::sighing::
But this trip is shorter and closer to home. I’ll be speaking at the Fairport schools in Rochester Thursday and Friday.
Saturday should be a blast – I’ll be at the Rochester Teen Book Festival, along with LOTS of other YA authors. This one is definitely worth the drive, folks. And it won’t snow.
I might have huge news about the condition of my computer… stay tuned.
One more thing before I go:
Print this article out and bring it to English class. Discuss!!!
The literature society on campus had a panel discussion about a month ago inviting professors from various backgrounds in the lit department to debate the validity of “the Canon” and one of the ideas that was brought up is that contemporary books can generate the exact same discussions that the “classics” can – especially considering the popularity of modernizing classic stories (how many times can we retell Romeo and Juliet?). I wish that article had been around then!
Also song lyrics and movies can be for literary analysis, it’s a nice break from books and it gets kids more interested.
I’m a huge movie buff, so I do that anyway 😀 I took a children’s literature course earlier in college and we had a unit on children’s films as literature (and how some films are inspired by children’s lit – ie The Matrix).
Yeah I’ve done a lot of that sort of thing. I took 8 English classes in highschool. They’re pretty liberal at my highschool, so we did lots of cool stuff. We analyzed “Dead Poets Society and “The Matrix.” We read/listened to The Beatles during our poetry unit and had to draw a picture of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” I also did an independent study of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” My highschool was pretty kickass and I miss it now that I’m in college.
I finally talked my Writing professor into reading SPEAK, after about 7 months’ passive lobbying. She liked the book, really liked your use of voice. Which made me happy.
Looks like these are some of your last school visits for a while…hope you’re enjoying them while they last ^_^
From the article
They question whether works such as Dante’s “Inferno,” with its vivid, often-disgusting portrayal of hell and some of hell’s notable inhabitants, including the Muslim prophet Muhammad, could be read without controversy in public high schools. … Four years ago, Muslim students in the Tukwila School District objected to the depiction of Muhammad in the lowest circle of hell.
I read the Inferno twice in my Humanities and I find no such mention. If the article had included a passage, perhaps these claims would be better backed. From when last I read the Inferno, the only souls in the lowest circle of Hell were Brutus, Cassius, and Judas.
Re: From the article
Muhammad is mentioned on lines 31 and 62 of canto 28. He speaks to Dante on lines 55-60 of the same canto. He is not in the lowest circle of hell; he is in the second-lowest circle of hell.
Re: From the article
Hmmm, you’re right. But why is he there?
How mutilated, see, is Mahomet;
In front of me doth Ali weeping go,
Cleft in the face from forelock unto chin;
And all the others whom thou here beholdest,
Disseminators of scandal and of schism
While living were, and therefore are cleft thus.
So, according to Dante, starting a new religion that is not Catholicism is starting scandal and division. This reflects the intolerance of the Medieval Catholic Church quite well, I’m afraid. Excellent grounds for class discussion of how much the Catholic Church has changed since then.
ROCHACHACHA!!! I am going to come, I promise! Maybe! I’ll try!!! Ahhhh!!!!!
good luck:-)
i hope you have a good trip! and good luck at the schools! i’ll be in NY tomorrow, friday, and saturday, but, sadly, not in rochester. sigh. oh well. i hope to see you speak soon! i miss you. well i’d better get back to packing for tomorrow! bye! -ash 🙂
Yay for the Teen Book Festival!!!
Classics vs. Contemporary
I think my school would really benefit if they included contemporaries on the reading list. Some students just don’t get into the classics. The wording is too hard to understand, and it just bores them. They end up having really bad grades in English. I like a lot of classics, but some of the stuff our English teachers pick out even bores me.