fandomhigh | Good Omens...And Bad: Prophecy in Theory and Practice, Class Ten

Monday, November 13, First Period

The classroom is in its usual arrangement, with the usual spread of hot drinks and pastries. Although not quite what was available at the Tangiers, unfortunately.

"Good morning. I hope you all got a good rest last night. Today we're going to discuss what you observed over the weekend. Also, please remember that your group projects are due this week. You can submit them today, or there will be a box outside my office all week. Also, don't forget to turn in last week's homework assignment."

LECTURE: "Over the weekend you observed 'professional' fortune tellers plying their trade. Tell the class something about your experience -- what did you observe, how accurate did the predictions seem, what tricks might they have used to make their predictions seem more personal than they really were?

In some places, public fortune telling is outlawed entirely, while other places have laws against telling fortunes for money. Do you believe that divination for profit should be against the law? Should it be regulated in some way?"

HOMEWORK: Finish your group projects and submit them by Friday. Mr Joxer and Miss Rutledge, I know your group has diminished significantly. Please see me after class if you have concerns about your project. [ooc: See the group project thread below for more details.]

Project Groups:
Blair, Phoebe, Belthazor, Lavender
Anders, Nadia, Walter, Pippi
Bridge, Dean, Dawn, Sam
Marty, John Connor, Lyra, Eric
Joxer, ~~Agnes~~, Maia, ~~John Constantine~~

Syllabus
Class Roster
Classes Linkdrop

ETA: "I need excuses from the following students regarding your absence from last Friday's lab."

Bridge Carson
~~Lyra Belacqua~~ excused

[ooc: ~~Please wait patiently for~~ Your patience has been rewarded. OCD is now up.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

As you do.

Write a brief essay on the pros and cons of being the object of a prophecy. How could it benefit the person Chosen, how could that person's being Chosen benefit others? Inversely, how could being the Chosen of a prophecy turn out to be more of a curse than a blessing?

Over the weekend you observed 'professional' fortune tellers plying their trade. Tell the class something about your experience -- what did you observe, how accurate did the predictions seem, what tricks might they have used to make their predictions seem more personal than they really were?

In some places, public fortune telling is outlawed entirely, while other places have laws against telling fortunes for money. Do you believe that divination for profit should be against the law? Should it be regulated in some way?

Select a category of prophecy or style of divination from the list provided, and write your own prophecy using the material we cover in class. This does not have to be a "true prophecy" -- you may create one from whole cloth, or use the methods of divination we will discuss to produce one. Part One of the project will be due November 17.

[OOC: Please have one person from your project group tag in either here, or in the post that will go up each day for Aziraphale's office, to hand in this part of the project. Next Monday, I'll assign the second part. Even if you handwave the project, please give me a topic, so that when the projects are assigned to other groups for Part II, they have a topic to work off in case they want to submit an 'actual' interpretation. Please tag here if you have questions.]

Link to Group Project assignment (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/991669.html)

For any discussion that isn't related to the assigned topic please.

Catch him after class on his way to office hours.

My city has the highest concentration of earth religions and new age practitioners in the southeast US. It's also against the law to do any type of fortune telling in a public venue unless it's part of a church activity and on church property.

WTF?

Belthazor

Bel *handwavey* turned in his half-assed homework attempt.

Eric Weiss.

Joxer

Joxer turned in a piece of paper with a stick figure drawing of a woman in leather, a horse, a woman in some sort of ancient Greek green sports bra, and a mighty warrior in a pointy helmet.

Nadia Santos

Bel? Still trying to keep a low profile. Pay no attention to the demon with the puncture marks in his neck. *whistles innocently*

Blair Sandburg

Lavender Brown

Lyra walked confidently up to the professor, trying to catch him on his way out.

"Sir?" she called, digging in her bag for something.

Lyra turned in her homework, of course. It wasn't half bad, considering that she took the angle she had in class, that is: what if someone didn't know thye were the subject of a prophecy. The paper is littlered with personal anecdotes to support her theories.

Aziraphale smiled. "Miss Belacqua. We missed you on our trip this weekend. I hope you're well?"

Marty Blank

Prophecies: How it sucks when it relates to you
Or
Why Nostradamus can suck my *Expletive Deleted*

by Martin Q. Blank

Oh sure, prophecies can be nifty keen when you are enjoying the fortune cookie with the check from your Chinese dinner. Who wouldn't want to meet a tall and handsome stranger? Especially if they pay for said dinner check.

Yeah, we all want the cool prophecies like "You are destined to be rich and powerful" or "You will save the world's population of Spotted Owls by banning toothpicks" or even the unbelievable "The Cubs will win the World Series in 2007". But when you get the prophecies like "You are destined to drown in a shallow pool of water for no good reason" or "You're going to save the world from a zombie invasion but will have to sacrifice your life" or "Go directly to Jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200"... Yeah. You're pretty much screwed.

On the other hand the rest of the world gets to live; Spotted Owl McNuggets will be featured at your local McDonald's and whoever gets to win Monopoly only wins play money, not real ones. Unless of course you are playing strip Monopoly and then you're just nekkid and in handcuffs.

I can't believe I just wrote that.

So to sum up:

1. Prophecies usually suck when you're the one being talked about.
2. Spotted Owl McNuggets? Really tasty in BBQ sauce.
3. I've never played strip Monopoly.

Marty was not trying to keep a low profile. He did wonder why Bel wasn't wearing a ~~OMG BLANTANTLY MODDED~~ turtleneck to cover that hickie he had on his neck.

[*loves*

*A++*]

Bel sunk down in his seat, trying to casually turn up the collar of his jacket to hide the marks on his neck. Both sides.

Dean Winchester

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