As an English major with a specialization in literature, I can't help but hop in on this one. I can only speak for universities in the US, but most schools also have special topics courses for literature. That is where you would find people analyzing and discussing books like 50 Shades. I took a special topic course on American haunted house literature and a friend of mine took a class that was only James Bond novels. In the same semester I've had a class where we read The Odyssey and then my very next class we were reading Ender's Game. That's the beauty of the literature department, anything can be pondered and written about. I was lucky enough to have professors that didn't really care or push onto us the argument of "Literature" vs "literature", it's what you can pull from the works that matter rather than how it ranks in prestige. I did however have a prof that called Pride, Prejudice and Zombies "sacrilege".
I understand (to an extent) the value of reading canonical works alongside contemporary popular work and applying particular lenses to both. And while we can call on the intentional fallacy here, for a layperson's purposes, Lolita and Fifty Shades are written to very different standards and intended for very different effects. Where I take issue is with the suggestion that Lolita is intended or ever effective as an "erotic" work in anything like the same way Fifty Shades attempts to be erotic, and is marketed and read for that purpose.
Oh I agree. I don't think they'd be studied together, they don't really belong in the same category. I'm just pointing out that even something traditionally considered lowbrow (like 50 Shades) has a place in academia.
Well yes, you can study virtually anything at US/UK university these days in one department or another but I don't think they're doing themselves any favours. The more accessible art they study the less people will see the need to go to university to study it IMO.
Arguably, no one NEEDS to go to university to study art.
Nobody's mentioned the Da Vinci code (which sold more copies than 50 shades) Maybe before your time?
Just love this time of year.It's fantastic to come to school during, what's about to be declared, an epidemic, and do nothing but play movies in a freezing cold classroom with NO AIRCON.
Watch movies....... Aircon........ Netflix and Chill?
I'm not sure that 15 cases (all of which are currently in quarantine) of a disease that has a death rate of less than 3% (compared to bronchiolitis' 3%, and the flu's 6%) should be considered an epidemic.Also, wanting to turn on the aircon at this time of year? You must really hate your kids!
Yeah I agree that at the very least, students shouldn't be at school. They're just watching movies so what's the point in risking it by being here?From what people are saying it seems that the reaction to the virus is entirely down to your principal. I'm amazed that there hasn't been any communication from the offices of education to the native teachers. Unless they just communicated with the school directly.
FYI, the flu has a mortality rate of 0.01%
It's impossible to have a decent estimate of the Coronavirus mortality rate as it hasn't really hit it's stride yet and is completely new.
I'd say there's a good chance the CCP hasdownplayed these numbers, going by their nature and actions of the last 3 months). The WHO seems to be heavily downplaying the situation as well, thanks to there vested interests in China.
Chinese New Year started less than 2 weeks ago so we're still very much in the incubation period of what could potentially be the largest outbreak to date. The infected 14 are in quarantine, but what about the potential 4.08 they've infected and so on?There's plenty of misinformation, fake news and a lack of facts about what's going on and I might very well be wrong, but nobody , including you, can be certain at this point. Ultimately, if the school is making all students and teachers wear masks and I've been instructed to wipe down my keyboard and monitor with disinfectant, wouldn't it be a better idea to cancel school during the pointless few days during mid-vacation?