Do you recall when or where you heard or read ignominious for the first time?
I do.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter taught me the word ignominious. Sure, it’s scattered here and there in literature, but I’ve never actually heard anyone use the word ignominious. Hawthorne uses ignominious and ignominy throughout the book. They are essential words to the text.
In high school, I had American Lit with one of the most dynamic teachers in the world.
Despite ignominious. And all the other nearly unusable vocab from that book.
I did not know, at 17, that The Scarlet Letter would become a running joke with me, or that the word ignominious would haunt me forever.
You would think that having once read The Scarlet Letter, one would write a paper or take a test and be done with it, as is the case for most high school students. But if your course of study is English Education and your name is Joey, then no, you will suffer The Scarlet Letter endlessly, like catching every illness you’re exposed to in your first few years of teaching.
You must study The Scarlet Letter again as an English major. Maybe even twice, because once in American Lit and again in a writing class, because your prof is obsessed with Puritanism. But perhaps even more, because practicums.
You see, before they hand you a teaching license, they make you practice teaching. I don’t mean the lengthy period of student teaching, which is more like an internship — I mean early on, visiting many schools, teaching gobs of classes in your field, in what feels like a random, haphazard way.
Every time I went to a high school, it was Scarlet Letter time. Fall, winter, or Spring, where I went, I happened into teaching The Scarlet Letter. Sophomore, Junior, Senior, no matter, I would be told “We’re doing The Scarlet Letter.”
It was uncanny. After the second time, I thought, “No no, there’s no way the third time will be The Scarlet Letter.” When it happened the third time, I said, “Third time’s the charm, surely it won’t happen again.” When it happened the fourth time, I questioned God, “Is there something I’m not learning here?!?”
I didn’t even flinch when I got my first high school English sub job and walked into a classroom where the movie poster hung in the center of the blackboard. “Ah, we meet again.”
And again, and again. A is for AGAIN!
I could easily list the vocab in alphabetical order without so much as looking at the book, if that tells you anything.
I think Moo is a lot like Pearl, in case you’re wondering how deeply this book is burned into my brain.
I see Dimmesdales everywhere. They like to send dick pics on Twitter and frequently ask for selfies.
Friends began gag-gifting me copies of The Scarlet Letter. I kept one copy. From MIL, circa 1997. It’s merely a small token of my great burden.
Have you ever heard this word spoken? Do you like Hawthorne? Tell me without fear of reproach.
joeyfullystated 
Oh ugh. What a god-awful depressing book. Even once was one time too many!! Oddly I loved my English teachers, too, even books like this and those by Edith Warton were SO dreary and a slog to wade through.
Love your I word 🌷
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Thanks 🙂
Yeah, I’m not a fan of Hawthorne or Edith Wharton.
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I think having to read Hawthorne more than once or twice is cruel and unusual.
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Thank you!
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You know where I stand on the shit they make you read in school. I wish this book would disappear forever.
Do you teach high school English?
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Mmhm. No, I don’t teach anymore 😀
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I had to read this in high school and again in a college English course. I think I paid my debt to society.
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I’m torn between relief and grief that you suffered similarly.
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Never heard of that word before. I love literature but it can get boring. I had The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, but my favorite author is Jane Austen.
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I love Jane Austen’s work 🙂
Thanks for commenting!
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I’ve managed to live – lo, these many years! – and avoid The Scarlet Letter. I do want to tackle Middlemarch someday, for whatever that’s worth. Ignominious rolls off the tongue rather nicely, I think.
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I did enjoy Middlemarch, and I think that was the only one of hers I did like. Good reading to you!
