Reading books when there are many assignments due is an undeserved pleasure – but a pleasure, for sure. I realise, belatedly, that the two books (besides the MOE recommended text) have supernatural themes. I don't like the horror genre generally -- The Graveyard Book is the most i can take.

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (MOE-recommended text)

  

George Orwell writes about a totalitarian dystopian world governed by an enigmatic all-powerful figure, Big Brother, and the Inner Party, who holds unrivalled and unquestioned power over the lives of the people. This is achieved through tight control over daily provisions and communications, and constant government surveillance. The people are kept in lack of a particular necessity, are kept isolated from each other even when they are together, and are meticulously scrutinized for an errant deed or thought. They are thus marshalled into absolute and unyielding obedience and love to Big Brother. 

Winston Smith, an Outer Party member, finds himself alone in a world, in which there is no love between friends or family, and in which memories have no lasting place and facts have no roots (and can change at the Party’s dictation). His job is to rewrite history according to what the Party says, but he tries to hold on to the truth by anchoring himself to the past. Slowly, Winston becomes aware of a girl Julia in encounters he considers more than coincidental, and soon finds out that she too engages in unorthodox activity in secrecy. They have several more meetings in rebellion of the Party, and promise to love each other, so that the Party is powerless to overcome human emotion and relationship. However, the Party eventually finds them out and tortures them with their greatest fear into betraying and hating each other. The novel paints a bleak future of humanity when Winston (and Julia) ultimately yield to the Party’s dominance and, forsaking who they are, are conditioned into loving Big Brother wholly, unreservedly and orthodoxly (is there such a word?). 

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (Young Adult novel)

 

 

A teenage girl moves into a small quiet town in the Washington state where she is to live with her father. At her new school, she makes new friends and meets a family of siblings who appear out-of-place among the students. She soon becomes friends with the enigmatic Edward Cullen, and even though she knows implicitly that he is dangerous, they are attracted to each other. After a series of bizarre inexplicable (by any human means) events, she discovers that he and his family are vampires (who do not feed on humans), but she is willing and determined to see through her new relationship. 

Things take a turn for the worse when new and more dangerous vampires visit the area and she becomes a target for one of them. Edward eventually saves her from the threat, but not before she was bitten and infected by vampire venom. 

Suitability as an O-Level set text:

This novel is often scorned by hardy literary students as light (high-school) romantic fluff that has no real literary merit, and has been fodder for parody in film and popular culture. But the series is certainly popular among pre-teens and teenagers, and girls mostly, and so if its popularity can be harnessed to lead students to discussion about what it means to be human, this book would prove to be useful. Besides that, there are stronger reasons against its suitability as an O-Level set text, rather than for it.

I am not entirely sure that this book is suitable as an O-Level set text, because (maybe I’m not seeing) it does not seem to discuss in much depth the bigger issues of humanity and non-humanity (the supernatural) or even relationships; and appears to be written as a mental diary of a girl’s relationship with a seemingly “ideal”—but dangerous—boy, rather than a crafted text waiting for its readers to unravel the connections and admire the author’s art in constructing them, content and language. 

Of course, this novel can be analysed anyway, especially by fans of the series. One could always discuss what is it about Edward Cullen that appeal to so many girls, or the language or other literary techniques which Meyer uses to express Bella’s emotions or evoke emotions in the reader. Still, such discussion may still be more possible as a lead-in to another text that discusses more deeply humanity/the supernatural/relationships. 

 

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (A most unusual book)

 

 

‘…And for that reason, if for no other, it is vital that the child be raised with as little disruption as possible to the, if you’ll forgive the expression, the life of the graveyard.’ (p.24)

Nobody Owens (Bod, short form), is brought up in a graveyard by its inhabitants, after a man named Jack tried to kill his whole family and failed to kill him. He is accepted into the graveyard community by the Dead who care for him until he is old enough to face the dangers (and adventures of the world). At the graveyard, he learns the ways of the Dead (e.g. how to Fade from sight) and discovers the supernatural world that goes on unnoticed by the Living. As he grows up, he slowly realises the stark differences between the Dead and the Living, and longs to go out and be with living people. His guardian, Silas, disapproves of his wish, but grants it anyway. Bod soon finds out that the Living world is not all he has envisioned it to be – and the man Jack is still out there hunting him. The novel shows how Bod navigates the Dead and the Living world to keep his life safe from the man Jack and the other Jacks of All Trades who want to harm him, and how he eventually grows up and leaves the graveyard to live with the Living.

Suitability as an O-Level set text: 

Although this may be considered horror by certain criteria, the themes of humanity, of Life and Death and their attending concerns are certainly not out of the reach of Upper Sec students, if their teachers are brave enough to broach them. 

This book twists the usual ghost story in which ghosts inhabit the living’s spaces, and has a live being living among the dead. Gaiman’s portrayal of living among the dead is especially notable, as he presents what is scary, unnatural and discomfiting to us (death, the graveyard and ghosts) as completely ordinary (which it is) to the dead: tombstones are comfortable living spaces and the ‘actions’ (Fading, Dreamwalking, Sliding etc.) that ghosts do in their plane of existence just as humans walk, run and jump. In addition, there is another way of think about what it means to Live, besides its binary opposite Death. Silas, who is neither alive nor dead, is left out of many activities that Life and inadvertently Death allows. Students are given the chance here to consider more than the binary pair of Life and Death, and what that means for Life and Death. 

Furthermore, the foreboding, eerie and suspenseful atmosphere of the text provides many opportunities for a rich analysis of the literary techniques used by Gaiman not only to create but also to sustain the mood throughout. This is in addition to the word play (names: Miss Lupescu and Jack of All Trades and the names of the ghouls(?)) and choice of words.