Thursday morning marked the end of the semester’s twentieth Great Books lecture, which was reportedly spent discussing an “unexciting” monologue in the Iliad. The text, which has been noted for violating readers’ expectations of its quality, has been described by many students in Great Books as “alright, but not fantastic or anything.”
The seminar, which focuses on exposing students to classical works of literature regarded as masterpieces by the Classical Studies department, has reportedly dragged its willing yet unimpressed audience through four adequate books so far. “Yeah, it’s kinda neat sometimes, I guess,” stated student Jonah Morse. “The Iliad had some cool fight scenes, but it lost me when it started to get into the consequences of being consumed by one’s own lust for glory. Overall, I’d say it was tolerable.”
“I’m sure I could get behind it more if I had been given a realistic expectation,” said student Casey Mulholland. “I went in there expecting to have my mind blown by these books. Rather than a life-changing experience, I was subjected to just more of the same messages about the banality of mortal life.”
Sources claim that interest levels hit a new average when Professor Henrik Feinman started off his lecture with “Ladies and gentlemen, do I have a smash hit for you today!” Feinman, who has worked in the department for nearly twelve years, stated, “I’ve been doing a pretty good job of keeping things fresh so far. I mean, just yesterday, when we were discussing the parallels between Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra of Argos you could just see the complacent looks on everyone’s faces. I think I’m really getting to them.”
The most recent wave of course evaluations has shown predictable results, with an unsurprising majority of students describing the class as “decent, but not exactly riveting.” Top suggestions for improving the course include “using accents to read passages aloud,” adding books such as The Hunger Games to the curriculum “to represent the successes of our generation,” and, if no other option is available, renaming the course “Acceptable Books.”
At press time, most students have reported that they plan to finish their course list of tolerable books, return them to Ulrich’s, and then reinvigorate themselves with a rousing read- through of A Game of Thrones.
