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Words maketh the man

posted by [personal profile] bugshaw at 10:08am on 06/10/2007
One friend said they'd done an extended essay at school on a Philip K. Dick short story, and that it had inspired them to go on to study philosophy.
I replied: "At school I did an extended essay on Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, and it turned me into a depressive ;-)"

[Poll #1066874]
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muninnhuginn: (Default)

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posted by [personal profile] muninnhuginn at 09:45am on 06/10/2007
I think, if I remember correctly, I covered the following for "The Search for Glory":
Wilfred Owen's Poems
William Gibson, The Spire
Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Joseph Heller, Catch 22

Also another long essay on the Sirens chapter of Joyce's Ulysses. Plus the essay on Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. And the collection of essays on Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney and Thom Gunn (I saved Larkin for university).

After an A-level like that, life poses few challenges--and I avoid climbing cathedral spires.
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posted by [identity profile] bugshaw.livejournal.com at 09:54am on 06/10/2007
Wow. There's no way I could have done that as a teenager.
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muninnhuginn: (Default)

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posted by [personal profile] muninnhuginn at 10:04am on 06/10/2007
The amazing thing was that P, the head of English, taught this to mixed-ability groups--and also adult students (my mother included, she did Love and Self Love and piles of Austen)--and got many people through it. It probably did change people's lives.

The thematic extended essay--at 5000+ words (I think officially 3-5k, so I did 7-8k), completed in the lower sixth--was probably the most challenging piece of work I've ever done.
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posted by [identity profile] bugshaw.livejournal.com at 01:38pm on 06/10/2007
Wow, again. I might like to try A'Level English (in my copious spare time) with a good teacher; I've spoken before about my frustration with school English where I had trouble grokking a lot of the things (characters, motivation, style) they seemed to assume should come naturally.
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posted by [identity profile] covertmusic.livejournal.com at 12:13pm on 06/10/2007
My RPR for Higher English was on allegorical representations in 1984. Hoary old topic, but I thought I was being novel at the time.

I wish I'd been able to do the English CSYS. Didn't have timetable space. I still regret that.
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posted by [identity profile] robthefish.livejournal.com at 07:22pm on 07/10/2007
Your puny text entry box is too small at 160 chars; I shall expound in a comment.
Nah, it's fun. Like writing a book review as a haiku.

Doing LAMDA exams where you perform the poetry / prose is maybe the 'other side' of a whole engagement with the work.

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