Fear in Literature, Tuesday 4th period

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon stood in front of the class looking better than he had in several weeks, neat and put together. He felt almost bad about it, given the subject matter.

On the board was written: The Slaughter: Unpredictable, unmotivated violence; sudden pain. War.

"Good afternoon." Jon nodded to them. "So, for this week, you read All Quiet on the Western Front, which is almost entirely about this particular fear. And yet the protagonist apparently dies in peace. So, do you think he overcame his fear, or had it simply numbed him? How effectively does the work convey the fear and horror of war? As most of us here from Earth would have been on the opposite side of that war, does that make a difference to how you interpret it?"



At the end of class, next week's assignment was written on the board: "The Nothing Equation".

Comments

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[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Violently?

Listen to the lecture

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Watch Jon, take notes, steal someone's boots, you do you.

Class activity

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

How well does the book get across the fear of war? Does it matter which side of the war you would've been on? Do you think Paul didn't fear war by the end, or didn't fear death, or something else?

Talk to Jon!

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

He's here!

OOC!

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Yeah, not a fun book. Eesh.

Re: Sign in!

[x_discospider_x]

Troy Barnes

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[noonedecidesmyfate]

Belle

Re: OOC!

[noonedecidesmyfate]

This is one of those books that was required reading when I was in school but the OTHER classes ended up reading it and I never actually did. It's on a book cart right now for a social studies class project in this library though.

Re: OOC!

[what_the_shock]

I somehow never managed to have this one assigned. Possibly that was when my class did Night instead (and I begged out, having done it before, and did Slaughterhouse Five instead).

Anyhoo, I am not sorry I read it, but I'm also not sorry I never had to read it as a kid.

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[onlyajones]

Josephine Jones

Re: Class activity

[onlyajones]

“I think it might have been both?” Jo said as she considered, it had been a rather interesting reading experience for her since a war had ended not that long ago.

Re: Class activity

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"I'd like to know if you think that's a good thing or not," Jon said. "Both for him specifically and for what it means more generally for humanity and war."

Re: Class activity

[onlyajones]

“Well I think for him it might have been good because he wouldn’t have been afraid of death after what he went through,” Jo replied as she thought about it, “but then if people aren’t afraid of war .. would that make them more likely to have another one?” she hadn’t really followed up on any future conflicts after the most recent war.

Re: Class activity

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"In my experience, the people dying are rarely the people making that decision," Jon answered dryly. He shook his head. "Never mind." He shouldn't be putting that on his students. "Suffice it to say that I think you're correct."