Words maketh the man

[bugshaw]

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]

Comments

[muninnhuginn]

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.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Wow. There's no way I could have done that as a teenager.

[muninnhuginn]

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.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

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.

[covertmusic.livejournal.com]

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.

[robthefish.livejournal.com]

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.