I didn't do it on purpose, I swear. I made the syllabus ages ago. How could I have known that my students would have to read a vivid description of food poisoning in the same week many students have been stricken by a similar malady?
The only way I could have planned this unpleasant collision of reading and life would be if I had somehow caused the campus epidemic of gastrointestinal distress. What professor has that kind of power? And if I could make my students experience food poisoning while reading about food poisoning, maybe I could provoke an epidemic of malaria among my American Lit students, who are reading "Daisy Miller" for tomorrow's class, and later when we read Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" I could cause an epidemic of blindness, and then when my students are reading Toni Morrison's "Recitatif," I could make them all orphans. But then what do I do when we're discussing "The Undertaking" by Thomas Lynch? If I kill off my students, whom shall I teach?
Frankly, I would rather read about these maladies than experience them. I'm just sorry my students had to do both at once.
4 comments:
Ok, I'll bite: which story has the food poisoning??
It's in an excerpt from "Womenfolks" by Shirley Abbott, a chapter called "That Old-Time Religion," in which the author confuses religious enlightenment with food poisoning. Funny, but a little close to home right now.
I suppose if you were to believe a former classmate of mine, you'd have to start an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases in advance of "Daisy Miller."
I read the famous migraine essay while experiencing a wild week with two and somehow felt comforted knowing that someone else went through what I was going through. Also, I felt I was in on an inside joke.
That said - ain't nothin' funny about food poisoning. Luckily my essay about contracting Reiter's Syndrome after food poisoning has never been published - it might well make some students very nervous.
For my mediocre writing Marietta College, You're welcome ; )
So, I'm guessing Titus Andronicus would be a REALLY bad choice?
Or the Journal of the Plague Year?
Post a Comment