Circle 8: Malebolge

I don't know how it happens, but poof!  Time goes by and I forget to write.

I didn't watch the Oscars.  In fact, I am fairly sure I have not heard of 99% of the films up for awards.  I did, however, check in on some fashion this morning.  And, the greatest dressed award goes to Sir Elton John's son, Zachary.  He was entirely too cute.

I have been away because I am immersed in teaching Dante's Inferno to High School Seniors.  I have taught this text a batrillion times (well, give or take), but it is so different teaching it to teenagers.

Part of the appeal of the Inferno is where we see ourselves in it; Dante wrote it for that same reason.  For adults and graduate students, my previous audience, they had a great deal of life experience to help them sort out their ideas.  High School students get stuck in Circle 2 and can't manage to get past it.

As we approach Spring Break, projects and exams are coming due, and it is even more obvious to me that  the students struggle with not just the language but the idea that any action we take is unsavory.  Was I like that as a teenager?

Probably.  It is the beauty of youth.

Anyway, I saw that my favorite actor (Gerard Butler) has done a three week camp with the Betty Ford Clinic.  That is probably the place where famous people go where they can be left alone.  If I were famous, I would totally vacation there to get away from the media.  In any case, I hope he is well and has sorted out whatever issues he went there to sort.  I hope he read tons, as that is the best medicine for almost any ailment.

Off to teach the Malebolge!

The Popularity of Hell: A Case for Video Games in Education

 I have no idea why Dante's Inferno is so appealing to students.  But, of all the great texts I teach, this is the one where kids will sit up and pay attention.

The EA video game, Dante's Inferno, is surprisingly good and has a lot of accuracy.  Only a few students have played it, but they were able to answer a lot of questions about the text because they had played the game.

The idea that games can add to education is not new, but there are still plenty of folk who nay say.  If Dante can be a small example, the kids that do the worst seemed to know the most because they had played the game.

I truly wish they would come out with a Facebook game called "The Canterbury Tales."  If they are slightly more daring, they might do a whole Shakespeare series.

Image Source

Preparing for Hell

The students in both English 12 and College Credit English started the Dante unit today.  By far, this is one the coolest texts to teach.  Students seem to get into it in a way they don't for Chaucer or Shakespeare.

Students love to talk about the nature of sin, and seem to have more questions about their own beliefs as the unit progresses.  As a teacher, it is always rewarding to watch students carefully consider their own belief systems.  Students have often written to me years after the course to tell me how much they valued and remembered the unit.  This is a true Kudo to Dante, himself, though, as this text is THAT engaging and timeless.

The first step on our journey through the unknown is to evaluate what we already believe about all issues concerning sin, heaven, hell, etc.  The students fill out a survey with the following 10 questions:

1. Do you believe in the concept of sin?  If so, define "sin."  If not, why not?

2.  Do you believe in God or a "higher power"?  Why or why not?

3.  If you believe in the concept of sin, are there some sins that are worse than others?

4.  If you believe in the concept of sin, are there some sins that can not be forgiven?

5.  Why do bad things happen to good people?

6.  Do you believe in ghosts/spirits?  Why or why not?

7.  What happens to the soul after the physical body dies?

8.  Do you believe in Heaven and/or Hell?  Why or why not?

9.  What happens to a soul of a person that has committed suicide?

10.  Do we judge people by their occupations (judge, lawyer, actress, etc.)?


The responses to these questions are always fascinating.  In the 17 years I have been teaching (mostly at the college level), the responses are never consistent.  On average, there are 2 students per class that are atheist or agnostic.  On average, there are about 2 students that are born-again Christians.  The rest fall somewhere in between.

What impressed me most today, though, was that one group of students actively sought out our campus chaplain to discuss the issues.  They wanted to know his take.  It was totally learning in motion.  They went and tracked him down, brought him in, and listened.  It was kind of cool.

So, what I learned today....students do care about these sorts of issues, but they don't have many places where they can actually talk about them.  Some of them are looking for answers; others are still forming questions.

IMAGE SOURCE

A Live Binder Experiment: The Dante Binder Project

LiveBinder is one of the best research tools in the web 2.0 world.  I have created binders for presentations, and I actively check out binders created by others.  I have always felt, though, that more could be done with the tool.

So.

It is Sunday morning here in Mouth of Wilson.  It is a balmy 10 degrees outside. The back door broke in the wind last night, so the house is like an iceberg.  Ah, THAT is what the deadbolt was for....

