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December 01, 2004
Multiple Readings
Hugh Hewitt and others have been asking what modern books have you reread. I decided a while back that I should reread a lot of the books I was given in high school and junior high to read by English teachers so I reread The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, and The Great Gatsby. I liked them all more this time around (or at least understood them more) although Hewitt and others never defined what counts as modern. I also have reread the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, War of the Worlds, Starship Troopers, and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. At least Starship Troopers and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich should count as modern.
I also have also read for the first time books most other people get assigned to read at some point in their education, but I was never forced to read: To Kill a Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 411, Moby Dick, Grapes of Wrath, and Johnny Tremain.
I think this is kind of funny because we re-watch movies and plays, re-listen to music, and no one thinks twice about it, but books often take a lot more time and effort. I have seen multiple versions of Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummers Night Dream for instance, but watching all of these versions probably took less time than rereading Les Miserables once would. I personally try to avoid re-watching movies unless they are particularly good movies and my Netflix list is currently about 300 movies I have never seen before. My wife and friends can get annoyed at this preference as my taste get to be fairly eccentric and I have scene a lot of movies.
This topic brings up the point that you get different reactions and emotions from experiencing movies/plays/books/stories more than once. Pretty much everyone reading this knows that Romeo and Juliet die at the end of the play. But you did not always know this. My wife went to see the Romeo and Juliet movie that came out a few years ago and several of the teenagers at the screening were surprised (and depressed) to see Romeo and Juliet die. That teenagers did not know this happened in the play was a bit surprising. The last version of Romeo and Juliet was an abridged version put on by a friend of mine that works at an elementary school with sixth graders playing all the parts. The elementary students in the audience were very shocked when Romeo and Juliet died and although they may like and have other (probably deeper) reactions to Romeo and Juliet when they see it in the future they will never have the same experience of surprise.
Posted by Pete at December 1, 2004 05:49 PM
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