Teaching English Literature...

Ammo08Ammo08 Missouri, USAPosts: 387MI6 Agent
in General James Bond Chat
I will be retiring from my present job after 26 years and I've already retired from 30 years in the military. I've always wanted to teach English Literature. I would teach the usual Shakespeare, Thackery, Lord Byron etc, but i would also teach Ian Fleming. At heart I am a businessman, Mr Fleming wrote books and short stories that sold, that is the best barometer of literature. People flocked to the Globe Theatre, they flocked to readings by Mark Twain or Charles Dickens and they bought and have continued to buy Mr Flemings stories. He is important to our language. So there will be room for my cirriculum for writers like him.

I have about 8 hours of course work to finish to get my teaching degree. I want students to enjoy books as much as I have.
"I don't know if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or imbeciles who mean it."-Mark Twain
'Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.'- Benny Hill (1924-1992)

Comments

  • 72897289 Beau DesertPosts: 1,691MI6 Agent
    Great idea!

    Would gladly take a class such as you describe.
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  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,901Chief of Staff
    Ah--when I'm not playing Hardyboy I am a card-carrying college professor, and I HAVE taught Fleming in English lit. Specifically, I devised a course in 20th century British spy fiction, and I paired Dr No with The Spy Who Came in From the Cold as differing views of the Cold War. Great class, even if I do say so myself!
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  • walther p99walther p99 NJPosts: 3,416MI6 Agent
    awesome idea!! you should thrown in a question of "name all the James Bond actors" on a test as extra credit or something
    @deanwdunlevy
  • thesecretagentthesecretagent CornwallPosts: 2,151MI6 Agent
    Ah, if only I could have studied authors like Fleming at English O'Level instead of Oscar Wilde... My God that man could bore for England. I think engaging your students is the key to successful learning. I know the teachers who stick with me had a passion or unorthodox approach that got your attention. In one science project in the autumn term we had a teacher who showed us how to make fireworks which we let off on Guy Fawkes Night to raise school funds. I can still make a good rocket from the kitchen cupboards and what lurks in the garden shed!
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  • Ammo08Ammo08 Missouri, USAPosts: 387MI6 Agent
    Hardyboy what a great idea, I will specifically give you credit when I try that. I remember having to read Silas Marner, good Lord that was boring...
    "I don't know if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or imbeciles who mean it."-Mark Twain
    'Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.'- Benny Hill (1924-1992)
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,427MI6 Agent
    I do wish English lit had a bit of historical context to it, my course didn't. Obv that works with Fleming, but other novels too. I also think a lot of English lit can be bad for one's mental health. Pride and Prej, Bleak House, Hamlet, The Go Between - the path to true love never went smoothly and sex was seen as something dark and nasty, always about to inflict shame on a family. Some of it could be quite insidious.

    To be fair, though Fleming doesn't even come out so badly compared to some of the above, it's worth reading Andrew Lycett's bio to find out what a philandering, adulterous, snobbish sado-masochistic, commitment-phobe he really was. I mean, people go on about Larkin's pecaddillos.
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  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,828MI6 Agent
    edited March 2013
    How did you get on with your teaching course, Ammo8?

    Did you get it completed? I'd attend your classes! :)
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Le SamouraiLe Samourai Honolulu, HIPosts: 573MI6 Agent
    Ammo08 wrote:
    I At heart I am a businessman, Mr Fleming wrote books and short stories that sold, that is the best barometer of literature.

    I cannot disagree with this more. In the arts, be it film, literature, music, or painting, there are countless examples of mindless, artless dreck selling well to the Philistine booboosie. A creative work's value as a commodity tells me nothing of its value as art.
    —Le Samourai

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  • LoGabrielleLoGabrielle IrelandPosts: 111MI6 Agent
    I love literature and doing Fleming would be absolute heaven! Having a proper excuse to read the books and maybe watch the films... :p
    "You were fantastic! We're free!"
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  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,828MI6 Agent
    LoGabrielle wrote:
    I love literature and doing Fleming would be absolute heaven! Having a proper excuse to read the books and maybe watch the films... :p

    Agreed on that one. :)
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • always shakenalways shaken LondonPosts: 6,287MI6 Agent
    Yes agree also, perhaps if English lit was made more interesting in our schools
    we wouldnt have as many morons running arond our streets of an evening,
    By the way, did I tell you, I was "Mad"?
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,828MI6 Agent
    always shaken wrote:
    Yes agree also, perhaps if English lit was made more interesting in our schools
    we wouldnt have as many morons running arond our streets of an evening,

    Yes, this has long been an argument of mine - drop Austen, Dickens etc. and give them some modern classics to read instead.
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I feel the standers in English have got badder over the years. :#
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
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