MiuMiu
Somethin' special....
Ok guys this is how we're going to try things. Every 5 weeks we select three texts to read during that time. We post threads and when people have read a particular book they can post their thoughts in the corresponding thread.
Im very wary of selecting texts to suit the inevitably varied taste in literature, so this time I have just chosen 6 random books, hopefully that people will be willing to give a go. I think the most democratic way to select texts will be for everyone to have a turn at selecting the 6 books. We then poll them and the top 3 most voted for will be the ones we go for.
So, for this time, I selected: 1984, Of Mice and Men, A Clockwork Orange, Ragtime, Persuasion and Mein Kampf. Read the summaries if you feel like it (most of them were gotten from sparknotes and were a bit too lengthy so I added the url if you want to read further)
Book: 1984
Author: George Orwell
Overview: George Orwell published 1984 in 1949, the same year that the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. The arms race that followed the Soviets' development of nuclear weaponry quickly escalated into the Cold War, which raged for the next four decades as the enormous ideological gulf separating capitalism and democracy from totalitarianism and Communism led to mutual hatred between the United States and the Soviet Union, the world's most powerful nations. During the long decades of the Cold War, perhaps no book better captured the moral objections against totalitarian Communism than 1984, written by Orwell originally to warn the world of the dangers of authoritarian regimes. Depicting a horrifying near-future of governmental oppression, slavery, and alienation, 1984 created a sensation upon its initial appearance, sounding the alarm that the atrocities committed under Communism upon human material security and freedom were possible not only in Russia and Eastern Europe, but in the West as well.
Book:A Clockwork Orange
Author:Anthony Burgess
Overview: The story of A Clockwork Orange takes place in a wretched future of the author's invention, complete with a repressive government, violent street gangs, and a deadening mass culture. The narrator is the young protagonist, Alex, who tells his story in language peppered with "nadsat talk," the slang, derived mostly from Russian, used by the teenage hooligans of the novel.
Book: Ragtime
Author: E L Doctorow
Overview: The novel opens in the year 1902, in the town of New Rochelle, New York, at the house of an upper class family comprised of Mother, Father, and the little boy. Mother's Younger Brother falls in love with the famous beauty Evelyn Nesbit, whose husband Harry Thaw has recently been charged with the murder of her ex- husband, architect Stanford White. Harry Houdini's car breaks in front of the family's house, and he pays them a visit. Father leaves on a trip to the Arctic with the explorer Peary. (see the rest at http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/ragtime/summary.html)
Book: Mein Kampf
Author: Adolf Hitler
Overview:Hitlers philosophies in a book composed whilst he was in prison for his part in the 1923 Munich Beerhall Putsch (10 years before he came to power). An amazing work because one can see that all of his policies were thought of long before he came to power, and just how closely he stuck to these. His thoughts on racial purity (and the Jews), Germany and the world.
Book:Persuasion
Author:Jane Austin
Overview: Persuasion opens with a brief history of the Elliot family as recorded in Sir Walter Elliot's favorite book, The Baronetcy. We learn that the Elliots are a respected, titled, landowning family. Lady Elliot, Sir Walter's wife died fourtee n years ago and left him with three daughters: Elizabeth, Anne, and Mary. Both Elizabeth and Anne are single, but Mary, the youngest is married to a wealthy man named Charles Musgrove; they live close by. Sir Walter, who lavishly overspend s, has brought the family into great debt. When Lady Russell, a trusted family advisor, suggests that the Elliots reduce their spending, Sir Walter is horrified. He is exceedingly vain and cannot bear to imagine life without his usual comforts. But wi th no other option, the Elliots decide they must relocate to a house in Bath where their expenses will be more manageable. They intend to rent the family estate, Kellynch Hall (see the rest at http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/persuasion/summary.html)
Book:Of Mice and Men
Author:John Steinbeck
Overview: Two migrant workers, George and Lennie, have been let off a bus miles away from the California farm where they are due to start work. George is a small, dark man with "sharp, strong features." Lennie, his companion, is his opposite, a giant of a man with a "shapeless" face. Overcome with thirst, the two stop in a clearing by a pool and decide to camp for the night. As the two converse, it becomes clear that Lennie has a mild mental disability, and is deeply devoted to George and dependent upon him for protection and guidance. George finds that Lennie, who loves petting soft things but often accidentally kills them, has been carrying and stroking a dead mouse (see the rest at http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/summary.html)
Ok dudes, please vote!
