Bringing Literature To Life--Through Violence! [Tuesday, Second Period]

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Cindy was leaning on the desk when the class arrived, stirring a cup of coffee. More coffee and pastries were set off to the side for the class to partake if they were so inclined. “Morning class,” she greeted. “And welcome to those of you who are new. I’m Professor Cindy Perrault and this is Bringing Literature to Life--Through Violence.”

Max was standing at a loose sort of attention off to the side just a bit. Jeans and a slightly rumpled white button-down shirt were dressy enough for class, right? He grinned. "I'm Antillar Maximus. For this course you can call me Centurion." His grin broadened. "I suspect you can guess which part of the class is my forte."

Cindy raised an amused eyebrow at him, but didn’t argue. Not everyone needed to know about her weapon specialties, so Max’s statement could stand. “So, the way this class will work is pretty simple. The Centurion and I will be trading off classes; your classes with me will cover some famous battles in literature and then, in your classes with him, you’ll get to experience the way the actual battles and weaponry work.”

Hey, Max knew she could kick his butt, but that wasn’t part of her cover. And if he could help her build that up, he was happy to. “We’ll be doing some pretty physical stuff, so wear something you can move in. And let me know if there’s anything we should know about your physical condition.”

He grinned. “One of the things we’re hoping you can do is put together the two segments of these classes in your head. Understand how the reality of combat and the way it’s used in literature line up with each other. And how they don’t.”

“And we’ll get into all of that next week,” Cindy finished. “This week is for introductions and heaven forbid we skip tradition.”

Max nodded in agreement. “Yes. We’re very traditional in here, after all.”

Cindy snorted. “Damn right we are. So--introductions. First the basics: name, class, and where you’re from. Then the good stuff--tell us about how war is waged back home. Are armed clashed generally small battles, where everyone can see one another’s faces? Massive armies? Fleets of ships or tanks or what-have you? What kind of weapons are used? Or is warfare shunned entirely, and all problems are solved through diplomacy? Whatever you feel like sharing is fine.”

“At the same time, we want you to tell us a bit about how war is treated in stories. Is it a glorious example of individual prowess? Is it a warning against the horrors that people can inflict on one another? Are wars presented as glorious nationalistic narratives, or as a way of highlighting the evils of warmongering? Let’s all get a feel for how we think and talk about war.”

Comments

Sign in #1

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Literature or violence?

Re: Sign in #1

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Violent Literature! (Kenzi)

Listen to the lecture

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Introductions again, aren’t you excited? You know the drill. Name and basic information (year, where you’re from, a brief description if you’re feeling fancy) can go in here.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Fighty stuff; and English credit. Good, she kind of needed both of those. Ha! "Kenzi, junior, Canadian, aspiring astronaut." Why not, right?

Re: Listen to the lecture

[hurtingzeebo]

Sooooo, they listened to one of the teachers talk about books, and then the other one helped them beat each other up?

Best. English class. Ever.

"I'm Sam Puckett," she said. "Junior, from Seattle. And totally way cuter than the other Seattle Sam running around."

Re: Listen to the lecture

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"Kate, I'm a junior from Savannah except it's 2032 not 2011, and there was a kind of apocalypse a decade or two ago." Fancy-ish, as intros went. This one was easier than yesterday's class.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[dabblinginbitch.livejournal.com]

"Ramona, senior, from New York," she said, tossing off a little wave and shrugging. She didn't have a lot more to contribute aside from that. It was eeeearly.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[wheeler-360.livejournal.com]

"Hi, I'm Marshall, and I'm a senior," he started. "I'm, uh, from five years in the past? From Canada. And this isn't the first time I've travelled in time."

Re: Listen to the lecture

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

"Sov Thade Tage em Ereb." Yes, the whole name. "And I'm a Freshman. And from Rer, in Karhide, on Gethen." No one here had heard of Gethen.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[angelo_wings]

"Rinoa Heartilly," she said, standing up and waving her fingers at the class when it was her turn. "Senior. I grew up in Deling City, Galbadia, and then I moved to Timber."

Re: Listen to the lecture

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

The tired and more serious cast to Gabrielle's demeanor had been standard since her return from Panem, even though she did her best to try and shake it off.

"Gabrielle," she said, looking a little like she hadn't slept well. (She hadn't.) "Senior, from Poteidaia in Greece, a few thousand years ago."

She could have been more descriptive, and normally would, but . . .

Re: Listen to the lecture

[godofxbox]

"Alex Aaron, freshman, from New York by way of New Jersey," Alex said with a little wave.

He wanted some of that coffee badly but he had heard it stunted your growth.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Introductions. Yay.

