The RHLC!

[GoboDeadly95]

Ya know who else are like hobbits? Fraggles with all the story telling and such. And Cantus can be Gandalf/Alsan! Gobo is Frodo. Boober can be hmm . . . I'll think. Wembly'll be Sam. Red can be Merry . . . nah . . . Pippin. Mokey'll be Merry. Junior can be Aragorn and that leaves Gimli and Legolas and Boromir. Boober sorta strikes me as a Faramir. Doncha think?

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

Well I was lucky I actually had a teacher who made Beowulf and Canterbury interesting. We did some bizarre stuff like talk shows with the characters, lol.

I tried reading Dickens years ago but maybe I was just too young, I might try again at some point.

Sharkespeare, definitely, though I wish we'd read Mid Summer Night's Dream, I got so sick of Romeo and Juliet, lol.

It's a crime that Tolkien and Lewis aren't taught more in schools! (They were friends you know).

Wow, talk shows with The Canterbury Tales...I had an English teacher in high school who encouraged us to do stuff like that. When we read "Death of a Salesman," she asked us to put together a soundtrack - choose songs that we thought would match certain scenes and burn them onto a CD. Same thing when we were studying the differences between "Gothic" and "Transcendental" literature.

But unfortunately, not all my teachers were like that - during my senior year, I had this one teacher who permanently ruined my appreciation for Hemingway. And when I was in middle school, we did the usual tour of duty through Shakespeare and Dickens - all this going on about certain themes and metaphors. Let's face it, any book, no matter how good it is, loses all its appeal when you've got a teacher ramming it down your throat - it's a basic law of the universe.

Edit: heralde, you've got a good point there. When Shakespeare is taught in schools, the teachers only seem to concentrate on the tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, Julius Caesar - why can't they teach the comedies for once?

I'm a member of a book-related forum and site called BookCrossing.com - on this one thread, a lot of members were lamenting about books they had to read in school, and hated. I saw a lot of the usual suspects mentioned - would it hurt our English teachers to assign some new books for summer reading for a change?

Fraggles as hobbits? That sounds kind of cool...and you know, maybe the Muppets could do some kind of take on The Canterbury Tales. Who knows?

 

[CensoredAlso]

Ya know who else are like hobbits? Fraggles with all the story telling and such. And Cantus can be Gandalf/Alsan! Gobo is Frodo. Boober can be hmm . . . I'll think. Wembly'll be Sam. Red can be Merry . . . nah . . . Pippin. Mokey'll be Merry. Junior can be Aragorn and that leaves Gimli and Legolas and Boromir. Boober sorta strikes me as a Faramir. Doncha think?

Cool, actually I often do that, take characters from one of my interests and put them in another interest's situation. It's fun to do when you've run out of episodes and want to see more, lol.

Wow, talk shows with The Canterbury Tales...I had an English teacher in high school who encouraged us to do stuff like that. When we read "Death of a Salesman," she asked us to put together a soundtrack - choose songs that we thought would match certain scenes and burn them onto a CD. Same thing when we were studying the differences between "Gothic" and "Transcendental" literature.

Well actually the talk shows we did with Beowulf. I played Grendel as the talk show host, lol. We were also reading the more recent book from Grendel's point of view at time. I opened the show with "Hello this is the Grendel Show, you stupid humans!" Lol

That's an awesome idea about arranging a soundtrack. Actually that's another thing I like doing just in my spare time, lol.

Edit: heralde, you've got a good point there. When Shakespeare is taught in schools, the teachers only seem to concentrate on the tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, Julius Caesar - why can't they teach the comedies for once?

That's a good point. Maybe they think it's more academic and serious to study tragedies, but the comedies have a lot to teach as well.

 

[GoboDeadly95]

Wow, talk shows with The Canterbury Tales...I had an English teacher in high school who encouraged us to do stuff like that. When we read "Death of a Salesman," she asked us to put together a soundtrack - choose songs that we thought would match certain scenes and burn them onto a CD. Same thing when we were studying the differences between "Gothic" and "Transcendental" literature.

But unfortunately, not all my teachers were like that - during my senior year, I had this one teacher who permanently ruined my appreciation for Hemingway. And when I was in middle school, we did the usual tour of duty through Shakespeare and Dickens - all this going on about certain themes and metaphors. Let's face it, any book, no matter how good it is, loses all its appeal when you've got a teacher ramming it down your throat - it's a basic law of the universe.

Edit: heralde, you've got a good point there. When Shakespeare is taught in schools, the teachers only seem to concentrate on the tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, Julius Caesar - why can't they teach the comedies for once?

I'm a member of a book-related forum and site called BookCrossing.com - on this one thread, a lot of members were lamenting about books they had to read in school, and hated. I saw a lot of the usual suspects mentioned - would it hurt our English teachers to assign some new books for summer reading for a change?

