World Wars and the Media, Tuesday

[chosehumanity]

"Good morning, everyone." Mitchell's cheer seemed a little heavy on the sheepish side that morning. "I'm Mitchell. Not Professor Mitchell - I hear you have to go to school to earn that. Welcome to World Wars and the Media. Which is a fairly impressive title and sounds properly academic, which I'm not." Unless you counted that stint in Oxford in the thirties, and Mitchell had made very sure at the time no one was around to remember that. At least it was a little more optimistic than his original idea of starting the class, which had involved saying I have absolutely no idea how to teach a class like this and possibly George having a massive fit, if things went the way they tended to.

"But let's not linger on that. The 20th century is famous for its global wars and equal consequences," he segued. "It's equally famous for being a time at which the media exploded all over the place, giving us film, radio, television, the internet..." He looked momentarily wistful. "Obviously, these two cross-pollinated. Through propaganda, but also through the reverse. Rebellions were started and extinguished with the help of rising technology. Unlike previous centuries, there was suddenly this mass of... possibility," he made an enthusiastic gesture with his hands, "Where in the middle of an armed conflict, one single image could travel around the world and change everything. The way the people saw it, the way the people thought about it... It's a powerful tool."

He paused, leaning forward against his desk. "I'm not going to bore you with more general babbling," he said, "But we'll be here to look at and discuss a lot of these things. Of course, to do so, we have to know what we're starting with. So starting with you," he pointed out a random student, "I want your name, I want when and where you're from, and I want to know what you think about war. In a very general sense. What images spring to mind what you think about it? What stories have formed the way you look at the First World War, or the Second, if you even know what those are? Or if you don't, what stories have formed the way you look at the wars of your own place and time?"

Beat.

"Also, have some tea."

[[ wait for the ocd up! ]]

Comments

Sign In

[chosehumanity]

Like you're getting settled in!

Re: Sign In

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah Lance

Listen to the Lecture

[chosehumanity]

Have some tea while you're at it.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Tea! Also, Mitchell. Who was still made of awesome. Much better than most history classes Dinah had had to take. Woo!

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[solo_sword]

Jaina was skipping the tea, though she was definitely interested in what this class had to say. That happened with personal experience.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[ashockingbitch]

Tea and an attractive Irishman. Jenny silently applauded her good class-picking skills.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[vanillajello]

Kate preferred coffee over tea, but was happy enough to be here anyway.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[heartflames.livejournal.com]

Eleanor sipped at her tea while she listened to Professor Mitchell. Yes, she would call him that in her head even if he didn't want the title.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[intraspective]

Ino was so not going to complain about tea. Way better than coffee, honestly.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

Hurley was not going to turn down tea.
He was not ogling the teacher in his head like most of his classmates, however.

Introductions

[chosehumanity]

Name, when and where you're from, and your conception of war, through experience and story. Go!

Re: Introductions

[solo_sword]

"My name is Jaina Solo, I'm from Coruscant which is nowhere near here," she said, figuring she might as well get that part out of the way, "and there's a galaxy-wide war back home, so there is no general sense for me to have."

Re: Introductions

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Dinah Lance, New Gotham City, USA, 2009, and." She frowned. "Most of my ideas about war right now come from either school, or CNN. A couple of the older war movies, for World War II, like meta for Casablanca, and meta for The Great Escape." She frowned. "Not as much about World War I. Barbed wire, and trenches, and gas. Ugh."

Then she stopped. "But in my own life, I have friends here at school who are involved in all sorts of wars back at their homes, fighting with different technologies, and different ideals. And I know what it's done to some of them, a lot of it bad. But most of them are what people in New Gotham would call heroic."

Re: Introductions

[ashockingbitch]

"Jenny Sparks, I'm from London, England, nowishly, but I was born in 1900. So I lived through the First World War and fought in the Second and was kind of responsible for it, oops. So war has shaped my idea of war. I think it's not pretty, but it is often necessary if we're going to have a finer world one of these bloody days."

Re: Introductions

[vanillajello]

"Kate Gregson, from Overland Park, Kansas, and from 2009," she introduced herself with a light smirk. "And my first thought on war is that it's something where we go meddle in someone else's business and claim we're trying to help, but really just make a huge frigging mess for the locals to clean up."

Growing up post-9/11 in a family that didn't really support the war was probably showing.

Re: Introductions

[heartflames.livejournal.com]

"Eleanor Robinson, from England, 1917. Yes, I know of World War One, obviously," still getting used to not hearing it referred to as 'The Great War'. "A friend back home even served as a pilot. But it seems to me that in the stories of war, the ones usually overlooked are those who were not soldiers. Everyday people who just tried to go on with their lives."

Re: Introductions

[intraspective]

"I'm Ino, from Konohagakure no Sato in Hi no Kuni." Sometimes, Ino just liked rolling the syllables off her tongue to see peoples faces, yes. "Konoha, for short. Hidden Village of the Leaf, in Fire Country, if you insist on a translation. So--different world, different time, don't know much 'bout the wars here but war, to me is--"

She shrugged.

"--War happens. It's part of life."

Re: Introductions

[asgardcreated.livejournal.com]

"Jon O'Neill. Colorado Springs, Colorado, Earth. 2005." He was getting to be an old pro at this and that was almost sad.

"Sometimes war is necessary, usually it's not. And sometimes you have to go against orders because idioots giving them are complete and utter power-hungry nimwits."

Re: Introductions

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"I'm Leda. I'm from Bordertown...I have no idea what year it is there. Uhm well I've got no personal experience with war. I've seen a few movies but it was always just an abstract for me. None of them really make it hit home for me."

She thought for a moment. "Well...that's not entirely true. I have seen the aftermath of what people call gang wars. It's...ugly. And stupid. And I don't really understand it."

Re: Introductions

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

"Hugo Reyes, Santa Monica California," he introduced. "I mostly, uhhh, don't really know war, other than movies and stuff. I know that's not really specific, but yeah."

Re: Introductions

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"Hi, I'm Valentine Wiggin," she gave a small smile, keeping it on her face lightly as she introduced herself. "I'm from Earth, but in the future, right after a very large war with an alien race. We won, but up until that point, my whole life has basically been based entirely on it. It left for an interesting world post-war, as well as the opportunity to explore others, but it didn't take long for it to disintergrate into more wars between human countries after the common enemy of the Formics had been defeated. Media is all sort of tied into that; the Formics were defeated in part to studying how the battles of the first wars with them were covered, and the whole inter-Human war that followed was actually predicted through some highly competent political theorists on the expansive Nets, lead by a figure named Demosthenes."

Of course she had to mention him.

"So, basically, I live in a future where the media has played a heavy part in our wars. Not only that, but I want to be a historian of sorts and write about the Formic Wars, so I've got a very heavy interest in this subject and am very excited for the chance to explore it."

Geez, Valentine, don't be shy or anything...

Talk to Mitchell

[chosehumanity]

If you're hoping for a TA spot, or you just want to shoot the shit.

Re: Talk to Mitchell

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Mitchell? Hi again." Dinah grinned at him and bounced on her toes. "Great tea. And do you need a TA?" Just to get that in early, yup.

Re: Talk to Mitchell

[vanillajello]

Kate had a very important question to ask Mitchell after class.

"Do I get any extra points for not breaking cat-related rules and actually showing up as a human for introductions this time?"

...So, maybe it wasn't actually an important question.

OOC

[chosehumanity]

1. I am still looking for a pair of one TA, so let me know if you want a spot!
2. Mitchell is pretty laid-back. Nothing short of open bullying or fighting will get you detention. He even enjoys people talking through his lectures from time to time.