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Sorry for your numerous run ins with Hawthorne. I read the Scarlet Letter in high school, and oddly enough, was almost cast as a version of Pearl in a made for tv version starring Jane Fonda. Assume it was made, without me (my father tells me it was down to me and another girl and she got it), but never saw it, so I paid more attention when I actually read it. It felt like Hawthorne was hitting us over the head with the puritanical symbolism. I prefer writers, who for some reason tend to be contemporary, who let the reader make realizations for themselves. My main problem with Hawthorne and other supposed greats are they did too much for the sake of doing it instead of because it was actually their natural style.
Love,
E
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I find it repetitive, and also, far too much with telling instead of showing. We are in agreement here.
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Hmmmm…should I read it? 🙂
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Honestly, no. I can think of 100 classics that are better and more well-written.
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As you might guess I read this book in French. La Lettre Ecarlate is the French title. Ignominous is Ignoble. I read the English version when my four children, one after another, studied the book in high school. I had liked the story in French but found the book more interesting when I read it in the original version. Perhaps also because I was an adult and understood the story in a different way and certainly also because I was living in the US and knew much more about New England and the period of time. Saying that it’s my favorite book of all times would be a lie, but I found it interesting since it was scandalous back then. Again I didn’t read it countless times like you! See you tomorrow with letter J.
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Hahaha, I’m dying here!
I was lucky; my practice teaching spanned over 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades so I didn’t get any overlapping. And my first year of teaching was 6th, 7th, and 8th (small school), so while there was a lot more involved in planning, it kept things interesting.
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I’m starting to think t’s a pain only another teacher could understand. Variety is the spice of life!
Were you English Ed too?
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I was. Class of 2006, then taught one year and was done (had Little Man).
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OH. You’re YOUNGER than me 🙂
I’m not going to teach anymore school. Undergrad maybe, if I ever get to continue my education, but I couldn’t do it now. I can barely stand anyone else’s children anymore. *slightly ignominious, but slightly snarky, too*
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Haha…I have considered going back to take the extra classes I would need to get SPED certification, but that’s probably the only way I’d step foot back in a classroom. And that wouldn’t be for a few years anyway, since I’ve got the little one.
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My license lapsed — I’d have to take something like 56 hours and redo student teaching. So to the GRE –someday. The GRE has like, math on it, you know. I think I’d rather hang out in a pillory!
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Holy moly. My license has lapsed as well, but I was under the impression that I’d only need to take 12 or so hours and the Praxis exams again to regain certification. It’s been a few years since I checked though. And will likely be a few years before I check again 😛
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Haha! Yeah, it varies state-to-state, but here (and the states around me) if you haven’t gotten eight years of teaching under your belt when ten years pass, and your license expires, you miss the 12 -hour renewal opportunity.
No Praxis required here for renewal.
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Oh well, count me out haha!
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We read it, Joey, and still we unwittingly but ignominiously nevertheless wear hideous T-shirts with ugly words screened onto them. What to make of us?
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LOL! Good point! I don’t know what to make of us.
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I’ve seen the word but never heard it spoken. I do like Hawthorne. And I’m having the same experience this year; I’m a substitute, I work in 3 different districts, and I keep running across “James and the Giant Peach”. Not one of my favorite books to begin with, and now I’m beginning to loathe it.
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Dreadful. I don’t care for that. In fact, I like that one less than The Scarlet Letter! I hope you don’t get rutted into it!
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I read The Scarlet Letter BY CHOICE! Yes, I know. But it was never taught in school here. Believe it or not.
I don’t remember reading the word ignimonimous… no wait, ignomonimous… no, that’s not right, ignoramus… IGOR! That’s it! Yes, I love Victor Hugo.
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LOL weirdo 😉
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Thank you. Thank you very much. 😉
(I know you read that in Elvis’s voice.)
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Course!
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That book taught me many other things, and not quite with a great taste in my mouth. P
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I still have a problem with regardless and “I”rregardless!
–Mee (The Chinese Quest)
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The closest I’ve come to The Scarlet Letter is watching the movie Easy A. I missed some classics in my English education, and continue to add them to my list of things I may, most likely, think I should do, but won’t.
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