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?

[DaughterofEve]

Oh, I knew someone would object! I'm sorry, it's just not my style...maybe in the same way I don't like Gilbert and Sullivan. I do not insist that the things I don't like have no merit, I just, plainly, don't like them!!!
But just since you bothered to reply, I'll keep my eyes open in the bookstore for some of the things you mentioned to browse for fun! : ) I do like KNIGHTS...and also thoughtful replies to my posts on FR!

[wardaddy]

Thanks...Bob...for your encouragement.

[iconoclast]

Which isn't all that surprising to those who had doubts about him.

Wow. Its really rare to find a shared view of this guy!

[iconoclast]

Best assigned book I ever read (actually it was on a recommended reading list for a college class) was Brave New World by Huxley.

[bert]

"Black Like Me".... the saga of a left ist journalist puke who tinted his exterior to feel the pain.

[AmishDude]

No, I didn't know DeForest Kelley ever played Loman.

[BradyLS]

...The women would not acknowledge the rights of men, whom they declared always to be in the wrong; and, as the gentlemen who visited Mr. Easy were all men of property, they could not perceive the advantages of sharing with those who had none...

Wow! Even then! These are going to be fun to read!

[Wonder Warthog]

"Amazingly, one of my high school English teachers was a young, anti-drug fairly conservative Jewish guy who was into science fiction."

So, did he recommend reading Robert A. Heinlein's works??

[Wonder Warthog]

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

What! You've never met anyone named "Ethyl" in a bar??

[AnAmericanMother]

Wait'll you meet Mesty. HE makes the politically correct just squirm. And serve them right!

[Celtic Conservative]

I remember Thurow from some of My college work . Noted conflict theorist, a sociology theory which leaned heavily on marxist/communist thought. My addition to the list would be "The color purple" by Alice Walker, the gist of which is "men suck, become a lesbian". If you saw the movie version, they toned down the lesbianism/feminist rhetoric that was in the book. Forced to read it in a 100 level lit. course.

Slainte,

CC

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

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

Ditto.

[KfromMich]

My English teacher for Early American literature was a blatant Feminazi. Every book we read for the course was about a turn of the century woman from upper class circles that committed suicide at the end of the book.

Sounds a lot like my high school English class. Was The Awakening by Kate Chopin amoung the books you had to read?

The worst book I've read recently is La Femme Rompue by Simone de Beauvoir, for a college French class. I'm in the middle of reading Les noces barbares for the same class, and it's even worse. Sometimes I find myself trying not to understand French.

[AnAmericanMother]

Hey! Great minds travel the same channels! Look at Post 192!

Boy, The Awakening was awful! If you want to read about New Orleans, read Lafcadio Hearn instead. Much more fun to read, and no PC BS either. Strange bird but an excellent writer in the rather florid and dramatic Victorian style. His "New Orleans Sketches" is absolutely riveting, with such topics as the life and death of the last of the old Voodoo "houngans" or high priests, and superstitions connected with Voodoo and other New Orleans traditions. Also pathetic stories of love and loss, one in particular, "Chita", turns on a yellow fever epidemic and a hurricane (hey, it's Victorian drama, but it's great!).

Hearn later moved to Japan, married the daughter of a Samurai, took a Japanese name, and became immersed in a new role as the interpreter of Japan to the West. His translations of Japanese ghost stories are superb -- I have told them to my children's school classes on Hallowe'en with gratifying results. ;-)

[struggle]

It's not that I didnt understand it. If I didnt I couldnt lie my way out of philosophy and logic 110. It's just the basis of the whole matter that disturbed me. Even though Aristotle explores metaphysics, he does in a convincing way that seems to be bounded to some kind of truth. The part of the republic that deals with the "ideals" simply was distasteful. I find that many student do not read the whole thing and get the "cave story" spit out to them by a junior college professor and see it as some kind of enlightenment. I thought that plato was a good guy that meant well, but compared to aristotle, he uses rationalism in excess and no empiricism at all. All that was 5 years ago anyway, and all this rushing around teaching, translating, and other things has probably left the whole world un-contextualized.

[struggle]

Ah, Lafcadio Hearn... and his Kaidan. Im married to the daughter of a Buddhist carver, and live in Kyoto. Believe me, if you want ghost stories, just ask, I DELIVER!

[struggle]

Whan that april with its shorahs soote...

Dude, I love Chaucer. I had to memorize the intro to "Canterbury Tales" in Middle English from a prof. at Cal State Long Beach and it still stuns the brits I see here in Japan. Even they never learned any of that in English...

[eddie willers]

Nevile Shute's On The Beach.I liked the movie so much more.

I liked Neil Young's record better.

[manfromlamancha]

Did you know that the democratic underground reviewed this post??? (I lurk their website to see what bats are flying around in their collective empty skull)

[struggle]

You and me both....

I used to be the "token conservative" writer for cal state long beaches newspaper. I wrote a slammer about Prop. 22 (no gay marriage) passing and had a lot of fun making a logical rebuttal of gay marriage while I was smoking pot. Needless to say, the document came out logical but crass. Lo and behold the next week my own Literary Criticism Prof. (gay) had written a rebuttal about my article and called me homophobic and a fascist. The man basically came to class to sell his books of criticism and poetry and give us 4 assignements that he either slanted towards homosexuality "The Secret Stranger" (i think) by London or something that was only about sexuality "Orlando" by Wolfe. Luckly, as I was a token conservative for the paper I used a pen name. This enabled me to rip him a new orface for his moral high horse. I always had a sweet grin at his classes after that article, and the funny thing is that he SHOWED MY ARTICLE TO THE CLASS! He seemed pretty pissed, but he never knew it was me until I saw him at the graduation and informed him that Madge Hott was really me, Matt Hodge... What a sphincter!!! Could he not figure that out???