I was going over my fall syllabi this AM and remembered that last meeting you asked if I used fiction when I taught history. Pretty sure I mumbled something along the lines of “yes, sometimes.”
It will warm your heart to know that this fall people signed up for the Honors College version of my Am Civ since 1877 course will read (among other things), Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Usually when I assign fiction I assign period pieces like GOW–I’ve used Booth Tarkington’s Penrod * in the past (a “kids’ book,” but one that reflects ca 1900 ideas about class, race, gender, empire) and Owen Johnson’s *Stover at Yale, which is about class and meritocracy ca. 1900
I also had the honors section read Chuck Klosterman’s Fargo Rock City to help them understand Generation X better - - but like @djpie they thought he’s a bit overdone.
I just read Grapes of Wrath a year or so ago - one of those books I thought I’d read but realized I hadn’t. It’s so relevant still and a great picture into a part of history most folks don’t even know much about. I am indeed warmed to hear this, I always found reading historical fiction helped paint a portrait of a moment in time that often dry textbooks didn’t. Of course, if Hardcore History existed back then, and other awesome podcasts, those would have worked too.
I enjoy Klosterman a lot, but he’s a small doses guy for me - so his essays work best. But I guess that’s a better book than, say, Less Than Zero which would paint a pretty tragic picture.
Yea, that book is 200 pages of bummer. I generally like Klosterman’s stuff but haven’t read anything since Eating the Dinosaur as I think he ends up at the same points pretty often in his stuff.
Yeah, I love his essays and have used his Esquire piece on Britney Spears “Bending Spoon with Britney Spears” before with some success in a course on Rock. I totally agree he seems to do the same thing over and over as of late.
Yeah, it’s basically 2 hours of people snorting coke, treating themselves and others like shit and being incredibly depressed despite/because of all their wealth and privilege.
Do we have an estimated date for Book Club for this one? Wondering if I should start it now or wait - doesn’t look too long and ideally it will be fresh in my brain when we do meet.
I’m not sure things are much different now, but between Twitter and podcasts and all the ways we’re aware of the world in a way we didn’t used to be, it feels like it’s worse. I take comfort in the fact that an ancient (I think it’s roman) carvings says, more or less, I don’t understand modern kids, with their music and weird clothes.
Twas ever thus.
