Political literary canon

[Pete at Home]

Since LR is back, I thought that this might be a good moment to discuss a sociocultural reading list.  Stuff we really want our kids to read in order to deal with the world and with themselves.

I would start with
The little prince, st exupery
Roots, Alex Haley.
journal of Frederick Douglass.
Puddinhead Wilson, by Twain
Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury
"The Lottery" Shirley Jackson
"Jury of her Peers" , ______
"Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Bully and the Beast," Orson Scott Card


Looking for stuff that demonstrated good language skills, moving, and thought provoking.

[LetterRip]

I've heard of, but not read any of those - will have to add them to my reading list.  I tried watching the roots video series but after 5 minutes the acting and writing was so awful that I had to turn it off.

[Pete at Home]

Loved Roots since it first came out in paperback.  But then I read very very quickly and have since I was 8 years old.  My favorite part was the third Generation, IIRC the grandson named "Chicken George." 

SPOILER
The pain in his discovery that the master that was beginning to dote on him was actually his biological dad and had raped his mom.

[Pete at Home]

"Jury of Her Peers" short story text by Susan Glaspel (also written as a short play called "Trifles."  Great way to introduce a discussion of inductive logic.

"Young Goodman Brown" short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  IIRC this is the genesis of the uniquely American archetype that I call "dark suburbia" that runs from Stepford Wives to Twin Peaks.

"The Lottery" short story by Shirley Jackson.  A deeply offensive and provocative satire of the human trait behind everything from scandal journalism to criminal justice to prosperity theology.

Card's "Bully and the Beast" is a longish short story that's lulls you with ironic humor much like what Shrek was aiming at but never quite captures, then sucker-punches you with breathtaking philosophical depth.  It's been misprinted at least twice, and to my knowledge is only available in a readable format in the collection titled maps in the mirror