[CreationMuseumSeasonPass]

I totally agree @2manyKidzzz! I remember thinking that I chose the book at random, and was so happy because I fell in love with it. Much better than when I chose Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" when I was in 10th grade. God, that was depressing.

[EmCatlyn]

23 minutes ago, 2manyKidzzz said:

Thank you!! I thought it was older than that, but I did love the story. I am a mystery reader and that was a great story. I remember the cape. 

There was a famous 1930s movie of The Scarlet Pimpernel with Leslie Howard in the title role.

There have been other versions.  I have a vague memory that there was a silent version.  

[Audrey2]

I'm an avid reader, so enjoyed most of my high school and book club reading. The two books I loathe were Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, which I had to read for Academic Decathlon in high school, and Orlando, which I had to read for a book club. In both cases, I read every word and retained very little.

[PennySycamore]

@EmCatlyn, the 1930s version was not silent although there may have been a silent version.  I've seen both the classic Leslie Howard version and the TV adaptation with Anthony Andrews.  

Leslie Howard also starred in Pimpernel Smith which was an adaptation of the story set in WWII.  The film inspired Raoul Wallenberg to rescue Hungarian Jews.  Raoul is counted as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. 

Pimpernel Smith

 

[EmCatlyn]

54 minutes ago, PennySycamore said:

@EmCatlyn, the 1930s version was not silent although there may have been a silent version.  I've seen both the classic Leslie Howard version and the TV adaptation with Anthony Andrews.  

Leslie Howard also starred in Pimpernel Smith which was an adaptation of the story set in WWII.  The film inspired Raoul Wallenberg to rescue Hungarian Jews.  Raoul is counted as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. 

Pimpernel Smith

 

Sorry, you misunderstood. I didn't say the Leslie Howard film was silent.  I said that I thought there was another version (earlier, obviously) that had been silent.

 

6 hours ago, EmCatlyn said:

There was a famous 1930s movie of The Scarlet Pimpernel with Leslie Howard in the title role.

There have been other versions.  I have a vague memory that there was a silent version.  

I have seen the Leslie Howard Scarlet Pimpernel, but very long ago, when I was a kid.  I don't remember much about it.  I saw most of the TV version (it had started when I tuned in) but like the book version better.  I had not known about Pimpernel Smith.  Thanks for the link.

 

[anotherone]

On 5/25/2016 at 4:26 AM, Avalondaughter said:

Meh.  You didn't miss much.  I read it as an adult (I am old enough to be an adullt when it was published).  If you read it as an adult and have read fantasy your whole life, you realize HP is boring and formulaic.  It repeats a hundred fanstasy/fairy tale cliches and is populated by one-dimensional stock characters.   I hate the way those books have dumbed down the genre.

Good, I'm glad someone said this. I've always been afraid to say this out loud because people seem to love it. so much.  

[older than allosaurs]

I am absolutely loving this thread hijack. Learning what people felt about their high school and college reading assignments, after some time has gone by, is fascinating and uplifting to this old teacher.

[nastyhobbitses]

I really like revisiting books I didn't like in high school. I had to read One Hundred Years of Solitude senior year of high school, and I just didn't get it at all. I thought it was so boring and weird. Then I read it again as part of my senior thesis in college, and all of a sudden, it became one of my favorite books.

And right now, I'm downloading Les Mis to tackle on my ten hour bus ride tomorrow morning for vacay; I was in the musical in high school, and I've been meaning to sit down and read the damn thing since.

[PartriarchydefyinValkarie]

The last books I've read (counting audio) are Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, The purity myth by Jessica Valenti, and one of the How to train your dragon series merely to see what the differences are. David Tennant does the audio on those and while I enjoyed his voice work immensely yeah in my opinon the movies are far better. "Who da heck names a Viking girl Camacazi? 

  As for HP, I loved it as a kid and it was probably the only book I cared about. I was more interested in learning to read so I would win at Pokemon as I got the original first Gameboy and spent so much time on it. 

[PennySycamore]

@EmCatlyn, there were several silent versions.  Probably most or even all of those are now lost.  I can find no information on some of them except the release year.  

[shrewlu]

On 5/23/2016 at 6:26 PM, trisprefect said:

My teacher once actually assigned us a Hemingway short story and then apologized a week later, saying that she did it because she was in a bad mood. She hated Hemingway.

Did we go to the same school? lol My AP lit teacher also hated Hemingway and assigned him only when she was mad at her students. She also hated Fitzgerald and Faulkner. Even though, she was open about her hate of those authors (which I appreciated her honesty then and now), I ended up loving several of the works of all three of those authors she hated. "The Old Man and the Sea" is such a favorite of mine that I'm eventually getting a tattoo based on it.

[2manyKidzzz]

We watched both the 1930s version of Scarlet Pimpernel with Leslie Howard and Pimpernel Smith. The 1930s Scarlet is quite dark....in terms of light and quality of the film. But good. I really liked Pimpernel Smith quite a bit more, actually. The quality is better too. Tried then to watch one about Raoul Wallenbergy, but it was immediately very realistic  and depressing. He was captured by Russia....and although he is thought to have been killed in captivity, or died in captivity, it was never definitively proven. So that is also sad. But Wallenberg was very brave, I admire him. He gave his life. 

[Naga Viper]

What, no love for this retelling of the story?

Hee, "Kreplach, $1,000 each."

[uber frau]

I always loved reading and did English Lit in upper HS-It was a matter of personal pride that I didn't read the set texts. I was a bit fucked up&had an issue w the school Chriatianifying every damn thing-books by 'heathen' writers were sanitised, books by Christians from a different denomination were dragged into line w ours. (In yr 11 we had to read Oscar Wilde and the girl who brought up his sexuality was shushed).

Anyway,in Yr12 we did Othello, Hedda Gabler for drama texts,Eliot &the Metaphysical Poets for poetry,&Frankenstein &Heart of Darkness for prose.

[IReallyAmHopewell]

Any updates on Marjorie instead of literature? I'm just curious. You can go back to books now....

[refugee]

On 5/26/2016 at 9:21 AM, 2manyKidzzz said:

Thank you!! I thought it was older than that, but I did love the story. I am a mystery reader and that was a great story. I remember the cape. 

There's a B&W version I remember seeing a long time ago.

I googled it just now because for some reason my brain was trying to tell me the main actor was Leslie Nielson -- but no, it was actually Leslie Howard.

 

On 5/29/2016 at 8:17 PM, 2manyKidzzz said:

We watched both the 1930s version of Scarlet Pimpernel with Leslie Howard and Pimpernel Smith. The 1930s Scarlet is quite dark....in terms of light and quality of the film. But good. I really liked Pimpernel Smith quite a bit more, actually. The quality is better too. Tried then to watch one about Raoul Wallenbergy, but it was immediately very realistic  and depressing. He was captured by Russia....and although he is thought to have been killed in captivity, or died in captivity, it was never definitively proven. So that is also sad. But Wallenberg was very brave, I admire him. He gave his life. 

Oh, sorry, I should have read more of the thread before responding.

[HereticHick]

1 hour ago, IReallyAmHopewell said:

Any updates on Marjorie instead of literature? I'm just curious. You can go back to books now....

She just opened an online shop: http://www.redbubble.com/people/marjoriejackson  I've never heard of Red Bubble--why would one do this over Etsy?