I am seriously asking this question: Is any book required reading now?
I have no idea, because I graduated from HS in 1966. Yes, we read 1984, and Animal Farm, and Brave New World, and Lord of the Flies. And, of course, The Catcher in the Rye.
Since I had no children, I have no idea how school works now. Thanks.
Lord of the Flies was written by someone who really, deeply, disturbed-ly hated human beings. He took an actual true story of a bunch of school kids (I wanna say, jr. high equivalents) who'd "borrowed" the boat of a nasty school headmaster in Southeast Asia for a playing hooky/put one in his eye double feature, and got shipwrecked later on in the day. Luckily, the island they were closest to had previously been inhabited (about 100 years before the population had been "removed" due to slavery), and some of the crops were still available.
The morning after the wreck, the best "leader" of the bunch immediately started handing out roles and jobs to the others, based on what he knew they could do: one kid was good at lighting fires, so he was sent to the tallest point to man a signal fire. Another kid was good at plants, so he did a lot of the gathering and what farming they could. Another one, first aid. Etc.
They cared for and about each other really well; when one kid had slid down a steep embankment and broken his leg, the others rallied around him, scooped him up, got a splint on him once they were at the "ground level," and gave him sit-down type jobs he could do until he healed.
They survived pretty darned well for several months, and when the signal fire kid noticed a ship actually near their sea lanes, he lit up the beacon and they got rescued. (Can't recall what their headmaster thought of them...)
Some of them are still required reading. In our case, because grandma (class of 1968), insists. I just ordered 1984 and Animal Farm for my 13 year old grandson. I read all the same books that you did. Guessing you did not grow up in the South.
Lots of books deemed “classic” by the traditional English curriculum have been banned for bullshit reasons- google “Texas book bans” for more specifics. (Former English teacher here- so glad I’m in true-blue Austin and didn’t have to deal with the bans.)
Those books would not be in required reading in the South. My husband was transferred to NC when our boys were in HS in 1992. None of these books were even considered. I grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio. We read them all.
In a way, I still kind of like the MAD Magazine "MAD Looks at a High School" (or some such title; "Inside a High School"?) where the teachers, eating lunch in the lounge, were talking about such:
"Have you /seen/ the latest list of banned books?! I think it's disgraceful!"
"I think it's great! It's a sure way to get a kid to read a book; put it on a /banned list/!"
Indeed. Unlike most of us, who understand Orwells writings - 1984, Animal Farm - as cautionary tales, the magas use them as blueprints to help them design a contracted world. I think that THEY think that making the world small, mean and full of fear will somehow enable them to control all things, thoughts and people, thereby ensuring that nothing will ever change and time will stop. And that they, and only they, will enjoy the resources and safety denied to others.
And they will eventually learn, as we all must, that however hard we try we cannot control everything, and, eventually, we cannot even control ourselves but must succumb to entropy. Meanwhile, their pursuit to control everything is making a hell of a lot of people miserable.
Next Orwellian read—“Down and Out in Paris in London.”
It will remind you of declining living conditions here in America.
Paris is where he was originally thought to have contracted TB, which ultimately killed him.
But recent research links the lung infection to his hospital recovery during the Spanish Civil War.
Yes, TB is on the rise here, also, probably as a result of delayed diagnoses due to reduced access to medical care during Trump 1.0, medical professionals say.
That, and a lot of folks who catch it are often homeless, which means they might not be able to afford the antibiotic treatments, or have the chance to use the ones they have (which are often only "rated" to be effective between something like 58 degrees F and 77, or whatever it is, which isn't really possible to guarantee if you don't have a roof over your head), or forget to take a dose, or whatever the circumstances are.
Unfortunately, with the grand majority of antibiotics that are given via pill (1-2 injections of them is more effective, but more costly...you think Trump 2.0 is gonna release funds to help with something like that? X-D), you HAVE to keep taking them on a nigh-religious basis or else.
Penicillin, for example (on the diseases it still works on), is often in a 30-pill bottle, whose contents have to be taken 3x/day for 10 days, until the pills are gone. No skipping out on the last doses if you're feeling better. This is important, because if you don't take all the pills, we all run the risk of increasing the number of antibiotic-resistant germ species. :-/
Thank You for this....I'm pretty depressed reading about Texas, and I just found out that the mayor of St. Louis (nearest big city to where I live) is cancelling minority construction contracts because the federal government is threatening to punish and arrest city officials if they don't.
Oh, now THERE'S a surprise. After all, they have to...they simply must...create a vast underclass of poor brown folk and women of all ethnicities so that they can bask in their shiny, white superiority. 😉
I just listened to another gentleman on here that said that "HE" (autocrat) was going to lower drug prices by 1500% I don't know what to say, maybe "LIAR, liar pants on fire!" Thank you God for all you post! I'm hoping you know who I mean by "HE" or "HIM" and not the messenger!
I have had to delet the SubStack app because it sucked too much time from my caregiver role for my husband but your email arrives every day and I think “Hurray! God hasn’t forgotten me.” I need your laughter and encouragement to raise me up out of my daily, dark mood when I awaken to 🍊
I live the same life. I don’t think most people can comprehend the double whammy of being sole caregiver to an ailing husband and witnessing everything that trump and his enablers are doing to our world. Bless you, Pam. Take care of yourself, too.
