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Professor Chaucer's Office Hours, Wednesday

Professor Chaucer is holding office hours again today, seeing as how yesterday's were actually pretty enjoyable. Come by and ~~bring him coffee~~ bug him.

((Office hours will be slow-played until evening EST.))

ETA: A reminder to all of Chaucer's Western Lit students: if you don't get your end-of-term project topic approved by Professor Chaucer, then your end-of-term project will not be accepted.

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Paige hands in the essay from yesterday

neither sacred nor profane love are valid ideas because love is a biochemical state that has no connection to any moral or spiritual state. It's a fcat that we as humans have the biological need to reproduce, otherwise the species would die out, therefore it could be suggested that love occurs as a chemical reaction to the person we think would be most suited to this need ie someone strong, good looking, intelligent, to produce the best child they could and also to protect and be good companionship to the other person, as we are not designed to live alone, we are intrisically social animals, with a need to be with other people like us.

"sorry about yesterday," she says softly

Geoff accepts the essay and nods. He doesn't smile, but he looks understanding. "Thank you, Paige. You understand why I can't have what happened yesterday going on in class?"

She nods, it wasn't even her fault, Sawyer had started the whole thing, the big jackass!

Dream raps crisply on Geoff's office door. "Mr. Chaucer. I got your note."

He quirks an eyebrow at the figure in the door, but smiles and waves him inside.

"Professor Dream? I'm pleased to meet you. Come on in." He stands and offers a hand to shake.

Dream clasps the other teacher's hand. Of course, he has seen Chaucer before, if slightly older, (http://www.dyve.net/sandman/annotations/sm13.html) but he refrains from mentioning this.

"It is good to see you as well," he says. "You have a suggestion for me?"

It's not lost on Geoff that Dream chooses the word 'see' rather than 'meet'. But he decides that's probably a discussion for another time.

"A suggestion for us both, actually. From one of my students. I'm thinking about supplying some of next term's assigned readings in the original languages as well as translations, and offering extra credit to students who choose to read the originals. Elizabeth Weir told me that you teach Languages, and suggested that we might find a way to coordinate our efforts."

Dream's eyebrows go up. "That is interesting. I was thinking about offering a class on Literature in Translation next term as well, to help students understand different cultures and languages through stories."

"I'm not sure which languages I will offer next term, though. My students seem surprisingly enthused about Arabic and a survey class on creature languages."

"Well...I can't do much with creature languages. But I could work with Arabic. It's a western literature class, of course. But I could offer some outside reading -- extra credit for my class if they read it, maybe extra credit for your class as well, since it'll be outside your assigned reading? Or...I could see how the students feel about throwing in some non-western lit, as a special project."

He sits and contemplates the idea. "Maybe there's something we could do, to coordinate my class with your Literature in Translation class. Will you let me know when you decide which languages to teach next term?"

"It surprises me as well," Dream says. "Modern Western tongues seem to be out of vogue at this school. The young are fickle, and not always practical." He shifts his hands in a gesture that indicates resigned dismay at this. "I plan to choose my classes for next term over the weekend. I will inform you of my decisions."

"If nothing else, the Literature in Translation course should be at least half European works. I should be able to get you a syllabus for that by the end of this term. And we can certainly work together to offer extra credit to students who read Arabic works."

"Excellent. I've only put together a tentative syllabus myself, so there's certainly room for adjustments."

Geoff gives Dream a pleased grin. "It's really been a pleasure talking to you, Professor. I haven't had much time to get to know the other teachers here, but I plan to rectify that come next term."

Dream nods, folding his arms. "I have not made an effort to meet the other teachers until recently. I also hope to rectify that in coming weeks and months. This collaboration may be a start."

"God be with ye, Geoffrey," he says, leaving the classroom.

Mumbling to himself, Sawyer shuffles into Chaucer's office with a paper in hand:

Well, let's see, sacred and profane love will never be with one another because this isn't 'a perfect world' and no one will love someone like that unless it's an odd act of God or some other figure. To girls, sacred love is the hardest to ignore because they get all emotional and stuff like that but profane is easily ignored since they act on the sacred parts of their hearts. Connections made to prominent lovers, er boyfriends or whatever are harder to break off because it's hard to just forget ones emotions to the other person.

Voila.

"Thank you, James," Geoff says. "You do understand why I couldn't allow that sort of altercation to continue in class."

"Yeah, sorry about that. She just really got on my last damn nerve, is all." he frowns a bit, "That won't happen again, and if it does..It'll be in private or something."

"I understand that can be hard sometimes, but it isn't fair to the rest of the class -- or to either of you, for that matter -- so I do appreciate that you recognize the need to keep things separate." Geoff gives him an understanding if somewhat solemn smile.

Sawyer clears his throat, "She trashed my room, man. God, that pissed me off. I better go pick up a few things before it stays like that forever." he grumbles to himself.

That gets a sympathetic grimace. "You know, it sounds like you two ought to consider talking to someone about your troubles, if you're going to continue seeing each other."

"I might." he shrugs, "I better go now that I have some motivation to clean the crap up." he turns to leave, "Bye!" he hollers as he exits the office.

*DEATH... seems to crawl in a very surreal manner... into the office. He is wearing a male dance outfit, which does nothing to conceal his lack of flesh. The duck is still quacking.*

Geoff looks up at the voice, which he's gotten used to from his class, and the quacking, which is new.

"Ah...DEATH. Come in. What can I do for you?"

[ooc: No worries! Geoff's a really easy-going teacher. Although I do mourn the missed opportunity to say "DEATH, you have detention." *grin*]

There's a moment of silence while Geoff internalizes this idea.

"Well, um, I think you've been doing just fine so far. I would suggest that you get the class notes from someone and hand in the required assignment. You can also do a little extra credit work to bring your grade up further if you like, as I can't grade you higher than a B on makeup work. Also, you get one free unexcused absence, so you really only have to do the work for one class."

*DEATH nods.*

"Well...I understand there's an art teacher here. You might try him. Or...possibly one of the other students would be willing. I would suggest you post a notice in the dorms, and see if one your fellow students might be interested in tutoring you."

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Professor Chaucer's Office Hours, Wednesday

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