What If You’re Not ‘Smart Enough’ to Read the Classics? (Spoiler: You Are)

Comments · 1K

• PA

  @PabluchoViision · 1 year ago

  A teacher who mocks, belittles, humiliates, and discourages students is a criminal in the deepest sense of that word. Crime against humanity.

  2.4K

• DH

  @dharper87 · 1 year ago

  "I stole The Grapes of Wrath." A perfect sentence.

  1.6K

• MI

  @mileswashington9078 · 1 year ago

  This lady was a library super-villain.  You didn't steal that book Cinzia, you liberated it! ... for... yourself... Justice comes in many forms....?

  1.5K

• TH

  @TheMagnificentBen · 1 year ago

  More people need to hear this sentiment! Those Classics that are "oh so hard" were written to be entertaining to normal people! The oldest ones are only impenetrable because language has changed so much! The advice I often find myself giving people who say like "Shakespeare is boring" is to go see it performed, listen to someone perform or read those stories and they'll make much more immediate sense and be much more fun to take in!

  2.2K

• MI

  @Michael9glock · 1 year ago (edited)

  You're PHD and I'm G.E.D, I grew up in the hood and never like reading. I didn't think that I could finish a book. Now I enjoy the challenge because the fruit is sweet. I just finished "The sound and the Fury" and I loved it. I started it again immediately! I no longer believe that I'm bound by anything, only my own initiative.

  198

• AN

  @andreahull405 · 1 year ago

  as a librarian, i totally applaud your rebellious gesture there. yes, stealing is wrong BUT much much worse is a teacher abusing and demeaning the spirits of their students. well done, you!!

  858

• PH

  @philtheo · 1 year ago (edited)

  From C.S. Lewis, &quot;On the reading of old books&quot;:<br><br>There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books. Thus I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about “isms” and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said.<br><br>The error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator.<br><br>The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.

  669

• LA

  @Lavishlybookish · 1 year ago

  OMG! This happened to me in America all too often. I was always the most well-read student in class and was always told that classics were too advanced for me. More than likely, I had already read them. It was definitely racism. I was often the only or one of the few black students. Still to this day in my 30’s it still infuriates me.

  758

• TR

  @trenae77 · 1 year ago

  As a former English Teacher this makes me sick! 🤢 I always encouraged my kids to try and if need be break down the reading or come talk with me if they had questions. I had one boy who really wanted to read The Client (John Grisham) but it was long compared to what he usually accomplished. I was subbing at that time and told him to just set himself time each day to read and to go as far as he could in that time. Some months later I was at the same school again and he proudly announced he was about a third into the book. I was so proud that he was sticking with it and spent some time asking what he thought of what he’d read so far. I don’t care if it took him almost a year to finish the book, HE accomplished that.

  136

• AL

  @aleleeinnaleleeinn9110 · 1 year ago

  I decided to read Ulysses. &nbsp;It was as much because it was described and incredibly complex and a masterpiece. &nbsp;I read the book and found it interesting and full of multiple layers of symbolism. I still wasn&apos;t sure how much I missed. &nbsp;A few months after finishing the book, I ra into an HS friend whose litary and general intelligence I respected and the book came up. &nbsp;I talked to the right person. He had written his Masters thesis on Ulysses. &nbsp;A great cocktail party conversation where no one else tried to join in. I did not miss much of what was in the book. &nbsp;Literature is a pleasure. &nbsp;NOT A CHORE. &nbsp;I have this habit of going through the works of authors whom I enjoy. No formal classes. No structure. &nbsp;I consider myself a product of an unsystematic education. My tste was varied.

  489

• JE

  @jesussaves99x · 1 year ago

  It is unreal the amount of &quot;literature gatekeeping&quot; and sheer literary bullying that goes on in this community. It&apos;s bizarre that we don&apos;t call it bullying when it&apos;s from &quot;highly educated&quot; people, because that&apos;s exactly what it is.

  162

• JO

  @johnbell1222 · 1 year ago

  The best bit of advice that I was ever given about most &apos;classics&apos; (ancient and modern) was that they weren&apos;t written to be &apos;classics&apos;. Their authors weren&apos;t thinking of future high school classes, they were thinking about the average, everyday people who made up their audiences. The same kind of audiences went to see Euripides and Shakespeare as now go to see &apos;Anora&apos; and &apos;Conclave&apos;. <br><br>My personal advice on these sorts of works is to make sure you find a good, modern translation that preserves the... energy of the original text. Different translations provide different things so don&apos;t be afraid to read up on them. And if you&apos;re dealing with a play, try to find a performance of it or even an audio recording version as this can make it much easier understand it before you start reading it line-by-line. Again, these were written for people just like you and don&apos;t let anybody tell you differently.

  287