Lance Mannion: Lords of Misrule

Both classes I’m teaching this semester are seminars. Means students are supposed to do most of the talking and I keep the lecturing to a minimum. Sometimes I lapse. Too often. And there are days when either their mood or the subject at hand keeps them quiet and I have to hold forth. And even when they’re feeling gabby there are topics that have to get covered and points that need to be made and I have to move to get things back on track. So I go in with notes. Nowhere near as detailed as the notes some professors work from, which is probably wrong of me or right of me, depending on who you ask. But like the ones below I made for Wednesday’s Harry Potter and his Avatars class.

Class turned out an acceptable mix of lecture and discussion, with students answering all my questions and adding good points of their own, leaving me only the job of providing background. See if you can reconstruct the discussion.

How to read Shakespeae. Soliloquize like a pirate.

Greenblatt: Lords of misrule. The Vice.

Mischief for mischief’s sake. Tempters. Manipulators.

How tempters work.

Morality plays.

Othello-->Iago

Henry IV. -->Falstaff

Where in the Chosen One myths?

Who in Harry Potter?

Voldemort = Satan. But not Milton’s Satan.

Mischief for mischief’s sake?

Opening the Marauder’s Map.

Fred and George?

Bellatrix?

Tom Riddle. Voldemort more interesting when he was still Riddle.

Star Wars?

Vader tempted not a tempter. Luke is the one saying Come over to the light side, Dad.

Emperor-->Anakin.<---Luke

Hercules?

Disney and Hades.

The Legend of Hercules. Hercules NOT a warrior. Not a soldier. First superhero. Going about doing good deeds.

Superman?

Lex not a trickster or a tempter. Wants order, but with himself doing the ordering.

Batman-->Joker. Riddler. But Batman’s not a Chosen One myth.

Lord of the Rings?

Sauran = Satan. Saruman a fallen angel.

Grima Wormtongue. Creature of Saruman, no power of his own, no object of his own.

Sauran=Voldemort=Palpatine=Lex. Order. Rulers not misrulers.

King Arthur?

Morgan le Faye. Morgause. Mordred.

Jesus?

Temptation in the desert.

Only joke in the New Testament, according to Vonnegut: “The poor you will always have with you.”

Tradition and Judas. Mary Magdalene/Woman taken in adultery.

Jesus Christ Superstar. Judas accusing Jesus of being the tempter.

Chosen One myths short on Vice.

Game of Thrones?

No Chosen One. But…

Littlefinger. Varys. Others. But all of them want power or are just maneuvering to survive.

Who doesn’t care? Who’s just in it for the mischief of it?

Tyrion as a short, thin, young Falstaff forced to play hero and responsible adult.

Shakespeare or George R.R. Martin? Falstaff or Tyrion? “What is honor? A word? What is in that word honor?...Air.”