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Plato is exciting, brutal and scandalous? Legolas Send a noteboard - 12/12/2011 09:59:13 PM
I'm thinking mostly of the Illiad, the Odyssey, and most of the Greek tragedies. But even Plato, Lysias, and Suetonius are interesting, and for all the right reasons. They're exciting, brutal, and scandalous.

But judging by what I've read of the classics, yes, some of them are most definitely interesting to today's youths. Jean Anouilh wrote a great adaptation of Sophocles' Antigone - but even the original doesn't take all that much effort to get into even for a teenager, just a little bit of goodwill. Not all of the other plays are as accessible, but some are. The mythology certainly is.

And then there's Martial and Catullus, who between them I think will continue to blow every generation of teenagers' minds, because they never realized how a civilization so ancient and different could yet be so similar in its vulgarities and its romance. Nihil novi sub sole, and all that.
Part of the problem I've found first hand is the translation. It's too florid, too posh and British, to really hit people. I think Attic Greek could lend itself very well to an Americanized translation with American colloquialism, while losing very little. Also, verse can be difficult, and that is one major hurdle which they really could teach. I'd be ok with a prose rendition of the Illiad, but fuck it, who knows.

Certainly makes sense to me.
The other problem, which I think is the more significant one, is that schools and parents alike would refuse to actually teach material this interesting. That's the crux of the problem. There's no shortage of literature that is exciting and well-written, but the way it is taught, due to layers and layers of puritanism and PC Bullshit, strip it of being interesting. The result is Huckleberry Finn without "nigger". There's no fucking way anyone could seriously teach The Bacchae, for instance.

Yeah, I don't think there's any American high school that would dare to read "Pedicabo vos et irrumabo". My HS teacher of Greek and Latin didn't shy away from that stuff, read some of Carlos Drummond de Andrade's erotic poetry to us (and a classic documentary about the explicit sexual fantasies of Brazilian octogenarians - talk about blowing students' minds), but that's hardly the norm here, and I dare say America is still more puritan.

