Subject: homework / learning

I love you Rogi Ronfist!

should we let you alone?

i agree shakespear is a great playwrite... for his time. but to continue to make his works the foundation of dramatical study in school seems ludicrous, when you consider how many great playwrites have come since. you here about teachers getting through to pupils when they modernise and jazz up shakespear... why not just teach a modern playwrite? same with authors... yes To Kill a Mockingbird or Death of a Salesman are great works of classic literatue, but there are many modern authors who tackle the same complexities of society and social interaction, or the anxieties of coming of age, etc. the social context of Dickensian society or the political framework of a Shakesperian drama belong in history class. If the curriculum for English were to be modernised it might actually mean something to the kids who are studying it, and therefore may catch their interest and enspire them.

One which is taught at our place is Raymond Chandler, who obviously does all the crme stuff which the kids really love. They also teach away days I think which is one of the holligan novels

away days is great, i'd love to have been taught that in school.

i did stuff like the long and the short and the tall. which is fine but not very modern. anyway the point behind great literacy is its timeless. Dickens and Shakespeare are that and the stories they have written can easily relate to modern times.

im a big fan of Douglas Coupland but will his stuff still ring true in 20 years time? maybe. but in 100 years time, unlikely.

I just read JPod; thought that was good. I'm an Iain Banks man myself.

i like a lot of his works, but i hate an equal number. for example i love Crow Road and the Wasp Factory - 2 truly exceptional books; but i hate Canal Dreams and Song of Stone both of which are complete drivel. i do like his contact books under iain m banks, especially Player of Games and Consider Phlebas

Aye, they're good too.
From the former, Complicity and Dead Air are ones I enjoyed too.

yeah i liked both of those and also Espedair Street

I'm reading Kafka at the moment - it's the literary equivalent of listening to Radiohead.
Ben Elton are good holiday books for cheap giggles.
Also read one recently called 'Death and the penguin?' by some Russian bod; that was good.

have you tried Haruki Murakami? again a love/hate author for me...Wind-Up Bird Chronicles and Kafka on the Shore are outstanding; Hard Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World is as obscure and convoluted as its title. but i really enjoy the fact that it is so different to western literature in structure and assumptions/presumptions of social norms

Ooh, no, I might ask a Jap bird I know about that and see what she says.
I read a book about some Irish dude who went travelling and ended up working for Mitsubishi for years; that was quite an insight, but the guy himself came across as a bit of a gimp, which made his side of the story slightly harder to appreciate.

Crime and Punishment is one of my favourite books. As well as God's playground, quite tough but I enjoyed reading it :)

My favourite holiday book is David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars. A beautifully crafted piece. Also Umberto Eco can be a verbose twunt but his Name of the Rose is genius. There is a sentence that goes on for two pages, which is impossible to read out loud but like angels wings to read. I like to save the Booker prize shortlist for going on my bobs too.

for a good holiday read The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch makes a beautiful read, and of course there is always Life of Pi.

oh! yes! Mmmmmm pi!

I forgot about that, it still wierds me out ;-)