Last night I was in my Film, Literature, and media class, and was discussing with a classmate about the assigned book, Huxley’s Brave New World . Now this is the first time I ever read the book, and I loved it. I liked it so much, in fact, I wish I had read it sooner!
We were assigned to read this book over a period of 2 weeks (startling last week). It was strongly encouraged we get through as much as we could of it when the class met the following week the reading was assigned (this was yesterday). To help us think about some of the themes/imagery/etc, the professor gave us 35 questions. He specifically told us last week that the intent wasn’t to answer the questions- it was to help us look for particular details in the book. I myself went over the questions and THOUGHT about what they were asking, but was familiar enough that I didn’t really need to go through and actually answer them. Well, last night I see these 3 girls frantically writing out answers to the questions. I tell them, “you know, you don’t actually have to answer the questions-they’re just to help you get through the book” and they respond, “Oh, we haven’t even read the book. We heard it wasn’t very good, so we decided not to bother.”
Now I know I am being a bit nosy about this but I find this attitude appalling. Not only did none of them read the book, but they were in fact COPYING answers to questions that were obviously not going to be on the exam! They refused to read an ASSIGNED book in class because ‘someone’ said it wasn’t very good.
Geez, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” really rings true here. I can’t count how many books I didn’t think I’d enjoy initially, but read them anyway and loved them. The attitude these girls are taking feels grossly coutnerproductive and it seems like they will learn absolutely nothing in the class.
I completely agree. They are only screwing themselves by cheating in this way: it makes not one bit of difference to anyone but them if they read Brave New World or not.
Although I resented being forced to read Lives of Girls and Women in high school. That’s time I’ll never get back. But at least I read the damn thing before I made up my mind to hate it. (I read Atlas Shrugged for the same reason.)
Is this a required class? It sounds fun. why do people take it if they’re not going to read the book?
Ya have to wonder about some people. My Soviet History texts in college were BORING! And don’t get me started on the facination that is an Intro to Biology text. I didn’t go to college to read romance novels (though I DID major in Film, so I did kind of go to watch movies) - but how are you going to get through college if you can’t be bothered to read the NOVELS!!! that are required reading.
Well, I find that refusing to expose myself to material that I might find distasteful significantly reduces the time I spend listening to/watching/reading/experiencing stuff I don’t like. With all this extra time, I can really get cracking on my own intellectual stagnation.
All of the reading is in the Syllabus- if anybody happened to see that the book list was not to their taste, they are entitled to drop the class early on where it will not adversely effect their grade. But if they want to be in the class, they have to do the reading.
The specific class itself is not required but it among about three or four others (don’t remember what other classes there were) you have to take like 6 units worth from that section. So they don’t HAVE to take that class.
It is a VERY fun class. Much of it is reading a book, then watching a movie that was based off of/similar to the book, and discussing the similarities/differences.
Give 'em a break…there probably weren’t any PICTURES in it! :rolleyes:
I find it very sad that most people go to college to prepare to make a lot of money instead of to broaden their horizons. It seems to be the case more and more.
I HATED HATED HATED “Heart of Darkness” a couple of years ago when I had to read it for a class. Did I quit because I didn’t like it? No. I read it. I HATED it. I wrote a paper about why I hated it.
I got an A.
If it’s assigned reading, you make at least a serious effort at reading it. There have been things I just couldn’t get through, but at least I TRIED.
I can go you one better than that. In a college class I was in, people were bitching and moaning because the professor assigned 70 pages to read by next time. This was a Tuesday-Thursday class, and was assigned ona Thursday, so that gave them several days, including a weekend, to do it. Nevertheless, they all whined about how shitty this was.
Oh, hang on, forgot a point. This was an Education class.
Oh…and several of the whiners were English Ed people. They supposedly wanted to teach high school English.
My edition of Brave New World that mentions a network TV miniseries, but I’ll be damned if I can find the book or remember which of the three it was on. It looks mid-to-late seventies, if that helps anyone.
Sci-Fi re-ran the 1999 version a couple of months ago. Sylisticly, it was interesting to watch, but they turned it into a love story between Lenina and Bernard, ending with the two of them running off to a tropical island to have a baby.
My husband teaches at our local branch campus, and getting the students to read the assigned text is like pulling teeth. He picked one that was very interesting, illustrating social concepts by describing other cultures and their customs, some of which are “bizzare” to the Western mind. (I’ve read it-- many of the stories therein are engrossing.) The students bitched and whined constantly. “Where are the boldfaced words? What am I supposed to memorize?” The idea of learning a concept from reading an 8 page story was completely foreign to people used to “skimming” for the boldfaced Key Concepts, and ignoring the rest of the material.
Everyone who knows me knows I’m an avid reader, and so I sometimes get calls from co-workers who are parents wanting me to re-tell the content of a book to their teenager over the phone so that he won’t have to actually read it.
[Zack Mayo]THEY GOT NOWHERE ELSE TO GOOOOOOOO![Zack Mayo]
Seriously…I used to teach that book and it worked out fine–but only in the night classes. Most students didn’t read a damn thing assigned to them in the daytime courses, which is why my dean told me to start giving them quizzes. Ever since I started quizzing, they’ve been reading more than they would have otherwise. sigh
hey, i have to read something called “neuroanatomy made very very difficult and tedious in 2000 pages of very small print” cover to cover for my exams.
SciFi reran the 1999 BNW?!?!? Damn! I wish I’d caught that!
yeah- Peter Gallagher was a handsome Bernard Marx, Leonard Nimoy was World Controller Mustapha Mond, the setting was about mid/late 21st Century, no “Fordism” present. John Savage was a trailer park resident (whose Dad was bureuacrat Miguel Ferrer) who DOESN’T commit suicide after falling into BNW shallow perversity but dies accidentally. It would have been a much better movie if it had been named something else, but I would like a copy of it as a curiosity.
AND I also want a copy of the 1980 BNW TV movie- much more accurate to the book, but kinda soulless. Bud Cort well cast as Marx, Mr Kotter’s wife as Lenina, Keir (2001-ASO) Dullea as Director of Hatcheries, a black Mustafa Mond with a white female co-World-Director. Incidentally, I bought the tie-in version of the novel so mine DOES have pictures.
Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing any of the movie/TV versions of the book which is kind of disappointing becuase bad or good I would have liked to have seen it (maybe I’ll look for a rental).
We are doing other book/movie pairings, however, such as clockwork orange. Regardless, I am having a great time with the class so far.
which is kind of disappointing becuase bad or good I would have liked to have seen it (maybe I’ll look for a rental).