School books: Spring 2018 edition part 2

This post is a continuation, chronicling a few more texts my students spent time with this semester!

 I had such high hopes for Dunbar! It's part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, which asks contemporary authors to retell Shakespeare's stories, and it had strong reviews when released. I thought it would be nice for my students to read something new along with the plays. Unfortunately, this simply isn't well written. The storm language is interesting, but the characters are flat and there isn't much in the way of a plot. I won't be reusing it in future classes.

Lear is my favorite play, but I wonder if I didn't make a mistake in saving it for the end of the semester. My students (the best of my classes, actually) started to burn out on me and our conversation began to get stilted. They did really enjoy the mathematics of Lear losing his knights for some reason, though!

I recently saw a few articles arguing that we should retire Conrad from the classroom, which made me uneasy when I assigned him. I think as long as the racism in the text is addressed, it remains valuable for introducing students to a psychoanalytic reading and to extended metaphor, but I'm open to hearing an argument that will change my mind!

Students love Hamlet. They love the Freudian reading of it (which made me recoil as a freshman), they love the ghost -- they even love the military honors at the end. Always a good time!

I've never become entirely comfortable with teaching Othello. This year, my class split between those who pitied the Moor for being manipulated (seeing him as a tragic hero) and those who hated him on behalf of poor Desdemona. I don't know what this response means, but it was interesting!

School Books: Spring 2018 edition: part 1

Not my actual students, but a good approximation of how they look when literature is done!

We're winding down to the end of the semester and all major readings are complete, so I thought this would be a fine time to reflect on the books I assigned this semester!

"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift

Since it came late in the semester, this didn't cause near the stir it has in the past (I also didn't make gingerbread men for them to eat! ;) ) but I think that the idea of satire was hammered home, and many students wrote about Swift's essay on their final test.

My Shakespeare class is presently finishing up "The Tempest" and they seem to have a solid understanding of the links between Prospero and his creator and the popular colonial and post-colonial readings!

I got to teach this one as part of a Guided Study and I was impressed with the student's ability to pick up on Torvald's language (his use of animal pet names for his "beloved").

I'm watching the version with Patrick Stewart as I type; this one is always a blast to teach. The students gravitate toward the witches! I taught it along with Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters to show them that classic texts are still a source of inspiration.

Shrew is one of my least favorite Shakespeare plays, but I pair it with the film 10 Things I Hate About You, which always sparks interesting discussion about how women are perceived, how society wants women to act, and what parts of the play are no longer acceptable to audiences.

It's been a long time since I taught Everyman. I brought it back this year to acquaint students with another genre (the morality play) and as a link to the Christ lyrics in the text.

This one introduces students to the mock epic - and the way women were regarded in the eighteenth century!

This one received decidedly mixed reviews from the students. Several students liked the gender-bending elements (male actors dressed as women disguised as men), and I thought the (terrible) film version had some interesting things to say about the Rosalind-Celia relationship.

I taught these two pieces together in my Guided Study as a way to discuss the blend of fantasy elements with realism. Students always respond well to "The Overcoat," which seems only fitting, given its vast influence.







I continue to be surprised with just how much my students enjoy Faust. I taught "the original" in the Guided Study course and it remained a semester-long favorite. I taught Marlowe's version in British Literature, where students were to quick to pick up on its themes - including the fact that books lead you straight to hell. That became the standard excuse for why they didn't buy the text...




When I first suggested an online section of Early British Literature, it was long texts like these that gave everyone pause. But Beowulf and Paradise Lost have never failed me. It's true that students sometimes struggle with the language (Dear Milton, please add a verb every seven lines or so) but they enjoy the themes, embrace the epic as a genre, and write surprisingly good heroic boasts of their own!

When it comes to Arthurian legends, Gawain is usually the favorite, but we had a good discussion this year about the way Guinevere tries to shame Lanval by accusing him of being a homosexual. I was so pleased with our discussions that I went on to read The Fall of Arthur - which really is quite good, but which should be advertised as fragments rather than a poem.

This was the play that students were the most eager to read. I paired it with the film Were the World Mine and received some interesting writing about what Shakespeare intends to be literal and seen on the stage and what is meant to be a production of the characters' minds or emotions.

There was a bit of a mix up with this play this semester. I read it, but my Guided Study student read something else, so we didn't quite get to have the discussion about serfdom and aristocracy I had intended. But, on the plus side, she demonstrated a solid understanding of the play I hadn't assigned - so she must have learned something during our time together!

