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?

[VetoBill]

Worse yet Chemistry

CH₃CH₂OH being alcohol.

I have been in many a bar and have yet to see any spirit named that.

[SpencerRoane]

"The Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison. Absolute garbage!


I've never read it. It is generally considered by critics to be the finest American novel since WWII. It was highly praised by Russell Kirk--the Godfather of American conservatism.

[nopardons]

If " GRAPES OF WRATH " is the best book you've ever read, you need a booklist. I'd be quite happy to give you one. :-)

[SpencerRoane]

Don't forget "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. Did anybody else have to read that little gem EVERY SINGLE YEAR?

[rwfromkansas]

Hmmm.....I thought a Tale of 2 Cities was good in showing teh tyranny of true democracy.

[fatguy]

"The Good Earth" I thought that was a good book.

I did too when I read it in junior high, but now I wonder what I would think of it, because as an adult I read one of her books that was an argument for abortion.

[beckett]

I agree about Matthiesson completely, and mostly about Kerouac too, but the latter deserves a bit of a dispensation I think. He was never much of a lefty, and legend has it that a stack of National Reviews was found by his body on the day he died in his mother's house. I think Jack rethought a lot of stuff in his final years.

[chnsmok]

I might have seen it but I don't remember.

[Vince Ferrer]

I have a film and a short story, but I don't know the titles to either. These were experienced in elementary school, long before I knew there was such things as political agendas.

The film was an environmental film (owned by the school district) produced by obvious environmental wackos. This film featured footage of a bird's nest on the ground with live chicks being set on fire, then being plowed under by a tractor. In another scene wolves were being hunted by snomobilers with guns. One wolf was shot, then the snowmobiler walks up to it and shoots it in the neck as it is convulsing on the ground, with a pool of bloody snow spreading underneath it. (yes, this was all real footage)

The short story was a fictional story praising androgeny as superior to having gender roles. A new kid shows up in school, and no one knows whether the kid is a boy or girl. The kids and teachers keep trying to trick the kid into revealing its gender, but it never does. Finally, a psychiatrist is brought in, because they assume the kid is insane. The psychiatrist examines the kid for hours. When the psychiatrist ends his examination, everyone wants to know what gender the kid is, but the psychiatrist proclaims that he doesn't know. However, he does say that he found the kid to be the healthiest child he has ever examined, precicely because of the kid's androgeny.

[Richard Kimball]

Well, I may be jumping off topic, but even though I run a fire academy, I give extra credit to any students who read The Caine Mutiny, The Right Stuff, or Starship Troopers.

I tell them I think it's my duty to wash I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings out of their heads. Worst I was personally assigned was The Crucible. It's a lot of leftist crap that was the first pop culture assault on the Pilgrims, and historically, it was nearly as accurate as JFK.

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

[laurav]

Joyce Carol Oates? Read On Boxing, her tales of Mike Tyson and others. Great non-fiction. Made me actually want to watch boxing for a while.

I can't vouch for her fiction, since I haven't read much of it. Part of the issue is she's so ... prolific. No one can turn out a novel every 6 months and have them all be good, but that's what she does.

[Calvin Locke]

Hmmm, I thought I'd be the one to toss in Plato's book.

Primarily because he said he would ban Homer's two books.

Or maybe it was just the Iliad.

[fatguy]

Roman Polanski's "MacBeth"

Not only was it coarse, but it dispensed with much of the dialog.

[The KG9 Kid]

Not a book, but:

My pony-tailed history teacher brought in a VHS tape of 'Apocalypse Now' for us to watch one day.

That was 100% of our class coverage of the Vietnam War.

[MHT]

My kids are forced to read "A People's History of the United States" by H. Zinn as their primary text in 11th grade American History. He is the Timothy Leary of American historians and approaches events in American history from the point of view of the losers (e.g., WWI from the point of view of the socialists, WWII from the point of view of the pacifists--Like "Who cares?"). Needless to say, my children have been ill-equipped to go onto college American history as they have absolutely no background in the subject and have been unable to take the Am Hist SAT II.

Avoid Zinn at all costs. (He is a true liberal, however, and will give his musings away free on the internet to anyone with enough time to waste to look at his website.)

[rwfromkansas]

I am studying history as my college major and one topic I like reading about is New England colonial history, especially the Puritans. I still get riled up about the complete and total nonsense that is peddled in that play. It is crap and does a major disservice to a people we should be admiring, despite that mistake.

[laurav]

Barbara Kingsolver's first novel, The Bean Trees, was fairly readable. I even liked Animal Dreams. Great imagery, a chopper rising like a prayer... The problem was, she got so into the politics that she turned away from the storytelling. That doesn't stop the early novels from having a way with words, though. I mean, when a novelist sets something in a place called Jesus-Is-Lord-Used-Tires that doubles as a refugee way station, that sounds pretty original to me, even if you don't like the politics.

[MHT]

Maya Angelou is a lousy writer and an even worse poet. Her stuff s**ks (and the missing word is not "stinks").

She is, however, an excellent actress, because her deep voice gives her lines a sense of automatic authority--imagine her paired against James Earl Jones.

I also understand she did a heck of a job running a prostitution ring and was an absolutely excellent madame before she realized she could really scr** alot more people over in the publishing business.

[harbingr]

'math is tuff' - Barbie...

Worst liberal book: 'Howl, etc' by Alan Ginsburg

Funniest parody book: 'Bored of the Ring' - Lampoon

Best text book: Physics I & II - Resnick and Halliday

Best quart of beer: Ballantine XXX Ale Best sci-fi author: Robert Heinlein