Fear in Literature, Tuesday 4th period

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon sat and waited for the students to file in. The board today read The Corruption: fear of disease, filth, rot, unhealthy relationships. He nodded to them. "I went with the most literal manifestation of this one: plague." Because nobody wanted worms. "Actually there are quite a few fears that Defoe covers in A Journal of the Plague Year; a good lesson in the fact that none of these fears are entirely separate from the others.

"In addition to the fear of the disease or 'distemper' itself, there are the fears of being shut in, fears of being robbed or murdered which stem from larger fears of vulnerability and disorder...fear of being poor, which as he states over and over is an exacerbating factor.

"Which of these fears do you feel our narrator is most in tune with, and how does he attempt to counter them in his own mind? How are they related?"


When class was over, he wrote the next assignment on the board. "For next week, please read Jean Ray's "The Shadowy Street". If you know French, feel free to read it in the original, La ruelle ténébreuse, but the discussion will be in English."

Comments

Sign in!

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Afraid of bugs! Or a toxic relationship.

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[x_discospider_x]

Troy Barnes

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[desertwolfcub]

Malia Tate

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[noonedecidesmyfate]

Belle

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[onlyajones]

Josephine Jones

Listen to the lecture

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Pass notes, stare at your teacher, marvel at how people are still this stupid centuries later.

Class activity

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

How do you think Defoe's author would rank his fears, and what defenses does he raise to them in his own mind? Summary of the text here, if you haven't gone crazy and read it.

Talk to Jon

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

He's here!

OOC!

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Why did I think giving myself a 300-page book to read and not starting it until the weekend was a good idea? If you're insane like me and plan on reading these things, I'm doing almost all short stories in future, with only two long exceptions, if you want to start early and have more time to finish: All Quiet on the Western Front and Uzumaki.