Flash of insight
[I'm preparing students to do some small-group work on Robert Browning's "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church."]
ME: Before we begin, do we all understand what's going on at the literal level?
STUDENT: No.
ME: OK...The Bishop first addresses his sons as his "nephews." Why might he have done that?
ENTIRE CLASS: [puzzled looks]
ME: Well, is there something wrong with him having kids?
ENTIRE CLASS: [puzzled looks]
ME: Um...this Bishop...he's Catholic, right?
ENTIRE CLASS: [lightbulbs flashing en masse] OhhhHHHhhhh.
College students are not exactly clueless about sex, but they're not yet accustomed to the idea that Great Literature might be concerned with off-color topics. I shocked several students some years ago while discussing Dryden's "Mac Flecknoe. " Although they had studied the poem in high school, no one informed them that Dryden's London was an open sewer, or that the poem's majestic heroic couplets referred to excrement and prostitutes. Kids are trained to ignore this stuff, and they do.
Posted by: Tim Hulsey | March 22, 2005 at 10:54 PM