Worst liberal/left wing book that you forced to read in High School or College?

My Squash ^ | 10/31/02 | Burkeman1

[Burkeman1]

Everyone has their horror story about some PC or Left Wing book they were forced to read in High School or College. My worst book was in High School. It was "The Fixer" by Bernard Malamud. It was the tale of a Russian Jew being falsley accused of the rape and murder of a Christian Russian girl just before the Communist coup of Russia. He was innocent of the crime and the book details his time in prison and the torments he was subjucted too. OF Course during his time in prison he becomes a Marxist and hopes for revolution! The entire book was one giant communist propaganda piece. Since I had already read Solzenitsyn by that time and questioned the book in class I was told to shut up by the teacher. I did- to my shame- and got my "A".

What is the worst piece of Left wing crap that you were forced to read in school?

[MotleyGirl70]

Pale And Short Like Me written by that tall and swarthy guy.

You're an author. I didn't know. :)

[Psycho_Bunny]

Catch-22

What a lousy book.

[SerpentDove]

>>Algebra 1 - They actually expected us to belive you could add and subtract letters. Like, I'm sure.<<

ROTFLOL! You win.

[Labyrinthos]

The Bible

[swarthyguy]

THe first post with Marcuse's "opus" onedimensionalman.

Man, you beat me.

Catcher in the Rye in HS sucks too. Let's make 16 year olds read a despondent book about a depressed 16 year old.

BOOORING! No wonder so many people hate reading. They've been brought up on a diet of PC books.

[CougarGA7]

The Bluest Eye by Morrison

This was a book assigned by my very liberal English 102 teacher. This book is all about incest, child abuse, and racial posturing. I found it to be a very offensive book, especially when you concider that it was assigned to a bunch of impressionable freshmen college students.

[ovrtaxt]

"We also saw a video of "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson (?) which was also depressing."

Yep, that's a gross little film. Made me sick, like I had been punched in the stomach. 7th grade.

[Richard Kimball]

Thanks to both of you. I'll check these out. I'm a big believer in offering alternative ideologies as opposed to just grousing about what's being dished out.

[Dinsdale]

The new testament.

Full of wuv your neigbor idealistic nonsense.

Ducking and running zig-zags.

[Dutchgirl]

I went to Nova High School which was founded with a grant from the Ford Foundation. We were given great freedom in choosing our literature. We would choose our own, discuss and were referred to others for comparison/contrast. Worst book,"The Rape of the APE"(American Puritan Ethic) author was eminently forgetable and "Slaughterhouse Five" by Vonnegut.

The liberal weenies hired by the Ford Foundation people in the 60's produced a whole counter-culture back lash by the late 70's, teachers that promoted faith in God, a love of America and suspicion of "liberalism." I believe the choir teacher(Mr. Hage) left Florida for a job with the Crystal Cathedral in California.

On the positive side, studied "The Bible as Literature" in public school, also was referred to "Civil Disobedience" by Thoreau, " Siddhartha" by Hesse,(all thanks to Mr. Hoffman) and "The Russians" by Hedrik Smith,and "Anthem" by Ayn Rand.(Thanks Mr. Heineman)

In college, worst books were the freshman "Modern American Writer's" course: " On the Road" by Kerouac, "The Bell Jar" by Plath, "Lolita" by Nabakov. I felt the only way I could get an "A" would be to run away, seduce a child and stick my head in a gas oven.

[antidisestablishment]

I wondered if someone would mention The Jungle.

Besides being the archetype of yellow journalism, I hated having to read it numerous times.

[Dutchgirl]

Huxley's Brave New World, Sir Thomas More's Utopia, and Orwell's 1984

As a homeschool mom, the first thing I did was to make my 10th-grade son watch "A Man for All Seasons". With that introduction over, we read "Utopia" and contasted it with Machiavelli "The Prince".I had him read "Anthem." We discussed the use of power. We went through Henry the 8th, Elizabeth I, Coligny, the Medicis, even the slaughter in Matanzas Bay (we live 5 miles from Ft. Caroline)...

This year, the Enlightenment, we are into Rousseau, Smith, Locke, Mills and the Federalist Papers. I had him read 1984. Compare and contrast with Anthem, which he had to re-read for the essay. His response, "Mom, I am smarter now than I was last year." Next, "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged"

[<1/1,000,000th%]

"Lifeboat Ethics" and another I can't remember the title of, about a cult waiting to be taken to the afterlife in a flying saucer. Written sometime before 1980.

[BradyLS]

Algebra 1 - They actually expected us to belive you could add and subtract letters. Like, I'm sure.

LOL!

[kitkat]

Senator, I think you've been writing for publication. That's when underlining is used to let the editor know that it should be in italics. Otherwise, for casual writing, quotes are still used for titles.

[BradyLS]

BTW, if anyone knows of any other good books that deal with duty and courage, I'd be willing to consider them.

I recommend anything by CS Forester, who created the fictional sea captain, Horatio Hornblower. Great stories and writing!

[BradyLS]

On FR, you're going to continually run into people who actually ARE " expert ", on topics discussed. Your bad fortune, is that I ( who am an " expert " in this area ) found this thread. LOL

And I pray to God He KEEPS you in that area!

[BlackVeil]

We had to read Catcher in the Rye by D.J. Salinger, and I thought it was anarchistic rubbish. And they insisted that we should LIKE it, we all had to write about what aspects of the lead character we indentified with. It might be a fine novel in some ways, but I did not like it, and resented having it pushed.

[BlackVeil]

You give a most convincing reading Ventana, and I disagree with you nopardons. (Also, you sound over the top when you try to plume yourself.) At the time when BNW appeared, many of Huxley's progressive friends thought that he had turned "reactionary." Like 1984, it represents a progressive writer having a serious rethink about socialism and social control.

Huxley is difficult to categorise, in political terms. But as early as Crome Yellow, his writings demonstrate an understanding of how the forward-thinkers of the inter-war era were implicitly more intolerant than their elders whom they wanted to displace.

[madison10]

Hint: Now book titles are italicized rather than underlined.