You'll notice that almost none of the 1,000 or so comments so far are about the choices in the actual article. The question just gets everyone excited about sharing their opinions. It's a great discussion starter, perfect for your AP class. Oh the paradox!

I take that sassy comment back - actually, almost every Japanese movie or book I've come across is filled with people wracked by nostalgia, pain, regret and embarrassment. They probably have enough internal grief that I don't need to bug them any more.

I never liked Heller's work. The famous criticism that it seems as if the words in Catch-22 were screamed onto the page is exactly the way I feel about it. Hysterical.

Totz unless they live in Kansas or something, I'm pretty sure every student is going to have an iPod and listen to only what they want to. Which is not going to be British Blues / Frodo-rock from 35 years ago.

You should have mentioned to them that they started the war. Oh right, Japanese people never did anything wrong.

I always thought Shimura had very similar facial expressions to Morgan Freeman.

racist -

Lobsters - Unless there's some kind of massive nuclear holocaust tomorrow, everyone who graduates from now on will always have the Internet on their phone forever, for the rest of their lives.

"D.the weakening of the nuclear family and the rise in divorce rates "

The United States Constitution and Bill of Rights are actually pretty amazing documents no matter what frame of reference you examine them in.

el zilcho - ska? horrorcore? Moby? don't keep us in suspense man

The problem is that really appreciating Milton takes a pretty thorough knowledge of the Old Testament, and Virgil, and the Reformation, and a bunch of other stuff. High school seniors could probably get the heavy-metal Tenacious D awesomeness of parts of "Paradise Lost", but I dunno about the rest of it.

I thought he sounded a lot like Rusty Cajun Ron pissed off at Haden.

Rr0se - did the pointless 40-standard standardized test to graduate exist before Dubya? Just curious to know the extent of the positive impact our "education president" has had on education.

I want to start a backlash against The Great Gatsby.

mbs - I think the joke's on you - I get the feeling nobody thinks Pearl Buck was anything special any more. You were probably the last generation to have to read The Good Earth. And three times - ouch.

I'm not sure I totally agree with your analysis of Vonnegut, but I do think you're on to something about his writing that irks me… I think it's the essential curdled idealism of it. He was like someone who expected the world to be black and white good and bad, and his main response to the real world was disappointed…

I know, Ellie ol pal, and that's what I call it - but the actual record was issued with nothing on it (except the cover photo of some old gnome with a bundle of sticks on his back or whatever the hell that was), sort of like the Beatles' "White Album". People just called it "IV" because it was the group's fourth…

college student midnitesnak - "oblvious too all of them"? really? I hope for your sake you were drunk.

decal - Thanks - actually, I do feel better knowing that the Beatles and Beethoven weren't extensively synthesized in your course. What would that be like… "Now class, we're going to study the contrapuntal similarities between the choral finale of the Ninth and the Na Na Na Naaaa part of Hey Jude…"