The way literature is taught in school is designed deliberately to make people hate reading + studying the subtext and paratext.
By forcing kids to read books that aren’t just old, but were written by 40 year olds for other 40 year olds, and then mandating them write reports about the symbolism of a book they didn’t even want to read in the first place, you ensure that like 80% of people will inherently associate reading and interpreting media with every negative emotion at once.
Meanwhile you look at fandom dorks on every site and you see how invested on themes and subtext they are, and you realise people kinda naturally want to overthink media… Provided they like that media.
But people who can read subtext and understand it are less susceptible to propaganda. So.
My high school English teacher let us choose books to write essays on from a selection of a dozen or so that he was intimately familiar with and could tell whether someone was BSing or not.
I don’t remember all of them, but I chose The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I also remember reading 1984 in his class.
I kinda got this privilege in my Jr, and Sr years of high school. I had the same teacher both years because AP English, and when it came time to read either Les Miserables or Pride and Prejudice, I informed her that I had already read the book, and provided her with an oral synopsis. Instead I read Dante’s Inferno, (I was attempting to finish the entire Divine Comedy, but it took me too long to finish Paradisio, so I just did a report on the first third.) and handed in parallel work on that book instead. The same thing happened with all the required reading books, but Mrs. Sparks wasn’t surprised. I was one of those kids that read several hundred books a year.
This one resonates with me. I fucking love science fiction, and when they forced me to read The Giver, the closest they every got to science fiction, I actually enjoyed it. And then the rest of the time I hated it all.
If I had actually been given the chance to read some good science fiction, I would have been reading a lot more as a kid.
With hindsight, now being more or less the target audience (a 30+ year old disillusioned with life) – A lot of the books they pushed on us (I’m in Brazil, so of course they pushed the Brazilian canon of Literature) were objectively super good?
But y’know
When you’re 15 years old, and have to read a book that is not only very old (thus has a vocabulary you are already struggling with, just because OLD), but is written by grown-ups for grown-ups (ergo, a lot of the fun leans on heightened versions of life experiences adults have all either lived or seen someone live through) – AND you have to do it in a hurry (because you’ve got like 4 other assignments for that week, and the deadline looms) – AND you are expected to not only get into the nitty-gritty of its themes and such, but to do so in a way that your teacher approves of?
Like how can you not hate reading after that? I was lucky I’d been exposed to literature I liked prior to that, so instead of thinking “I hate books”, I just thought “wow all these books suck”.
They didn’t suck. But they just… Were very much not for me?
Like. Senhora, by José de Alencar, is a deeply enjoyable book if you’re a grown up. Two rich people who married for money and hate each other’s guts, playing the perfect husband and wife to society while shooting subtle barbs at each other whenever they get the chance? AND then they end up fond of each other after years of this? Inject that into my 30-year-old historical-romance junkie EYEBALLS please. But at age 15? I hated it.
The way literature is taught in school is designed deliberately to make people hate reading + studying the subtext and paratext.
By forcing kids to read books that aren’t just old, but were written by 40 year olds for other 40 year olds, and then mandating them write reports about the symbolism of a book they didn’t even want to read in the first place, you ensure that like 80% of people will inherently associate reading and interpreting media with every negative emotion at once.
Meanwhile you look at fandom dorks on every site and you see how invested on themes and subtext they are, and you realise people kinda naturally want to overthink media… Provided they like that media.
But people who can read subtext and understand it are less susceptible to propaganda. So.
I grew up in Canada.
My high school English teacher let us choose books to write essays on from a selection of a dozen or so that he was intimately familiar with and could tell whether someone was BSing or not.
I don’t remember all of them, but I chose The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I also remember reading 1984 in his class.
I kinda got this privilege in my Jr, and Sr years of high school. I had the same teacher both years because AP English, and when it came time to read either Les Miserables or Pride and Prejudice, I informed her that I had already read the book, and provided her with an oral synopsis. Instead I read Dante’s Inferno, (I was attempting to finish the entire Divine Comedy, but it took me too long to finish Paradisio, so I just did a report on the first third.) and handed in parallel work on that book instead. The same thing happened with all the required reading books, but Mrs. Sparks wasn’t surprised. I was one of those kids that read several hundred books a year.
This one resonates with me. I fucking love science fiction, and when they forced me to read The Giver, the closest they every got to science fiction, I actually enjoyed it. And then the rest of the time I hated it all.
If I had actually been given the chance to read some good science fiction, I would have been reading a lot more as a kid.
Right?
With hindsight, now being more or less the target audience (a 30+ year old disillusioned with life) – A lot of the books they pushed on us (I’m in Brazil, so of course they pushed the Brazilian canon of Literature) were objectively super good?
But y’know
When you’re 15 years old, and have to read a book that is not only very old (thus has a vocabulary you are already struggling with, just because OLD), but is written by grown-ups for grown-ups (ergo, a lot of the fun leans on heightened versions of life experiences adults have all either lived or seen someone live through) – AND you have to do it in a hurry (because you’ve got like 4 other assignments for that week, and the deadline looms) – AND you are expected to not only get into the nitty-gritty of its themes and such, but to do so in a way that your teacher approves of?
Like how can you not hate reading after that? I was lucky I’d been exposed to literature I liked prior to that, so instead of thinking “I hate books”, I just thought “wow all these books suck”.
They didn’t suck. But they just… Were very much not for me?
Like. Senhora, by José de Alencar, is a deeply enjoyable book if you’re a grown up. Two rich people who married for money and hate each other’s guts, playing the perfect husband and wife to society while shooting subtle barbs at each other whenever they get the chance? AND then they end up fond of each other after years of this? Inject that into my 30-year-old historical-romance junkie EYEBALLS please. But at age 15? I hated it.
Damn. Good one.