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

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

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max stepped forward slightly, moving his hands from behind his back to in front of him. "So you have an army but you don't use it much?"

Re: War--What is it good for

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"And a navy and an air force. But it's not like we have to defend our borders every day or anything," Kenzi said, looking up at the big guy with a small amount of trepidation. "Foreign wars, mostly."

Re: War--What is it good for

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"And it's your allies that pull you into those?" Max asked, intentionally putting on a mild expression. No need to intimidate his students.

On the first day.

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

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max was going to ask about the 'pretending it's not happening' bit, but then he frowned slightly.

"A fan war?"

Re: War--What is it good for

[hurtingzeebo]

"A war between fans," Sam said, because that totally clarified it. "You know, the fans who think Carly and Freddie should get together and the fans who think me and Freddie should get together. Apparently they get really into it."

Re: War--What is it good for

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Actually, I don't know. Could you expand on that a little bit?"

For instance: who were Carly and Freddie? And why would they have fans?

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

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"So wars have gotten smaller, more local than they used to be?" Max asked. "Do you think that's made them more personal? More vicious?"

Re: War--What is it good for

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"War has always been vicious," Kate pointed out with a humourless snort. "I don't think that's changed."

"But personal, probably. We don't have fighter planes, we don't have tanks, guns only work about half the time-- If you're going to kill someone, its usually up close."

Re: War--What is it good for

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

Max nodded, smiling a bit wryly. "That's the truth." War never really seemed to change.

"And are you more likely to know the people you're fighting, or are groups that fight separated enough that that's relatively rare."

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

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes that's not enough," Max suggested with a shrug.

Re: War--What is it good for

[child-of-rer.livejournal.com]

"When isn't it?"

It was an honest question. Sov didn't know.

Re: War--What is it good for

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"What if the people who disagree with you still disagree with you even after you've talked to them?"

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

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"So war's never been a big part of your culture?" That'd provide an interesting perspective to the class, actually.

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

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Why can't you combine the two?" Max asked curiously.

And... "You father's got some pretty strong opinions on the subject?"

Re: War--What is it good for

[godofxbox]

"I think everyone's scared of a superhuman arms race. Or, you know, America taking over the world, since most superheroes live in Manhattan." Alex shrugged.

"Oh. Yeah. My dad is the god of war."

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."

Re: War--What is it good for

[furious-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Interesting. And people didn't fall back to things like human couriers or messengers?" Historically that had been the solution before radio. At least from what Max could tell.

Re: War--What is it good for

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

"Of course they did," Squall confirmed. "Still, it's nothing like you see in the movies here in Fandom. Even as part of larger assaults, we always break into semi-independent teams of three."

Because that was just the way Final Fantasy games worked. If you wanted gameplay that better reflected the huge scale of war, you'd have to talk to someone like Kerrigan.