Hard Times

I'm teaching Hard Times again... Dickens was quite a remarkable writer. I especially love this first section of the book:

The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a school-room, and the speaker's square forefinger emphasized his observations by underscoring every sentence with a line on the schoolmaster's sleeve. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's mouth, which was wide,thin, and hard set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's voice, which was inflexible, dry, and dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of a plumpie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside. The speaker's obstinate carriage, square coat,square legs, square shoulders, - nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was, - all helped the emphasis.

'In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but Facts!'

The speaker, and the schoolmaster, and the third grown person present, all backed a little, and swept with their eyes the inclined plane of little vessels then and there arranged in order, ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until theywere full to the brim.

I rather enjoy juxtaposing this image and sentiment with that of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall"

Somedays I love my job so much that's its surprising that they pay me to do this..
other days I wish I had a bullet proof vest, some mace and ten measley squares of toilet paper so I can piss in peace.
I'm not sure what kind of day today is just yet, but that's what makes it so fun...