You knew this was coming...
Kate Says:
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The only thing I can say is... SCREW YOU HEMINGWAY, FOR IMPOSING THIS 100 PAGE BOOK OF POETIC GARBAGE ON THE WORLD!!!
Warning: Spoilers - Nothing Happens. The old man hooks a fish who spends the next 96 pages dragging him further and further out to sea. I feel like this is a fine example of Darwinism at work... if your instincts aren't to cut the line and paddle back to shore as soon as you realize the shore is becoming a distant spec on the horizon, then it's probably better for everyone that you don't contribute to the gene pool. I'm sure there was a subtextual message in there about perseverance or some such nonsense but I certainly was too bored to notice or care.
Mel Says:
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
I think I read this in grade 11. Despite being a short novella, it was one of the most painful required readings I ever had. The whole story is a group of townspeople telling a traveler how Ethan Frome became such a miserable old man. Just so the reader knows from the very beginning that this is going to be a horribly depressing story. There was some weird symbolism too, including a cucumber vine and a broken pickle dish.
Anyway, about 20 years ago, Ethan was married to a hypochondriac who prevented him from doing anything with his life except taking care of her. A young women comes to stay with them so she can help look after his 'sick' wife. In a plot twist that will surprise no one, she and Ethan fall in love. For some idiotic reason I can’t remember now, they decide that there’s no way they can just leave his wife and actually be happy. No, they decide to commit suicide together instead. Apparently there's something romantic and tragic about dying with your lover (I blame Shakespeare). It’s the middle of winter, so they attempt this by crashing their sled into a tree. Which does not work out like they’d hoped, because they both survive. Ethan is crippled and his girlfriend is paralyzed below the neck. But now Ethan's wife gets to repay him for all the years he spent looking after her by taking care of him - and the woman he tried to leave her for. And all three of them can all live together in total misery until everyone dies of old age. The end.
Maybe next time I'll tell you what I thought about Romeo and Juliet...
Sara Says:
To be perfectly honest, I hardly even remember reading this book. It certainly didn't make much impression on me, and so while I don't actually dislike the book, it was probably the "worst" assigned reading simply because I don't care about it one way or the other, and I can't remember really hating any books I had to read for HS English. The only thing I remember about Wuthering Heights was lots of gloomy people and gloomy moors, that some character was a misanthropist, and that I got the date of the story wrong on a content quiz by a mere couple of years (curses!). Probably the only really good thing to come out of having to read Wuthering Heights was that around the same time, I discovered Kate Bush, and then found out she wrote a song called Wuthering Heights (way more entertaining than the book, in my opinion), thus beginning another musical love affair in my life. For interested parties, here is the magical famous red dress video: Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights.
Sara Says:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
To be perfectly honest, I hardly even remember reading this book. It certainly didn't make much impression on me, and so while I don't actually dislike the book, it was probably the "worst" assigned reading simply because I don't care about it one way or the other, and I can't remember really hating any books I had to read for HS English. The only thing I remember about Wuthering Heights was lots of gloomy people and gloomy moors, that some character was a misanthropist, and that I got the date of the story wrong on a content quiz by a mere couple of years (curses!). Probably the only really good thing to come out of having to read Wuthering Heights was that around the same time, I discovered Kate Bush, and then found out she wrote a song called Wuthering Heights (way more entertaining than the book, in my opinion), thus beginning another musical love affair in my life. For interested parties, here is the magical famous red dress video: Wuthering, Wuthering, Wuthering Heights.
No comments:
Post a Comment