Minnie the cat is trying to eat the fish; Bad Kitty is trying to drink my coffee, and Dexter is chasing his little stuffed gator.  The turtle is eating ham.  The dog is outside peeing on the truck.  Mustache man is under the weather (too much butter??), and Sharpie Boy is watching video game bosses via the Angry Video Game Nerd.  The Boss is watching reruns of World's Dumbest (Don't even get me started on what I think about that show!)

Since things are pretty peaceful, and we have time before getting ready for Sunday School, I thought I would kick off a little Sunday project and see what happens.

Dante's Inferno

When the student return from their long weekend, we will kick off our Dante unit.  They seem to love talking about Hell.  Some of them think they live in it, actually.  But, nonetheless, we will devote ourselves to the study of Dante's version of it.

I've taught this content at the college level and have scaled it down to the high school level, and there are some pretty great activities that have surfaced over the years.  But, I am always looking for better ways to share this amazing work.

So.

I created a Live Binder called "The Dante Binder Project" and included just the basics of what I use to teach the unit.  I posted it on Twitter with an invite for others to add content, and I will see if anyone does that between now and 11:00 PM tonight.

LiveBinder seems to be a tool that calls for collaboration.  We will see :-)

My New Favorite Actor: Gerard Butler

As it goes, here are some prefatory comments.

I am not a star struck kind of person.  I don't get autographs.  I don't go to some wacky location because a star might be walking by at high noon.  I am not a member of any fan clubs.  I have nothing against folks who do these things; I just don't do them.

I have had only two brushes with famous people.  One was a guy I went to college with (Steve) who went on to be Steve from Blues Clues.  He was a great guy in college, and he was a great guy when he was in the show.  He is now a great musician.  But, I knew him when he was just another college kid.

The other guy was an actor on a famous soap and was playing the lead role (in that play by the name we don't mention) when I was an intern at the PA Shakespeare Festival.  On the day he arrived, he was surrounded by a swarm of bee-people.  Everyone kissed his butt.  I was a lowly box office intern and resident bagpiper. I had been given my instructions about the guy: if he comes to you, send him to us.

On his second day there, he came to the box office all puffed up like a Greek God.  I, however, was reading a Margaret Atwood book, and had no interest in becoming one of the butt kissers.  I never heard of the guy, and while acting on a soap gives you amazing visibility, it doesn't really prepare you to wave around a sword while reciting Shakespeare.

So, he swaggered up to the window where I was perched with said book, and demanded to know if I knew who he was.  Without looking up at him, I replied, "well, I hope you aren't St. Peter because I am not finished with this book."

He stomped his foot.  No joke.

He demanded to know if I actually worked there to which I relied, "Indeed, I do."  And after he demanded to know if I would help him, I finally looked up at him, closed the book slowly with a bookmark, and said, "I believe that is why they are all here" and pointed to the swarm of bee-people.

I added, for a nice touch, that he was far too important for a lowly intern to care for, and, thus, he should go to the Big Man for all his ticketing needs.  I hoped he didn't think I meant Bill, himself, but who knows?  He declared that anyone and everyone should help him, and I replied, "My dear...I don't care if you are the reincarnation of the Bard himself.  It's not my job to help you."  I was snarky, true.  But, I was 21 and an English, not theatre, major.

Our initial exchange kicked off a strange relationship.  Every day, he stopped by the window.  He came to visit me out of a personal challenge to covert me to become a Bee-person, I think, or for some witty exchange.  Who knows why actors ever do the things they do...they are paid to act like someone else all the time.  It was fun to wait for his daily visit, though.  He would come up, all puffy like he was King Neptune, and ask for some dumb thing.  Would I get him a glass of water? No.  Would I give him a piece of paper? No.  On the day after I had a day off, he asked me for two things.  Paper and pencil?

No.  I am still an intern.  All Equity pencils are kept in the safe.

By the end of the season, we had formed this great un-friendship/friendship thing.  He loved to torment me, and I loved to ignore him.  Our witty exchange always ended when I would say, "but, alas, I am a lowly intern."  (Side note: I loved his wife; she was simply the nicest person I had ever met in show business, and she was a famous soap actress, too).

At the cast party, he signed autographs for everyone in the cast.  He brought one over to me and said, "Well, I know you don't want one. But, here is one anyway (it even had my real name on it; I didn't know he even knew it - he always called me Curly)."  I smiled at him and replied, "Don't worry, Lancelot, I won't ever forget you, but my Mother wanted an autograph and you spared me the shame of having to ask, so thank you."  We both laughed so hard about the idea that I would lower myself to ask him for an autograph.  But, I would have for Mom (who, by the way, didn't watch soaps; she watched C-Span).

