I don't think I've told this story

[amelia_petkova]

During his senior year of high school, my younger brother's English class was reading Hemingway (I can't remember which novel). I haven't read any of his novels myself, but I do know that his readers often turn out to either love him or hate him. When the teacher asked my brother's opinion on the novel, he said, "I don't like it very much. It isn't really interesting."

The teacher then tells him [almost original wording]: "That's because you're reading it wrong."

Granted, it wasn't quite "You're interrogating this text from the wrong perspective," but it was close enough to make me collapse into laughter at the dinner table. And no, the teacher isn't Anne Rice. Even though my brother attended a Catholic high school.

*headdesk*

Comments

[amelia-petkova.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah: I also had to read Julius Caesar in 9th grade. Not the best introduction to Shakespeare.

[hasufin.livejournal.com]

You know, that makes me think. I was going to say that you should have been introduced through one of his comedies - say, A Midsummer Night's Dream, or The Merchant of Venice.

But that makes me wonder. See, I don't like comedies so much anymore. They used to be all I liked, but my tastes moved on. And one thing I really abhor - also why I refuse to participate in any collaborative writing - is that there are people for whom everything simply must be a comedy. Anything else is dark and dreary and above all boring. So they shun anything which isn't funny.

Personally, I am much more interested now in the complex personal relationships, the drama, the interplay of people. I find comedy tiresome.
So I wonder how much of it is teachers who want to advance to the (to them) more interesting discussions of drama, and unintentionally rushing past the comedy.

[amelia-petkova.livejournal.com]

In 10th grade we read Othello and it went much better. I do like many of his comedies.