I'm so bored at work I'm having to intersperse b3taing with reading
Starting with To Kill A Mockingbird coz 1 - I've not read it yet and 2 - someone left it in my office... handy.

I'm doing less work than I normally do because I'm pissed at the boss's missus for cracking the whip, so I'm showing 'er by doing even less.
(Psyche finishes work at the end of June! Yay!!!, Tue 26 May 2009, 17:07, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

I couldn't stand To kill a mockingbird
This may have been due to studying it for GCSE english and being made to pore over every fucking line trying to inexpertly wring meaning from it.

It annoys me a great deal that people (english teachers) assume that just because someone has written something that there is meaning behind it. Same with art to be honest. Sometimes it's best to take things at face value, because that is how they were intended.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 26 May 2009, 17:14, Reply)

Oh yes
I couldn't agree more. And further to that, how the hell do those same English teachers know that their interpretation of the what the writer meant is correct?

And that mine is wrong? As it frequently was, apparently.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Tue 26 May 2009, 17:20, Reply)

their interpretation is usually what is told to them by the curriculum
other problems I have with To kill a mockingbird:

What sort of name is Scout? ffs
I really really hate the band the Boo Radleys
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 26 May 2009, 17:23, Reply)

This bugged me about Shakespeare at GCSE
Why do I have to specifically understand every single intricacy of meaning of every line of Hamlet? Can't I just appreciate the story and the prose?

Put me off Shakespeare for life.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 26 May 2009, 17:21, Reply)

Try doing a degree in English.
Load of old cobblers.
( thealternativefact, Tue 26 May 2009, 17:23, Reply)

I considered it.
I LOVED English lessons before we were forced to read Shakespeare. It occurred to me I might be forced to spend three years reading and 'understanding' lots of classical shit I really didn't identify with, and didn't bother.

A bit of a waste, probably.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 26 May 2009, 17:25, Reply)

I loved doing the English Language stuff
and my degree involved a lot of creative writing.
Oh, but the minute study of poems from a gillion years ago - yaaaawn.
( thealternativefact, Tue 26 May 2009, 17:30, Reply)

Erm....
*whisper*

I teach that stuff. In a university. I love it.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Tue 26 May 2009, 18:06, Reply)