So, all that said, I am not a star gazer.

And, what, pray tell, has this all to do with Gerard Butler?

Well, it is just to say that I wasn't part of his ever-growing stalking club or whatever people call themselves that travel around the world to see his image brush by on the corner of mid-town.

I heard an interview with Gerard Butler on the Howard Stern show (yeah, yeah, keep your comments to yourself).  I had never heard of Butler, but given that most movies I watch have animated animals or talking trains in them, it is no wonder.

I actually kind of felt sorry for the guy.  I didn't know that he was handsome or smart or anything, but he kept trying to talk about amazing things like books (do actors read?), and everyone kept bringing it down to the chics he sleeps with or dates.  I was interested in the movie he was pushing (Machine Gun Preacher) because it reminds me of the work Vickie and Thom Hicks do in Sierra Leone at Nazareth House.  He wanted to talk about so many interesting things, but, sadly, all he got to talk about was his A list of bedmates.  That was boring.

About a week later, I showed "Beowulf and Grendel" to my 12th graders, and, lo, he played the part of Beowulf.  We were comparing that rendition to the rendition with Angelina Jolie and the actual poem.  I hate the Jolie version (not that it is her fault; I hate the script).  The Butler version is better but still wrong, but at least it has the good sense of having a different title than the original poem.  Of course, there is always some stupid love scene, but aside from that, I thought it was an interesting take on the poem, and the costuming was gorgeous.

Then, a few days after that, I read about the movie Coriolanus - apparently Butler is in that, too.  And, since I am always looking for movies to share with my students, I was intrigued. If a good movie of the Shakespeare variety is coming out, and I have time to swap out the play we read, I will definitely go for the blockbuster hit to make it all the more appealing.  Bribery at its finest.

So, since I heard about this actor three times in a short span of time, I looked him up.  He is, indeed, handsome.  But, more impressive...he is quite bright.  He is trained as a lawayer (the best acting school on the planet, really).  He is also very caring, as he was really touched by his experiences in the Sudan.  He appears to drive his own car around, and, sad for him, the paparazzi love to stalk him.  Women throw themselves at him whenever he is in public.  There are countless sites devoted to adoring him (Really?  People have that much free time???).

What I like about him, though, is that he is trying to be a regular guy and an incredible artist.  He is in the business to act - he doesn't care about all the other stuff.  He seems slightly uncomfortable by all the press.  The guy isn't married, and no one will leave him alone about it.  But, really, if you read his resume, the guy is super busy.  He takes on these hugely difficult roles (physically and mentally draining), and he is all over the world shooting scenes.  He does his own stunts, apparently, and almost drowned while shooting a movie about Xtreme surfers.

The guy is all about his craft.  And, I hope he gets a million of those awards that they hand out (I never know the difference between Grammy, Emmy, and Golden A-Hole).  He really is a brilliant actor, and he deserves to be recognized for the craft of acting and not whether one of the desperate housewives spent a week in his bed.

I like him because he seems so real.  Like, I can see him at his Mum's house eating cereal.  I don't know who he is dating, and I don't care.  I do wish I knew the name of the book he mentioned on the Stern show because it sounds like an interesting read (something about our souls making contact with each other).  But, even if I were a gorgoeus hotty model and famous, I wouldn't ever want to go in public with the guy.  I don't know how he ever makes it to the loo, for Pete's sake.  He is constantly surrounded.

If I were ever the type to meet a guy like him, I wouldn't waste his precious time asking about stupid crap; I would want to know what he is reading and what kinds of roles he has on his bucket list. I would love to see him make more movies that can be used in English or History classes.  We are in dire need of updating the classics.

One of my bucket list dreams is to write the screen play for a movie version of Dante's Inferno.  If I could hand pick the actors, I would cast Butler to play Dante, Sean Connery to play Virgil, and Kate Winslet to play Beatrice.  I would have Kenneth Branagh direct.  it would be amazing.  Lots of smart actors running around talking about real things other than clothes and models.

But, anyway, I look forward to seeing Coriolanus.  I am not sure I will see the surfing movie, but I will wait for his next adventure.

PS.  Wonder why I didn't post a picture of Sir Butler?  I don't want to encourage the paparazzi.  Every time we gawk at their work, they think they have the right to invade his personal life.  Give the guy a break.