Journalism Class - Wednesday October 26

[jerusalem-s.livejournal.com]

“Good morning, class.” Spider’s cigarettes were back and it looked as though he were suffering from a monumental hangover. “Yesterday, Professor Dream attended our class and shared an event with us. Each student wrote down their impression. Today’s exercise is for each of you to examine the various impressions and attempt to assemble the most cohesive whole that you can from the available witness pool.”

The cat, still round and looking self-satisfied, leaped onto the desk and sprawled out, attempting to snag Spider’s cigarettes. He fished one out and lit it for her. “It is the height of foolishness to choose a single witness to any shared event. It limits you to their perspective. Live footage is always best, because it allows you to see what went on and make your own observations, but whenever there’s a large pool of witnesses available, it always pays to get as much information as you possibly can – particularly when you couldn’t be there to witness it yourself.”

Tapping two fingers on the stack of printouts on the edge of his desk, he ended with, “Here are copies of what everyone saw, remembered and reported. Sift through, draw your own conclusions, and write me as concise a report as you can. Those of you who were present can add your own, personal observations if you like, but draw on as many of the others as you can in order to corroborate your account.”



"I remember animals. Animals talking in old English and, instead of using old English to describe events like regular humans do, they were substituting animal sounds. At least, I think they were." John rubs his hand over his face. "Lots of talking animals."

**

"The Fairy Queen, played by a boy because in that era women weren't allowed to act, being seduced by the Ass, also played by a man, both of them spouting lines from 'Midsummers Night Dream' until the Faerie Court enters the scene."

**

What impresses me most was the role reversals of all the players in the scene, not just the actors.

The actors, dressed as beings that would live in the woods were performing for the very beings they would represent through their costuming.

It's also amusing to note the queen fell in love with an ass who, as per usual, was completely ignorant to her feelings. Funny how that also seems to be mirrored in real life?

**

We were at a play, only it was outside, and the audience was sitting on the grass. The performers were doing something from Shakespeare, I think.

In the play, this really beautiful woman (only I'm not sure she was really a woman) wearing a crown was talking about how much she loved this guy with the head of an ass. I think. It was hard to follow exactly what they were saying.

**

There were fairies at a play. Notthat kind of fairy -- except since they all seemed to be guys, who knows. And not the Tinkerbell kind either; the weird, creepy, hard to tell from demons kind. Except those were the ones in the audience, and the ones on the stage were just people in fairy costumes. Except for the jackass that the drag-queen was in love with.

Comments

[deadlikegeorge.livejournal.com]

George looks over her own notes from the day before. "Well, what I remember the most about the dream is that it was a beautiful and warm summer day, and the grass was tickling the bottoms of my feet. An entire section of the stands contained only unicorns, of all different colors. The actors on the stage were performing A Midsummer Night's Dream very badly." George shrugs. "In my opinion, anyway."

[positive-angel.livejournal.com]

Chihaya looks over the handouts, his pencil tapping quickly on the eraser before he starts to write.

“I think it’s an interesting thing to note that while we all saw (presumably) the same dream that we all came away with different spins on the events portrayed. They tended to paint onto the events those things that are personal and probably even important to them from the individual standpoint.

This would lead to the conclusion that an individual’s perceptions of events are colored by their own unique experiences and with a bit of their own expectations; seen through an emotional and mental filter that attempts to resolve the facts of the event into a palatable scene they can process.”

[medusae-x.livejournal.com]

Duce reads the perceptions and looks startled, "DOH! Noone mentioned the singing. If anyone had to go by what's here.. they wouldn't know that there was a singing Ass." She pauses, "We mean the donkey type of ass. Not like that French guy (http://www.robotnut.com/hl/pujol.htm)."

"There were lots of talking animals. Speaking Animalese, not old English. A transvestite dressed up as a fairy (even wearing a crown) is seduced by a man's ass, and both of them spout lines from 'Midsummer's Night Dream' for a group of voyeur fairies. And animals. The assman is completely ignorant of the transvestite fairy queen's feelings, and isn't that just like a man? And it was all a play, and very weird and creepy."

Duce considers a moment, and adds, "If this were a normal place, we would discount everything these witnesses said, because hey, these are some cracked out testimonials. But this is Fandom High, and this? Not the strangest thing a group of people has described seeing. Not by a long shot."

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

John looks over the different accounts.

"There were animals, one of whom was an ass and he fell in love with the Queen. Roles were reversed and humans were wood beings and were taking on the characteristics of the wood being they were dressed as. And there were fairies but not the fairies that have the negative connotations in the English language. There were scary fairies in the audience and humans dressed as fairies on stage. And they all spoke Old English. It was very confusing."

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory skims the accounts. "Perspective's a funny thing, isn't it? We all saw basically the same thing. I remember a fairy queen falling in love with a donkey-headed boy, and it being...woodsy. But people are bringing up things I don't remember seeing at all."

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia comes in hesitantly. She gave Spider a note stating where she had been for the last week.

"Do I have enough credits to cover the assignments that I have missed Sir?" Maia waiting nervously at his desk.

[2ls-in-oneill.livejournal.com]

After having read the accounts of my fellow students I have come to the conclusion that the main observations of the ply are as follows:

There were talking animals and fairies and a jackass in the play. The fairy was played by a guy who was apparently very pretty and was either seducing or being seduced by the ass depending on who you talk to. They all spoke in very old and hard to understand english and it was all happening outside either in the woods or on a hill of some sort.

The details seemed to vary based on perception and person though.

[marieann-d.livejournal.com]

Rogue reads through the accounts. "Sounds like A Midsummer Night's Dream. And not a very good production, from what everyone's said."

[chasingangela]

It looks like everyone agrees that it was a play, in an era or place when women didn't act. And there were strange creatures, maybe fairies, in the audience as well as onstage. The plot of the play seems to have been that a queen feel in love with an ass.

[dbiers.livejournal.com]

Remembering some of the murmurings of her classmates and her own impressions, D'anna spent a few minutes in her darkroom last night after getting back from the beach. She brings the results with her to class and hands it in for her assignment.



[ooc: I hope that's ok? Also, the credit is so not mine except for a bit of editing.]

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander scans the handouts, noting the differences with his own memories, more than the similarities, then begins to write.

A Midsummer Night's Dream - that's the play with the donkey-head. It took me a while to remember that it was a real play, not just something drummed up special for that head-trip. It seems like almost everyone saw that, saw a play. Or at least they noticed the ass, which doesn't surprise me around here; if we had an ass-noticing 101 class, the average GPA would skyrocket.

Not everybody saw the audience, though, or noticed that they weren't human. Maybe I'm more used to scanning around for weird stuff that could be trouble, that I even do it in my sleep? On the other hand, I didn't notice that we were outside. How could I miss that?

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

Ivanova considers other reactions to the vision and notices that she hadn't noticed the variety of species, but had identified it as a play. She goes to work cataloguing other differences and hands it in.