There's no plot! Arrrg!

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-08-27 05:27pm

So, for the start of school I have to read 'A Tree Grows in Brookyln', and I'm racing through it.

But there's no plot! No real arc at all! One event happens, and then a totally unrelated event happens, and then a completely unrelated event happens, in sequence! There's enough hanging guns in this book to arm the 3rd Army. It's not a novel or a story, it's the narrator telling us some stuff that happened in this girl's life.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2003-08-27 05:45pm

I have to read Frankenstein. Yaaay! Boring.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-08-27 05:51pm

In high school, I remember having 5 books assigned as summer reading:

Freshman year: Farewell to Manzanar

Sophomore: Frankenstein

Junior: The Grapes of Wrath

Senior: l'Etranger (The Stranger) and Waiting for Godot

All of 'em sucked.

J · Post by J » 2003-08-27 05:58pm

The only 2 books I remember reading in highschool are "Huck Finn" and "Catcher in the Rye", the rest of them were so boring or awful and often both that I've tried not to remember them.

"Waiting for Godot" was just retarded, a whole book where they're basically going "duh...I'm waiting for this Godot guy, what are you doing" "I'm waiting for Godot too". Talk about mind numbing.

"Grapes of Wrath" I remember reading but can't remember anything about it.

And then there was this dumb book about a family and a house in some depression, god was that book depressing.

Anyways, thank god I'm done with that....

Mark S · Post by **Mark S** » 2003-08-27 06:15pm

I liked Frankenstein when I read it. *shrug*

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-08-27 06:16pm

jmac wrote:The only 2 books I remember reading in highschool are "Huck Finn" and "Catcher in the Rye", the rest of them were so boring or awful and often both that I've tried not to remember them.

Catcher in the Rye was kool. Kinda weird, but really cool.

jmac wrote:"Waiting for Godot" was just retarded, a whole book where they're basically going "duh...I'm waiting for this Godot guy, what are you doing" "I'm waiting for Godot too". Talk about mind numbing.

WTF? Note to self: Don't read any books by whoever wrote that one...

BTW What's a hanging gun?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-08-27 06:18pm

Bwahahah, all my texts at secondary school were great!

Raptor 597 · Post by **Raptor 597** » 2003-08-27 06:31pm

I just finshed reading Night by Elie Wiesel on the Holocaust, toucding and very sad but the message was clear: The blindy optismistic Jews are the optismistic idiotic preps and the stupid omnes. When the teacher asked could a genocide hasppen today on that scale? I said hell yes as the dumb fuckers didn't even know that much about Liberia, which as known is heavily publicized here in the U.S. Then Rwanda, Sierra Leone, etc. most didn't know where it was. One day when there is the manic psycho is in power that kills them all they'll wonder who list this happen. Then last year worst of all, the retards didn't the get the message of Animal Farm simple Animal Farm!!! Damn these people because I can't read a long book in class. 1984, I say should be the first book to read. [/rant off]

zombie84 · Post by **zombie84** » 2003-08-27 06:48pm

I thought Waiting For Godot was awesome.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-08-27 09:19pm

JediNeophyte wrote:I have to read Frankenstein. Yaaay! Boring.

SILENCE, INFIDEL!

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2003-08-27 09:22pm

The books I had to read my senior year included "Catcher in the Rye" and Adolf Huxley's "Brave New World".

In college I took two Literature classes, Science Fiction, and Fantasy. There I read some of the great old novels: "Day of the Triffids", "Left Hand of Darkness", "the Last Unicorn", and the Wizard of EarthSea trilogy.

Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2003-08-27 10:33pm

I've read a lot of books so far, and the ones that stick most in my mind are The Iliad and A Tale of Two Cities.

Captain Cyran · Post by **Captain Cyran** » 2003-08-27 10:45pm

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:
jmac wrote:The only 2 books I remember reading in highschool are "Huck Finn" and "Catcher in the Rye", the rest of them were so boring or awful and often both that I've tried not to remember them.
Catcher in the Rye was kool. Kinda weird, but really cool.

Ugh, I hated Catcher in the Rye. It seemed utterly pointless to me, most of the stuff seemed to be him bitching about stuff, it got annoying that about every other sentance had a few swear words. I just found the book to be a pointless waste of good paper. Probably didn't help any that my English teacher sucked that year.

Post by **Zaia** » 2003-08-27 11:11pm

Captain_Cyran wrote:Ugh, I hated Catcher in the Rye. It seemed utterly pointless to me, most of the stuff seemed to be him bitching about stuff, it got annoying that about every other sentance had a few swear words. I just found the book to be a pointless waste of good paper. Probably didn't help any that my English teacher sucked that year.

Oh, that's tragic. This is why teachers should be paid three times as much as they are paid now, so that it's a career people fight over, so that only the best can get in. Being turned off to one of the most excellent books ever written in part because you had a lame teacher is just too sad. Shouldn't happen.

