Classics/Foreign Lit, 4-20, Period 2

[game-of-you.livejournal.com]

Dream half-smiled at the class as they came in, which from him should be counted as an infectious grin.

"Hello, students. Welcome to your very last class that will focus on new material. Next week, you will devote both days to preparing your final projects."

"For today, though, there is work to be done. Literature students, please select a poem by an African author and write a few sentences in reaction. Classics students, you are to read a biography of the great writer Horace, and react to any of his surviving poems."

Comments

Classwork, Classics/Foreign Lit, 4/20

[game-of-you.livejournal.com]

Turn stuff in, talk, etc.

Re: Classwork, Classics/Foreign Lit, 4/20

[janet_fraiser]

"He's very depressing," said Janet, after she'd frowned at a few of Horace's poems. "Does it matter that everyone dies? I think how we live, or what we accomplish while living is more important."

Re: Classwork, Classics/Foreign Lit, 4/20

[game-of-you.livejournal.com]

Dream nodded. "That is true," he said. "But you must remember, times uncertain when he wrote, and human lives much shorter and darker. There was a certain comfort in knowing that Death was there,a companion to all at the end of days."

"He also wrote, Even if times are bad, they won't always be so:
for Apollo doesn't always tense his bow, but sometimes inspires the silent Muses. Which is uplifting, in a way."

Re: Classwork, Classics/Foreign Lit, 4/20

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Sure, if you look at it that way," Anders said. "But if you think of it as a way to remind you to take advantage of every moment, it's not that depressing."

Re: Classwork, Classics/Foreign Lit, 4/20

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia picked a poem about tomatos. That turned out to be really very creepy.

"It's about justice, or lack of justice. About blaming people for your problems even when it doesn't make sense. About . . . paranoia. I think that's the word. The people in the poem are paranoid."

Re: Classwork, Classics/Foreign Lit, 4/20

[game-of-you.livejournal.com]

"Ouologuem is paranoid, yes," Dream said. "But do you believe his paranoia may have reason behind it?"

Re: Classwork, Classics/Foreign Lit, 4/20

[nadiathesaint]

"Actually, I meant the people in the town. But, yes, if everyone is blaming everyone else for things, then I think he would have a reason to be paranoid."

Re: Classwork, Classics/Foreign Lit, 4/20

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth picked An Agony.

Her few sentences of reaction turned into a rant about apartheid, white supremacy, racial segregation and discrimination. The US military was probably mentioned disparingly on several occassions.

Re: Classwork, Classics/Foreign Lit, 4/20

[ihatedenmark.livejournal.com]

Hamlet picks You Speak to Me of 'Self'

"It's about searching for the true identity of the African people, that underneath the European facade lurks the true identity of the poor African people who live in suffering, and about the author entreating the reader to look for that identity. It's a worthy goal."