Monday, June 08, 2009

Comp

Help! I'm supposed to teach freshman comp this fall at Rocky and am really struggling with what to assign them to read. I wasn't happy with how the last comp course I taught there turned out, so I am trying to shake things up, but am at a bit of a loss.

I ran across Roger Clawson's list of the three greatest novels of the Western Hemisphere and thought: Not only is Roger right, but I've read "Huckleberry Finn" and "One Hundred Years of Solitude" twice each and "Moby-Dick" three times. So how about a class just on those three books? Too much?

So then I thought that shorter Melville, say "Billy Budd," might work better. I read it again on Saturday but wonder if it might be too obscure. I actually tried "Solitude" once in a freshmen class and would estimate that about a third of the class loved it, a third hated it and a third didn't get it. The ones who loved it seemed to love it a lot, so it almost seemed worth doing for that. But it was a real struggle for some of them.

I'm stuck, and the deadline is near. Any ideas?

18 comments:

Ken & Carol said...

Maybe a recent translation of Don Quixote? Maybe something by Chesterton? Maybe Catch-22? There are really too many to choose from. Best wishes.

Anonymous said...

I suppose it's too much to hope that the students might still read "Moby Dick" and "Huckleberry Finn" in high school.

This is for a composition class?
Ann

David said...

Carol, Catch-22? Ooh. Interesting thought. Thanks.

Ann, from what I hear, no. I asked a former school superintendent about "Huckleberry Finn" last week, and he said no. I used to teach "Bartleby the Scrivener" in freshmen comp, so I usually asked about "Moby-Dick." Probably an average of about one student per class had read it.

Ed Kemmick said...

David: What about "Uncle Tom's Cabin"? Then your students could argue about who is the bigger racist, Simon Legree or Sotomayor.

But seriously, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is just good enough to be considered a great read, and just bad enough to offer some instruction about the techniques of effective writing. And some good history lessons besides.

David said...

Ed, Good suggestion. But that would mean I would have to read that book again. Not sure I am up to it.

Anonymous said...

How bout Grapes of Wrath? I think it's very apropos for our times, and it's one of my favorites. MOST kids now days don't have a clue about what the Okies went through. (They don't teach it much in high schools any more either.) People starving to death in America? And dying in the desert? People beat up for simply arriving in town? People assaulted for being "reds" when they didn't even know what a red was? The banks taking farms from people through corruption? Coudldn't be, could it? I mean, this is America!

LK

Anonymous said...

p.s. Dave, do you still use my writing as an example of how NOT to write? Just wondering. Feel free to do so. May as well put it to good use. But I gotta tell ya that my creative writing is getting harder to find. I've been banned nearly everywhere. Can you believe that?! Go figure. Good luck on your class.

LK

Dave Rye said...

In this time of war, when the country is divided but politics can't matter to someone in the heat of battle, and soldiers are torn between wanting to be brave and wanting to remain alive,why not The Red Badge of Courage?

Anita said...

My daughter, a junior in high school, suggests Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle." (It wasn't a class assignment.)

I often taught Ernest Gaines' novel "A Gathering of Old Men" in my freshman comp classes. The novel is short, the story is told from several points of view (and with humor) and... it deals with stereotypes and racism. A monologue about midway through the novel illustrates that theme of grief and loss one sees again and again in literature, from the Old English poem "The Wanderer" to "Lord of the Rings" to Pete Seeger: "Where is the horse, where is the rider..."

After discussing the novel, you can show the students a film based on the novel starring Holly Hunter, Louis Gossett , Jr., and Richard Widmark. I liked pairing novels and films.

Or, why stick with American classics or writers? Try a classic from Japanese literature, Yasunari Kawabata's "Snow Country" (available new and used from Amazon--anthologized in some World Literature texts). It's as spare and beautiful as a haiku, includes a love story, and is suffused with "the sadness of things." There's a 1957 black and white Japanese film based on the novel, directed by Shiro Toyoda.

Or Haruki Murakami's novel "Norwegian Wood"--a flashback to a young man's college days in the 60s in Japan: love, sex, suicide, tragedy.

Chuck Rightmire said...

I echo the previous voice who asked "in a composition class?" I thought that's where they were to write on their own without basing their writings on critiques or followups on someone else's writing.

Anonymous said...

Does it need to be fiction? I'd argue for Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time in place of the Steinbeck. Reese

David said...

Reese, I don't know that book. I take it that it is a history of the Depression?

Thanks, Anita. I knew you would have some good ideas.

Chuck, If you aren't reading, you won't write well.

Anita said...

more ideas, David: If I were teaching a freshman comp class now, I might assign Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner" and show the class the film based on the novel. I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't read the novel yet although I've had it for two years. (Assigning it to my students would force me to follow through--a technique I frequently employed upon myself as a teacher!)One of my young female co-workers from Iran highly recommends the novel. And, of course, it's critically acclaimed.

Or pair "popular" writing with more "literary" writing: for example, a mystery by Alexander McCall Smith from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series (set in Botswana) with Chinue Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" (set in Nigeria), and/ or a novel by Nadine Gordimer.

Ken & Carol said...

You have plenty of good ideas here. Ed K's idea of a not quite so good novel so as to not overwhelm the fledgling writer seems reasonable to me. I should have thought about "comp" meaning composition of course. How about some recent collection of essays, say Thomas Lynch or Alain de Botton? Surely you don't want to recommend Melville as a model for your students, do you?

David said...

Carol, I have been thinking about some essays, although I hadn't thought of the ones you mentioned.

I wouldn't want students to try to write like Melville. It probably would be an ugly and uninspiring spectacle. But I would like them to hear his voice.

Anonymous said...

A River Runs Through It and/or Young Men and Fire.

Kirk Dooley said...

Since most students do most of their reading on the Internet these days, I'm afraid that getting them to read any book could make their heads explode. ;-)

My guess is that a McGuffney's Reader would be challenging enough. (But then again, I am a GOF -- Grumpy Old F**t.)

Ken & Carol said...

Sorry to prolong this. OK then I promise this is my last contribution to this thread. We've just been lolly-gagging on the way to California listening to Huck Finn on tape. The various voices and accents are much better than the written word. And I thought of a perfect novel for the students: To Kill a Mockingbird; available as a pretty good movie and as a play too. The only one I can remember where the play and the movie are both good and follow the book closely. That is all. Over and out in Novato CA. Oh, by the way, David, if you drive through Nevada you will not be bothered by talk radio.