So in class on tuesday we were talking about this poem that wasn't really a poem it was just some list of names for a reading assignment. But this teacher decides he's going to play some mind games with his religious poetry class. (I guess your pretty much asking for people to screw with you if your studying religious poetry) To me this professor was trying to prove that people can see anything they want if you give them a little nudge. I'm not sure if i got the point right but it was a good story all the same. It reminded me of reading novels for English in highschool. You remember. You were just reading a nice short book about an old guy who liked fishing, but the teacher just wants you to think about symbolism. The sharks have to represent early 1900 America's oppression of the Irish and the turtle... You don't even want to know what that represented. Whenever the teacher called on me to tell her what something meant, I just made up some bull crap and she just loved it. Back to the point, this teacher (Spitz was it?) told his gullible class that these words that were an obvious list of names was a poem and then spent an hour analyzing something that was completely meaningless. What does it mean? Why would he do this, did he even tell the students that his class exercise was a sham? I can see some rhetorical motive behind it and even if I didn't I could make something up that sounded good but what was the point of doing this in a religious poetry class? If anyone can enlighten me please please please comment. Maybe he just made the whole thing up
In the meantime here's the link to your weekly dose of tasteless humor
boosh boosh stronger than a moose <-- don't lock your doors or they'll come through the roof
I don't really think I can help you figure out why he did it. I guess he thought that it would be interesting? I'm not really sure how that relates to his class. Maybe he just wanted to try out a social experiment and his class was available?
ReplyDeleteThis professor was clearly just looking to make a point. He was looking to mix things up and have a little fun. I think the class was made up of nervous freshman wanting to impress the teacher.
ReplyDeleteSymbolism. Ugh. High school teachers are the worst when it comes to symbolism. After 7th grade, I didn't get another A in an English class until I got to college thanks to that lovely symbolism. I was always reading for the main storyline and the overall point of the book, and then they'd slam you on the test with quotations and symbolism. HATE it.
ReplyDeleteI think what the teacher we talked about in class was doing was just a little social experiment to see what his students would come up with. He was into philosophy so it probably played in to that. He had to have told the students afterwords that they had been duped.
Your comments on symbolism definitely bring back some... unpleasant... memories from high school.
ReplyDeleteAnyone have to read "Lords of the Flies." I read that book but apparently I didn't at the same time because everything the teacher pointed out I did not catch on to at all.
Teacher: "So what happened here?"
Me: "Kid's glasses broke"
Teacher: "what does this mean?"
Me: "He can't see anymore so he is screwed"
Teacher: "no.... it means that intelligence has suffered a critical blow and the state of the kids on the island will start deteriorating"
Me: "uhhhh riiight thats what I meant"
**repeat for just about every single thing that happened in that book**