/lit/ - Literature

>>7986490
Spiritual, spooky Japanese writing, please

The Crucible by Arthur Miller - teaches the next generation to not jump to conclusions and to not judge people without the proper evidence; that it should be innocent until proven guilty rather than guilty until proven innocent.

Dubliners by James Joyce - partially to contextualise what living was like 100 years ago but also to test the children's knowledge of punctuation and reading comprehension.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - maybe a questionable choice, but I think it would be important for children to learn from a younger age the complications and irrationalities that could arise from depression and suicidal behaviour. It's often surprising how many children and young teens struggle with these issues: a book like The Bell Jar could raise awareness to those in school or college in regards to their peers if they suffer from depression.

Down and Out in Paris and London, or The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell - to teach children about poverty and the struggles of those suffering from poverty. Could be useful as companion pieces in a sociological class that focuses on marginalisation of those in poverty and reasons why they struggle to succeed.

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon - hear me out: it wouldn't be encouraged to read it page for page in classes, but rather it shall be used as a reference for the extent that language can be expressive and playful. It would be used to explore the abstract metaphors that it implements as well as the absurdist scenarios it conjures (and there may be discussion to regarding to the more taboo scenes in the book, i.e. Slothrop escaping a raping from the negroes by being flushed down the toilet; coprohilia BDSM; etc - it will be discussed whether such content is acceptable in literature to create a debate [of course it's acceptable, but it could be interesting for students to learn what their peers think]).

I'd also put Uzumaki forward for consideration within art classes and Ernest Shackleton's South (The Endurance Expedition) forward for consideration within geography classes.

Tolkien changed fantasy forever, but he didn't invent it. Lets have a thread about fantasy that pre-dates Tolkien.