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Tales of the stupid
12 years ago
One of the podcast I like to listen to has a funny recurring item called “Tales of the stupid”, where the cast tells stories about particularly stupid people they encountered in their personal lives.
Just for a laugh let me tell you a "tale of the stupid" from mine.
It happened about many years ago when I was about 14 and still in high school.
To make the story more clear I have to mention I live in the Netherlands and over here its normal to have English, German and sometimes french as part of the lessons program.
I also have to mention I have always loved to read, and because of that I was familiar from a very young age with a lot of classic fantasy and science fiction literature.
The stupid in this case was my English teacher who revealed she was rather oblivious about the classic literature of the language she was supposed to be teaching us.
During English class the subject of classic novels came up and I told the teacher I had read “Alice in wonderland”, first in a dutch translation and as my understanding of English improved also in the original English version.
She was very pleased with that but as soon as I told her that I had also read the sequel, she told me I was talking noncence.
“What sequel” she said, “Lewis Carroll only wrote ONE Alice novel.”
“No” I told her “I read it, its called: “Through the looking glass”, Alice goes trough a mirror and ends up in another kind of wonderland, this one inspired by the game of chess.”
Again she refused to believe me, telling me off, even mocking me in front of the whole class.
That hurt, especially when your just a teenager and you know for sure your not wrong, but I got my revenge.
Cause you know, the library close to where I lived had a very nice English section.
Guess who after school was done got out his library card and went out to borrow two certain classic Lewis Carroll novels.
Guess who at next English class presented those to his English teacher in front of the whole class.
Guess who got to do some mocking then.
The expression of “oh shit I fucked up and he‘s got proof” on her face was absolutely priceless.
To her credit she apologized, didn't hold a grudge and actually turned out to be a pretty cool teacher after that.
She still totally deserved it though :)
PD.
Just for a laugh let me tell you a "tale of the stupid" from mine.
It happened about many years ago when I was about 14 and still in high school.
To make the story more clear I have to mention I live in the Netherlands and over here its normal to have English, German and sometimes french as part of the lessons program.
I also have to mention I have always loved to read, and because of that I was familiar from a very young age with a lot of classic fantasy and science fiction literature.
The stupid in this case was my English teacher who revealed she was rather oblivious about the classic literature of the language she was supposed to be teaching us.
During English class the subject of classic novels came up and I told the teacher I had read “Alice in wonderland”, first in a dutch translation and as my understanding of English improved also in the original English version.
She was very pleased with that but as soon as I told her that I had also read the sequel, she told me I was talking noncence.
“What sequel” she said, “Lewis Carroll only wrote ONE Alice novel.”
“No” I told her “I read it, its called: “Through the looking glass”, Alice goes trough a mirror and ends up in another kind of wonderland, this one inspired by the game of chess.”
Again she refused to believe me, telling me off, even mocking me in front of the whole class.
That hurt, especially when your just a teenager and you know for sure your not wrong, but I got my revenge.
Cause you know, the library close to where I lived had a very nice English section.
Guess who after school was done got out his library card and went out to borrow two certain classic Lewis Carroll novels.
Guess who at next English class presented those to his English teacher in front of the whole class.
Guess who got to do some mocking then.
The expression of “oh shit I fucked up and he‘s got proof” on her face was absolutely priceless.
To her credit she apologized, didn't hold a grudge and actually turned out to be a pretty cool teacher after that.
She still totally deserved it though :)
PD.
I haven't read either, only watch the Disney version, neanderthal that I am. What was the first world based on, if anything? You said the second one was based on chess. And does the Disney animation mix the first and second worlds Alice goes to?
Even though I like the movie a lot I have to say its not a very good adaptation, it tries but it just cant recreate the sheer unsettling weirdness of the original books.