It’s Our Fault Classics are Boring
Classics aren’t supposed to be boring. That’s why they’re classics–because generations of readers have enjoyed them. Well, except for Le Morte d’Arthur. But I’m pretty sure that book just sucks. How many times can “horsed” be used per page?
And yet, English class is invariably voted “most boring” by a completely unscientific poll of high schoolers.
Partly, I think it there’s this idea that classics should be like vitamins–good for you, but not something you take without a grimace. And this attitude (however wrong) ha influenced the way we treat, teach, and talk about literature.
Take The Great Gatsby for example. It’s a sexy, tragic novel, and so to showcase this brilliant piece of literature, we give it a cover like this:
Sexy.
I work in a library, and so I get to hear a lot of frustrated parents griping about how all their thirteen-year-olds will read is Diary of a Wimpy Kid. And is it any surprise? No matter how many cutesy storybooks kids are read about not judging a book by it’s cover, they still do it. Why not give The Great Gatsby something better–like maybe a photographic cover, with a gorgeous blond woman (Daisy) in a gold dress (symbolism, see?) draped across a loveseat. How much more appealing is that? Heck–why does Lolita have a boring-ass cover? That book, at least, should bring the boys running.
The Great Gatsby is one of the first books a kid will read in high school. And usually, its introduced as “Great American Literature” or “The Novel About the American Dream.” Why don’t we teach books so that kids want to read them? Why isn’t Gatsby introduced as “A love triangle destroys a rich man in this decadent novel”? Then, after they’re hooked, we can get into the gold dress and the spectacles and the crumbling of the American Dream.
An even deeper question–why do we teach the books we teach? Surely today’s teenage girls will identify far more with The Age of Innocence or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn than Jane Eyre or Sense and Sensibility.
Kids need to read. Kids need to understand why these books are classics, why they are brilliant, why they must continue to be shared.
Boring literature teaches nothing.
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Day 26 of 30, 317 words.
It is amazing that people don’t generally give classics fun covers, everyone judges books by their covers. It is like they want to protect the integrity of a classic by giving it a stuffy cover, and that somehow the book will be demeaned if it is giving a snazzy eye grabbing look.
I think there’s this idea that classics should be “serious” and “literary” instead of enjoyable. Heck–Shakespeare’s plays were low-class, bawdy entertainment–never meant to be scholarly works or the meaning of life.
Reblogged this on surgabukuku.
You’re absolutely right on this one. I was one of the sad saps who sat through three years of “regular” English class, having to listen to child after relentless child moan about how they didn’t understand why we had to read “To Kill A Mockingbird” or “Gatsby” or “Siddhartha” for that matter. Actually, compared to some of the more modern books on the primary school reading lists, the classics (especially the ones read in the AP classes, which I sadly wasn’t able to take part in) made up some of the most interesting reading I did there.
To contribute my own suggestions to the growing list of “Books Your Children Aren’t Reading But Really Should For Their Own Well Being”, I would like to add “Crime and Punishment”, “The Fountainhead”, “The Time Machine”, “Slaughterhouse Five” and something modern with literary punch, like “Fight Club” or “American Psycho”.
I do disagree with you about “Jane Eyre” though. I liked that book, for the most part.
You’re absolutely right on “The Time Machine.” Ninth-graders should definitely read it. Mostly, I think the emphasis needs to be less on “The Author Has The Answers” and more on “Literature is Fun.” Then I think kids will start to enjoy picking the texts apart. But that base needs to be built.
This makes me want to hunt down my copy of the The Great Gatsby. I loved that book. I read it several times in high school. It was favorite of mine. I was the kid who English class you was alwasy yelling, “Please. No more Greek Mythology! Anything, but Greek Mythology!” I’d have happily read most of the books on your list, but there were never required of me. I think we only got The Great Gatsby and A Time To Kill. My high school sucked.
A Time to Kill? Wow, that actually sounds like really nice high school reading.
Ugh–Greek Mythology. I never liked it either. I don’t know why (I love most all books) but it just wasn’t something that ever piqued my interest.
Yeah. I totally meant to Kill a Mockingbird. That would have been fun though.