On Fri, 7 Jul 2000 [log in to unmask] wrote:
> Yeah, about the curriculum: it wasn't clear to me whether listees who
> did or did not "teach Plath" were referring to writing courses, where
> they would have the luxury of teaching only poets they liked, or lit.
> classes in which Plath might or might not require coverage whether
> they liked her work or not.
>
> But now, your wonderful anecdote has recalled my experience trying to
> teach _Frankenstein_ to freshmen at NC State U years ago, when an
> adorable little guy in a seed cap raised his hand during discussion
> and said that what he'd like to know is how Mary Shelley could "get
> away with talking so much about the secret of life but never telling
> us what it was."
>
> Candice
She learned that from Bysshe:
"And gazed, till meaning on his vacant mind
Flashed like strong inspiration, and he saw
The thrilling secrets of the birth of time."
(Alastor, ll. 126-28.
He then changes the subject to talk about an Arab Maiden.
David Latane
>
>
> At 10:47 PM 7/6/00 -0400, you wrote:
> >Teachers don't eliminate poets from the curriculum, they only add ones to
> >the slate for any given term. Plath is one of the most taught poets in the
> >world, and this ubiquity is the source of my favorite Plath criticism.
> >Years ago grading AP Placement tests for filthy lucre, the set poem was
> >Plath's "Sow." Another reader at my table started whooping over some
> >benighted hayseed who had managed to write an interpretation that hinged
> >on the presence in the poem of two pigs. I asked to read the paper, and
> >quickly saved the student's bacon--he or she was from a family in the
> >business, and had been confused by citygirl Plath's reference to the "sow"
> >as a "hog." I steered them right.
> >
> >David Latane
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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