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Post by Grecian on Sept 17, 2009 0:48:26 GMT 2
The Beach?....
The Film of the latter is on now...
Both books make so much sense when put in the context of a Forum....
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Post by siduri on Sept 17, 2009 2:25:45 GMT 2
LOL, so who is who on our little Beach?
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Post by Ethel Mertz on Sept 17, 2009 3:18:27 GMT 2
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Post by writeon on Sept 17, 2009 10:34:01 GMT 2
I've read Animal Farm but know nothing of The Beach...I'd better google it. Is it about people in dire situations jostling to takeover others?
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Post by Tilly Star on Sept 17, 2009 10:35:21 GMT 2
Oh Oh and Lord of the Flies!
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Post by Big Iain on Sept 17, 2009 10:38:27 GMT 2
Animal farm is a great read. Its also a very quick read too. Sadly, everything the animals try to do results in failure!
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Post by writeon on Sept 17, 2009 11:30:38 GMT 2
Failure? Compromise? Perhaps that's how life is then. The author seemed to know! He wrote 1984 too? And that storyline is coming true.
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Post by missalaska on Sept 17, 2009 13:52:47 GMT 2
I've read Animal Farm it was a school text as was Lord of the Flies. The Beach is too much like Lord of the Flies it annoyed me a bit.
Watership Down was also in our curriculum.
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Post by Gyro on Sept 17, 2009 21:01:09 GMT 2
" He wrote 1984 too? And that storyline is coming true."
In what way ? People have been saying that ever since it was written. Although, to be fair, it had ALREADY happened when Orwell wrote it, what with the ideal of communism failing and being perverted by real life. It was more of a reminiscence than a premonition ..
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Post by Grecian on Sept 17, 2009 21:15:02 GMT 2
So Animal Farm or Lord of The Flies are not relevant to the Society we live in now?...
On a macro and Micro scale I would say...
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Post by Gyro on Sept 17, 2009 21:24:44 GMT 2
Who said it wasn't relevant ?
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Post by Big Iain on Sept 17, 2009 21:47:32 GMT 2
Animal Farm remains perfectly relevant as a study of the doomed concept of socialism due to individual greed. He fortold of the life-cycle of the communist states.
Lord of the flies? just look at Zimbabwe.
Catcher in the Rye is also relevant as it tells the story of a misfit and slightly unstable young man who tries to fit in to a society which he does not really understand or like. A lot of the story, told in the first person, consists of rantings and crazy thoughts of a very confused young man.
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Post by Gyro on Sept 17, 2009 21:52:57 GMT 2
The saddest part in Catcher In The Rye is when he phones his sister (Phoebe?). He desperately wants to tell how how fucked up he is and how bad things are, but can't blurt it outright, and she doesn't pick up on how much he needs her help. Tragic.
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Post by Big Iain on Sept 17, 2009 22:03:25 GMT 2
Yes, Pheobe. It was a book on the English curriculum when I was mabe 15 and most of the point was missed on kids of that age. I read it as a "grown-up" and it made a lot more sense. Same for Animal Farm and Lord of the flies actually. We also had a lot of Shakespeare which was totally wasted on us. I sometimes wonder if the authorities wanted us to hate books for the rest of our lives?
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Post by Gyro on Sept 18, 2009 8:15:30 GMT 2
Shakespeare is a funny one. We were never taught any at High School, aside from one time where the teacher got us to be various characters in A Midsummer Nights Dream, and read out the lines. Yes, I was cast as Bottom...
It made no sense, and was boring. You HAVE to be taught Shakespeare; it's like a foreign language in the same way Chaucer is. When I was in college a few years later, Willy was part of my A level, and it was properly taught so I appreciated it.
I find Willy's plays enjoyable, although I DO get fed up with the snobbery about his excellence and the cultural benchmark people apply based on whether you like it or not. Anybody ever read any Marlowe ? He's great, but always overshadowed by the Boy From Stratford..
When I was about 20, I wrote a list of books that I'd always wanted to read, and rocketed through them one summer. These included:-
Catcher In The Rye
Lord Of The Flies
The Great Gatsby
Something Wicked This Way Comes
All good, and strange how they're all Amerkins...
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Post by shrjeff on Sept 18, 2009 8:25:58 GMT 2
as i remember, orwell originally wanted to call it 1948 since he saw it as current, but the publishers thought it too radical and it was named 1984 instead... that said, 1984 was a terrible year for us...
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