Stupid Books You've Been Assigned To Read?

Stupid Books You've Been Assigned To Read?

Assigned to read, but I didn't read them, no way. Probably there have been lots, but two really stand out in my mind.

I think both could be considered as special taste favorites of the teacher. Then there is also just the issue that usually men don't read that much fiction.

First: "Meet Me In St. Louis"

Second: Charles Dickens's "Great Expectations"

The first is probably best known for its
1944 film adaptation
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037059/

Judy Garland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqezXDgO…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_Me_in…

Series of Short Stories Written by Sally Benson, published in the New Yorker, then re-released as a novel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Bens…

Teacher was a film buff and he had a 16mm copy and would show it to the class later on.

I still don't really know or care what this was about. I doubt that many people read it anymore.

The Second, Great Expectations, I was offended right off by just how long of a novel it is. I think it had been originally serialized too. I think both of these drew a primarily female audience. I think school teachers are looking for things which will be age appropriate. So that cuts out so many things which would be better.

I guess Dickens was influenced by Frederick Engels, so unlike Karl Marx, he is extremely moralistic, trying to shame people into thinking differently. Marx is completely like unlike this, clearly wanting to solve problems by escalating conflict and having a revolution.

Dickens does make good social commentary on his times. And I have seen film adaptations of this and of most of his works. Today I would have a greater appreciation of it.

But still I would not want to take the time to read either of these books.

Fiction would better be very short things like Greek and Shakespeare tragedy, which has clearly had a huge influence on people's thinking. And there is other fiction too which has had such an influence.

I think these two books turned into exercises in learning how to not read something, and to get away with it. You can't force people to read or learn something which they don't want to. I think most of jr high school and high school is just a complete waste of time.

I don't think many boys read much of Great Expectations. Maybe a few girls, but I guess still not that many.

To her credit though I do have to say that the same teacher would each day assign us parts and then we read aloud in class and discussed Cyrano de Bergerac, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. These greatly influenced me.

SJG

Tasmin Archer - Sleeping Satellite
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOqVQPq8…

LULU / TO SIR WITH LOVE (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_10Ds9S…

Gary Puckett & The Union Gap - Young Girl & Lady Will Power - (Stereo TV Remaster - 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JePPtgm…

A book says that a young Bruce Springsteen strongly identified with The Animals and these two songs:

The Animals - It's My Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNzmrEgz…

The Animals - We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (1965) HD/widescreen ( obvious lip sync. Heard this recording many times. In the intro I feel that Burdon sounds like Elvis Presley.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3mgapAc…


Van McCoy & Pan's People » Do the Hustle (1975) ( some nice hotties, 5 of them )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3kE0rvA…

Eric Burdon & War - Spill The Wine ( remember that in the 60's it was just AM radio, so all the pop genres were together. It was later in the 70's that they separated, largely because of FM radio. And the primary dividing line was race. )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i0DMbCK…

The Rolling Stones - Anybody Seen My Baby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BinwuzZV…