Of course, there's plenty of literature that could pass the censor's judging eye and still be interesting to teenagers.
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Aren't the Tolkien comparisons getting a little...old? - 09/12/2011 09:51:39 PM 2919 Views
The comparison bothers me, but not because Tolkien isn't relevant. - 09/12/2011 10:05:22 PM 1773 Views
I agree with this. - 09/12/2011 10:21:34 PM 1811 Views
Re: I agree with this. - 10/12/2011 07:09:33 PM 1746 Views
Exactly *NM* - 12/12/2011 12:09:19 PM 885 Views
Only when shit works are being compared to him - 09/12/2011 10:22:26 PM 1669 Views
Larry, - 10/12/2011 01:13:18 AM 1684 Views
Snide dismissal that will be passed off as for his own entertainment. - 10/12/2011 04:55:43 AM 1600 Views
We get a lot of that around here. *NM* - 10/12/2011 05:18:01 AM 666 Views
makes me wonder... - 10/12/2011 04:37:33 PM 1586 Views
Re: makes me wonder... - 11/12/2011 03:03:15 AM 1549 Views
Well-deserved condescension. - 11/12/2011 03:54:27 AM 1729 Views
You're sure about that? - 11/12/2011 04:20:26 AM 1950 Views
Re: You're sure about that? - 11/12/2011 05:25:08 AM 1671 Views
Re: You're sure about that? - 11/12/2011 06:03:02 AM 1544 Views
i think you shouldn't judge a whole world's school programs on your school - 11/12/2011 06:42:30 AM 1577 Views
Yeah, I'm limited in my knowledge, lol - 11/12/2011 08:03:26 AM 1603 Views
My school was...not great. - 11/12/2011 04:02:36 PM 1631 Views
I'm 24. - 11/12/2011 03:49:06 PM 1546 Views
If you're arguing that children should be able to read genre fiction, fine. - 11/12/2011 08:52:27 PM 1473 Views
Well, I suppose it depends on the type of genre being read - 11/12/2011 09:36:16 PM 1707 Views
How often do you hear the challenging writers mentioned at this site? - 12/12/2011 02:03:05 PM 1437 Views
Only when you, me, and a couple others write reviews - 12/12/2011 04:21:14 PM 1850 Views
Oh, it was the same as it always is - 12/12/2011 05:23:56 PM 1531 Views
True - 12/12/2011 06:29:10 PM 1643 Views
One note - 13/12/2011 12:17:48 AM 1649 Views
Perhaps - 13/12/2011 12:49:34 AM 1577 Views
*Sighs* Such is the plight of those shining few intelects... - 23/12/2011 01:15:47 AM 1626 Views
Much of the actual "Classics", that is, Greek and Latin originals, kids would eat up. - 12/12/2011 03:13:03 AM 1446 Views
Try teaching Apuleius in schools... *NM* - 12/12/2011 04:12:49 AM 785 Views
Plato is exciting, brutal and scandalous? - 12/12/2011 09:59:13 PM 1521 Views
You're upfront and honest about it; he isn't. The difference matters to me. *NM* - 11/12/2011 05:18:42 AM 834 Views
Uhh...uh... - 11/12/2011 05:34:23 AM 1558 Views
this is a bit off topic, but out of curiousity... - 11/12/2011 06:28:35 AM 1659 Views
There are no special snowflakes, are there? - 11/12/2011 09:39:21 PM 1470 Views
There are many way of widening one's horizons and broadening one's mind. - 11/12/2011 10:08:24 PM 1227 Views
I said as much in my comment - 11/12/2011 10:20:03 PM 1501 Views
What I don't like- - 12/12/2011 04:28:55 AM 1579 Views
Why don't you name something, then? - 12/12/2011 04:40:29 AM 1537 Views
Sure. - 13/12/2011 07:30:56 AM 1366 Views
Mentioning Ender's Game pretty much shot your argument in the foot. - 13/12/2011 02:02:59 PM 1473 Views
You dismiss the entire video game medium because many games lack value. - 13/12/2011 03:59:11 PM 1618 Views
You're like the McDonald's paid advocate trying to say Big Macs are actually healthy. - 13/12/2011 05:46:37 PM 1426 Views
McDonalds food is inherently unhealthy. - 13/12/2011 06:02:18 PM 1573 Views
For the sake of argument ... - 13/12/2011 04:09:51 PM 1472 Views
Stephenson is not literature, that's for damn sure. - 13/12/2011 05:49:24 PM 1421 Views
Thank you, The Voice of Lews Therin. *NM* - 16/12/2011 05:14:42 AM 846 Views
I'll leave it up to others to define as they wish against their self-conceptions of me - 10/12/2011 10:52:54 AM 1584 Views
that's alright. I really have no desire to stroke your twit-ego. *NM* - 10/12/2011 04:36:56 PM 634 Views
Considering the firestorm I appear to have touched off, that may be best. - 12/12/2011 12:57:49 PM 1563 Views
I know, John - 12/12/2011 04:27:04 PM 1464 Views
Re: I know, John - 12/12/2011 05:06:26 PM 1525 Views
As I've said in the past, I'd be scared if anyone agreed with me anywhere approaching 100% - 12/12/2011 06:33:52 PM 1452 Views
Re: As I've said in the past, I'd be scared if anyone agreed with me anywhere approaching 100% - 12/12/2011 07:13:37 PM 1526 Views
Same guy - 12/12/2011 07:26:13 PM 1592 Views
Ha! Excellent point. *NM* - 11/12/2011 03:44:52 AM 770 Views
I have to agree. - 09/12/2011 10:54:06 PM 1575 Views
They're there for marketing - 10/12/2011 12:20:17 AM 1563 Views
Most of those comparisons are like that anyway - 10/12/2011 05:32:45 PM 1690 Views
Maybe if so much of the genre weren't crap derivative works it wouldn't be so common. *NM* - 11/12/2011 03:44:24 AM 768 Views
To be fair, a lot of it isn't. - 11/12/2011 04:06:07 AM 1502 Views
I suspect that if it really isn't derivative it's not being compared to Tolkien in the first place. - 11/12/2011 04:18:57 AM 1447 Views
That's true. - 11/12/2011 11:08:01 AM 1435 Views
Maybe they mean something else by using his name. - 11/12/2011 03:50:15 AM 1535 Views
When they don't work, yes. - 11/12/2011 03:18:44 PM 1525 Views
The Tolkien fanaticism gets old. And yes, for me it is unreadable. - 11/12/2011 11:37:53 PM 1497 Views
Yes *NM* - 22/12/2011 07:08:38 PM 892 Views

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