I don't often find myself thinking this, but I sorta agree with Necratoid.
Well, kind of. I agree with this point, at least: the way Literature is taught in schools does tend to sour people on...I don't know, the idea of good
prose and what makes good prose.
But the problem there is not so much the fact it's boring, but more...the fact that many teachers, and the people who make up school curriculums, sorta
miss the point.
What Literature as a school subject should do...is give students an appreciation of writing.
And I don't mean "The Classics" or anything like that. What book you read...really, that's not the point. Ideally, you're not really
studying the book itself - it's not going to contribute greatly to your growth and value as a human being in later
life to memorize bits of Charles Dickens.
The specific book doesn't matter. What you should be learning about is...how an author does what they do.
Use of metaphor, narrative structure. Themes. That sorta thing. All the little tricks and techniques - stuff that if you can spot, makes the whole experience
that much richer. The idea should be that you then take those concepts and apply them when you watch a movie or something.
I'm talking about narrative fiction, of course, but the same applies for...say, poetry. It doesn't matter if you're looking at Shakespeare's
sonnets or a Beatles song. Both are equally valuable in understanding how rhyme, rhythm, and imagery can be brought across in words - either on a page or
spoken.
Unfortunately, chances are, what you end up studying in a high school literature course is gonna be some dry text written by a dead guy ages ago. And chances
are your teacher's gonna focus a lot on the book in and of itself rather than using it as an example of what a writer can do.
Sadly, many Literature teachers are stodgy old straightlaced elitists who'd bristle at the notion that...say, the metaphysical love poetry of John Donne
can be compared to Britney Spears. That's not a hypothetical example; friends and I made that comparison, once, and were blasted for it.
What I'm saying is...really, Literature is about themes and technique. Stuff that applies even to fanfiction. Now, there's some people who...can sort
of write good stories unconsciously. Folks who have an instinctive grasp of good narrative. But I honestly think that most of the time, good stories are the
ones that are planned and consciously crafted. And it's more than just
plot - there's pacing, the kind of language used, the subject matter tackled by the story, so on.
You don't need a Literary education to write a good story. Certainly not. But you don't need to know all the proper Literature jargon to understand the
concepts and use them. A lot of fanfic writers, though, don't really try.
Good storytelling is a talent. But a talent is both something you're born with...and something you can hone.
-- Acyl
Well, kind of. I agree with this point, at least: the way Literature is taught in schools does tend to sour people on...I don't know, the idea of good
prose and what makes good prose.
But the problem there is not so much the fact it's boring, but more...the fact that many teachers, and the people who make up school curriculums, sorta
miss the point.
What Literature as a school subject should do...is give students an appreciation of writing.
And I don't mean "The Classics" or anything like that. What book you read...really, that's not the point. Ideally, you're not really
studying the book itself - it's not going to contribute greatly to your growth and value as a human being in later
life to memorize bits of Charles Dickens.
The specific book doesn't matter. What you should be learning about is...how an author does what they do.
Use of metaphor, narrative structure. Themes. That sorta thing. All the little tricks and techniques - stuff that if you can spot, makes the whole experience
that much richer. The idea should be that you then take those concepts and apply them when you watch a movie or something.
I'm talking about narrative fiction, of course, but the same applies for...say, poetry. It doesn't matter if you're looking at Shakespeare's
sonnets or a Beatles song. Both are equally valuable in understanding how rhyme, rhythm, and imagery can be brought across in words - either on a page or
spoken.
Unfortunately, chances are, what you end up studying in a high school literature course is gonna be some dry text written by a dead guy ages ago. And chances
are your teacher's gonna focus a lot on the book in and of itself rather than using it as an example of what a writer can do.
Sadly, many Literature teachers are stodgy old straightlaced elitists who'd bristle at the notion that...say, the metaphysical love poetry of John Donne
can be compared to Britney Spears. That's not a hypothetical example; friends and I made that comparison, once, and were blasted for it.
What I'm saying is...really, Literature is about themes and technique. Stuff that applies even to fanfiction. Now, there's some people who...can sort
of write good stories unconsciously. Folks who have an instinctive grasp of good narrative. But I honestly think that most of the time, good stories are the
ones that are planned and consciously crafted. And it's more than just
plot - there's pacing, the kind of language used, the subject matter tackled by the story, so on.
You don't need a Literary education to write a good story. Certainly not. But you don't need to know all the proper Literature jargon to understand the
concepts and use them. A lot of fanfic writers, though, don't really try.
Good storytelling is a talent. But a talent is both something you're born with...and something you can hone.
-- Acyl