Adventures in Literature, Wednesday, Period Three [Class Four]

[carpe_demon]

Serious Drake was serious when the class began (seriously). He hadn't even noticed yet that the number of girls in the class was substantially reduced, while the number of boys had inexplicably increased. "OK," he said, moving in front of his desk and sitting back upon its edge, "first off, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry I upset some of you last week when I was talking about Arthur and the gang. I want to stress that this class is about works of literature -- fictional books, yes, though they just may have been inspired by real life people. Some people think Arthur really existed, others think he was a fictional construct of figures from history. In my world, he did exist, and he's just been reincarnated as a curly-haired moppet named Wyatt. And some of you know an Arthur and Merlin from another world. Point is, even if some of these people really did exist, the authors of some of the books we're looking at do have a tendency to take liberties and amp up the drama. None of these books are biographies or history books, they're all about action and adventure and passion and angst. So if we run across anybody else you might find familiar, take it with a grain of salt, and then take that grain of salt with a margarita."

Drake hopped off the desk. He snapped his fingers and turned himself into Tim Curry Cardinal Richelieu, complete with red robes and goatee of Eeeeeevil. The students would find themselves in the garb of Musketeers or 17th century noblewomen or men. "That said," he went on, "today we're going to look at The Three Musketeers. The main character in this book, d'Artagnan, is not one of those three. He wants to be a musketeer and serve the king, and the titular trio -- Athos, Porthos, and Aramis -- are the men he meets when he goes to Paris to try to sign up. He ends up getting into duels with all three, but when he helps them defeat the Cardinal's guards, he earns their respect and friendship. From there it's action and intrigue as d'Artagnan falls in love, helps perserve the 'honor'" -- air quotes! -- "of the Queen, and protect the King from the machinations of the evil Cardinal Richelieu and Milady de Winter." He twirled his mustache for effect.

"The Three Musketeers is considered a 'romance,'" Drake continued. "But not so much with the heaving bosoms and throbbing manhoods you find in romance novels today. Romance as a literary element has several components: a quest, the goal of the story, the adventure; love, an all-powerful force that motivates the actions of the characters; immorality, meaning the characters, even the good guys, engage in questionable behavior; and chivalry, the importance of defending and protecting the honor of ones self and others. For today, I want you to pick one of the main characters -- d'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, Porthos, Lady de Winter, Constance Bonacieux, Queen Anne, King Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu, or Rochefort -- and tell me about their code of honor or views on love. Would it hold up in modern times, or wherever you're from? Do you see any contradictory behavior? Do you feel sympathy or disgust for that character? Does it make you want to join Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting and sing about love?"



[Syllabus | Class Roster]

Comments

Re: OOC [AiL: Class Four]

[trigons_child]

*flops* I so want to crawl under my desk and nap, but they frown on that here.