There’s no looking back! If we don’t see the writing on the wall and learn that there is purpose and meaning in these crazed behaviors and cukoo appointments then we need to get out of the pundit role and just tell bedtime stories!
People, 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸stop reflecting and begin forecasting and developing your plan of action 🔥for today, this week and this month to actively undermine the Heritage Foundation 👹agenda. Project 2025 is the book we must read and sadly memorize it and chart each, our on path to build burning barricades against its fast moving forward movement.
Fight fight fight 💥🇺🇸💥🇺🇸💥🇺🇸against the enemy which is this Heritage Foundation doctrine and the foul and cruel and deceit filled folk it has spawned now managing the White House and its failing Orange hag puppet, Trump! Next it will be JD.
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸RED BLOODED AMERICANS look ahead and say yes yes yes to the BRIGHT PROMISE and the new small d democratic reformation only OUR future knows. We must stop malingering on the sickliness of yesterday and instead be strong and be fighting today, tomorrow and every moment on the streets and in our hearts for as long as our beloved Republic remains!
Your interviews and your live Podcast add a lot to the value of your offerings: Additional humor, social commentary, banter, clips from news and previews and karaoke. However, often I can’t find the link to the live podcast and can’t always find the replays.
I just listened to a podcast (rerun) that covered the concentration camps in the US where we placed all of the kidnapped Japanese people/citizens. It broke my heart the first time I listened a few years ago; it is even worse now, knowing we are doing it again. God, thank you for helping us cope with this, and take as much action as we can. You are doing great and important work!
I am rereading 1984. Scary how similar to now.
It was “Required Reading" in HS when I read it. It terrified me then…living it is a millions times worse.
Same here.
Left a profound impression on me in high school. I had absolutely no idea HOW profound until now. Holy shit.
I am seriously asking this question: Is any book required reading now?
I have no idea, because I graduated from HS in 1966. Yes, we read 1984, and Animal Farm, and Brave New World, and Lord of the Flies. And, of course, The Catcher in the Rye.
Since I had no children, I have no idea how school works now. Thanks.
Lord of the Flies was written by someone who really, deeply, disturbed-ly hated human beings. He took an actual true story of a bunch of school kids (I wanna say, jr. high equivalents) who'd "borrowed" the boat of a nasty school headmaster in Southeast Asia for a playing hooky/put one in his eye double feature, and got shipwrecked later on in the day. Luckily, the island they were closest to had previously been inhabited (about 100 years before the population had been "removed" due to slavery), and some of the crops were still available.
The morning after the wreck, the best "leader" of the bunch immediately started handing out roles and jobs to the others, based on what he knew they could do: one kid was good at lighting fires, so he was sent to the tallest point to man a signal fire. Another kid was good at plants, so he did a lot of the gathering and what farming they could. Another one, first aid. Etc.
They cared for and about each other really well; when one kid had slid down a steep embankment and broken his leg, the others rallied around him, scooped him up, got a splint on him once they were at the "ground level," and gave him sit-down type jobs he could do until he healed.
They survived pretty darned well for several months, and when the signal fire kid noticed a ship actually near their sea lanes, he lit up the beacon and they got rescued. (Can't recall what their headmaster thought of them...)
From everything I've heard of the book, Golding took the barest bones of that real-life incident and turned it 180 degrees opposite of what actually happened. Personally, I prefer this article, though it isn't immediately related (yet similar): https://www.cracked.com/article_21928_4-things-the-walking-dead-gets-wrong-about-apocalypse.html
(Oh, and this, found later: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-probe-human-nature-and-discover-we-are-good-after-all/)
Some of them are still required reading. In our case, because grandma (class of 1968), insists. I just ordered 1984 and Animal Farm for my 13 year old grandson. I read all the same books that you did. Guessing you did not grow up in the South.
Native life-long Washingtonian. What am I missing re the South?
Lots of books deemed “classic” by the traditional English curriculum have been banned for bullshit reasons- google “Texas book bans” for more specifics. (Former English teacher here- so glad I’m in true-blue Austin and didn’t have to deal with the bans.)
Those books would not be in required reading in the South. My husband was transferred to NC when our boys were in HS in 1992. None of these books were even considered. I grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio. We read them all.
All true!
I had to have my parents sign a waver so I could check-out & read the “banned” books.
In a way, I still kind of like the MAD Magazine "MAD Looks at a High School" (or some such title; "Inside a High School"?) where the teachers, eating lunch in the lounge, were talking about such:
"Have you /seen/ the latest list of banned books?! I think it's disgraceful!"
"I think it's great! It's a sure way to get a kid to read a book; put it on a /banned list/!"
Indeed. Unlike most of us, who understand Orwells writings - 1984, Animal Farm - as cautionary tales, the magas use them as blueprints to help them design a contracted world. I think that THEY think that making the world small, mean and full of fear will somehow enable them to control all things, thoughts and people, thereby ensuring that nothing will ever change and time will stop. And that they, and only they, will enjoy the resources and safety denied to others.