"Squall Leonhart, Senior, from Balamb Garden," Squall stated flatly. "You've never heard of Balamb, but it's on an island near Galbadia." He pointed at Rinoa, in case people hadn't been paying attention to her introduction.

War--What is it good for

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

How does your society participate in war?

Re: War--What is it good for

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Hard. Questions. Kenzi flopped forward onto the desk, feeling mournful. "Um. Well. We're Canada. We fight where we're needed. We ... live next door to the U.S.A. Whose butt we kicked when they tried to invade us a couple times a zillion years ago. They're way more obnoxious. And glamorous. We don't get into as many wars on our own, really. Just get pulled in when our allies ask for help."

No apology to any Americans in the room from the girl who steals stuff, no.

"...we send volunteers?" Kenzi tried, not sure what the teachers wanted here. Wasn't this supposed to be English? Not history? This was hard. "People used to head north of our border to escape the U.S. draft and slavery?" Not at the same time, no. *



*[all mistakes are the mun's, because I'm not Canadian. :o]

Re: War--What is it good for

[hurtingzeebo]

"Well, my best friend's father's an air force officer stationed on a submarine, but we don't get to hear a lot about what he does. Big international wars always happen somewhere else, you know? With lots of infantry and intrigue and war correspondents, and sometimes people protest back home, but mostly they all just pretend it's not happening.

"But I totally managed to start a fan war at Webicon this year. That was really fun. They were all yelling at each other and hitting each other over the head with their souvenir convention pamphlets, and I made them shut up by shooting off a flare gun."

Re: War--What is it good for

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"We don't have many wars on a glabal scale anymore," Kate said after a moment. "The world is a lot bigger without two thirds of the population and safe intercontinental travel." There were bigger problems.

"But there's a lot of infighting. Turf wars, and trying to hold off the magical problems keeps our government busy enough without going off invading people."

Re: War--What is it good for

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

War?

"You mean people start killing each other madly when two countries disagree?" Sov looked a little confused. "They don't just rely on diplomacy and a few assassinations?"

Re: War--What is it good for

[wheeler-360.livejournal.com]

"Well, I mean, I guess it depends on how you define wars," Marshall pointed out. "I mean, we've got soldiers over in Afghanistan right now, but we haven't participated in Iraq at all*."

He paused to consider things. "And, I mean, we're not going to go invading anyone. Really, we've got a much stronger tradition of welcoming people who are escaping drafted service in wars to which they have some kind of moral objection? Especially with the Vietnam war, and even long before that in and after the American revolution, lots of Loyalist British soldiers came up to Canada, 'cause we were still a British colony at the time and didn't have any interest in splitting off. Still don't, really, although we're sovereign now in our own right."


[*Not technically true; according to Wiki, about a hundred Canadian solders on exchange to the US military participated in the initial Iraq invasion. Similarly to Kenzi's caveat, though, any other mistakes are mine, for while I am in fact Canadian, I am... not exactly knowledgeable about our military, and history is not my forte.]

Re: War--What is it good for

[godofxbox]

This was actually a complicated question. "Well, sometimes large groups of human soldiers fight it out with fancy weapons and tanks and things, and sometimes small groups of superhumans do, but you don't really...combine the two," Alex said. "Except in World War II, but that was kind of special circumstances. And sometimes the superhumans step in and prevent the humans from fighting." Because, according to Alex's dad, they were buzzkills. "Oh! And there was the Civil War, then you had humans fighting superhumans, but my dad says that wasn't a proper war, it was more like a slapfight."

Re: War--What is it good for

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

"Mostly with small teams of infantry," Squall answered. "All radio communication had been knocked out for almost twenty years, so it was difficult to coordinate larger assaults."

History is Written by the Victors

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

How does your culture talk about war? How is it presented in literature and the media?

Re: History is Written by the Victors

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

This was a little easier. "It's messy and you walk in the mud and you get shot in the head or maybe the spine, or maybe you starve or get dysentery, and it's noble but pointless and did you see meta for Passchendaele (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Passchendaele_%28film%29)? Totally depressing. Right, so, I'm going to go with: War sucks. Peace out."

Talk to your teachers

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

After they ping

Re: Talk to your teachers

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max was there, doing his best to look professional and teacher-like. At least for the first day of class. It'd be interesting to see how long he could keep up that particular illusion.

OOC

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Prepare yourselves for the most awesome class of all time. Ever.

In Max's opinion. And everyone knows how good his judgment is.

Moooo.

Re: OOC

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Where's My Cow?? (http://archiveofourown.org/works/62635#comments)