JK Rowling turned down for Presidential Medal of Freedom, Guess why Options

[DrSpengler]

Disregarding Bush's reason for dismissing her, the woman wrote some popular but mediocre kids books. She doesn't deserve every award on the ****ing planet.

I'm sure England will Knight her or make her a Commander of the British Empire like they do with most of their celebrities who make it big in the US. So what's one Presidential Medal of Freedom to her?

[Stungun]

Well, it'd be another few karats of gold to amount to... I have no idea how much gold. But hey. At least they didn't consider giving it to Meyer... Even though knowing Bush, he just might have thought about it.

And thanks. Just because iot's classic, doesn't mean it's "OMG THE BEST." There are some classics that stand the test of time, like Edgar Allen Poe. Harper Lee... Eh. TKaM just is a slightly- above-average book that was groundbreaking for it's time. Sure, it had some good parts "Joe Robison's trial, the racist getting killed, any time Boo Radley is involved), but... Eh. It just doesn't reel me in like Fahrenheit 451 or The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe did. I'm more of a sci-fi/fantasy guy when it comes to literature, and, when it comes to books in general, I like fact books about animals, dinosaurs, and space, along with collections of folklore.

This post has been edited by Spin-Out!: Sep 30 2009, 02:25 PM

[Database]

The reason is, of course, totally insane. But I don't think she deserves a medal. She wrote...a good (but not great!) series of books? Woo?

She got an entire generation of children to read. While her stories aren't really noteworthy, the results are.

Twilight also gets people to read! Shudder.

Thing is, as Stephen King put it, J.K Rowling is a good writer, and Meyer... Well, we all chagrinning know how chagrinning bad she chagrinning is.

Also, chagrin.

My point is that 'getting people to read' is, alone, not enough. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-waspy.gif)

Getting people to read is the first step. Good or bad, if you can get someone to like to read then they will hopefillu expand their horizons eventually. Even if its just switching Twilight for Interview with a Vampire; its still a step up from where they where/

[MrBlud]

I thought "To Kill A Mockingbird" was very interesting, even today.

You want mind-numbing boredom read "A Separate Peace."

[Stungun]

Eh, as with anything, it's all a matter of opinion.

[The Ambassador]

I think the trouble is you're usually forced at knifepoint to read literature in school. A lot of it is incredibly dry and mind-numbingly dull, despite some solid gems out there. I would never read Of Mice and Men for pleasure, but I am glad that I did read it, as it's still a solid tale told rather well.

It depends, really. I read for my own enjoyment, and I do read a lot of trashy pulp, although I like to think my tastes have improved (To be fair, it would have been hard for them to go downwards). That isn't to say I don't read something with a bit of heft (I'm forcing myself through The Iliad), but I prefer to read things I enjoy.

[Bleargh001]

I thought "To Kill A Mockingbird" was very interesting, even today.

You want mind-numbing boredom read "A Separate Peace."

I couldn't be more in agreement with you on both counts.

Grapes of Wrath was also good.

[Crypt]

I thought "To Kill A Mockingbird" was very interesting, even today.

You want mind-numbing boredom read "A Separate Peace."

I loved that book.

[Stungun]

Man, on any other forum, this would have degenerated into a flamewar by now. But not here on the 'Spark (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-fire.gif)

[Cabooceratops]

I think the trouble is you're usually forced at knifepoint to read literature in school. A lot of it is incredibly dry and mind-numbingly dull, despite some solid gems out there. I would never read Of Mice and Men for pleasure, but I am glad that I did read it, as it's still a solid tale told rather well.

Oh indeed, I loved that book, wouldn't have read it if it wasn't for school.

I also enjoyed Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth".

[Database]

Man, on any other forum, this would have degenerated into a flamewar by now. But not here on the 'Spark (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-fire.gif)

Thatss what I love about this place. It's not just a messageboard or forum, its a real comuninity. We can have discussions over everything, and it tends to remain remarkably civil. Even when there are several posts talking about how they don't like somethgin, it almost never a slur against someone else. It just amazes me how remarkibly diffrent this place is to other places around the 'net.