And they will eventually learn, as we all must, that however hard we try we cannot control everything, and, eventually, we cannot even control ourselves but must succumb to entropy. Meanwhile, their pursuit to control everything is making a hell of a lot of people miserable.
Next Orwellian read—“Down and Out in Paris in London.”
It will remind you of declining living conditions here in America.
Paris is where he was originally thought to have contracted TB, which ultimately killed him.
But recent research links the lung infection to his hospital recovery during the Spanish Civil War.
Yes, TB is on the rise here, also, probably as a result of delayed diagnoses due to reduced access to medical care during Trump 1.0, medical professionals say.
That, and a lot of folks who catch it are often homeless, which means they might not be able to afford the antibiotic treatments, or have the chance to use the ones they have (which are often only "rated" to be effective between something like 58 degrees F and 77, or whatever it is, which isn't really possible to guarantee if you don't have a roof over your head), or forget to take a dose, or whatever the circumstances are.
Unfortunately, with the grand majority of antibiotics that are given via pill (1-2 injections of them is more effective, but more costly...you think Trump 2.0 is gonna release funds to help with something like that? X-D), you HAVE to keep taking them on a nigh-religious basis or else.
Penicillin, for example (on the diseases it still works on), is often in a 30-pill bottle, whose contents have to be taken 3x/day for 10 days, until the pills are gone. No skipping out on the last doses if you're feeling better. This is important, because if you don't take all the pills, we all run the risk of increasing the number of antibiotic-resistant germ species. :-/
All this and more add up to "Super" T.B. :-/
Thank you for giving us hope. Proud to be fighting the good fight with you God and all the real human beings here, peace, love and solidarity <3
Thank you God! You have no idea how much this helped me today! Thanks for not giving up too! We got this!
Dear God,
Thank you for not giving up on us. We support You, You support US!! That's how it works!!!
Love,
me
Thank You for this....I'm pretty depressed reading about Texas, and I just found out that the mayor of St. Louis (nearest big city to where I live) is cancelling minority construction contracts because the federal government is threatening to punish and arrest city officials if they don't.
Oh, now THERE'S a surprise. After all, they have to...they simply must...create a vast underclass of poor brown folk and women of all ethnicities so that they can bask in their shiny, white superiority. 😉
💔😢🤢
Thank You GOD!
I am so relieved not to hear TACO’s rants on the news channels anymore- it was sole-killing last time around.
Musk-Ox - shit him off X. Thank
I just listened to another gentleman on here that said that "HE" (autocrat) was going to lower drug prices by 1500% I don't know what to say, maybe "LIAR, liar pants on fire!" Thank you God for all you post! I'm hoping you know who I mean by "HE" or "HIM" and not the messenger!
Thanks for the blessings - we all need to take a breath & confirm to ourselves that we are on the side of humanity.
This is a first, having G-d thank ME! Thank you for putting pep in my step.
I have had to delet the SubStack app because it sucked too much time from my caregiver role for my husband but your email arrives every day and I think “Hurray! God hasn’t forgotten me.” I need your laughter and encouragement to raise me up out of my daily, dark mood when I awaken to 🍊
I live the same life. I don’t think most people can comprehend the double whammy of being sole caregiver to an ailing husband and witnessing everything that trump and his enablers are doing to our world. Bless you, Pam. Take care of yourself, too.
Thank you!!
"Never give up! Never surrender!"
Galaxy Quest
"Never cruel nor cowardly (but if you ever are, always make amends). Never give up. Never give in." --The Doctor, /Doctor Who/
GMTA! :D
Your reader Barbara talked about the book 1984 I can imagine it's even scarier than the movie.
There’s no looking back! If we don’t see the writing on the wall and learn that there is purpose and meaning in these crazed behaviors and cukoo appointments then we need to get out of the pundit role and just tell bedtime stories!
People, 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸stop reflecting and begin forecasting and developing your plan of action 🔥for today, this week and this month to actively undermine the Heritage Foundation 👹agenda. Project 2025 is the book we must read and sadly memorize it and chart each, our on path to build burning barricades against its fast moving forward movement.
Fight fight fight 💥🇺🇸💥🇺🇸💥🇺🇸against the enemy which is this Heritage Foundation doctrine and the foul and cruel and deceit filled folk it has spawned now managing the White House and its failing Orange hag puppet, Trump! Next it will be JD.
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸RED BLOODED AMERICANS look ahead and say yes yes yes to the BRIGHT PROMISE and the new small d democratic reformation only OUR future knows. We must stop malingering on the sickliness of yesterday and instead be strong and be fighting today, tomorrow and every moment on the streets and in our hearts for as long as our beloved Republic remains!
Your interviews and your live Podcast add a lot to the value of your offerings: Additional humor, social commentary, banter, clips from news and previews and karaoke. However, often I can’t find the link to the live podcast and can’t always find the replays.
I just listened to a podcast (rerun) that covered the concentration camps in the US where we placed all of the kidnapped Japanese people/citizens. It broke my heart the first time I listened a few years ago; it is even worse now, knowing we are doing it again. God, thank you for helping us cope with this, and take as much action as we can. You are doing great and important work!