Reading Pynchon & Others At 14

[davemarc]

Charles confesses:

> And back at Reicher Catholic 
> High, at an 'innocent' fourteen, our 'Cultural Topics" class was reading 
> _Jitterbug Perfume_, Apuleius's _Metamorphosis/Golden Ass_, _GR_ and
_V._, 
> Miller's _Tropics_, Burton's _Thousand Nights and A Night_, Durrell's 
> _Quartet_--all treasured books that made me the reader I am now.

I can *imagine* what the teacher was like, but I'd love to know actual
details about this class.  

I think I'd read Tropic of Cancer, Slaughterhouse-Five, and the possibly
underappreciated I Will Fear No Evil (Heinlein) by the time I was 14, but
there was no way any of my teachers at the time were going to assign it.

Somehow, the district was less successful at keeping arsonists, thieves,
knife-wielders, and drug dealers out of the hallways.

davemarc