Friday, October 26, 2012

IB: Classic Novels Made Into Films *Updated*

Attention, IB students!

Now would be an outstanding time to decide what novel and film you might like to read and report upon for next semester's project. More details about the project later; for now, you really do need to start your outside reading early because--let's face it--you guys are busy.

Here is a list of some novels that have been made into fairly decent films. It goes without saying that this list is hardly exhaustive:

Highlighted titles are available in the Woodrow Library!

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Journey to the Interior of the Earth by Jules Verne
Adventure by Jack London
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Terms of  Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Horseman Pass By by Larry McMurtry
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Ivanhoe by Walter Scott
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
<enter title here> by William Shakespeare
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Washington Square by Henry James
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte


TL;DR: Pick a novel and its film (or films), and run it by me ASAP. I don't to find out on the day your project is due that you chose The Cat in the Hat.

FYI: If you were wondering what novels make it on to the AP Literature exam, here is a great site that not only lists them but tells you the number of times they have appeared.

Monday, October 8, 2012

IB Presentation Topics: Candide

Choose one:
  1. Voltaire's biography (Due Oct. 15)
  2. The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake (Due Oct. 15)
  3. Gottfried Leibniz and Theodicy (Due Oct. 16)
  4. What's in a Name? (The Meaning of the Names in Candide) (Due Oct. 16)
  5. The Intellectual Backgrounds of Candide (Due Oct. 18)
  6. Thumbs Down: Candide's Critical Reception (Due Oct. 18)
  7. "Bien, Tout est Bien" or Voltaire's Skeptical Rationalism (Due Oct. 19)
  • Yes, this allows for only a one week turnaround.
  • Yes, there is a hard time limit of 15 minutes per presentation (though some will not use all of their time).
  • No, there's nothing due on the 17th because that's the PSAT date.
  • Yes, the presentations get more difficult depending on how much time you get to prepare.
  • Yes, I will help your group, but you have to meet me before or after school this week, or Friday morning between 9am and high noon.
  • Yes, Joseph Decreux was alive when Candide was published, but did not, himself become famous until later. I just liked the painting.
Reading Due Dates:
 (Note: All reading assignments assume that you will read to the end of the last chapter listed.)
  • Chapters 1-10: October 15
  • Chapters 11-20: October 22
  • Chapters 21-30: October 29