Fraggles as hobbits? That sounds kind of cool...and you know, maybe the Muppets could do some kind of take on The Canterbury Tales. Who knows?

DUUUDE Muppet Canterbury Tales now that would be something that I could study with! YOU'VE BEEN A BIG HELP!

 

[Nekoshema]

The Canturbury Tails? never heard of it lol, and i was a member of the Wishbone fanclub Dickens is a little overrated in my opinion, i've read a couple of his books and find them, although well written, bore holes. and it's probably because everyone who has ever done anything with film has made A Christmas Carol, but i hate that story. [few versions excluded MCC, oh and Scrogged with Bill Murray] i read it in the 7th grade and did a report on it, the teacher wanted us to 'make the book come to life' [that's what the book report was titled] so i dressed as the ghost of Christmas Present [and since i used 'i'm suppose to be this guy' cuz there's a picture in my book of the characters] i got top marks [the teacher was screwy] i'm planning on giving him another chance, but in the new years when i'm not a busy and have time to read 1000 page bore hole.

i first read Shakespeare in grade 9, Mid-Summer Nights Dream, as a kid i watched McBeth and Romeo and Juliet [not the DiCaprio version, don't get me started] in my opinion, the only good parts of Romeo and Juliet have Mercucio in them, the whole thing goes down hill after he *spoiler* dies

John Steinbeck *shiver* i had to read Of Mice and Men till the words bleed from my eyes, the first read was good, but the teacher adored the time, and was a huge Steinbeck fan, so we watched the movie, read the book, watched the movie, read the book as a group, watched the movie, had the book read to us on tape by the actor who played George [his name escapes me, he's on CSI NY, Gary S.] watched the movie, had the teacher read it a loud, watched the movie, read it again, and for recap, watched the movie. we cheered when *spoiler* George shot Lenny. the next year my new English hated Steinbeck, along with half the class because we were all in the same one last year, so we formed the 'Steinbeck Haters Club' basically we met once a month after reading a book and compared it to Steinbeck, the conclusion was always the same 'Steinbeck sucks'

as for the books you wish were taught Gobo, skool boards are dumb [also, in case anyone picked up, i know school is spelled wrong, i'm an Invader Zim fan, and that's how they spell it] in the 12th grade my teacher [the one from the Steinbeck haters club] tried to get The Da Vinci Code green lighted, but due to it's controversy [and it being a pretty strong Christian community] it was denied, but Lovely Bones was okayed

 

[CensoredAlso]

The Canturbury Tails? never heard of it lol,

I would recommend looking into them further. The Canterbury Tales are one of the oldest stories still around and actually are very amusing and witty and surprisingly modern. You just have to learn the language of the time so to speak. : )

[few versions excluded MCC, oh and Scrogged with Bill Murray]

Love Scrooged! Lol

i first read Shakespeare in grade 9, Mid-Summer Nights Dream, as a kid i watched McBeth and Romeo and Juliet [not the DiCaprio version, don't get me started] in my opinion, the only good parts of Romeo and Juliet have Mercucio in them, the whole thing goes down hill after he *spoiler* dies

I hear you, a lot of people love Mercucio.

I agree that Steinbeck can be very depressing (he was writing during The Great Depression, hehe), but I do respect his work.

 

[Nekoshema]

You just have to learn the language of the time so to speak. : )

when was it written? i've read Chaucer, and Shaspear, but most of the books are Victorian.

EDIT: just looked it up, it's Chaucer, i can read it, i've read a book of his poems and The Book of The Duchess, i'll check out the towns used book store, since my library doesn't have anything by Chaucer

yea, i do respect Steinbeck's work, he can write, but after reading that book so many freaking times

there are other books set roughly around the same time i like, To Kill a Mockingbird for instance, it sucks though that many classics are being band in skools due to content and or language, which for the time was normal, but now it isn't. personally if kids are going to complain anyway, you should teach one classic, and the rest should be more modern just to cut back on the gripe. just saying while i was trying to read hearing everyone complaining really made it hard to concentrate... but on the other hand i use to sell them the answers and made a killing

 

[GoboDeadly95]

Nekoshema, OH LORD STIENBECK, NOOOOOOOOO! I read Grapes of Wrath in 7th grade because my mom told me to and I almost died of boredom.

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

You want a book that's really a torture? "The Sound and the Fury," by William Faulkner. I had to read that years ago...my advice to you, if anyone approaches you holding that book, is to run very fast in the opposite direction.

 

[GoboDeadly95]

You want a book that's really a torture? "The Sound and the Fury," by William Faulkner. I had to read that years ago...my advice to you, if anyone approaches you holding that book, is to run very fast in the opposite direction.

Will do