Even though I now play ball every couple of weeks (and read Harry Potter, horrors!), there’s definitely an elitist cast to the other two things. On the other side of the coin is what I might call populist elitism, which is as common as people dismissing the opinion of movie critics.

Ziff, it’s interesting to me that you, like my husband, seem to prefer nonfiction. I’ve been begging my husband for years to just give a novel a try. No can do, he says. No hard, cold facts–no time. Is this trait more prevelant on the Y chromosome? But you’re breaking my heart, recommending fun reading just as school starts.

Deborah, LOL! (You can be my Biblical interpreter anytime–tricky to figure out what moral lessons to draw from some of those stories.) Also, I so wish you had been my junior high English teacher.

Katya, I think that may be the case of at least some English teachers I’ve endured (a minority, but a loud and overbearing one). I got the distinct impression from one or two that they themselves had never derived an iota of pleasure from the grim and distastefully classical novels they poured down our throats like so much castor oil, and about which we had to fill out worksheet after worksheet.

And I wonder if you might not like The Way of All Flesh if you just read the right version. Really, the one subtitled “A Celebration of Decay” is surprisingly fascinating.

Don’t you think this, in some ways is the genius of the Hebrew Bible — love stories, war stories, poetry, exposition, geneology, riddles, sermons, sex, death. Much more troubling and yet personalizable (not a word, I know) than the New Testament or Book of Mormon. I get to love Deborah’s song and Ecclesiastes while someone else analyzes obscure laws and someone else makes a sling shot to take out their older brother.

Of course, I like quite a lot of “classic” literature and “classical” music both. But I do think canonization can backfire–most of us dislike what we’re instructed we should like. I think I grew up with the idea that “literature” referred to holy tomes written for other people–smart, sophisticated, special people–not for grubby people like me.

But I do think the value of literature, for example, lies in its very particularity rather than its alleged universality, and for that reason I doubt there’s any work of art that’s going to appeal to every single person. And I think that’s okay.

(What the implications of all this are for scripture would be fascinating to explore.)

Anyway, it sounds like you’re a fabulous teacher–and heaven knows, our junior high schools can use more of those.