Once again, the wheel has turned...

[Happy Maudlin]

Yeah, my parents made sure that I had most of the classics when I was a bit too young to understand them; usually I just looked at the pictures. The Greeks were the best - those gauzy, seductive goddesses, and all those muscular, buff men in armor.

I finally read the Iliad and the Odyssey in High School, and I'll never forget wandering the halls, thinking about Achilles and Patroclus, Odysseus and Circe (poor Penelope). Those characters are alive to me still.

When I was a child, I was introduced to classic literature by a little dog named Wishbone...


But at the age of 9 when my sister preferred the Babysitters club, I was reading Macbeth. The malady lingers on.

 

[DevilTakeTheHindmost]

I am th13teen and it would have taken me ages to find out that Morrissey even existed if it hadn't have been for my parents. My parents, especially my Mum, have spread their influences to me. From both my parents The Smiths, The Cure and Talking Heads. From my Mum, musicals, Queen but luckily not Neil Diamond.

It is hard growing up in a society where everybody else reckons Justin Bieber has a "beast voice" and they say "like" after every couple of words. It all stems down to the fact that America is taking over the world.

 

[Anaesthesine]

What, you didn't get the rulebook? You were supposed to be wandering around trying to be Holden Caulfield.

Funny thing, I never could related to HC (you'd think I would have). I was into Morgan Le Fay.

Bah, modernity.

 

[yesitis]

i was reading joyce as a zygote.

 

[Happy Maudlin]

That's funny.

i was reading joyce as a zygote.

 

[Anaesthesine]

But at the age of 9 when my sister preferred the Babysitters club, I was reading Macbeth. The malady lingers on.

Oh, Shakespeare. I went through a brief, youthful phase of rejecting The Plays because everyone treated them like the Holy Bible, and I thought I'd be a rebel.

Of course that didn't last long, how could it? These days all you have to say is "What a piece of work is a man..." or "The quality of mercy is not strained..." and the tears start to come.

 

[Happy Maudlin]

Oh, Shakespeare. I went through a brief, youthful phase of rejecting The Plays because everyone treated them like the Holy Bible, and I thought I'd be a rebel.

Of course that didn't last long, how could it? These days all you have to say is "What a piece of work is a man..." or "The quality of mercy is not strained..." and the tears start to come.

I had a similar experience. I didn't like Shakespeare because of was tired of reading his work for school. But now I think Julius Caesar is a classic. And I have a special place in my mind for Macbeth. And that motherf*cker Hamlet.

 

[Worm]

Funny thing, I never could related to HC (you'd think I would have). I was into Morgan Le Fay.

Bah, modernity.

Sheesh, you have me beat. I thought I was "retro" in my love of Huckleberry Finn, David Balfour, and Captain Nemo.

 

[Worm]

These days all you have to say is "What a piece of work is a man..." or "The quality of mercy is not strained..." and the tears start to come.

Yes, only when I hear "What a piece of work is a man..." it is not the Bard I think of...

 

[Anaesthesine]

I had a similar experience. I didn't like Shakespeare because of was tired of reading his work for school. But now I think Julius Caesar is a classic. And I have a special place in my mind for Macbeth. And that motherf*cker Hamlet.

I know, Hamlet is so overdone, but I can't resist checking out the latest version, and then the next, and then the one after that. It never seems to get old.

Macbeth - oh, it doesn't get much better than that. If you don't already know about it, check out the Astor Place Riot:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astor_Place_Riot.

Now THAT's entertainment.

 

[Happy Maudlin]

Beats my idea of anarchy. And entertainment

 

[Anaesthesine]

Yes, only when I hear "What a piece of work is a man..." it is not the Bard I think of...

Man, perfected.

 

[Worm]

Man, perfected.

Given the weather's augmentation of my usual mood I'm tempted to go out and recreate the scene myself. Surely I can scare up a ratty old overcoat in seconds flat.

 

[PregnantForTheLastTime]

What, you didn't get the rulebook? You were supposed to be wandering around trying to be Holden Caulfield.

I must have been issued a rulebook. Please grant me a bit of credit: in Indiana, Holden's New York seemed terribly exotic.

Funny thing, I never could related to HC (you'd think I would have). I was into Morgan Le Fay.

Bah, modernity.

Oh, but then there was that, too. I found a copy of Steinbeck's "Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Nights" abandoned in the drama classroom. Add in a heaping spoonful of Anne Rice, and a shot of Oscar Wilde... I was pretty typically drenched in moody literature--but not typical there.

Given the weather's augmentation of my usual mood I'm tempted to go out and recreate the scene myself. Surely I can scare up a ratty old overcoat in seconds flat.

Oh, fer Chrissake's. So, it's wet and blue out. Go get some soup and enjoy the gloom. Have you forgotten how to revel in it? (Says me with bellyful of soup and fresh cup of hot coffee on my desk.)

Qvist is utterly right. You can't make a kid read anything. But you can raise them in a house in which there are books everywhere, and read to them until they are old enough to make you stop, and spend nearly all your time using words... and see what you get. So far, so good.

 

[Worm]

I must have been issued a rulebook. Please grant me a bit of credit: in Indiana, Holden's New York seemed terribly exotic.

