Would you ever want your novel to be required reading in school?

[pixxiepinks]

This might be a silly question, but the thought just occurred to me and I was a bit surprised by my own answer, so I wanted to see what everyone else thought.

"Would you want your novel to be required reading in school?"

My answer, no.

I understand the importance of making kids read, trust me (and I hated reading as a kid. I know it's hilarious that I'm an author now, my parents never let me live that down). Required reading does work to a certain extent, and while I think the books that are chosen could use a bit of updating, I'm not against the idea.

What I am against is the school system teaching and overanalyzing my novel to the point that people can no longer enjoy it. I write for entertainment, for my stories to provide someone escapism, a story that makes them feel and lets them walk away when it's over feeling happy they tagged along for the ride. If my novels were to become required reading, I feel like they would lose that.

But if you had a say, would you make your novel(s) required reading?

[ThunderChicken]

Given that my books have LGBTQ content I'd just be happy if they weren't banned by the right wing nutters

[vapidink]

Yes because I want to see how they discuss a book about a bi gremlin and his gay superhero bf. Like, explain the symbolism of the cheap plastic water bottle used to smack that one guy on the head, lol.

Serious answer is no, but it's still funny to think about.

[BoomerZ]

Nah, my story is not appropriate to make some one read it.

[IndigoShirtProd]

No, not the novella I've completed. For one, most required reading has some historical significance, and mine doesn’t. And two, it's not appropriate for minors, so... yea, no.

[Kuma]

No. Definitively no.

[morganicfoods]

That would be absolutely hilarious. Definitely yes. Only because the idea of a bunch of worn-out highschoolers having to read my questionable-art-quality webcomic is incredibly amusing. I had to read Maze Runner and Divergent in high school, as well as some other book where the lead had the hots for his cousin. They can handle this no problem.

[bulgariansumo]

As it stands now, the first section of my novel is longer than the first Lord of the Rings book according to a friend, so that would just be cruel to require for a class. Two, what ThunderChicken said. Three, I would prefer my story be analyzed for fun and not for a half-hearted essay with a 2-hour time limit.

Even the required reading I liked, I probably didn't put as much thought into them as I would've if I'd read them on my own accord (though I'm still bitter we never got to finish A Wrinkle in Time.) I don't want my story to be "enjoyed" like that.

I can see sections of my story being used as one of those short stories that they give you a few questions on for homework.

Also, this might be my own lack of reading speaking, but I don't see a lot of standalone books these days. They're usually series.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

If you mean instead of the works of some of the best authors in all of history, then heck, no. I'm not that delusional.

[darthmongoose]

It's a difficult one, so I'd say: "For GCSE and below, no, but for over 16s doing A-levels, who are doing English Lit out of choice, sure".

I have a really fond attachment to some of the books and plays I studied at A-level, because there was nobody in the class who didn't want to be there, so we could all enjoy them without feeling self-conscious.

That said, I doubt my work would be studied in a school, it's not very "literary" in style or presentation (even if it does have plenty of themes that could be dissected... but then, a Post-modernist lit professor would tell you, so does a cereal box). At best, I could see it coming up on a queer module or a comics or post-modernist type module in a University lit course, or getting a small mention in somebody's dissertation maybe. Though even that feels a little outlandish; I'm not that well known and my comic doesn't have an ISBN to cite!

[Aeneas1]

I certainly would. For Nixvir, that is. The whole initial point of it was that I wanted it to be an OEL "comic" that would one day end up becoming a great work of English literature. That is why I write in such an old-fashioned style, that is why I pack my word balloons with as much dialogue as possible, and that is why I use old-fashioned archetypes rather than modern ones. It hasn't been successful mind; it hasn't even been critiqued, but, let us remember Moby by Herman Melville.

[panpanwuvmgau]

No At least from my experience, academics tend to focus on specific ways of interpreting the meaning and content of literary works and it's not exactly what I want readers to do with my novels.

Required academic readings are often interpreted based on various factors including external ones that possibly influenced the formation of the literary work such as time period when it was written, the author's identity, perceptions, age, gender, sexuality, ethnic background, socio-economic background, etc. While those things may likely have impacted the contents of my work, it's not something that I want readers to use to develop an interpretation of my novels.

