Depressing Literature

[Mondt]

My english curriculum:

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - About the shitty daily life of a prisoner in a russian gulag
Langston Hughes Peotry - Often about the struggle of normal life, struggle of being black, struggle of etc. etc.
Antigone - Guy dies, sister wants to mourn, Creon says go fuck yourself, everyone dies in the end. Sophoclean (?) tragedy
Their Eyes Were Watching God - A book about a black woman in... the 20s? finding herself, going through one shitty marriage to another until she realizes she is actually in love with a nice but trashy farm worker.
Othello - Shakespearean tragedy.
The Great Gatsby - Cheating, pathetically unrequited love, death
Ake: The Years of Childhood - A light-hearted and funny approach to the awkward and sometimes shitty experiences the author had growing up
The Sound of Waves - Book about awkward japanese teenagers' sexual awakening. It was a nice break from the depressing. The author was a badass. Sepukku after holding a military general hostage in the military base, had his own little mini-following cult army thing, etc. etc.
The Metamorphosis - Gregor turns into a bug. Everyone hates him now. He dies from a rotting apple in his back that his dad threw at him.

That was junior year.

100 Years of Solitude - A bunch of family members repeat the same strange mistakes, it rained for 5 years straight, incest resulted in pig tails, etc. etc. weird as shit book but really good i would recommend it.
Hamlet - Shakespearean tragedy.
Heart of Darkness - If you haven't read it, look at the title. This is not a feelgood book. This is the most cutyourwrists book we have read easily. It's stupid as shit to read (especially the edition i used), fairly boring, and just generally bleeeeegh. I mean, thank you IB, I know racism is bad. I know atrocities occurred in africa. Why are you doing this to me?
John Donne Poetry - metaphysical movement, heavy emphasis on death and what happens after death.
Huck Finn - Kind of a fun one but still kinda bleak whenever you think about Jim's perspective.

Two books to go.

Half the shit we read has a major emphasis on racism.

Hooray IB. Hooray worldliness. Go fuck yourself, world.

[katiuska]

Originally Posted by Mondt

100 Years of Solitude

In retrospect, we really shouldn't have read that book without any sort of guidance. In my HS class, it was independent reading, and those of us reading it did so because it was the most challenging book offered... but when you're 17 and have no context for the themes being presented, it's all dudes being tied to trees, dudes wanting to marry 8-year-olds, and girls eating dirt when they're distressed, and all we could ever discuss was, "So, does anyone else understand what the fuck is going on?"

[Geminex]

Hooray IB.

I didn't mind the literature that much. The essays and assessments (particularly the extremely extended one) were what drove me into a BLINDING RAGE.

Nah, IB was good. Teachers were competent, classes were fun more often than not. And assessments went well, though I lost a night's worth of sleep every time one was due.

Also, I didn't mind One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Wrote my World Lit essay about it. And the purpose of Antigone was actually to cheer people up through Catharsis.

[Mondt]

Originally Posted by Geminex

I didn't mind the literature that much. The essays and assessments (particularly the extremely extended one) were what drove me into a BLINDING RAGE.

Nah, IB was good. Teachers were competent, classes were fun more often than not. And assessments went well, though I lost a night's worth of sleep every time one was due.

Also, I didn't mind One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Wrote my World Lit essay about it. And the purpose of Antigone was actually to cheer people up through Catharsis.

I'm not a diploma candidate so I don't have an extended essay to write but I just finished up my World Lit 2 and my Individual Oral Commentary.

Wrote my WL1 on One Day and Metamorphosis.

And I agree, too much catharsis is too much. I definitely left Antigone in some accidental attempt to empathize with Creon after he realized he just killed everyone in some way or another.

There's no cheering up in that. <.<

Edit: My thing with IB english is all the of retarded assessments (The IOC actually tests.... nothing except your ability to analyze under pressure because that situation comes up a lot), the emphasis on works in translation just to have works in translation... a few other things its too late for me to remember.

I just really dont like how IB does things. They sacrifice actual productivity in education to standardize the curriculum as much as possible, in my experience. It's all just another test to study for, instead of actually learning.

Edit2: AND THEY MAKE US READ DEPRESSING BOOKS

WHERES THE SHAKESPEAREAN COMEDIES

[Eltargrim]

Originally Posted by Mondt

WHERES THE SHAKESPEAREAN COMEDIES

My year had The Tempest and A Midsummer's Night Dream. It does have something to do with your teacer's choices, iirc.

Also, the EE wasn't too bad. Did mine on chemistry, and got to design my own experiment. That was pretty fun

[PyrosNine]

Too much catharsis is too much catharsis!

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I always saw it as the Cause a Media Storm Sell More Books device, as patented by Salman Rushdie and Martin Amis.