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

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

[chosehumanity]

"Galaxy-wide?" Mitchell had gotten used to the insanity, he had, but that still required a raise of his brow and a mildly befuddled expression. "How'd they manage that?"

Re: Introductions

[solo_sword]

"An extragalactic species had their world destroyed, so they invaded with the intent of moving in and taking over without saying please," Jaina explained. "There's evidence that they've been in our galaxy for about fifty years setting things in place before the full-scale invasion."

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

[chosehumanity]

"Not a bad pick for films," Mitchell said, with approval obvious in his voice. "So would you say your ideas about war from film have changed because of the people you've met?"

Re: Introductions

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Definitely. Mostly that it's," Dinah struggled for words a second, "a lot more confusing than war movies would tell you. And the thing people in wars want is to survive it first, then keep fighting. It's not all over in a couple years. Plus I've been in few invasions here since then too, and wow, it's more gross." But harpies and zombies would give her that impression.

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

[chosehumanity]

Ah, she was his age, then. "How would you say it's necessary?" he asked, skepticism blurring with experience in his voice. He wasn't sure how he felt about it, at that.

Re: Introductions

[ashockingbitch]

"Because if the other bastard's not going to stop whatever stupid thing he's doing on his own, you've got to make him stop, haven't you?" Jenny asked.

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

[chosehumanity]

"Welcome back, Kate," Mitchell said, pointing at her once she'd finished speaking. He grinned. "That is one popular interpretation of the whole process," he continued, "Very topical right now, although obviously we've been at war for a great deal of other reasons."

He'd mostly shucked the Great War nationalism. Seriously.

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

[chosehumanity]

It had taken Mitchell a number of decades to stop referring to it as the Great War, and he was still known to on occasion. Oh well. "1917," he said, "Good year, that." About two years post. "What kind of stories?" he continued, sounding interested. "Can you share one with the class?"

Re: Introductions

[heartflames.livejournal.com]

"Well," Eleanor thought for a moment, "I think how people's lives were affected could be a story. The village I lived in had rations for food and other supplies. All meat was claimed for the army, but people got by hunting rabbit and quail. And any other ..." she paused, "lost livestock."

Animals didn't have to be turned over if they had 'broken free' from the farms, after all.

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

[chosehumanity]

"Oh, Konohagakure," Mitchell said, with a faint joking air to it, "Why didn't you just say so."

... The syllables amused him, yes. He grew more sober at the rest of her answer. "There's a war on where you're from, then?"

There were a lot of these kids, it'd seem.

Re: Introductions

[intraspective]

"At the moment, nothing official," she admitted. "There's been no formal declarations, but informally, yeah. Got invaded a few years ago, fought them off, on-and-off since then."

Ino tugged her hair. "It's been fairly peaceful for most my life, but we had a war end when I was three, and another one only a few years before that." And a demon mauling their village in-between that. Ino shrugged a bit. "War is--pretty perpetual. Ten years peace was unusual. A lot of things are sort of peeling apart now 'cause of it."

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

[chosehumanity]

"And where did you get that spot of knowledge?" Mitchell asked, sounding a little curious, yet.

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

[chosehumanity]

"Most people have a hard time understanding it," Mitchell noted, "Even if you've lived through it. Doesn't keep us from making guesses or pictures." He shrugged a little. "What films have you seen, then?"

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

[chosehumanity]

"Not even any specific films, Hugo?" Mitchell asked, looking... amused, yes.

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...