[The Horrible Esthete]

What I can't fathom, though, is why anyone would put something like Ethan Frome on a high-school syllabus. We're spared that one in Canada -- I had to look it up. Instead, we get shit like Dickens. Is there a conspiracy here to ruin kids' interest in reading? It's the literary equivalent of liver: shut up and eat it, it's good for you.

Precisely.