Remember the good old days sooooo long ago when your life consisted of school and after school school, then dinner, a few video games, bedtime, then back to school again? No? Well, as I said...it has been a long time, eh? But now that you're all grown up, you realize the practical worth of all that endless, mindless dribble, right? Priceless, right? And what about English class? Most of us speak the language, even if you're not from around here (or if you are the victim of the speech disease mentioned below...see the post "Say what?").
It's good that all those novels that have been around for hundreds of years are still so relevant to today's world. Thoreau, with his Walden Pond and all that woodsy stuff. Beautiful, but not nearly what we were led to believe. Yes, happy campers, literature like this is ridiculously over-analyzed in English classes all around the nation and possibly the world. It sure is a good thing that the parts that I remember amount to...well...nothing...
I apologize if I offend English teachers everywhere. My intention is not to offend. I know you work very hard and do not get paid nearly enough for your extensive efforts. If it's any consolation, I do pay extra attention to this blog and its grammar (see the post below..."Bad grammer 1"). That I find relevant and useful as a writer and sometimes even in everyday life! For that, I thank you all very much.
On the other hand...
Think about the other stuff you are teaching. I will take the name of Henry David Thoreau as my example because that is truthfully the only one I can recall at this moment, and I need to get this post ready before this day expires. Not to mention I think his name is rather cool. I bet he thought so as well. What do you think? You don't REALLY KNOW, though, do you? So what makes you think anybody knows what he was thinking when he wrote all those poems and other stuff? You don't. And for heaven's sake where did the things you did theorize come from? I mean, do you yourself really believe what you are teaching? Was Thoreau really making all those metaphors about the forests and trees and nature that you preach in those classes? I am going to bet not. In fact, here's my theory...he thought that nature was really relaxing and pretty. So pretty, in fact, that he thought he would write it down, 'cause he was really good at writing stuff and making it sound as beautiful as the nature itself!
Now, I will admit, I did take somewhat of an interest in Dante Alighieri and his Inferno. The levels of hell...now that's cool! But...
Since I admit my liking of a subject in your class, can't you let me keep on liking it? Please! I guess not, because I start not liking it so well when you start telling me that there's a lot more there than a cool story. The things he really meant when he said, "I see well that never is our intellect satisfied, unless that truth illumines it beyond which no truth may soar."*** I find this passage to be very interesting because I think I fit into the category he is addressing. I am never satisfied that I know all I need to know. However, if I see proof enough, I will tend to be satisfied so I can move on to other things. Part of that difficulty in being satisfied comes from my OCD. I tend to always believe that there is more to learn before something in my life is complete.
I wonder if Dante had OCD? Or as he would have called it, "DOC...Disturbo ossessivo compulsivo." And that's probably another post on its own. And maybe even a video game!
But no..."There's more meaning to it than that," my teachers would say. And I would ask them how they knew that. Have they ever visited hell? (I know there's plenty of comments and jokes there, but that would make this post longer than it is already...I don't think any of us want that.) And that sort of postponed my liking for the guy for about 18 years...I think he's kinda' cool again. Too bad he'd dead, eh?
I have since become quite a connoisseur of English, but mostly of the English language, since it has become so screwed up (and I promise you...that will be another post) as a result of electronics and technology and, I regret to say, total disregard for the properties of the subject that, when ignored, makes one look and sound really stupid.
I hope we're not all really stupid...
nostro intelletto, se ‘l ver non lo illustra
di fuor dal qual nessun vero si spazia."
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