I can't remember if I've mentioned this, but this year I taught (and read) Invisible Man for the first time. Holy shit. Ellison? AMAZING. This is definitely on my best book list. Anyone read it?
Giles, if you would like to get by in American society, then you are going to have to follow our traditions. You're the patriarch. You have to host the festivities, or it's all meaningless.
Buffy ,'Sleeper'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Kat - Nov 17, 2010 5:01:14 pm PST #12978 of 28523
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
Sophia Brooks - Nov 17, 2010 5:03:15 pm PST #12979 of 28523
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
I've read it. Although long enough ago ( before HS) that I think I might confuse it with "Black Like Me."
Hayden - Nov 17, 2010 5:09:59 pm PST #12980 of 28523
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
Invisible Man is indeed amazing.
brenda m - Nov 17, 2010 5:11:58 pm PST #12981 of 28523
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there
Weird. The opening quote on tonight's CM, which I just started watching seconds after reading this thread, is from IM.
Kat - Nov 17, 2010 5:51:17 pm PST #12982 of 28523
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
Sophia, Invisible Man is really distinct. I had read both Native Son and Black Boy and had zero interest in teaching them. I had approached IM very cautiously because I thought it would be another book of a type.
But damn! It was so amazing -- I think the search for individual identity in the face of societal (of all races) expectations is a challenge and a great story to tell.
I loved it so much.
Polter-Cow - Nov 17, 2010 6:09:27 pm PST #12983 of 28523
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
I loved Invisible Man too, Kat. I wrote a paper on it in college.
Kat - Nov 17, 2010 6:47:02 pm PST #12984 of 28523
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
There's a ton there to address so it must be a fun book to write ABOUT. It was extremely fun to teach. And I hadn't realized that the Battle Royale scene was actually written to be an intentional stand alone if necessary.
I've been delving into the Paris Review's interviews. The Ralph Ellison one [link] is excellent.
Liese S. - Nov 17, 2010 6:57:32 pm PST #12985 of 28523
"Faded like the lilac, he thought."
Invisible Man was one of the formative books of my childhood. I think probably I wasn't actually supposed to read it yet, but once I realized that nobody stopped kids from going to the adult book shelves in the library, it was all a lost cause from that point on.
Kat - Nov 17, 2010 7:05:04 pm PST #12986 of 28523
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo
Hmmm.... my formative books were Shakespeare's comedies, though I didn't get 80% of it read in 5th grade. Followed quickly by John Jakes books. Then when I hit high school it was the Brontes. Then there was a Leon Uris phase. I think Handmaid's Tale and Margaret Atwood came next.
Then the next really big memorable book was The Magus. Then a whole mess of nonfiction (Francis Fukuyama). Then Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa.
I didn't read TKAM until a few years ago. And I wish I had read IM in high school. But no. I had the Scarlet Letter and Huck Finn (ptooey) shoved down my throat.
Polter-Cow - Nov 17, 2010 7:56:22 pm PST #12987 of 28523
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
I went on a short-story kick recently and just posted my reviews of Fragile Things, Smoke and Mirrors, and Machine of Death (two Gaiman collections and an awesome anthology that everyone should read).