Have you guys ever read The Odyssey? You probably have. It's long, Greek, and there are about 75000 names used in it over the course of seemingly a thousand pages. You might also remember it for things like Calypso, a whirlpool, Polyphemus the cyclops, Sirens, and various people being murdered for various things, not to mention the tail-end of the Trojan War being recounted within its pages.
The reason it might sound familiar but not-that-familiar is that most people seem to be reading this book between the ages of about 12 and 16. This is one of the most loaded books in the history of ever, and it's complicated enough just to follow the plot (Homer, the author, invented the concept of in medias res, where the story begins in the middle and jumps around a bit through flashbacks and such, a style now known as "The Tarantino" or as "the way that one guy makes those weird movies with lots of violence"), let alone follow all the names involved, the historical context, the translated-language, and the themes at play from long-gone eras.
I say all of this because one of my students is reading it. She's 14. I love the Odyssey for some inexplicable reason, and now I get to help someone through it who is having a whale of a time. She's living in Milan for a few months and will return to her school in another country for the spring, and at the moment I get to keep her in-line with her class, where they're reading this book. The feedback has basically been "most of my friends in the class are exclusively using Sparknotes (shout-out to Mickey Bitsko's Sparknotes t-shirt in high school when everyone else was pretending we didn't know that the site existed) or they're just giving up. It's too confusing."
It feels like I'm becoming an actual teacher on this one. That's what's happening. I'm following along and reading with her to make sense of each of these bizarre circumstances, making parallels to outside life, explaining some of the historical context - goodness knows that I don't know all of it - and just generally feeling like I might be teaching an actual English class. It's very weird, but it's fun to receive a question that is troubling someone and be able to provide a thought-out, semi-intelligible answer. It's fun to provide input that wouldn't seem obvious to someone half my age. It's fun to have a trusted opinion about things.
Think about the last book you read and think about how complex it was. Now look at this character list and tell me if it matches up with the difficulty of what you just read. Then consider being 14ish. Then consider that there are no less than 100 other names which get tossed into this story: Ajax, Mentor, and so on. Then consider that most of the locations given in the story are names of places that no longer exist (or don't exist in the way they did before) like Troy, Ithaca, Aechea, and more. Then think again about that last book you read. Then think about puppies because they're the best.
I think my point is that we shouldn't make kids read this book at such a young age unless proper time is given to it. It's huge. It's detailed. It's difficult. And it's really really interesting. Maybe you should read it some time.
Or maybe turn on Netflix instead. I heard they have the rights to Tina Fey's new show.
The reason it might sound familiar but not-that-familiar is that most people seem to be reading this book between the ages of about 12 and 16. This is one of the most loaded books in the history of ever, and it's complicated enough just to follow the plot (Homer, the author, invented the concept of in medias res, where the story begins in the middle and jumps around a bit through flashbacks and such, a style now known as "The Tarantino" or as "the way that one guy makes those weird movies with lots of violence"), let alone follow all the names involved, the historical context, the translated-language, and the themes at play from long-gone eras.
I say all of this because one of my students is reading it. She's 14. I love the Odyssey for some inexplicable reason, and now I get to help someone through it who is having a whale of a time. She's living in Milan for a few months and will return to her school in another country for the spring, and at the moment I get to keep her in-line with her class, where they're reading this book. The feedback has basically been "most of my friends in the class are exclusively using Sparknotes (shout-out to Mickey Bitsko's Sparknotes t-shirt in high school when everyone else was pretending we didn't know that the site existed) or they're just giving up. It's too confusing."
It feels like I'm becoming an actual teacher on this one. That's what's happening. I'm following along and reading with her to make sense of each of these bizarre circumstances, making parallels to outside life, explaining some of the historical context - goodness knows that I don't know all of it - and just generally feeling like I might be teaching an actual English class. It's very weird, but it's fun to receive a question that is troubling someone and be able to provide a thought-out, semi-intelligible answer. It's fun to provide input that wouldn't seem obvious to someone half my age. It's fun to have a trusted opinion about things.
Think about the last book you read and think about how complex it was. Now look at this character list and tell me if it matches up with the difficulty of what you just read. Then consider being 14ish. Then consider that there are no less than 100 other names which get tossed into this story: Ajax, Mentor, and so on. Then consider that most of the locations given in the story are names of places that no longer exist (or don't exist in the way they did before) like Troy, Ithaca, Aechea, and more. Then think again about that last book you read. Then think about puppies because they're the best.
I think my point is that we shouldn't make kids read this book at such a young age unless proper time is given to it. It's huge. It's detailed. It's difficult. And it's really really interesting. Maybe you should read it some time.
Or maybe turn on Netflix instead. I heard they have the rights to Tina Fey's new show.
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