One such was a program called "Great Books," which required students to pick two books a semester which corresponded to two discussion-based classes about said books (four over the course of the year). Each teacher chose the book they wanted to teach, each student chose the books they wanted to read, and away you went. The whole point was to get the studentry reading. Like, actually reading, as opposed to what the did for their English classes (sparknote heavily and let the Jane Austinite in the course bear the brunt of in-class discussion).
This wasn't a replacement to our regular English classes, mind you; it was a supplemental program which only met once a week for half a semester, and focused exclusively on one book. Then come fall/spring break you switched teachers and started a new book. The program produced several duds (RICH DAD, POOR DAD was a snooze fest and taught me surprisingly little about personal finance), but there were also some gems. SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN. LIFE OF PI. To my everlasting surprise, I actually read some great books through the program, and for me at least, that made it worth it.
The defining experience of the program for me, however, was my last Great Book; or, rather, Great Books. It was a semester long two-parter, a book and it's sequel, and you had to sign up for both. I was cool with that--the books were THE SWORD OF SHANNARA, by Terry Brooks, and its sequel, THE ELFSTONES OF SHANNARA, and as a closet fantasy nerd I was happy with any excuse I could get to combine my homework and leisure reading. I'd never tried the books, but the course description sold me, as did its moderator.
Mike McLaren, a.k.a. that large, Scottish man infamous for his absurd British boarding school stories and kicking just about anything he could, including soccer balls, back packs, desks, chairs, and (lightly) students. And his class was awesome--hilarious stories, creative writing assignments (a revelation to high school Thomas), and a Lord of the Rings Extended Edition marathon. What more could a closet fantasy nerd want?
Maybe some great books, for starters. Alas, THE SWORD OF SHANNARA disappointed me hugely. For anyone who's never read it, the plot is that of Lord of the Rings, grafted onto derivative secondary world with its own medieval humans, dwarves and elves who seemed just similar enough to the inhabitants of Middle Earth to piss me off. For a candle-burning Tolkien devotee such as my high school self, this book was heresy of the lowest, basest order.
Don't believe me? Well there are about a million reviews like this on Goodreads that say pretty much the same thing.
But still, because it was for a class, I read it through, and come March I was dreading its sequel. Happily, my dread was misplaced. THE ELFSTONES OF SHANNARA was riveting and unique, as much of an antithesis to its prequel as one could imagine for two stories set in the same milieu. ELFSTONES was its own book, diverging from its tolkien-y roots and growing into something... still similar, but independent of its inspiration. I liked it so much that I finished the book early and immediately went to Barnes & Noble in search of the concluding work to the series, THE WISHSONG OF SHANNARA.
Where's this going, you ask? I'm getting there. Earlier this summer the first "sneak peek" trailer for a TV series called THE SHANNARA CHRONICLES dropped onto the internets, and high school nostalgia compelled me to look into it further. Given the success of GAME OF THRONES, this series pick up was zero surprise--Brooks, like Martin, is a giant within the Fantasy fiction community with an even larger catalog of source material to draw from--but what was the surprise was WHO picked it up.
MTV. Huh?
This one is an ostensible head scratcher, but to hear Brooks tell it, MTV is ready to reinvent themselves yet again (as they did when reality TV subsumed their original hallmark, music videos) and the word is that the network is pulling out all the stops to make SHANNARA their flagship into the well-charted waters of prime-time television. Color me skeptically hopeful, but there have been a few other positive signs as well, starting with the aforementioned sneak peek trailer. Another big one for me (as indicated by the 600 words of TG origin story I just dragged you through) is their choice of source material. To the misinformed, it might seem appropriate to start at the beginning, with SWORD, but as I've already asserted, SWORD is dog shit, and too much like LOTR to draw any favorable comparisons.
The show creators seemed to agree. They chose ELFSTONES as the field guide to their series, a choice which speaks to both their wisdom and good taste. They're also filming the series in Shire-ville itself, New Zealand, and while this choice will once again draw comparisons between the show and LOTR, you really can't go wrong with the land of the kiwis as your back drop.
Casting also looks like a win. They've got the inimitable (or not) John Rhys-Davies (Gimli, for those of you keeping score on the LOTR tally) and the Undefeated Gaul himself, Manu Bennett, who must have been JUST pumped to do yet another project on home turf (plus, add another LOTR tally mark--though Peter Jackson CGI'ed the crap out of him, Bennett did technically play Azog the White Orc in that regrettable Hobbit 3-part fiasco).
Now, not since Flavor of Love have I been so jazzed about MTV programming (or was that VH1? Whichever). The series premiere is January 16, 2016, and I'm sure word will spread far beforehand about the show's quality or lack thereof, but I hope this thing doesn't die in the cradle. GoT has opened the doors wide for fantasy on TV, but if nobody else can adequately carry the torch for the genre, it will slip back out of the mainstream's graces and into the familiar, relative obscurity of the written word. Not a bad place, by any means, but as fans we all like to see our darlings get their day in the sun.
So please, SHANNARA CHRONICLES... don't suck.
TG
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