5 replies to this topic

[StBebe]

We've been reading Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe in English recently. We've got to Scene II. Anyway, all of the books weve studied during the course (The Sorrows of Young Werther, A Hero of Our Time, The Outsider, Othello etc) have been in one way or another related to how we can know something but that doensn't mean that what we know is true, so really we might know nothing. Today after finishing Scene II we had 5 minutes of class left and were discussing that, so I questioned why were even in school since everything we learn might be false, another person said "Yeah, let's go have an early lunch!" and we all got up and left =) The teacher was left there thinking what just happened but he didn't try to stop us. He's been hammering the nature of knowledge into our heads for over a year so I think he was kinda happy we'd finally got it. It was pretty awesome, I just felt like sharing that =)

Is anyone else reading darkly philosophical literature in class? I've actually quite gotten to enjoy it.

[marauder7]

Your story made my smile! I am glad you shared it My homeroom/english teacher would say "that's so IB"
I believe I haven't done anything that awesome!!! *an applause to your class*

Well, of the books you mentioned I've read The Sorrows of Young Werther (which I thought was totally tedious) and The Outsiders.
The book that I've read in IB that has made me think the most is The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It is easy to read and accomplishes its goal of portraying important themes of life. I really recommend it!

[StBebe]

Thank you =)

What's the Unbearable Lightness of Being about? It sounds interesting.
Yeah Werther is kind of annoying, sure he's a Byronic hero and all but he still complains too much. I think if he'd gotten a hobby, say gardening or something, he'd have been fine. Or he should have gone through with joining the army. He's my least favourite character in the books we've studied, although I didn't like Pechorin is A Hero of Our Time much either. He's such a womanizer, and he's sort of like Werther except without the whining. He's also a Byronic hero so he's pretty self-destructive (I wrote one of my world lits on whether Pechorin or Werther is more self-destructive), he does things like duel on a cliff edge and get on a boat with a woman he doesn't know although he can't swim, but he's not consciously aware of it and doesn't complain much.

We haven't studied it in class but my favourite book of all time is 1984 by George Orwell. the first time I read it I was like 12 so I didn't get much of it but I think I've read it about 6 times since. It's a relatively easy read and although it was written in the 1950's about the year 1984 it's still quite relevant.

[marauder7]

LOL Werther gardening! you made me laugh.
I didn't know about Bryonic heroes. I'll google it, hopefully it will help me in my essays. I hadn't heard about Pechorin before. It was interesting how you linked the though.

I haven't read 1984. But I've heard it is very good. It is in my list of books to read when I finish the IB exams.

The Unbearable Lightness is a phylosophical novel that deals with 4 characters Teresa, Tomas, Franz and Sabina whose lives are related. Through them Kundera shows his ideas about themes like love and society. It is very interesting. I recommend it!

btw I told your anecdote to some classmates and a teacher and they loved it!

[123qwe]

ive read those books and bull****ted my fair share about them but like i think theyre just over glorified works that appeal to those trying to sound deep like do u honestly think life can be pointless or whatever or that trying to learn is fruitless like ill go ahead and bull**** bout those books but to be honest i dont agree in one bit i hate all that existentialism crap its some hypothetical mumbojumbo and a complete waste of i dunno, kaka. i just hate....

[Ezak]

Look who's getting mad.