Challenge #01951-E127: Posthumous CommunicationsteemCreated with Sketch.

in #fiction6 years ago

canstockphoto175780.jpg

Sandwiched between cardboard, or up-market leather they colour our lives, change the way we see the world, and of course they never age. Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, James Bond, Mr Darcy, Alice, Tom Sawyer. -- Anon Guest

"And then there's the curious incident of the dog in the night-time," Alpex read out loud. Like all new readers, the reading was painful and slow and almost monotonous. Ze stopped. "You do know this method of information sharing is the one least likely to convey a love of reading, yes?"

"This is a communal sharing of skill for assessment. It is not meant for loving reading. That's why we select older texts with interesting words in the text."

"This is testing my patience for reading at all," sighed Vix. "Why do we have to read these things that are centuries old?"

"In brief - royalties. Contemporary authors must be paid for the Time anyone uses their works. These authors have been deceased for a minimum of five hundred years, and their works are therefore free for multiple uses."

Someone coughed their way around the word 'kindling'. Those that understood the term and the word burst into laughter.

Farral the Teacher put the book down and sat on his desk. "All right. We could also be reading Seuss as a test of our linguistic skills. Why do you think we always go to Dickens, Doyle and Carroll?"

There was some discussion amongst the class. The purpose of education was to introduce concepts to the class. Of course it was. So what concepts were also covered by these three Terrans?

"History," Vix finally blurted. "These books all cover a different time period. Before technology. Before many of the conveniences we have. This teaches us the changing nature of language and narrative. And the changing nature of meaning. Once upon a time, a match was a chemically-treated length of rope that was kept smouldering."

"Very good. Yes. Seuss may introduce us to unusual words, but Dickens, Doyle and Carrol teach us about how things were once. How meaning can be plastic in the works we read."

"When do we learn how to appreciate these works?" asked Alpex. "I feel these texts could be special if they were made to be again."

Teacher Farral made a gesture of thanks to his deities. "Appreciation begins with asking. And bless you for asking. I have a host of productions where we can compare the original text to the transformative performance. Would you like to start with two-dimensional or three dimensional presentations?"

The class relaxed. Everyone loved it when the teacher brought out the AV equipment.

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / pemotret]

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