Posted on 06/27/2010 6:07:23 PM PDT by Clemenza
Georgia had Flannery O'Connor and Carson McCullers; Mississippi had William Faulkner and Eudora Welty; Louisiana inspired the major works of Kate Chopin and Tennessee Williams. Alabama had. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Ping!
Well I’m biased, but I think Mississippi wins in this list. I am a big Faulkner fan.
As an English teacher, I disagree that the book is a bad one - it is a clear recollection of a child’s memories growing up, which leads to Flannery O’Connor’s quip that is a “children’s book”.
Huckleberry Finn, Red Badge of Courage, and Catcher in the Rye are, by the same classification, children books. I will allow that since Lee has absolutely no record of success in writing outside of the novel, that it really isn’t that big of a deal (and I would argue the same with Salinger).
However, calling this book “self-religious tripe” is complete bullsh**. It provides a recollection of the depression, segregation, and racism that certainly existed in 1930’s Alabama (ask the Scottsboro boys) and does it in a way that young readers can relate to without having to plod through the loquacious and confusing Faulkner or the sardonic and dismissive O’Connor.
If anything, this novel tells kids that they must stand up for what they believe in regardless of what society thinks - in this day and age, is that a bad thing? It also is a well-written (why yes! it is!) and engaging novel that most 9th and 10th graders will ACTUALLY READ ALL THE WAY THROUGH! If it was badly written, then why do our attention-span starved children still read it?
If this book is crap for Barra’s reasons, then maybe Barra should read Huckleberry Finn, which is FAR MORE OVER THE TOP with the moral messaging and stilted language than Lee could even imagine. Let him attack Mark Twain.
I’m a big Faulkner fan too. I’m just glad I didn’t have to know him personally.
Taking a poll.
How many believe Harper Lee wrote it?
Truman?
Yeah, even though Harper Lee’s book is well written, she couldn’t hold a candle to Light in August, Absalom, Absalom, As I Lay Dying, or Sound and the Fury.
Faulkner will always be the brightest light in American literature, if not all literature. It’s that whole “the human heart in conflict with itself” stuff.
Loved the book and the movie. There’s always someone who can make an argument that anything is bad.
Actually he sounded like an okay person (unless you were his wife). I read a book by his mistress, and she couldn’t find a bad word to say about him. He never dropped his courtly southern-gentleman manner in her presence. He eventually broke up with her to get things right with his wife. He regretted what he’d done to her. Fwiw.
I enjoyed your defence of the work. I’ve always been very found of the story, having read it as a child.
Well maybe you are a good person to tell me why Pantaloon in Black doesn’t get more praise and attention. I think it is one of Faulkner’s all time best. I have never read it without crying buckets, and I’m really not that emotional of a person. On top of the breathtaking prose, it’s one of the best insights into race relations if its day. Why is that silly story A Rose for Emily better known? [The writing isn’t silly, but it’s clear Faulkner had no clue what acrotomophilia is all about.]
Thank you. We just watched the movie as a family - the first time for my 18 year old. He took the book from our shelves and began to read it.
He was deeply moved by the character of Atticus, but most of all by the relationship between Bo Raddley and Scout. There are too many young people who are more than happy to throw rocks at the perceived weird or odd ones - from the streets of a city, to the halls of a high school or college, to an on-line chat board.
This movie helped him to understand just what you lose of *yourself* by doing that. Essentially that is the moral of the trial, as well.
Fictional plots and psychologically-recognizable characters are the way that we can most effectively share our own narratives of the way life works. Harper Lee was speaking for all Americans when she argued that we must base our narratives on common themes - just as the Constitution - but we have to be brave enough to remember that group rules may not be good ones after all. We must keep our values articulated and clear.
It’s actually being banned in quite a few places, for, of all things, its “racist” element.
Gregory Prick (a flaming leftist) was perfect in that role, which doesn’t help matters at all.
Will somebody splain to me why this hasn't made FR Word of the Day yet?
Are you telling me I should drop in on the Word of the Day posts, that I might enjoy them? Sounds like it. I’ll add it to my To Do list. ;)
The Great Gatsby was the best I had to read in school. Not a huge fan of To Kill a Mockingbird.
To call “To Kill a Mockingbird” “self righteous tripe” is to have missed the point of the book entirely. O’Connor was right in stating “It’s interesting that all the folks that are buying it don’t know they are reading a children’s book.” When I read this book, and I usually read it once a year, it brings me back to my own childhood. I did not grow up in the South, but every child shares memories of people and events that change their lives forever. The novel has some truly wonderful characterizations: Miss Maudie and Miss Stephanie Crawford; old Miss Dubose whose venomous interdicts mask a remarkable tenacity of moral strength. Who can forget Scout and Jem, and the summer friend , Dill? Calpurnia the cook, and the enigmatic Boo Radley? I learned many things from this book, and it was a part of my growing up years. My sister and I still point out the “Mayellas” we might meet, and who does not know a low life like Bob Ewell? This book is timeless, and it is right to continue to teach it in the class room. Because the themes are not hidden and easily understood, it makes a wonderful foundation for classroom discussion. It is not just a book about race, although it is certainly that as well, but a story about growing up in a nurturing environment with a father that displays a sense of Old Testament righteousness.
When I tell people that I could not finish reading To Kill a Mockingbird, they think I am nuts.
I hated TKAM but I loved Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Guess the reason I liked the latter 2 was due to an English teacher reading them to us. She made them come alive.
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