Recently, as part of an English Project, I had to complete an activity called ‘The 100 Society’, inspired by a book written by Carla Spradbery. In a society that had very strict rules only 100 pieces of different cultural areas were allowed. This means that there were only 100 books, 100 songs, 100 films, etc. We were only supposed to choose 5-7 pieces each and it took me roughly 2 and a half hours to complete 4 sectors: books, films, songs and artworks. This surprised me because I didn’t expect to have such a difficult time choosing. 

Books

The criteria I made to choose my books was: what does it teach, how long is it (because you could only have up to 7 books for the rest of your life) and enjoyment. I chose the following:

The Diary of A Young Girl – Anne Frank (242 Pages)

The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (776 Pages)

Animal Farm – George Orwell (This is a shorter book, 112 pages, but it can be read both for children and adults alike, just on different levels)

A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara (720 pages)

Winnie-The-Pooh – A. A. Milne (160 pages)

And finally the very controversial: Anarchist Cookbook

I didn’t choose this book based on it’s enjoyment or length, which both suffice, but because I believe that the people in this society would benefit from it. 

In a society where the rules are so strict that you can’t have more than 100 pieces in each field of art, I believe that Anarchy would likely occur, however how would people in this society even be able to pull that off? The Anarchist Cookbook is a banned book in many countries, however it teaches how to create weaponry, drugs, bombs and more. It’s infamous for causing many massacres which is why it’s banned, however I think in this specific society it would be the perfect recipe to form a revolution.

Movies

Unlike with the books, the main reason I chose these films is because they’re fun to watch. They engage the audience, and in our society they are a basis for a lot of other films and comedy. Many of the films I chose are quotable and are not ones that you have to think hard about. That being said, here are the 7 films I chose:

The Sound of Music – Rated G

Superbad – R rated

Fantastic Mr. Fox – G Rated

Oceans 11 – PG 13

The Princess Bride – Rated G

Legally Blonde – PG 13

Lolita (1997) – Rated R

I added a mix of ratings so that adults can get more age appropriate comedy and that kids would still have a handful of their own movies they can watch. The only movie I was on the fence about adding to the list was Lolita. Although the movie is only a little over 2 hours long, it took me around 2 days to watch just because the topic was so uncomfortable, and in this society I think they need to be pushed outside their comfort zone as well and not be sheltered/censored from gory and horrid topics.

Songs

The criteria I made for songs was a little more different. Again I based these on length (because why have 7, 1 minute songs?) but I also based most on how interesting they were. Because I’m a music student this one took me a bit longer than the rest because I had to sift through every song I liked. My main thought process with the more bizarre ones was that if you only had 7 songs to listen to for the rest of your life you’ll end up enjoying them and understanding why they’re super good. The list goes:

Heroin by The Velvet Underground – 7:12

King Kong by Frank Zappa – 8:13

Maggot Brain by Funkadelic – 10:19

Liebestraum by Franz Liszt – 4:53

The Man Who Sold the World by Nirvana (Cover) – 4:21

Gimme Gimme Gimme by ABBA (I added a pop song) – 4:52

The Girl From Ipanema by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Frank Sinatra – 3:19

I decided to add a couple of genres of music in here including a sneaky bossanova song because I know that even if you listened to say King Kong for your whole life, it could just not be a song you like. 

Art

This is the sector that I had the most trouble with. I’m not by any means an artist, and although I love to pretend I understand exactly what the piece is about, I do not. I also had difficulty with the rules and tried to figure out if this sector was strictly for paintings or if it allowed room for different mediums like sculptures. My criteria was how much I liked these paintings and what it can inspire the kids of this society to do, whether it be figuring out puzzles or looking at the world in a different light. Also I threw in some that held historical relevance.

Three Beauties of the Present day – Utamaro

The School of Athens – Raphael

The Woman with a Parasol – Claude Monet

The Persistence of Time – Salvador Dali

Waterfall – MC Escher

The Weeping Woman – Pablo Picasso

Statue of David – Michelangelo

I tried my best to add different styles and make sure that these also held a bit of historical relevance and show the changes in the art world, but like mentioned before I’m no artist and so I’m purely basing this off of how I view these artworks.

It was definitely a time consuming project, but rather fun and it also allowed me to break down all my favourite movies and songs and think about whether or not I want people to see them or not. It’s a fun activity and if you’re bored I say give it a crack!