It did hold me under its spell for awhile, too. Then I read the real-life (well, okay, maybe slightly exaggerated) New York City adventures of a certain Truman Streckfus Persons, as revealed in Gerald Clarke's biography of same, and I could no longer enjoy the fiction.

Qvist is utterly right. You can't make a kid read anything. But you can raise them in a house in which there are books everywhere, and read to them until they are old enough to make you stop, and spend nearly all your time using words... and see what you get. So far, so good.

You mean there's no quizzing them on "The Faerie Queene" or spontaneous translations of Thucydides over Cheerios at the breakfast table? And here I'd always thought the finest model of parenthood one could hope to emulate was a more Jesuit-flavored, slightly unhinged Alex Trebek with the rhetorical moxy of the drill sergeant in "Full Metal Jacket" thrown in for good measure. Maybe I'll stick to raising Chia hamsters.

 

[PregnantForTheLastTime]

You mean there's no quizzing them on "The Faerie Queene" or spontaneous translations of Thucydides over Cheerios at the breakfast table? And here I'd always thought the finest model of parenthood one could hope to emulate was a more Jesuit-flavored, slightly unhinged Alex Trebek with the rhetorical moxy of the drill sergeant in "Full Metal Jacket" thrown in for good measure. Maybe I'll stick to raising Chia hamsters.

No, we do shit like that all the time, too. But the thing is, you can't make them read stuff. You have to just leave it lying around, perhaps slightly obscured by something ordinary, like People. Then suddenly you discover they've read Great Expectations, or The Odyssey, and you didn't even notice it happening.

I wonder if I could trick my 10-year-old into reading Ulysses?

 

[murder and desire]

I know, Hamlet is so overdone, but I can't resist checking out the latest version, and then the next, and then the one after that. It never seems to get old.

Macbeth - oh, it doesn't get much better than that. If you don't already know about it, check out the Astor Place Riot:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astor_Place_Riot.

Now THAT's entertainment.

Some of you are very lucky, it seems like you came from cultured back grounds.
I had nothing, no culture in the house none of my friends were cultured and school was a sickening joke. My education came from walking around town, going to video shops, late night BBC1 and 2, music shops and record shops.
I didn't really have an education until I left school.
That said I chose my teachers wisely and by 16 I had a fully formed cultural land scape, which meant the world to me.
Then at 18/19 I found Moz.
The first record I liked (according to my mum) was T rex, the first pop star I got in to was Elvis at age 4. The Beatles,Kinks,Bowie,kate Bush and Motown
had a huge impact on me at around age 6 (thanks to the wireless and family record collection).
To me it was all about the voices and words and apart from Elvis and The Beatles I was unaware of the others as people until I was about 13

 

[Anaesthesine]

Some of you are very lucky, it seems like you came from cultured back grounds.
I had nothing, no culture in the house none of my friends weren't cultured and school was a sickening joke. My education came from walking around town, going to video shops, late night BBC1 and 2, music shops and record shops.
I didn't really have an education until I left school.
That sad I chose my teachers wisely and by 16 I had a fully formed cultural land scape, which meant the world to me.
Then at 18/19 I found Moz.
The first record I like (according to my mum) was T rex, the first pop star I got in to was Elvis at age 4. The Beatles,Kinks,Bowie,kate Bush and Motown
had a huge impact on me at around age 6 (thanks to the wireless and family record collection).
To me it was all about the voices and words and apart from Elvis and The Beatles I was unaware of the others as people until I was about 13

I'm so grateful to have been raised by bookish types - it made all the difference in the world.

Half of the "cultured" people I know were raised that way, but the other half had to work it out on their own (usually with the help of good teachers). Then there are artists like Morrissey, who introduce people to so many things that they might otherwise have missed.

I had no idea who Sacha Distel was before I saw him in a pre-show clip on the Ringleader tour. As a matter of fact, I'm still not too sure who he is...

 

[murder and desire]

I'm so grateful to have been raised by bookish types - it made all the difference in the world.

Half of the "cultured" people I know were raised that way, but the other half had to work it out on their own (usually with the help of good teachers). Then there are artists like Morrissey, who introduce people to so many things that they might otherwise have missed.

I had no idea who Sacha Distel was before I saw him in a pre-show clip on the Ringleader tour. As a matter of fact, I'm still not too sure who he is...

Jesus (jones), I just reread the part you quoted, from me, there are a number of typos, how embarrassing!
I was in a rush.
I wouldn't worry about Sacha he was nothing special, I don't think.

 

[Qvist]

You can't make a kid read anything. But you can raise them in a house in which there are books everywhere, and read to them until they are old enough to make you stop, and spend nearly all your time using words... and see what you get. So far, so good.

Exactly! That's sort of our campaign plan too.

You can't really make it manipulative either. If they like Bob the Builder, then they like Bob the Builder and there's no sense in fighting it. It's more about being conscious about what you expose them to, and organise things so that they're not auto-blasted by the mainstream garbage steamroller because nothing else has a presence. For instance by relying on DVDs instead of those awful children's TV channels. Or better still, no television connection. And taking them to galleries. And playing good music. And talking to them about it. And as they get older I suppose, they also pick up a sense of what is important and what isn't from things like what subjects are being talked about over dinner, and how.

cheers