Class is in session

[ofsevenseas]

[On the first and second day of Literature Class (to compensate for late arrivals), the students are greeted by a large black board that reads "TISONI" with a pronunciation key underneath it, and a man with a knee-length ponytail, large hoop earrings dressed in slacks and an oversized sweater sitting on the edge of the desk]

Welcome to class, you'll be calling me Mr. Tisoni for this course, and we'll be covering literature and writing for the semester, before you groan - I hate picking apart everything in the text as much as you do, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And we'll be going over more then books written by long dead Britons and Russians about the cruelty of life, including "Genre" fiction. We will also be writing, both the essays and original works.

There should be a survey on your desk, with four questions: Your favorite book that you had read, your least favorite, the hardest book you've read, and if you had done any non-school related writing.

[He hops off the desk and writes on the left-handed side:

Favorite: 1001 Nights, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Buck Rogers
Least Favorite: Lord of the Flies, The Jungle
Hardest Book: Finnegan's Wake
Writing: I'm published]

There's a little challenge, I did have some of my stories published, but it's not under my name for reasons - if you can figure out what I wrote, you'll get something special.

Feel free to talk amongst yourselves while filling out the survey, and ask questions if you want.

[With that, he's going back to his desk and pulls out a book - kicking his feet up on the desk and leaning back. No need to do busy work while he's assessing at what level the class's generally at]

[or alternatively]

[Since it's free period for his class, he's wandering all over the campus, looking for trouble - both mundane and supernatural. Hopefully you're not one of those trouble makers]

Comments

[worldcup]

Is this something special a surprise?

[ She already has a guess as to what that story is, but she's curious about the prize. ]

[ofsevenseas]

Naturally.

[Namely because of all the times he proposed the question, no one had guessed it, so he really hadn't thought of the prize]

[worldcup]

It's not 1001 Nights, is it?

[ofsevenseas]

Do I look old enough for that?

[He hopes Ilya remembers there are ordinary humans in class as well]

[worldcup]

You look pretty old, so I wouldn't know.

[ There's a teasing note to her voice, as if she's not serious. Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. Who knows? ]

[jekyllandheidi]

[Heidi strokes her chin exaggeratedly, considering the questions carefully.]

Whaddya mean by "hardest" exactly?

[ofsevenseas]

Good question. In this case, a book that you found extremely difficult to get through because either the vocabulary is above your level or you couldn't understand what it's about.

[jekyllandheidi]

[Hmmmmm....]

Well if we didn't understand the book and got frustrated, wouldn't that make it our least favorite book? Or do we gotta choose something else?

[ofsevenseas]

You can double up on the answers if it's one and the same - it's just not always the case, which is why they're separate questions.

[And also to get a rough idea of the class average reading level]

[jekyllandheidi]

Gotcha, gotcha.

[Translation: she can be lazy if she wants to, awesome.]

Soooooooo, what dontcha like about Lord of the Flies? [She didn't remember loving it all that much, but it certainly wasn't the worst book she ever read.]

[ofsevenseas]

It's too heavy-handed. Everything was a heavy metaphor about how humanity are inclined towards evil and savage behavior without some guiding hand, not one person in the book is an actual character, just a prop for the message.

[jekyllandheidi]

I can see that. Oh, but what about that weird kid! Who hallucinated stuff before he died? He had... character. I think?

[Heidi took a moment to reflect on how weird it was when exam topics in English come floating back to you years later. She can't even remember what year she had to read that book or the name of the teacher. And yet here she was remembering... whatever character she's talking about. Memory is weird.]

Plus, it can't've been as bad as Breaking Dawn.

[ofsevenseas]

Simon. It used to be thought that Epileptics like him were spiritually closer - possessed or saintly depending on where and who you were talking to, and his death -

[He sets his book down as he sits straight up]

There I go again. And technically there are worse books then that, though given my tastes, some people can say I have no room to critique sparkling vampires.

[jekyllandheidi]

Daaaaaaang, really? That's messed up. Old timey time people are weeeeiiiirrrd.

[She rests her head in her hand thoughtfully, elbow pushing slightly against the desk.]

I prob can't talk much either, I guess. I liked the first two. But whatever Buck Rogers is can't be too bad. [On the other hand, she doesn't and can't know evety book the teach read.]

[ofsevenseas]

Some say it's too cheesy to be taken seriously.

[He pushes back against the desk, letting his chair roll back - a hand reaching back to stop it before it hits the wall]

As for past superstitions, it's not that they're dumber or more foolish, it's simply they're working on incomplete information and had to fill in the blanks with what they have on hand.

[jekyllandheidi]

Pshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh that's lame. All the fun stuff is cheesy.

I don't know, leaping to thinking some dude's getting possessed or whatever seems pretty flimsy.

[It was at this moment in her life Heidi remembered she attended a magic school for magic people. Well. At least she's doing a good job at not alerting the normal people.]

[infinitejustice]

Journey to the Center of the Earth? Have you read any of Jules Verne's other works, out of curiosity?

[ofsevenseas]

Of course - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, From the Earth to the Moon even Off on a Comet - I do not recommend that last one, it's terrible.

[infinitejustice]

Really? I have a hard time imagining anything he's written to be terrible.

[ofsevenseas]

Two problems really: the first was he was forced to write a Deus ex Machina ending for it as his planned ending was considered too depressing, and the more serious problem is the antisemitism.

[He stands up at that, hands on desk]

Which - thank you for reminding me, depending on what we end up reading, there will be characters or authors that express opinions that we would find horrible, insane, or flat out stupid.

[infinitejustice]

...Oh.

[There's a pause here.]

Right. I've actually had to read The Jungle. Sinclair's call for communism, er. Falls very flat in the post-Cold War world.

[diethedesu]

[Dlanor immediately begins writing.]

Favorite: And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie.
Least Favorite: [pencil tapping]

It's difficult to pick a least favorite book...