I must admit it, gentle reader; today I got frustrated. Apparently the third "chapter" of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying is a horrifying, violent, disturbing narrative of Jewel Bundren beating the crap out of a horse. Apparently he's not breaking the horse, but only hitting, punching, and verbally abusing it like so much meat.
Apparently.
Of twenty-six souls in the classroom, only one -- not myself -- had any experience around horses. Only one had actual experience in breaking horses. She spoke as an authority, describing that the process is a balance of forceful physicality and trust-building. I believed her. Her classmates did not. She must have been wrong, gentle reader, or at least that was the final position of the class.
Huh?
Why the reticence to concede? Why the obstinance, in the face of bald fact, to be right? Why the unwillingness to yield? It is not as if we are discussing personal religion or a political view. Nope. Horse-breaking. Something these students will never come within twenty miles of. Something these students will never again encounter in literature unless by accident. Something, I believe, not worth the effort of resistance. Yet we resisted.
Major premise: We fear what we don't know.
Minor premise: I don't know horse-breaking.
Conclusion: Horse-breaking scares the living crap out of me and I will reject all versions of it, both in print and on the big screen. Not until horse-breaking is presented as a rat in a cage stuck on my face will I ever concede the awful, honest truth:
I love it when Big Brother Horse-Breaks.
This post made me groan.
ReplyDeleteReally, Mr. Guimond? What do you expect?!
This is just my opinion, but when we students (particularly HIGH SCHOOL students) come across a teacher that rarely ever shoots down any ideas (no matter how off-topic), we soon forget the importance of listening.
Instead, we go a little wild and often want our own opinions voiced, whether this means rewording the exact same thing the kid one desk over just said, or even claiming the exact opposite. It's kind of fun.
So no, I don't think that Jewel Bundren is a violent maniac. (Actually, he's my favorite character so far.) But you, gentle teacher, also possess the right to occasionally shoot us down. (Trust me; with how amazingly nice you've been thus far, you deserve your own Thoreau-type "wild" moment.) Open up our eyes (well, ears) and let us students know that darn it, horses are MEANT to be beaten. ;-)
This comment made me smile.
ReplyDeleteYou have the light, gentle commenter; now please do not forsake the darkness of the cave, but instead come down and aid those still squinting at shadows. There is power in the voice of the peer (and reinforcements from the guy standing at the podium!).