The villains that live in other heads

"I'm well-acquainted will villains that live in my head/ They beg me to write them so they'll never die when I'm dead..." - Halsey

I like villains. As a child, I rooted for the Butler in The Aristocats (my reasoning was that cat's don't use currency). Then I found ways for action figure Skeletor to become allies with action figure He-Man. Jareth was my favorite Labyrinth character (I would have let him keep the baby). My favorite Shakespeare characters are all villains or engaged in villainous acts (Richard III, Macbeth, Hamlet). In the narrative of the The Protomen albums, I root for Protoman instead of Megaman (though not Wiley over Light). Satan is, for my money, the only reason to read Paradise Lost. So it should be no surprise, really, that when it comes to the world of superheroes, I'm only really present for the villains. I know that the Marvel fandom is beside itself wondering if Captain America will die in Infinity War (as he does in the book) -- but I don't care. I just don't want Loki to die! So the books in today's collections celebrate the bad guys... and the heroes whom they act as foils to (and foil).

 This was a solid Joker comic with very strong art and I felt very allied with the narrator, drawn into Joker's world and realizing panel by panel how very dangerous it is!

A classic Batman story that has echoes in Death of the Family, this is a title not to be missed. I especially like how the cover art manages to be so sinister and yet so cartoony at once - pointing the way to the success of Batman: the animated series. 

 It's not terribly often that I get to describe something as simultaneously trippy (see the colors of the cover art) and creepy, but Translucid managed both very well. My sympathies kept bouncing back toward the evil Horse, who just wants the hero to become himself again. Drawing the hero back into the game is a trope in superhero fan fiction (maybe in comics, too?) and it's especially well done here.

I'm still on the fence with this title. I think it wanted to make it easier to sympathize with Loki, but there was a disconnect between the words and the images that kept defeating the mission... The best part is really, regretfully, the cover art!

Shelf-life: Books abounding part 7: What a deal!

One of my favorite family stories goes like this: It was the summer before my freshman year of high school. My best friend and I went shopping for school clothes, entrusted with money from our parents. I came back with all of the money but $20 (spent on a CD), and reported to my mom that, "I can get everything cheaper at yard sales." I'm still pretty thrifty today, and I love finding books at yard sales, flea markets, and Goodwill shops -- but the internet has its bargains, too! The titles below got added onto my Nook because they popped up at discounted prices!

As a Star Wars fan, the very words "space opera" have a special resonance for me - so I couldn't resist giving this one a try!

Based on a failed historical scheme to import hippos!! Who can say no to hippos? When they cost a mere $3.99, the answer is "not me!"

This book kept popping up in must-read lists, but I confess that I was more drawn in by the fact that the cover reminds me of hard candy!

I'm teaching Shakespeare this semester, so I couldn't help but be drawn to a book centered around a real murder in a Shakespearian tragedy!

Another case of being drawn in by the cover (and also the Dickensian last name!) but so far it has been worth it! The writing style reminds me of Bradbury in From the Dust Returned.

I've been on a bit of a kick regarding wolves this year and I found this title when browsing Half Priced Books with my mom and sister.

I started this this book through WVReads, but I was moving far too slowly! It has a great mystery so far and the Appalachian setting appealed!

I've been trying to make my way back to reading fantasy (although I disapprove of most of the changes to the field since last I was a buyer!) and this title was recommended to me. I think it will pair nicely with Abercrombie's Heroes!

Images and Words

I think that all writers must envy artists (unless they can draw or paint, too) because writing is about painting in words - but no writer can quite guarantee what a reader will do with the image he or she seeks to transmit. In celebration of that gift that I envy, here are some books that are as worthwhile for their images as for their words!

I borrowed this book from the library and I enjoyed it least of the titles on this list. It had a great mission - demonstrating that animal emotions mirror human emotions - but the imagery didn't always match the text and the text wasn't superbly written.
    

You probably know, by now, that I have a certain strange, fierce affection for fierce predators. I also respect National Geographic (not least for admitting its past mistakes) - so I had to have this for my "deadly animals" shelf. The photography was really stunning, albeit gruesome!

I'm intensely disturbed by the fact that I've spent over three decades on the planet and just now learned that paleoart is "a thing." As a child I wanted to be an archaeologist (and once spent a memorable afternoon on the bank president's desk telling him the correct names of the sauropods) but I had no idea that an art industry existed consisting of dinosaurs and such! Not only did this book introduce me to this fact, it looked at the development of paleoart and how newer artworks incorporate changing scientific theories - cool!!

 I love this book so much! It's gorgeous, it presents endangered animals to the world in a call for action, and the project is ongoing! Three cheers for Mr. Sartore!

 I've spent 24 years with Wendy's art without ever considering how it was shaped and wrought. I admire this book for discussing how she dealt with difficult issues and how those moments of darkness were refined and remade in her work. I'm still a bit broken by the end of ElfQuest, but it's the kind of broken that will make me read -- and look at all the lovely images -- again! Below you can see some examples of the line of beauty that gives the book its title. The line is a sort of sweeping curve that emphasizes beauty and vitality and violence and it can be found in flowing hair, Madcoil's sinewy coils, and even the tongues of the Wolfriders' mounts.