EDIT; Bugga, forgot the poll, see thread #2 for poll!
Im very wary of selecting texts to suit the inevitably varied taste in literature, so this time I have just chosen 6 random books, hopefully that people will be willing to give a go. I think the most democratic way to select texts will be for everyone to have a turn at selecting the 6 books. We then poll them and the top 3 most voted for will be the ones we go for.
So, for this time, I selected: 1984, Of Mice and Men, A Clockwork Orange, Ragtime, Persuasion and Mein Kampf. Read the summaries if you feel like it (most of them were gotten from sparknotes and were a bit too lengthy so I added the url if you want to read further)
Book: 1984
Author: George Orwell
Overview: George Orwell published 1984 in 1949, the same year that the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. The arms race that followed the Soviets' development of nuclear weaponry quickly escalated into the Cold War, which raged for the next four decades as the enormous ideological gulf separating capitalism and democracy from totalitarianism and Communism led to mutual hatred between the United States and the Soviet Union, the world's most powerful nations. During the long decades of the Cold War, perhaps no book better captured the moral objections against totalitarian Communism than 1984, written by Orwell originally to warn the world of the dangers of authoritarian regimes. Depicting a horrifying near-future of governmental oppression, slavery, and alienation, 1984 created a sensation upon its initial appearance, sounding the alarm that the atrocities committed under Communism upon human material security and freedom were possible not only in Russia and Eastern Europe, but in the West as well.
Book:A Clockwork Orange
Author:Anthony Burgess
Overview: The story of A Clockwork Orange takes place in a wretched future of the author's invention, complete with a repressive government, violent street gangs, and a deadening mass culture. The narrator is the young protagonist, Alex, who tells his story in language peppered with "nadsat talk," the slang, derived mostly from Russian, used by the teenage hooligans of the novel.
Book: Ragtime
Author: E L Doctorow
Overview: The novel opens in the year 1902, in the town of New Rochelle, New York, at the house of an upper class family comprised of Mother, Father, and the little boy. Mother's Younger Brother falls in love with the famous beauty Evelyn Nesbit, whose husband Harry Thaw has recently been charged with the murder of her ex- husband, architect Stanford White. Harry Houdini's car breaks in front of the family's house, and he pays them a visit. Father leaves on a trip to the Arctic with the explorer Peary. (see the rest at http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/ragtime/summary.html)
Book: Mein Kampf
Author: Adolf Hitler
Overview:Hitlers philosophies in a book composed whilst he was in prison for his part in the 1923 Munich Beerhall Putsch (10 years before he came to power). An amazing work because one can see that all of his policies were thought of long before he came to power, and just how closely he stuck to these. His thoughts on racial purity (and the Jews), Germany and the world.
Book:Persuasion
Author:Jane Austin
Overview: Persuasion opens with a brief history of the Elliot family as recorded in Sir Walter Elliot's favorite book, The Baronetcy. We learn that the Elliots are a respected, titled, landowning family. Lady Elliot, Sir Walter's wife died fourtee n years ago and left him with three daughters: Elizabeth, Anne, and Mary. Both Elizabeth and Anne are single, but Mary, the youngest is married to a wealthy man named Charles Musgrove; they live close by. Sir Walter, who lavishly overspend s, has brought the family into great debt. When Lady Russell, a trusted family advisor, suggests that the Elliots reduce their spending, Sir Walter is horrified. He is exceedingly vain and cannot bear to imagine life without his usual comforts. But wi th no other option, the Elliots decide they must relocate to a house in Bath where their expenses will be more manageable. They intend to rent the family estate, Kellynch Hall (see the rest at http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/persuasion/summary.html)
Book:Of Mice and Men
Author:John Steinbeck
Overview: Two migrant workers, George and Lennie, have been let off a bus miles away from the California farm where they are due to start work. George is a small, dark man with "sharp, strong features." Lennie, his companion, is his opposite, a giant of a man with a "shapeless" face. Overcome with thirst, the two stop in a clearing by a pool and decide to camp for the night. As the two converse, it becomes clear that Lennie has a mild mental disability, and is deeply devoted to George and dependent upon him for protection and guidance. George finds that Lennie, who loves petting soft things but often accidentally kills them, has been carrying and stroking a dead mouse (see the rest at http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/summary.html)
Ok dudes, please vote!
EDIT; Bugga, forgot the poll, see thread #2 for poll!
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