We all know the joys (ha!) of a university-level English class. For those of you who don’t quite know what you’re getting youself into, we’re here to help. Here’s a look at some very popular course selections reviewed and (sorry, profs) revealed.
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
This one’s for all you science fiction fans out there. Basically, we are now in a world where we are attempting to raise pre-programmed humans. This is another depressing love story, though. I’m beginning to think science fiction writers don’t know how to write happy endings. This one even ends with a suicide. There is a great sex scene right before he commits the act, though. The whole book reminds me of a see-saw: up and one minute, down the next. This is best read with a box of chocolates, or can of beer-whatever cheers you up.
The Crying of Lot 49 – Thomas Pynchon
This book is not about a parking lot, as you may mistakenly believe. No? All right, it was just me, then. This book is quite complex and takes a couple of reads to get it straight. Basically, a woman inherits a huge estate from an ex-boyfriend and goes to sort out the details. The best thing about the novel is the name of each character. Get this-she’s Oedipa Maas and her husband is Mucho Maas. We also meet Stanley Koteks, Emory Bortz, Mike Fallopian and, this is my favourite, Genghis Cohen. It’s a kicker, this one.
Dora – Sigmund Freud
Here we have a book that is just an erotic paragraph away from porn. We all know about Freud’s little obsession with sexuality, and he takes it a step further in this book. Other than that, the book is interesting in a read-the-last-page-first kinda way. You end up feeling bad for poor little Dora, whose case study offers insight into the reason 18-year-olds are the way they are. So, the book will capture your attention, despite (or maybe because of?) all the sex. Maybe just hide it under the mattress.
1984 – George Orwell
This is actually a pretty famous novel-some of you avid readers out there will probably have picked this up at some point or another in your lifetime. However, for those of you less inclined towards the masterpieces, 1984 is, well, really depressing. However (and this is a big ‘however’), the overall plot of this book is absolutely brilliant. Here is where you will encounter Big Brother for the first time (and not the one where you win money at the end). If you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a world where you were watched constantly, this is the book for you. Also, watch for the gory part where Winston is about to have his face chewed by rats.
Titus Andronicus – William Shakespeare
Okay, guess how many people die in this Shakespeare play. Did you guess maybe four? Wrong. 14! That’s how many people are killed! And you even get a cannibal! So, really, there’s not much more to say, except that this is not your average balcony-climbing, death-avenging Shakespearean play. This is Hollywood before Hollywood even existed.
Waiting For Godot – Samuel Beckett
Who would have thought a play about nothing would be so popular? I certainly didn’t (and Beckett himself probably didn’t, either, for that matter). We open with two men waiting for someone else (three guesses as to how it ends). In the meantime, all manner of crazy characters show up, and this is where it gets interesting. There are arguments and issues of masculinity (seriously, one of the main characters is called Estragon), and also, watch for the part in the second act where no one remembers anything and the slave master goes blind!