[Database]

I think the trouble is you're usually forced at knifepoint to read literature in school. A lot of it is incredibly dry and mind-numbingly dull, despite some solid gems out there. I would never read Of Mice and Men for pleasure, but I am glad that I did read it, as it's still a solid tale told rather well.

Oh indeed, I loved that book, wouldn't have read it if it wasn't for school.

I also enjoyed Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth".

I third the love for 'Of Mice and Men', one of the few books I was glad to be 'forced' to read.

[Bocc Kob]

I liked Of Mice And Men and To Kill A Mockingbird, but I still don't get why either is considered a must-read classic. Is there a specific criteria for this or something?

[Internet Jesus]

Yeah, I think the Reads-Like-A-Badly-Written-Fanfic nature of the last two books disqualifies her for the Medal of WTF.

[Col. Jupiter]

I think the trouble is you're usually forced at knifepoint to read literature in school. A lot of it is incredibly dry and mind-numbingly dull, despite some solid gems out there. I would never read Of Mice and Men for pleasure, but I am glad that I did read it, as it's still a solid tale told rather well.

Oh indeed, I loved that book, wouldn't have read it if it wasn't for school.

I also enjoyed Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth".

I third the love for 'Of Mice and Men', one of the few books I was glad to be 'forced' to read.

Of Mice and Men is one of my favorite books of all time. It succeeds at everything Grapes of Wrath tried to do, and in a fraction of the pages.

[Stungun]

See, I was foced to read Fahrenheit 451 for school. And I loved it. I think Of Mice and Men may be one of the books required for English this year, so maybe I'll read that.

[mx-01 archon]

I loved Fahrenheit 451, except for its non-ending. Sure, it was an ending for Montag's character arc, which was really the point of the whole thing, but for the world and narrative that had been established thus far, it felt a bit lacking in other regards. It was a season finale, not a series finale, if you were.

[Bocc Kob]

I can't remember anything about that book except for the book burning guy getting chased by a robot dog.

[DrSpengler]

In regards to mandatory literature from high school, I detested the really dry stuff like the aforementioned "To Kill a Kockingbird", "Of Mice and Men" and so on. The stuff I really enjoyed were the more fantasy-oriented books, like "Beowulf" and "The Odyssey". We were supposed to read "Journey to the West" my senior year, but we ran out of time, so I read it on my own and thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Fahrenheit 451" and "1984" I recall reading but feeling mostly apathetic about. I actually don't remember them all that well. They were probably the most modern books they let us read in school. It really irritated me that we weren't permitted to read any modern literature, as if a book being written within the past three decades somehow makes it "bad". Would've loved to have read some Bradbury when I was in school...


Public school curiculum did ONE thing for me, though. I now and forever will have a seething hatred toward the works of William Shakespeare. Perhaps if we'd only read one or two of his plays, I might not hate him so much. But 11th grade literature curiculum in Fairfax County was "all Shakespeare, all the time". We read Romeo & Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, Macbeth and Hamlet among others! We spent that ENTIRE year reading nothing BUT Shakespeare.

And the cramming of the immortal bard down our throats didn't begin or end with the 11th grade. I recall in my 8th grade creative writing class, we only actually wrote two stories. So what'd we do during that class if we didn't write? We had to memorize Shakespearian sonnets and recite them. That's what we did. Every day. Instead of writing.

Then there's all the other Shakespeare stories I had to read during different years. I actually wound up reading Romeo & Juliet THREE times between middle school and high school!

And don't even get me started on the fact that the man wrote PLAYS that were meant to be WATCHED, not READ. BLAAAAAARRRGH!


I hate that guy. I hate his plays. If I go the rest of my life without reading anything he penned, it'll be too soon.

[mx-01 archon]

"Fahrenheit 451" ...Would've loved to have read some Bradbury when I was in school...

Que?

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