I don't know how long ago you read it, but maybe five or six years afterwards, you might want to try again. You might not love it in the end, but hopefully you'd be able to understand why it's a classic and not think it's a waste of good paper anymore.

justifier · Post by **justifier** » 2003-08-27 11:18pm

Captain Lennox wrote:I just finshed reading Night by Elie Wiesel on the Holocaust, toucding and very sad but the message was clear: The blindy optismistic Jews are the optismistic idiotic preps and the stupid omnes. When the teacher asked could a genocide hasppen today on that scale? I said hell yes as the dumb fuckers didn't even know that much about Liberia, which as known is heavily publicized here in the U.S. Then Rwanda, Sierra Leone, etc. most didn't know where it was. One day when there is the manic psycho is in power that kills them all they'll wonder who list this happen. Then last year worst of all, the retards didn't the get the message of Animal Farm simple Animal Farm!!! Damn these people because I can't read a long book in class. 1984, I say should be the first book to read. [/rant off]

I read Animal Farm on my own and got a lot of shit from people, they're too stupid to see past the taking animals and find the message

Next of Kin · Post by **Next of Kin** » 2003-08-27 11:18pm

Grade 8: "The Red Badge of Courage"
Grade 9: "A Cue for Treason"
Grade 10: "Lord of the Flies"
Grade 11: "Brave New World"
Grade 12: "The Great Gatsby"
Grade 13: "The Stone Angel"

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-08-27 11:28pm

I was browsing the summer reading rack at Barnes & Noble, and every single other grade and school had better books that us.

A partial list of what was at the rack:
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Catch-22
Ender's Game
To Kill a Mockingbird
Various Shakespeare
Stranger In a Strange Land
Starship Troopers
Brave New World
Animal Farm
1984
Lord of the Flies
The Hobbit
I, Robot
Foundation
The Illiad
The Battle For Gaul
Some Book by John McCain

While I can, have, and will read books like these on my own time, why can I never get them assigned as summer reading?!?

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-08-28 12:04am

HemlockGrey wrote:So, for the start of school I have to read 'A Tree Grows in Brookyln', and I'm racing through it.

But there's no plot! No real arc at all! One event happens, and then a totally unrelated event happens, and then a completely unrelated event happens, in sequence! There's enough hanging guns in this book to arm the 3rd Army. It's not a novel or a story, it's the narrator telling us some stuff that happened in this girl's life.

Dude, those are called vignettes. I've read a book of vignettes once that I thought was enjoyable; it was a glimpse into a family's daily life, called as I recall The House on Mango Street.

Books don't have to have something happen in them to be good.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-08-28 12:06am

Dude, that's what's called a "vignette". I've read one that I thought was enjoyable; it was a glimpse into someone's daily life, called as I recall The House on Mango Street.

Books don't have to have something happen in them to be good.

Vignettes aren't usually 400(maybe 500?) pages long, are they?

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-08-28 12:09am

thats a good list.

I had the read catcher in the rye. it was interesting to skim, but when I had to take notes, I realized I hated it and it was not worth looking at tiwce.

brave new world was interesting, I bought a copy, but dont read it much.

fareinheit 451, the giver, and 1984 I read often.

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-08-28 12:09am

HemlockGrey wrote:
Dalton wrote:Dude, that's what's called a "vignette". I've read one that I thought was enjoyable; it was a glimpse into someone's daily life, called as I recall The House on Mango Street.

Books don't have to have something happen in them to be good.
Vignettes aren't usually 400(maybe 500?) pages long, are they?

Sorry, I misworded my post so I went back to edit it. What I read was a book full of vignettes, with each vignette as a separate chapter. Another example of this was Wayside School is Falling Down.

Tell us about your book...

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-08-28 12:11am

But each seperate chapter continues the narrative from the previous chapter, and occasionally stuff happens, but nothing ever happens in relation to each other, and once something happens it is never brought up again and serves no purpose.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-08-28 12:21am

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:
jmac wrote:"Waiting for Godot" was just retarded, a whole book where they're basically going "duh...I'm waiting for this Godot guy, what are you doing" "I'm waiting for Godot too". Talk about mind numbing.
WTF? Note to self: Don't read any books by whoever wrote that one...

Thomas Beckett. Irish existentialist, specialized in the theater of the absurd. It was essentially on the pointlessness of waiting for something to happen, because you may end up waiting forever and it never happen.

HemlockGrey wrote:I was browsing the summer reading rack at Barnes & Noble, and every single other grade and school had better books that us.

A partial list of what was at the rack:
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Catch-22
Ender's Game
To Kill a Mockingbird

Haven't read these 4 yet

. Catch-22 I tried to read, but couldn't get into it at the time.

Various Shakespeare

Fairly standard

Stranger In a Strange Land

VERY good book, probably Heinlein's best.

Starship Troopers

Probably for the social aspects. The book was very controversial when released, because of what the Colonel (H&MP teacher) discusses.

Brave New World

Haven't read

Animal Farm

Very good one, examining the Soviet system using a farm...it was in my 9th grade English book. I think I read it 6 times that year.

1984
Lord of the Flies

Haven't read

The Hobbit

4th grade reading

I, Robot

Is that the short story one? If so, it deals with a lot of human psychology through the robots.

Foundation

Meh. I wouldn't consider that a good book for summer reading. Good fun book, but not really all that discussable.

The Illiad

Read it for ENG 205 (I think, may have been 206) freshman year.

The Battle For Gaul

Is that the Caesar one, or is it someone else's analysis?

Man, why couldn't I have gone to one of those schools? My required reading list sucked.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-08-28 12:23am

'The Battle For Gaul' is an English translation of Caesar's Commentaries. I have my copy upstairs, but I believe it also includes some of his dispatches to the Senate and another chapter written by someone else on the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey.

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-08-28 12:26am

HemlockGrey wrote:But each seperate chapter continues the narrative from the previous chapter, and occasionally stuff happens, but nothing ever happens in relation to each other, and once something happens it is never brought up again and serves no purpose.

Sounds more like stream of consciousness then, or some sort of diary thing. Still, no reason to not like it.

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There's no plot! Arrrg!

There's no plot! Arrrg!

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