August 23, 2008

School Begins

Well, school begins on Monday. I have 25 copies of my syllabus and a bunch of index cards in my briefcase ready to go, and at 7:30 the magic happens.

I read a Chinese novel from about the 14th century this summer called "Outlaws of the Marsh." It is the story of 108 upstanding individuals who one-by-one and for various reasons are driven from society and forced to join a band of outlaws. This in many ways reminded me of Koon (perhaps in an overly sentimental fashion). The outlaws are eventually pardoned by the Emperor after the imperial forces are unable to defeat them. The outlaws join the imperial forces and stay together to fight successfully against foreign armies. But, when they are sent against other rebels within the Song kingdom, they are killed off one-by-one. They are defeated when they battle against those representing what they once were. The few who survive are later killed off by the wiles of other imperial ministers. It is a great novel. I just hope I haven't joined the imperial forces.



2 Comments:

Blogger Tony said...

stroke the 'stache if you've still got it. that will win 'em over.

August 24, 2008 at 12:10 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Way to go picking up on Dr. 'jobst's index card method. Let 'em have it, Jon.

August 25, 2008 at 9:30 AM 

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