Gone With the Wind Fans discussion

I teach college freshman English and was trying to explain parodies today. My example was The Wind Done Gone, since I assumed they knew what GWTW is. Wrong! When I asked them if they were familiar with GWTW, I got nothing but silence, nervous stares, and shaking heads. One kid nodded--out of 24! I know that they're all 18 or 19, but geez! This isn't exactly an underground or unheard of cult novel or movie. It exhausts me to no end how much these kids ignore their own culture. Ugh.

(I had to get this rant off my chest.)

Frustrating! In case it cheers you up any, hop on Twitter and search for Gone With the Wind. Young people are posting about it constantly, with lots of them loving it.

Wow I'm 23 and my cousin is 18 and we love Gone with the Wind and even Scarlett that is an awful same. A lot of my friends love and book and movie! We would have loved to been apart of your course for sure!

I can believe people in their twenties never hearing of it. I mean, the movies "old", and the book even older. It's more like their "mom's generation" of books.
But if they ever do read it, I can't imagine their not loving it! The book is still so readable after all these years.

I second Katie about being in your class! :)

I first heard of this book in 6th grade... have your students been dormant, under a rock?

Wow, I find that really hard to understand. I'm 26 and I was pretty much raised on old movies, GWTW being my favourite, even my 13 year old niece is a fan, and asked me to buy her the DVD last Christmas.

Juli wrote: "I first heard of this book in 6th grade... have your students been dormant, under a rock?"

Probably. The first time I saw the movie I was four. TNT was having a GWTW marathon to celebrate its 50th anniversary (this was 1989), and my mom was recording it. I remember my sister and I playing Barbies while watching the movie with my mom. I mainly remember loving the costumes but not understanding the plot at all; I was way too young to grasp the tension (and certainly the history). Of course this changed later... :)

Sadly, I've noticed this is a trend. I think a lot of people in their teens just don't pay attention to pop culture or history unless it relates directly to them. I found this article on the internet yesterday and felt disturbed. I really don't know how to solve this problem.

LOL

Well, I seem to have experienced some karma, if you will, after having the class who had never heard of GWTW. This past semester one of my students wrote her film analysis paper on a scene from GWTW. Whew! When I asked her if she had ever read the novel, she said no because she was intimidated by the book's length. I assured her the book is the fastest moving long book she'll ever read, and is much better than the film. She said she might try it. Let's hope so!