Library [1.19]

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

It was another cloudy, gloomy day, and so Anemone was going to curl up behind the desk with her tea and some comic books. She wasn't going to do any work today that wasn't absolutely urgent.

Living With Difficult Women [Tuesday, Period 5]

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Welcome back," Max began without preamble. "I'm sure all of you are getting tired of these introductory classes and actually looking forward to learning what we're here to learn." He grinned and shrugged. "Unfortunately, there's one last day of the boring set up stuff, but I promise that we'll really get going next week."

He looked around, face going serious. "I would like to think that last week's activity made it clear just how important trust and confidentiality are for this course, but in case anyone's still not sure: we will be discussing personal issues in this course. Some of those issues may involve other students who are not in this class. I don't care. You will not discuss the things shared with you in class with anyone outside of it."

"Anyone who violates the trust of this class... well, let's just say that I shall be very... displeased. And there will be... consequences." It was possible that some people would be surprised that Max could manage to be fairly intimidating when he wanted. It probably helped that he was so huge.

"Anyway," he announced, grinning again, "on with today's activity. Which I'm sure you'll all be excited to know involves sharing about a difficult woman in your life." He looked around, eyes pausing on some of the more difficult women in the class. "All of us have at least a few. That's how life is: you know enough people and some of them will be difficult to deal with." And if it turned out that most of those difficult people were women? Well, that's just how the world worked.

When you were Max, at least.

"I'll begin, both so that you'll see what I'm talking about, and so that you'll have an idea of where I'm coming from. Now, like many of you, I'm sure, I know plenty of difficult women. So choosing just one isn't exactly easy. However, there is one I can think of who would be particularly illustrative." Max paused to collect his thoughts. "Back home I have a good friend who has a woman. Well, that's an oversimplification. It might be more accurate to say that the poor guy is completely besotted. Not that this is all that unreasonable. She is an extremely attractive, intelligent, and competent woman, after all. Unfortunately, she knows it. And she always thinks she's right." Somehow the irony of the fact that Max also thought that wasn't something he picked up on.

"The basic problem is that because my friend loves her and spends as much time as he can with her, I actually can't just avoid her. This means I must find ways to deal with her aggravating surety and annoying tendency to be right all the time." That was the worst part. She always got to shoot him those 'I told you so' looks. "And that's what this course is about: teaching you the techniques you need to live in the sort of world where there are impossible women and you can't just avoid them. Because it turns out that there are techniques which allow you go get along with them in one form or another, and that's what you're here to learn."

Max looked around and pointed to someone at random. "You're next."

Monomyths [Tuesday, January 19, Period 3]

[steel-not-glass.livejournal.com]

"So, today we start talking about the actual components of the heroic journeys," Cindy said as soon as the bell rang. "And, as is appropriate for a story, we'll begin at the beginning, the 'Once Upon a Time,' as it were. When we're first introduced to a narrative, it's important we know where the hero comes from, what's motivating him or her to go out and make the journey--regardless of whether or not the hero actually wants to make that journey. The hero on the masculine journey starts out in a 'Perfect World,' while the heroine starts out in the 'Illusion of a Perfect World.' Both of these are a natural function of the journeys they are about to undertake. The feminine hero must wake up and realize that there is more to the world than just what's in front of her--she has to discover her world is flawed and negative so that she has a reason to endure the hard journey towards something better. She has to awaken before she will leave; she must realize that her world is an illusion."

"Heroes on the masculine journey start in a world that brimming with possibilities and promise. Society is often rewarding him for playing by the rules--he's got friends, a solid career and bank account, everyone thinks he's great. But these things and society's expectations about keeping these things, often blind him to other directions in his life that he can explore. He pursues the ideal that's been laid out for him rather than discovering what he truly wants. There may be something missing in his life that he hasn't yet realized he needs--this is a common trope in every romantic comedy ever where one character is the hardworking business person with no time for love or a family. Rather than awakening to this lack, the masculine hero is called to his adventure; he needs to come from a perfect world so we can see what he's turning his back upon."

Cindy went over to the projector set-up, lowering the screen and taking several DVDs from her bag. "The problem is, there aren't a lot of hard and fast rules about what makes one world perfect and the other illusory. One trope that is used to illustrate that someone is living in the illusion of the Perfect World can easily be used in the creation of the Perfect World as well. In one story, finding out that your idea of family is predicated on a lie might be the hallmark of an illusion--Blossoms in the Basement, for example--yet for other tales, it might simply show that the hero is destined for something greater--take any book or movie when the orphan farmboy discovers that he isn't truly an orphan; he's been told lies to save his life. The war that shows just how quickly the hero on the feminine journey can lose everything that she thought made her life meaningful might simply be 'The Call' to the hero on the masculine journey. In The Epiphany, the main character seems to have everything: a rich husband, lovely children, a thriving social life and yet is neither happy nor fulfilled. To complicate things further, sometimes the Perfect World isn't; it may be boring or aggravating or even a little scary. So it all comes down to how the work is portrayed. Let's take a few examples and watch to see how we are meant to view the worlds presented to our heroes."

[Wait for OCD up! Sorry it's so late--looking for movie clips is HARD]

Magical Ethics: Week 3, Period 1

[justagalegirl.livejournal.com]

"Good to see you all didn't freeze to death" was the greeting from Alysha as the bell rang for the start of the class. She had spent the weekend being really freaking annoyed that charms couldn't get the stove working again, and she hadn't been able to bake.  The pies coming through from her aunties had been charmed up the wazoo, but she'd eaten 'em anyway and then gotten an enormous urge to call each and every auntie.  Too bad her phone didn't run out of charge.

"Today we're talking about restrictions on power usage," she said after checking who was there.  "Sometimes it seems stupid, you won't hurt anyone or use your powers for darkness, but maybe others will and suddenly there's a whole set of rules.  Sometimes they're imposed by the government if you're in the type of country that acknowledges power usage, sometimes you're forced to hide any extra abilities you have because other people might feel threatened.  It happens, and probably all of you have experienced some version of it."

"For instance, my family's rituals are always held in a particular part of the forest that is easily defensible by those not taking part in the circle.  It's a mild restriction, but one my aunties impose on the family because outsiders don't know how to channel the type of power that was raised in ritual and really really didn't know how to handle the side effects.  But also because too many outsiders come through and see parts of the ritual, they start to wonder what else might be going on."  After they got done screwing their brain out with anything that moved. "And people poking their noses in can cause problems.  On a heavier note, my family doesn't tolerate those who raise and hold power.  We believe power is meant to be channeled and holding it leads corruption and evil."  She shrugged.  "Again, a restriction but one we place on others and take responsibility for enforcing."

"So what I want you to discuss today is what restrictions have you experienced - or know about if you don't use magic or other powers -, if you feel they're valid, and what type of limits you think should be placed on people who can do 'extra' things whether it's magic, super abilities, telepathy, or anything else you can think of."

Concepts of Justice and The Law [Period 4, Class #3, Jan 19]

[glasses-justice.livejournal.com]

"This week," Alex said, "we're going to be discussing something known as mens rea. In Latin, the full expression is actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea -- the act does not make one guilty unless the mind is also guilty. In other words, we're going to talk about a specific kind of intent."

( Mens Rea )