from McSweeneys

LIT 101 CLASS IN THREE LINES OR LESS.


BY BEN JOSEPH

- - - -

1984


WINSTON: Don't tell the Party, but sex is way better than totalitarianism.

EVERYONE: Surprise! We're the Party.

WINSTON: Oh, rats.



The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe


C.S. LEWIS: Finally, a utopia ruled by children and populated by talking animals.

THE WITCH: Hi, I'm a sexually mature woman of power and confidence.

C.S. LEWIS: Ah! Kill it, lion Jesus!



Paradise Lost



ADAM: Paradise has arbitrary dietary restrictions?

DEVIL: They're really more like guidelines.

GOD: Incorrect.



Moby-Dick



ISHMAEL: I'm existential.

AHAB: Really? Try vengeance.

ISHMAEL: I dig this dynamic. Can we drag it out for 600 pages?



The Great Gatsby


NICK: I love being rich and white.

GATSBY: Me, too, but I'd kill for the love of a woman.

DAISY: We can work with that.



Oliver Twist


OLIVER: Poverty ain't so bad, what with all the Cockney accents and charming musical interludes.

ME: Thanks to movies, no books were read in the passing of this class.

PROFESSOR WATERMAN: You're half right



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