fandomhigh | Fear in Literature, Tuesday 4th period

Jon still looked a bit rough today, but he had a class to teach, and he was going to put on his most professional appearance, damn it. So he had combed back his overlong hair (uselessly, as he'd kept running his fingers through it on the way over), pressed his shirt and slacks, and was doing his best to not look like he hadn't slept more than an hour or so on the couch in his office.

The board at the front read: The Flesh: the fear of being meat.

"Even satire can show the existence of fear," Jon noted. "So, in this essay, Swift starts with the apparent assumption that this particular fear is right and correct - that humans, particularly the poor and/or the Irish - are no more than animals in the eyes of his audience, and he uses that assumption to hopefully teach them it isn't the case. That it is something wrong, something to be feared. And he gets plenty of digs in at landlords and the capitalist system as he goes.

"So, do you think his actual arguments are more poignant for using this fear as a tool, or were there better ways to go about it? Do you think he employs it effectively?"

When they were done, he wrote on the board again. "For next week, please read 'The Most Dangerous Game'."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Meatily?

Troy Barnes

Josephine Jones

Belle

If you didn't know the assignment was satire, please don't tell Jon; let him keep his illusions. Or do, and see how far into his palm his face can get.

Jo didn’t know what satire was so needless to say she had been really confused with the reading this week.

She was actually still mostly confused about the concept.

Did Swift use the fear of being meat effectively? Was there a better way to do this? Should everybody eat the poor?

Jo shifted a bit, “uh …um…what’s satire?” she finally asked, rather awkwardly and flushing a bit because she had interpreted the assignment literally.

Please, Jo, do not eat the Irish!

Jon stared for a moment, then took another moment to breathe. "The use of exposure and exaggeration to criticise people's stupidity. Often political. In this case, it means that Swift knows that the people he's addressing - largely the rich and the English," sorry, Jo, "have a history of thinking of the poor Irish as animals, and he's going to take that to its insane conclusion and treat it as if that insane conclusion were logical. He's not actually suggesting eating children as a viable solution; he's saying, 'well, if you don't think these people deserve being treated right, then why not?' I hope that makes sense."

Please let it make sense.

Sorry Jon based on the blank look that Jo was giving you that would be a no, pretty much everything had gone over her head and now she was turning even redder if that was possible.

“Uh…” she was now really regretting not paying attention in her old classes at Malory Towers.

"Right." Right. Hm. "Okay, let's start with this: it's a kind of a joke." Jon looked hopeful.

“Oh,” Jo blinked, “I do know what this is,” she had gone to school with June Johns, who had been into practical jokes so it would have hard for her not to at least understand that concept.

"Oh, good. Okay. So, if somebody were to seriously say to you, 'I think poor people should sell their children to be eaten', please tell me what your response would be."

“…that I hope they were joking?” it shouldn’t have sounded like a question Jo.

It shouldn't have, no, but Jon would take what he could get.

"Right. Now, the idea is that you're supposed to reject that as clearly being a joke, so you then have to admit that the reason it can't be serious is that poor people are still human. And then you might have to want to treat them better."

Still crossing his fingers here.

He's here!

ISTG there's one smartass in every class that argues for this.

Fear in Literature, Tuesday 4th period

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OOC!