OFF: Chrysalids

[Steve Swann]

On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 6:24 AM, M Holmes <fofp at holyrood.ed.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> Then again, the rules did say something to the effect that studying any
> books of "literary value" or somesuch was permitted.  My English teacher
> counselled against it, but she disliked me so much anyway (report cards
> of "No respect for authority" etc that I've since tried hard to live up
> to) that I just ignored her.

I had one of those bastards in high school.  He gave me a D (barely
passing grade) on a major term paper because it was about Lord of the
Rings.  This despite the fact that I had literally two large grocery
sacks full of books of Tolkien literary criticism, published by places
like Harvard and the U of Chicago (not to mention the more populist
criticism like W.H. Auden and Paul Kocher), which I cited liberally to
support my thesis.  The man was a barbarian who just didn't accept
that fantasy could be considered literature (I think the only book he
ever actually liked was In Cold Blood).  I think it didn't help that
the only style of literary criticism that this guy knew at all was
some half-assed Freudian analysis that he picked up in community
college.  He tried to prevent me from taking the AP English exam
because he swore I would embarrass the school (and him).  I got a 5.
God, I hadn't thought of this in 20-some years... who knew I'd still
be irritated about it?!  ;-)

Steve