We Have a New Winner

One of these days, I'm going to write a real post again. But until things settle down in Feemusland, my students are doing a terrific job of writing this thing for me.

This has to be the finest line ever written:

Thomas Hobbes' depiction of the state of nature as a "war of all against all" legitimizes the social contract and the erection of the King.

The king must really like war...Although why he needs to have his erection legitimized remains a mystery.

I Am Not Good At My Job

Choice phrases from student essays:

"As Thomas Aquinas and other 17th century thinkers argued..."

[in a discussion of the pre-Revolution French aristocracy] "Because of the atmosphere of sexual repressiveness..."

[on the first novel written in French] "The author skillfully subverts the novelistic conventions..."

"I would like to argue that T.S. Eliot is a Modernist poet." [does that really need to be argued?]

"History is the inescapable fact of the historical novel."

Sigh...........

From the Mailbox

Hey Feemus,
For the essay do you want some kind of a thesis, or can we just write a list?

thanks,
Lazy Senior

A list? A list? What kind of a list? A grocery list? A list of books you've read but don't want to discuss? A to-do list? A Franz Liszt?

Is this what he had in mind?:

The Role of the City-State in Antigone

by Lazy Senior

Milk
Broccoli
Get haircut
Piano Concerto no. 2 in A Major
Fabric softener
The Sun Also Rises
pick up new meds
In Search of Lost Time
email Feemus question that I already know the answer to
and, in conclusion, Kleenex.

And then I got this one:

Dear Feemus,

I know that you're probably busy, but can you calculate what grade I need to get on the final in order to get a B in this class?

thanks,
Lost his Calculator and his Mind

What I don't get it this: it's an ESSAY exam. If, say, he needed an 87% in order to get a B in the course, would he quit writing the essay 87% of the way through?

The Times They Are a-Changin'

Someone today accused me of being "heteronormative."

The nerve.