Ah yes, this is the age old problem with the younger generation (I'm including myself here) and teachers want to get more "creative" with their lessons - the fundamental basics of learning are ignored for more flash and interest in hopes of encouraging more people to read.
Well I think that's hogwash. I myself am 28, and while I haven't read all the classics, I have a list in my head of all of them and I'm going down them one by one. Why? Because, to me, the world of literature is like one big reference. Nothing is original. It's all borrowed plot techniques and swindled characters.
But that is half the fun! Currently, I'm in a big history phase and I'm purchasing large historical reference books that are too heavy to read in bed but I do anyway, much to my hubby's chagrin. Why do I do this? Because its so much fun to read book and go AHA! I know and fully understand the multiple meaning of the sentence, paragraph, character, etc....
My father is a minister, and not the wave your hand in the air god is love kind, but the literate professor type who preferred to reference the New York Times in his sermons than tell his congregation they were all going to burn in hell. This meant that I had a solid background in religious studies by the time I hit my teens. I knew and understood that the bible meant more than one thing all the time, and I had been exposed to the history of the church as I stole several books off my father's shelves on what it meant to be a Presbyterian.
So, when I read Shakespeare and Blake and Joyce, I was often the only one in the class that realized the stories and poems meant more than x happened and then y followed by z.
I completely agree that you need to understand your past before you can truly appreciate your present. Everything has a context, you just have to realize what it is. Sure you can appreciate a book now without any knowledge of the different literary movements, but it just isn't as fun.
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Well I think that's hogwash. I myself am 28, and while I haven't read all the classics, I have a list in my head of all of them and I'm going down them one by one. Why? Because, to me, the world of literature is like one big reference. Nothing is original. It's all borrowed plot techniques and swindled characters.
But that is half the fun! Currently, I'm in a big history phase and I'm purchasing large historical reference books that are too heavy to read in bed but I do anyway, much to my hubby's chagrin. Why do I do this? Because its so much fun to read book and go AHA! I know and fully understand the multiple meaning of the sentence, paragraph, character, etc....
My father is a minister, and not the wave your hand in the air god is love kind, but the literate professor type who preferred to reference the New York Times in his sermons than tell his congregation they were all going to burn in hell. This meant that I had a solid background in religious studies by the time I hit my teens. I knew and understood that the bible meant more than one thing all the time, and I had been exposed to the history of the church as I stole several books off my father's shelves on what it meant to be a Presbyterian.
So, when I read Shakespeare and Blake and Joyce, I was often the only one in the class that realized the stories and poems meant more than x happened and then y followed by z.
I completely agree that you need to understand your past before you can truly appreciate your present. Everything has a context, you just have to realize what it is. Sure you can appreciate a book now without any knowledge of the different literary movements, but it just isn't as fun.