Mr. Mitchell mentioned an article in class that suggested that high school teachers substitute Black Swan Green into their curriculum instead of Catcher in the Rye. I absolutely adored Catcher in the Rye and I would be really sad if it were removed from the school curriculum. That being said, Catcher in the Rye is a classic, and I have no doubt that people would read it outside of school at some point. Black Swan Green on the other hand, is not as famous as Catcher in the Rye so it might not be read.
While reading Black Swan Green, I became so attached to it, and it's by far my favorite book from this quarter. At other schools, people might not read it outside of class because they haven't heard of it and in my opinion Black Swan Green is too important and too insightful to be neglected. The lessons this book teaches are more easily absorbed than in Catcher in the Rye because the time in which it's set it more familiar, and the culture is more present in our minds. Therefore, I do think that Black Swan Green should be subbed into the popular high school English curriculum because the likelihood of a student reading Catcher in the Rye on their own is higher than the likelihood of a student reading Black Swan Green.
I definitely liked Black Swan Green better than Catcher in the Rye, though not because it is more recent and therefore more accessible. I just didn't like Holden as a character, and having to listen to him for the entirety of the novel got annoying, although I could relate with Holden at some points. I am not sure that a more familiar culture in a book will make it more likeable. I think it more depends on the protagonist and the writing style.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I love teaching _Catcher_, and therefore I believe that a student who encounters it in my class will get way deeper than someone who just reads it on their own, I really like the idea of a kid just reading the book without it being part of a class, or having a teacher try to "sell" it to them as a blueprint for teenage rebellion or whatever. It's true that _BSG_ is maybe less likely to be stumbled upon in this way (although I know for a fact that vets of this course have indeed passed it on to friends). And I also know that there are plenty of high school teachers who have butchered Salinger's novel by dissecting it beyond recognition in an effort to unearth symbolism and theme. A classroom experience can make or break a book. But an independent reading experience is maybe more of a "free" context for the book to just do what it does.
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