Horror 101, Monday

[chosehumanity]

"Persecution is not new," Mitchell began. Why, yes, the Raven-Max thing had been resolved, he'd picked that up, but he was still in a mood. "...and as to how this applies to the previous lessons, see this as your first witch class." See? That worked. "Persecution," he began again, "Is hardly new. Fears, horror, it causes people to behave in strange ways. Something odd happens, someone gets killed, someone gets hurt, and suddenly everyone's jumping at shadows. The people who wind up suffering, are those of us who are strange. Off, somehow. Away from the norm."

Mitchell had no issues. None at all.

"The witch trials are the easiest example of this," he said, nearly poking a hole in the blackboard as he made notes. "It's funny, because in the 8th century, belief in witches was actually outlawed, you see? But it never kept anyone. Something would happen, like the plague, and someone else would see some political gain or something, and whip everyone up into a frenzy. They'd run around and devise all kinds of bizarre tests, like throwing women into the water, just to see if they were witches. And then of course they'd be burned at the stake."

He took a moment to eye that particular note on his blackboard. "...Anyway," he started, "how this links back to horror in fiction is that people are always terrified of chaos," he marked that word big time, "While at the same time they all fall into it. I mean, what is persecution but organized chaos? You pinpoint someone to blame and then rip them out of the house. And then another one. And then another one. It's this cycle that keeps feeding itself. Hence the Monster from meta for Frankenstein being forced to flee from monsters himself. It's a common theme, that way."

He dropped the chalk and turned around. Listed off a couple more movies that ended in or featured running someone out of the house with torches and pitchforks. "...You can even pull it into perspective with today. You know, stars and the papparazzi and that sort of thing. People spiralling into chaos after every incident." He dusted off his half-gloved hands by wiping them off each other. "So we'll be talking about persecution. Who knows what it feels like to be persecuted? Have you ever been drawn into a mob, or felt the need to? How did it feel?"

At least he was getting less overcompensate-y about it all?

"And we'll watch some film, of course." Meta for Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch. Oh yeah. He was on a roll today.

[[ ocd up, have at! ]]

Comments

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[chosehumanity]

Like you're on the run.

Re: Sign In

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Effy Stonem

Listen to the Lecture

[chosehumanity]

Not that he's invested.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[furnaceface]

If nobody was going to mind terribly, Jono was going to just spend most of this lecture with his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands.

Persecution. Yeah. He knew a thing or two about it. Nothing that he was particularly willing to share with the class, however.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex scribbled a few haphazard notes but he'd more gotten into the habit of listening than trying to write everything down. It meant he paid more attention even if he didn't have anything to show for it later.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[awakestheghosts]

Chloe had shuddered while listening to the lecture and it made her worry that something had happened to Mitchell.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[vanillajello]

Kate could've easily been lost in her own thoughts throughout the lecture, if it hadn't been for Mitchell's... whatever the hell it was that was going on with him.

So Kate paid attention. If a little more to the teacher than what he was teaching.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[bitten_notshy]

Yeah, the subtext of this one was ... barely subtext at all, really. Jack remembered the way Sebastien spoke about the Inquisition and winced even as he dutifully jotted down a few token notes.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[icecoldfrost]

Right. Persecution. The girl who spent her life living in other people's thoughts was just going to grit her teeth and play nice for the day.

She'd had it up to here with people thinking she was evil for what she was and what she could do, and Emma was far past apologizing for things that were not her fault.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[stylin-wizard.livejournal.com]

Alex had no idea what kind of persecution she might face if anyone back home every found out she was a wizard in training.

Watch the TV

[chosehumanity]

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

Re: Watch the TV

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex hadn't ever seen this one but it was entertaining enough to continue to hold his attention. It was easy to do that when there was a movie every week, though. Alex was nothing if not easy.

Re: Watch the TV

[bitten_notshy]

And, given the mood he was already in, Jack simply didn't see the humor in this one. He stared at the television dumbly.

Discuss

[chosehumanity]

Have you ever been persecuted? What did it feel like? Have you ever been drawn into a mess where you singled one person out? How was that?

Discuss with each other!

Re: Discuss

[bitten_notshy]

"I'm Jewish," Jack said. He could have mentioned a lot of other things, but that was the one he didn't mind bringing up as part of a class discussion. (Well, he wasn't exactly shy about being -- in modern terms -- bisexual, but his Victorian background made that a harder personal fact to share. Discussing Sebastien's status would have been more relevant, but it was simply unthinkable in this context.)

"Which doesn't seem to mean much of anything here, and I'm ... about 40 years before your second World War so there's not much official persecution at the moment. That doesn't mean people have been kind to me about it."

A dry pause as he decided to keep understating the case.

"It makes me angry."

Re: Discuss

[icecoldfrost]

"Mutant, darlings," Emma replied with a wave of her hand. "For some reason, the majority of humans in my world aren't too fond of those of us with the odd genetic twist or turn."

Re: Discuss

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Not that I can remember," Alex said, shrugging a little lazily. "I don't tend to outwardly have a lot of things people can persecute for unless they're going for ridiculously good looking."

He was allowed to be full of himself, thank you.

"Other things, people would have to work harder to find," he added. "I don't think there's anything superficially that people are going to grab onto so they can make me feel like a second class citizen. Nothing doing."

Re: Discuss

[wantstodirect]

"I'm gay," Tony said. "I mean, I know it's not as bad as in the old days," a glance at Jack there, "but when you're a kid and the other kids figure out why you're so fascinated with the cutest guy in the class, it's not easy." His parents' reaction was too personal to share with the class, but it was at the front of his mind and easy for any psychics to read, if they chose. "Plus there's all these American groups producing commercials about how two guys getting married will bring on the apocalypse. Doesn't really make me want to stay in this country."

Re: Discuss

[awakestheghosts]

The discussion question caused Chloe to pull a little within herself as she was not comfortable talking about what was going on with her and her world.

Re: Discuss

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

"Back in Bordertown there are certain parts of the city where Elves simply do not go. It's extremely bad for our health. On the flip side there are places where it's not a good idea for humans to go." She squirmed uncomfortably.

"At my last school I was accused of being a half-breed because of my height." She would not be offering any details as to just what they had done to her. Or what she feared they might have done to her had Crystaviel not come to her rescue.

Talk to the TAs

[chosehumanity]

When the lovely ladies ping in.

Re: Talk to the TAs

[awakestheghosts]

CHloe was here with lots of notes.

Re: Talk to the TAs

[stylin-wizard.livejournal.com]

Alex was there, wondering if there was anything underlying today's topic.

Talk to Mitchell

[chosehumanity]

Who isn't in a mood. At all.

Re: Talk to Mitchell

[awakestheghosts]

Surprisingly. it didn't take a lot of forced bravery to approach him. He was her favorite teacher and she was worried about him.

"M-Mitchell?"

OOC

[chosehumanity]

OMG WEE JOSIE IN BEING HUMAN LAST NIGHT.

*spoils left and right*

So awesome.