We once read a book called "Feed" in high school - a ham fisted anti-capitalist book. Wherein citizens are 100% connected to an internet like service that only exists to sell them products. 90% of the class couldnt get it. Even when the teacher sat down and explained the entire plot of the book they still couldnt wrap their head around it.
I knew it very well, both as a student and as a teacher.
Fahrenheit 451 is about "government censorship."
Romeo and Juliet is about, and exclusively about, "forbidden love."
Pride and Prejudice is about how dreamy Mr. Darcy is.
Grapes of Wrath is about how it sucks to be poor I guess.
They seemed much more interested in "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." :jokerfied:
grapes of wrath explicitly says capitalism is evil how and why. what the fuck
When we read it in middle school our teachers gave us an open invitation to discuss the meaning. 99% of the students said it was an allegory for suffering while still being faithful to God, like some kind of virtuous suffering. The teachers didn't really get into how Steinbeck was himself a socialist.
Also I'm guessing most of the students were giving a kind of "yeah, uh huh" answer.
Puritanism and its consequences…
If you want to suffer, get into teaching, follow the standardized teaching mandates, and get to the part where you leave it open to the students what they think the story is about.
There are no wrong answers, because having no united message benefits capitalism and the alienation is the point.
Our school had to ban diary of a wimpy kid because for mandatory reading 90% of kids wanted to read them for the 12th time.
That's actually kinda awesome lol.
Say what you will, but that author found his niche, I respect it.
I hate that book series and I hated assigning it and I hated reading reports on it. It was so much... nothing.
I'm fairly certain some treat haver will take that personally and rage at me, but I said it. Come at me. :knifecat:
Didn’t Ray Bradbury explicitly say Fahrenheit 451 was about how crass and pandering television was compared to literature?
He infamously stormed out of a university discussion on the book because he felt everyone there was misinterpreting it.
The line “Jesus Christ selling deodorant” comes to mind
the way he described TV being customizable to the extant characters would ask your opinion even though you couldn't answer and they would actually say your name is pretty horrifying. I mean, I'm still going to watch Vtubers, but I recognize how messed up it is.
That's more or less when an "influencer" pops a subscriber's name on the screen and expresses "love" for them. :agony-4horsemen:
yeah. it's so weird and bad
What's R and J about tho, like thematically? Gang wars are bad and dumb?
deleted by creator
I mean so true
It's mostly about how allowing blood feuds to decide your life is a really, really bad idea. Like, don't let some kind of vague enmity destroy your life. The reason some of the adults in the story allowed Romeo and Juliet to get married was because they thought it might end the feud, but the reaction was more violent than they expected.