Literature, Class 1: Period 3, Thursday, September 4

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

Miss Elizabeth Bennet forced herself not to play idly with the chalk while she was waiting for her students to file into her classroom. (Her students. Her classroom. How very odd to think of them as such.)

"Good morning," she said finally, leaning back against her desk and regarding the room. "My name is Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and I am to be your Literature teacher this term."

She would politely omit the fact that she was very much surprised to be so.

"Why literature?" she asked, resting the chalk on her desk. "That's a question which can go many directions. First, why should I be teaching you literature? I do readily confess, I am not an expert or a learned scholar. I was accused once of being a great reader, who cared little for anything else," and her eyes twinkled with amusement, at that, "but that was idle gossip, and I assure you, it isn't the case. However, I do care greatly for books, and perhaps that's more important: having a passion for the subject. Scholars may get lost in themes and theoreticals that the average reader may never care about. It is possible to be too detached from the work, I feel; discussing the meter of a poem at length and never once touching on how that meter serves the emotional thrust of the work. Of course, it's entirely possible that the island was aiming for a scholar and abducted the wrong Literature teacher entirely, but if that is the case, we'll just have to make do as best we can."

She smiled at the room again. "So then, why is literature important? It's the stories we tell one another. Books resonate with us, as individuals. A good story can tell you things about the world and life that you hadn't realized before. A good character can make you wish that person was real, that you might sit and take tea with him. Literature can inform us, can move us, can allow us to escape our lives and step into someone else's, for a while. Someone's taste in books is very telling, I've found. It's hard to think ill of someone who likes many of the works you do, and a friend you care deeply for who doesn't appreciate the story that moves you the most -- you might discover you feel disappointed. Such things can be terribly personal, I'm afraid."

"Which brings us to the last version of today's question." Eliza looked around the room, hoping to catch the students' eyes. "Why literature, for each of you? What spurred you to sign up for this class? What do you read, in your leisure time, if you read at all? Why are those works the ones that catch your interest?"

"I assure you," she continued calmly, "there are no incorrect answers. If you read adventure stories because you get a thrill when pirates take the high seas, if you read gothic romance to swoon over the brave gentleman as he woos his lady, if you read the Holy Bible to immerse yourself in the Lord's Will, whatever you read, what matters is that you connect with it. I should be very much surprised if there weren't others in the class with similar tastes; perhaps you can arrange after class to trade books with one another."

She hesitated before adding, "It is very possible that some of you may not read at all, either for lack of time or because you simply haven't the ability. There is no shame in that. Ladies in my society were encouraged to be accomplished, but none received proper schooling; in fact, my sisters and I had no governess, and had to educate ourselves. It was then that I discovered how greatly I enjoyed reading. It is my hope that some of you may do the same."

"Also, I have heard that teachers here may acquire assistants to help with class matters. If any of you might be interested in the position -- for that matter, if any of you would like to enlighten me on what that position entails -- I would be much obliged if you would speak to me after class. For now, let us being by introducing ourselves. Shall we?"

Comments

Sign In [LIT-1]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

Studious and scholarly.

Re: Sign In [LIT-1]

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

Sokka

During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

You may engage in light conversation, but do please be aware that extended chatting or note-passing will be seen as disruptive and could very well earn you detention.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

Sokka took some sparse notes, but his eyes really lit up when Miss Bennet discussed poems.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[darkangelsawyer.livejournal.com]

Peyton took a fair amount of notes.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[withoutverona]

Romeo was still sulking about radio, but he broke through it enough to half-listen and jot a few notes.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[spiritandsword]

Annja was taking notes because she just knew Roux would check up on her.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[stylin-wizard.livejournal.com]

Alex took down some notes, knowing her parents would probably be asking about her classes. Or, you know, Justin.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[bad-nose-job.livejournal.com]

Penelope took detailed notes, being quiet, and paying rapt attention to Miss Bennet.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[morpherboy.livejournal.com]

At some point, Marco had pretty much just given up.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[pyroliz.livejournal.com]

Liz took down some detailed notes.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

Liir listened to her, too enraptured in what she was talking about to take many notes. Perhaps it was foolish or childish or even simple of him to be so interested in the ideas behind the class and the study of stories, but that didn't change things one wit.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[gobrookeyourself]

Brooke didn't really have any interest in literature, but she figured if she needed another class it would help to have one where she could pass notes to her friends (and no way was Lucas not going to be in here). At the moment, she was looking around the room to check out possibly exit strategies. You know, just in case.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[mrodneymckay.livejournal.com]

Rodney only refrained from laying his head down on his desk and taking a nap by doodling schematics for a trebuchet into his notebook.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[wanna-be-lucas.livejournal.com]

Excited that finally he felt like he was getting an education that would help him, Lucas paid rapt attention to Ms. Bennet's lecture.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

Chad took a lot of notes, because he found himself really liking what Miss Bennet had to say about literature. In a way, it kind of reminded him of how he felt about music. And music was just poetry, and poetry was a form of literature...

Taking his notes thoughtfully also, he felt, helped him come around to what he might say in a moment for his introduction.

