by DashaBlade » Wed Dec 10, 2014 4:01 am
I wasn't forced to read any of the books on the list (not even Bucholz's book!) and I thought they were all at least okay. I loved Lord of the Flies and The Catcher in the Rye, because they only reinforced my belief that kids are assholes (And since I was a kid at the time, I was an asshole by default).
Gatsby and Great Expectations were also about assholes, but I didn't like them as much as other great classics of assholery, like Brave New World, MacBeth, or Of Mice and Men - all of which I was "forced" to read in high school and still liked enough to read again and again, so I guess the forcing wasn't a twist of the arm as much as it was a "here, add this to your pile of books, there'll be a quiz later." I mean, I was also "forced" to read Poe, and Eddie Poe is the bomb, and his stories are all about assholes. Murdering assholes, in many cases.
Let's face it, people with no problems and no conflicts don't make for very good story protagonists. :twisted: