What English Single/Comparative texts are you doing?

jothee

Hey just wondering what English texts everyone is studying for the Single Text and the Comparative Study. How are you finding them?

X-SL

Play: Macbeth.. kinda boring but all right. haven't finished it.

and we did How Many Miles to Babylon by Jennifer Johnson (i think). That;s cool. very interesting and easy to write on.

mel(",)

king lear: very boring

then our three texts are how many miles to babylon by jennifer johnston, of mice and men and the film witness

:|

yeah king lear as well
then witness, girl with a pearl earring and a doll's house
we never actually finished girl with a pearl earring though

Rockerette

pride and prejudice for main text

on the waterfront film, silas marner, and king lear for comparative

lear is terrible i think, but i like the others

Pez

king lear

and comparatives are girl with a pearl earring, the homesick garden and film room with a view! ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz

abercrombie

King Lear

A room with a view, juno and the paycock, silas marner

casanova_kid

Main Text- King Lear(alright, if you're into that sort of thing)
Comparitives_How Many Miles To Babylon
Great Expectations
Il Postino

Shrimp

Main text - King Lear < good imo..
Comparatives - Silas, Pride and preggers, HMMB

Azureus

single text-king lear *yawn*

comparitive- room with a view, silas marner, girl with a pearl earring

dr.barbie

Lear, Silas Marner, Dances with Wolves and How many miles to Babylon (or something!)-we havent done that yet.

Dagnir Glaurung

Single - King Lear. Fantastic.
Comparative - Great Expectations, Pride and Prejudice, How Many Miles to Babylon

Gangsta

Single Text: King Lear (yawn, yawn, yawn)

Comparative: Witness, How many miles to Babylone and Juno and the Paycock

polkadots

Single text-King Lear:rolleyes:
Comparative-Girl With a Pearl Earring, December Bride and Room With a View

cookiemonst3r

Macbeth, Cat's Eye (worst book ever), and i think were doin Witness too.

exiot

King Lear
How Many Miles to Babylon?
Of Mice and Men
Witness

Havent done Witness yet.. but you only need 2 anyway for the comparative texts.

Le Rack

King Lear - groan!
Room With a View - meh...
How Many Miles To Babylon - good nuf
Jane Eyre - when does it end!

grimloch

King Lear, obviously for the single text.

Of Mice and Men, How Many Miles to Babylon and One by One in the Darkness for my comparative. Not particularly pleased about doing any of them to be honest.

Raphael

Single: King Lear - best Shakespeare I've ever read
Comparative: HMMtB, Juno and we haven;t done a 3rd one. Might re-read of mice and men before the mocks...

cianclarke

Single - King Lear, don't like a whole pile atall at all.
Comparitive - Juno and the Paycock - thought it was quite good, but obviously too short. Of Mice and Men - quite good again. Death and Nightingales - Good, not great.

deisedolly

King Lear, yaawwwnnn
Silas Marner, even bigger yaaawwnn
Juno And The Paycock, enjoyed it
Witness, fun to study

CrimE

Single Text: King Lear... :-|

Comparative: Silas Marner, Of Mice and Men and How many miles to babylon?

All horrible horrible crap, except Of Mice and Men.

Aoibheann

Single Text: King Lear, which I actually quite enjoyed. Some really interesting imagery.. the whole idea of the filial loyalty/betrayal too was cool.

Comparative Texts: Silas Marner.. alright, but it felt a little patronising with the morals and such being preached!
Witness.. it was grand, no great shakes, but not terrible.
Juno and the Paycock.. interesting satire, enjoyed the ending.

River Allow

Anyone doind Death and Nightingales as the single text? Id say we are the only school in the country doing it!

Rockerette

Raphael wrote:

Single: King Lear - best Shakespeare I've ever read

what did you like about it can i ask?

i thought it was a pile of monotonous ****e.... and i quite like Shakespeare! just thoguht King Lear was... i dunno.. lacking something....

im not attakcing you or anything here, im just curious
my class didnt like it, and we were originally going to do it for main text, but we demoted it to comparative...


And River Allow, another class in my year are Death & Nightingales for main text, you are not alone!



Noone else here doing On The Waterfront? the best choice of film from the list i think.. its damn good. Brando's a king

qz

Macbeth

My Left Foot - Death of a Salesman - How Many Miles to Babylon?

cianclarke

River Allow wrote:

Anyone doind Death and Nightingales as the single text? Id say we are the only school in the country doing it!

If you read my post, we are.

Le Rack

Rockerette wrote:

what did you like about it can i ask?

i thought it was a pile of monotonous ****e.... and i quite like Shakespeare! just thoguht King Lear was... i dunno.. lacking something....

Sorry just noticed this and have to agree, I quite enjoy Shakespeare, that man was a genius like but seriously King Lear is terrible, everyone dies of a broken heart, bar Gloucester, kinda, who gets his eyes gouged out and the sister who get's poisoned! But the still had broken hearts! The storm seen, the bastard son playing the two sisters and the opening sequence were the only good bits.

Rockerette

i thought the Gloucester "falling off a cliff" bit took the biscuit in terms of unintentional humour.... specially seeing it live!


i did the Merchant of Venice for Junior Cert and thought it was fabulous... but must say for the ould Leaving i was disappointed to see Lear there..

Dagnir Glaurung

I'm surprised at the Lear hatred really. It's simply fantastic. The sheer depth that is crammed into it is astonishing. A lot of Shakespeare isn't so, mere potboilers that he threw together to get a play on the stage. Lear's plot is incredible, ragged, and full of irrelevancies but it has a rare exuberance that shines through it and makes it a pleasure to read. It has a bounce about it, verve in its detail that is as good as anything. Plus it is wonderfully written of course but it also has genius separable from the words of the play: great atmosphere, wonderful images. Even if you took Lear and made it a novel, a movie, a comic book it would still hold up because of these. And it's full. Amazing depth and breadth.

It's of course full of silly details and bad jokes (thought they aren't all terribly bad ) and superfluous characters. But that scarcely matters. It is genius. Anybody who calls it boring by the way, would do well to remember Joyce's saying; "I never met a bore". You can skim Lear and laugh at its raggedness but I think you're missing something great.

X-SL

^Like Macbeth which parts weren't even written by Shakespeare!!

Rockerette

Dagnir Glaurung wrote:

I'm surprised at the Lear hatred really. It's simply fantastic. The sheer depth that is crammed into it is astonishing. A lot of Shakespeare isn't so, mere potboilers that he threw together to get a play on the stage. Lear's plot is incredible, ragged, and full of irrelevancies but it has a rare exuberance that shines through it and makes it a pleasure to read. It has a bounce about it, verve in its detail that is as good as anything. Plus it is wonderfully written of course but it also has genius separable from the words of the play: great atmosphere, wonderful images. Even if you took Lear and made it a novel, a movie, a comic book it would still hold up because of these. And it's full. Amazing depth and breadth. .

in that nice little paragraph you left out actualy details that make it special... particular scenes, defining moments, interesting characters and/or their development... that paragraph could have applied to any play/novel, with only the Shakespeare reference edited... it was a very general attempt at trying to convert me
plus with words like "exuberance", "sheer depth", and "astonishing" it kinda sounds like you swallowed a thesaurus in order to try get your point across...



but anyway, each to their own opinion

roberta c

Single : King Lear
Comparitives : Girl With Pearl a Earring
Death + Nightingales
il postino
the first three are pretty easy to write about but il postinos c*** for writing bout!

willowmegs

Single: King Lear
Comparatives: Death & Nightingales, A Room With A View and Of Mice & Men

grimloch

Dagnir Glaurung wrote:

I'm surprised at the Lear hatred really.

I wasn't giving out about it as such, I don't dislike the play at all. I'd just prefer not to have to tear it to pieces analysing this, that and the other and I'd really like not to have to write an essay on in.

Muiriosa

Single text: King Lear
Comparative: Silas Marner, Juno and The Paycock and Witness

I found Lear surprisingly interesting after the getting over the initial confusion of the old language. Good story.

Wasn't mad about Marner, a bit boring.

Juno was good and a bit of a laugh too.

Witness - pretty class film for the 1980's!!

Raphael

Rockerette wrote:

i thought the Gloucester "falling off a cliff" bit took the biscuit in terms of unintentional humour.... specially seeing it live!


i did the Merchant of Venice for Junior Cert and thought it was fabulous... but must say for the ould Leaving i was disappointed to see Lear there..

Why do you say its unintentional humour? Do you think Shaekspeare wrote that scene without expecting it to be funny?

GrumPy

Lear, on the waterfront, of mice and men

Limerick Dude

Single - Macbeth ( havent started it yet so i dont know what its like)

Comparative - Silas Marner, Juno and The Paycock and Witness

Silas Marner (doing it atm so boooooring!)
Witness( woo its a film and was easy)
juno and the paycock( havent started it yet)

Rockerette

Raphael wrote:

Do you think Shaekspeare wrote that scene without expecting it to be funny?

yes... as apparently gloucester had his "moment" of self discovery there... so i doubt shakespeare intended to shower it with humour?

Raphael

Shakespeare wasb't writing for English students. He was writing for victorian plebs who would throw rotten fruit at the stage if they got bored.

Rockerette

Raphael wrote:

Shakespeare wasb't writing for English students. He was writing for victorian plebs who would throw rotten fruit at the stage if they got bored.

.......is that aimed at me?
is it just a statement or are you tryin to make a point with that comment?

GrumPy

whoever is may have been aimed at, its the truth

Raphael

Rockerette wrote:

.......is that aimed at me?
is it just a statement or are you tryin to make a point with that comment?

You, sorry. Thought I hit the quote box. Old Bill wasn;t writing that scene just for the self discovery element, it was largely there so the audience would hold off on the fruit.

Rockerette

aaaah ok, i just thought it was a really random statement!

Raphael

There may have been an element of that too. =p