Re: During the Lecture [LIT-1]

[carsexual]

Sam took notes. If by 'took notes' one meant 'scrawled in near-illegible chickenscratch the occasional relevant phrase he would forget the meaning of by the time he looked at his notebook again, interspersed with doodles of cars and the beginnings of e-mails to Mikaela.'

Introductions [LIT-1]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

"Allow me to start," Eliza smiled. "My name is Miss Elizabeth Bennet; I am a gentlewoman, of late from Longbourn-house in Hertfordshire, 1793. I like to read a great many things: Addison's essays are particularly imaginative. I must confess a weakness for Gothic tales, particularly Walpole's Chateau of Ritanto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Castle_of_Otranto). I also find myself drawn to works written by particularly deft-penned women about the travails we women endure, such as Burney's wry Elyse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelina) and Edgeworth's controversial Melina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belinda_(Edgeworth_novel)). Lastly, I shall hope that two hundred years have not diminished the classic works of a marvelous playwright known as William Shakespeare. Who should like to go next? Your name, please, where you are from, and if you could, name a few works of which you are particularly fond."

(Let chaos reign! Please feel free to ping to one another's threads. Also, please see OOC note on meta-ing!)

Re: Introductions [LIT-1]

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

Sokka raised his hand. "My name is Sokka," he announced. "I'm a warrior from the South Pole -- not yours, a different one -- and mostly, I like to read poetry. Uh... Whitman, Wordsworth, Silverstein, Shakespeare... All the classics." He shrugged. "Other than that, I don't read much, but TV is AWESOME!!!"

Re: Introductions [LIT-1]

[thankgoditsme.livejournal.com]

"Friday Next," he introduced himself. "I'm from Swindon in Wiltshire." He hastily added for the foreigners, "in England circa 2002, alternate universe I think. I'm pretty fond of the Nursery Crime novels, Bradshaw series, anything with Emperor Zhark. Anything adventure or fantasy, as long as it's good. Some others too. Beckett, the Brontes, Stevenson, Chaucer's pretty funny, so's Swift. Woolf, Twain, Salinger, Milton..." He trailed off, realising he was prattling on. But something came to mind. "Oh, and Jack London's okay too." He'd been spending some time over the Summer catching up on his reading now that he didn't have to pretend to be a hopeless dope.

Discussion [LIT-1]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

Why did you sign up for this class? Do you read, in your leisure hours? If so, why, and if not, why not? What works are you drawn to, and why do you believe you enjoy those works? Why do you think we take literature so very personally?

(Once again, chaos is what we aim for; I hope this will be a discussion class, which means that you should all feel free to ping to one another and make the OCD as messy as possible. Eliza will ping to everyone as well, but please don't let that deter any of you from pinging one another; this is meant to be everyone conversing, not just many one-on-ones.)

Re: Discussion [LIT-1]

[sarcasm-guy.livejournal.com]

"Can we just pretend that I didn't sign up for a girly class like literature on purpose?" Sokka asked.

Suggestions [LIT-1]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

What works do you believe we should cover in this class? What genres do you feel are especially important for students? What authors should be introduced to a wider audience? Any and all suggestions are welcome, though Eliza can't promise that they will be accepted as class topics.

Re: Suggestions [LIT-1]

[sonofmogh.livejournal.com]

"I recommend Klingon love poetry," Worf replied. "Kahless's original works and Shakespeare in its original Klingon form."

Talk to Eliza [LIT-1]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

She would be especially grateful if you are volunteering to be one of her Assistants*, but would love very much to chat with any or all of you after class.

(*They have been tapped OOC, so only volunteer if you're one of them.)

Re: Talk to Eliza [LIT-1]

[bad-nose-job.livejournal.com]

Penelope approached slowly after class, her hands interlaced in front of her. "You wished to speak with me, Miss Bennet?"

Talk to the TAs [LIT-1]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

Once they have been selected and tagged themselves in.

OOC [LIT-1]

[clevermsbennet.livejournal.com]

Welcome to Lit class! The class is going to focus on reactions and overarching themes more than detailed minutiae or lit crit theories, so that it's accessible to any of the students' level. I'm also going to try to aim for works that are up on SparkNotes (http://www.sparknotes.com/) or a similar site so that you-the-players don't need to have read every/any work we cover in order to be able to participate in discussion.

For meta-ing, author names are okay as-is, but please meta the names of any works, and link to the actual work so we know what everyone's talking about. And a special request: skip over any works that feature someone currently in Fandom, meta'd or no? I.e., no mentioning your character's love for "Pride and Prejudice" or "Romeo and Juliet," unless it's canon that your character loves that story, in which case we'll work around.

Questions? Comments? Pie?

Re: OOC [LIT-1]

[withoutverona]

As a lit character, I just wanted to say the meta for R+J is Star-Crossed or Two Italian Kids in Love (I've seen both, prefer the first but think the second is official on the wiki). Call the main characters Romeus and Giulietta, and Romeo will be struck by a sudden attack of not-listening and not notice any similarity in names and themes.