So, I have to tell you all about this awesome class I’m taking: Honors Literature and Civilizations II. This class proves the power of the professor. Professor Dan Williams (DW) is one of the most interesting guys I have ever met, and he makes this class.
Let me drop some knowledge bombs on all of you about the layout of this class: there are no literary analysis papers, only blogs. Our entire class revolves around reading and blogging about our experience with the text. Okay, total honors move. That sounds so cool probably only to nerds like me.
Anyways, we also have two class presentations. A friend and I decided to man up and lead our class discussion on the first story we read, Candide by Voltaire. If you haven’t ever read it, go look it up on Wikipedia, then read it. We looked through the syllabus for guidelines on how to do the project and found…basically nothing. Great. So, I emailed DW and asked for direction. All I received is vagueness, which is most of what you hear from DW. It’s introspective. It makes me think.
After some debate on what to do, we decided to make a modern day film recounting Candide’s life. That’s right. We made a movie. In three days. And it had the underlying theme of Star Wars. Awesome, I know.
When we presented the project, it was a hit with everybody, especially DW. He loved the creativity behind it. Basically, the point I’m trying to get across in this blog is this: only in honors do you get to take awesome classes like this.
I don’t consider this class; it’s more of hanging out and discussing literature in creative ways. Even if you aren’t the biggest fan of literature, this class is just fun.
And I like fun. You should too.
As always, Go Frogs!
