nopantsdave

And today starring in the role of Devil's Advocate is Dave.....


So, we had a guest lecturer in my Lit class today. We are doing Dante's Inferno and my teacher enlisted another teacher to come and lecture on it. The guest teacher is one I have had before. I took Brit Lit 1 from her a couple years ago. We butted heads numerous times. I swear she hates me and I know that I am far from fond of her. She is a raging feminist. I don't have any problems with feminism or people who are feminists, but this woman would go out of her way to make it seem like all men are evil and that all women are saints. Anyway....Class was pretty boring, I needed to liven things up a bit. So I raised my hand. "I have always seen Inferno as being very misogynistic since he is basically doing this because of a woman. His love for Beatrice is what is at the heart of the work. Basically what he is saying is that he is being dragged through Hell because of women." Now, the only reason I could appreciate her expression is because I have lit her fuse on a few other topics in the past. She was fucking annoyed. I get the feeling that she loves this book and I have just accused it of the thing she hates most in the world. (I wasn't bored anymore at this point, kinda having some fun actually). She kinda avoided answering the charge directly. Instead she started talking about how many more men Dante comes across in Hell (especially in the lower levels) than there are women. I'm not sure if she was trying to say that this proves that men are more evil or what. But I suggested it is simply because women were not allowed to have power back then and most of the sins that get you in the lower level are sins that can only be commited by someone who has power.

Later she mentioned Achilles and said he was excessively violent or something like that. I countered by saying Achilles was only sporadically violent since he spent an overwhelming amount of time sitting on the beach doing nothing. She actually agreed! Not that she could really do otherwise, by this point I had made it clear that I know my classics and I would have jumped on the chance to argue the point with her.

Have I told you all how much I love challanging teachers? It is just my nature. I think sometimes that it is my responsibility. I cannot sit idly by and listen to them say something that is incorrect. I know it oft times hurts me to argue with them. I pulled a C+/B- in the class I had this lady for a couple years ago and I can't help but think my arguing with her had something to do with that. Sometimes I think I should just bite my tongue and let them say whatever they want. But then the students just accept it blindly. At least when I argue a point it makes it apparent that there are other views. Though I imagine that many of my fellow classmates hate me because I am talking so often. But to that I say, "Screw 'em"