In-Class Presentations

I thought the in-class presentations were interesting in the choices of texts used. A lot of the texts were what I was expecting, though I was surprised how often Don Quixote came up considering how long the book is. I especially liked the more unconventional pieces of literature chosen, such as Ender's Game, A History of Violence, and Wicked. These books have a lot of value that gets overlooked just because they aren't considered canon. Many of them are, in my opinion, just as good as the revered classical texts taught in literature courses, and have the advantage of being more readable and more interesting in many cases. I did enjoy reading the tragedies and the epics, but they simply didn't fascinate me and hold my attention in the same manner as, say, the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin did. You could teach an entire semester-long course on amazing pieces of literature like this and get just as much out of it. Granted, it may not be as much of a window into the author's culture and society as much as the Iliad came to be for the ancient Greeks, but there is still a lot that can be analyzed and learned from the different characters and their incredibly complex interactions.