I created my pseudonym to hopefully give readers the opportunity to judge my work based on their personal reading experience. If they enjoyed reading it, great. If they learned something life-changing from it, icing on the cake. But I don't expect them to unearth who or what I am based on my works, nor do I want them to judge my works based on who they presume I might be.

[JoshRaed]

Depends on the story, if I ever end up actually making one of them.

[NickRowler]

I will say no because I don’t really want my comic to turn into busy work for kids. I am also concerned that I would also become a target from anti-LGBTQ groups.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I feel like having your work become required reading is like a double-edged sword or a monkey's paw thing; like "millions upon millions of people will be exposed to your work every year and spend at least a week studying it and talking about its meanings with others...but a good portion of that group will come out of the experience hating it on principle." ^^;

Personally, I don't think I would mind. If your work is famous enough, someone's bound to be forced to read it in some context at some point, so why not just make it everyone and rake in the royalties and cultural relevance?
Besides, maybe I'm a weirdo, but I enjoyed most of the required reading I had to do in school. I adored Lord of the Flies and The Great Gatsby and Shakespeare's plays and sonnets...even the more biographical stuff I was assigned to read in college. Studying literature definitely made up most of the high points of my time in school, even with the stupid essays that went along with it. L:

So, y'know, if I can assume at least 30% of this student audience is made up of people like me who tend to have a good time with books in general, and I get to give them a break from reading about old white guys who hate life and Graphic Minority Suffering(TM) to instead study a story about cute robot philosophers or extra-dimensional aliens who are in love with you, or perhaps a colorful graphic novel about a tragic hero....I can only imagine they'd like that even more. ^^ And even the people who don't like required reading will at least get to have something fun and fantastical in their curriculum to make the experience less awful.

Last but not least, I think most of the stuff I write would fit great in a classroom, because I always write with themes in mind. Oftentimes I even do it subconsciously-- like just the other day I was working on a novel and suddenly realized "every major character in this story has some kind of a past life, and each has a different reason for leaving it behind and a different way of relating to it in the present day". o_O And I didn't plan that; due to the mechanics of the story it just evolved somehow.

So yeah, I can imagine my work would probably be chock full of characters and themes and symbolism to compare and contrast; lots of fodder for all kinds of forced essays and worksheets. XD Which, in my experience, is a lot easier than having to stretch one dull-but-poignant conversation into a 1,500-word analysis.

[kingtubz7]

It is an interesting thought I'll say and I agree, as I'd rather not have my novels be read by children for educational/school purposes as it will ruin the very purpose of my novels as my novels are meant for leisure not to cause work and stress for little angels & rascals. So yeah my answer is no, although I wouldn't mind my novels being in school libraries as that is a completely different story.

[MelancholicOtaku]

For The Lost Forest most definitely not,but I wouldn’t mind writing a story that is for kids,after all some of my favorite mediums are made for kids .

[GothickangelStudios]

No probally not, I've already been trolled by some bias religious people (not everyone is like that). The problem they have is there IS only ONE version and no others. When in fact there are like 5 or 6 different versions in lore around the world. I mixed them all.
So I'm sure it would be banned in some strict religious schools.
Movies and TVs shows air this genre here and its quite popular. So does anime.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Required reading does work to a certain extent, and while I think the books that are chosen could use a bit of updating, I'm not against the idea.

I am I feel like I can't really be against my work being required reading, without also opposing required reading as a whole on principle. If I'm against people being made to analyse my story to the point where they can't enjoy it, why would I support people being made to do that for any story?

But assuming the abolition of required reading isn't an option, I'd actually be pretty happy for my story to be made required reading lmao XD The obvious "yay people are paying attention to and saying things about my story :D" aspect aside, it's going to contain some ideas that I'm arrogant enough to genuinely, unironically think would make a lot of people's lives better if they were brought to their attention.

But I'd prefer my story to be one of those movies that the teacher plays for the class when they can't be bothered teaching anything

(And I would give it up to abolish required reading as a whole :])

If your work is famous enough, someone's bound to be forced to read it in some context at some point

Would it? I can certainly imagine a world where it wouldn't, but maybe there are some real world situations where it would that I'm not aware of :0