profrollo (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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alternate_university2020-01-04 09:20 pm
profrollo) wrote in alternate_university2020-01-04 09:20 pm
Entry tags:
Fun At Parties (Action, OTA)
[Another New Year's party, another festivity Frollo's forced to attend. Despite his best efforts, the other faculty liked to include him in their reindeer games. Whether this came from goodwill or morbid curiosity about what the grouch would produce was hard to determine. The latest participant, one Ms. Merriweather, was aglow with end-of-the-year cheer.]
"Mr. Frollo! Fancy seeing you here! Have you heard about the season finale of Mad Men? It sounds like just your kind of thing; very moral, you know. Very critical."
"I'm not familiar..."
[That was not an invitation; nonetheless, she gushed and brought him up to speed.]
"So you see, it's a fascinating period piece about, you know, what things were like back then. What do you say?"
"I say it's not nearly so moral as myopic; merely a devilish distraction."
[Though truly he wished he'd, if not she'd, said nothing at all. Judging by her bewildered look, he figured he'd have to elucidate. Like one of his lectures. Well, if she insists.]
"From what you've said, it seems this televised drama belongs to the genre of 'Now We Know Better'. The characters will indulge, without irony, something shocking to modern sensibilities. The moderns will then indulge a chuckle or a cluck, per their wont, and congratulate themselves on having the good fortune of being born decades afterwards. Such morality is pandering and cheap. Why the sins of the past were, and whether they were truly wicked or merely unfashionable, is not thought of. Indeed, such entertainment is a loss to real virtue, deadening the present to its own vices in favor of jeering the dead's. I confess, I see precious little morality in that."
[Merriweather's shock increased. Goodwill lingering, she floundered for a way to continue the conversation.]
"Oh, well, I see. Um...what vices don't get much attention nowadays?"
[His eyes lightly gave her a once over, noting that she was slightly overweight.]
"Gluttony, perhaps."
[Her face reddened.]
"O-oh, well, my friend is over there, and we really need catching up. Ah, Happy New Years!"
"Likewise."
[Frollo was blessed with a severe baritone and a preacherly knack for sermonizing, so his lecture and the fallout drew more attention than just his poor interlocutor. Good; that'll teach them to share their inane recreations. And Frollo's nothing if not an excellent teacher.]
"Mr. Frollo! Fancy seeing you here! Have you heard about the season finale of Mad Men? It sounds like just your kind of thing; very moral, you know. Very critical."
"I'm not familiar..."
[That was not an invitation; nonetheless, she gushed and brought him up to speed.]
"So you see, it's a fascinating period piece about, you know, what things were like back then. What do you say?"
"I say it's not nearly so moral as myopic; merely a devilish distraction."
[Though truly he wished he'd, if not she'd, said nothing at all. Judging by her bewildered look, he figured he'd have to elucidate. Like one of his lectures. Well, if she insists.]
"From what you've said, it seems this televised drama belongs to the genre of 'Now We Know Better'. The characters will indulge, without irony, something shocking to modern sensibilities. The moderns will then indulge a chuckle or a cluck, per their wont, and congratulate themselves on having the good fortune of being born decades afterwards. Such morality is pandering and cheap. Why the sins of the past were, and whether they were truly wicked or merely unfashionable, is not thought of. Indeed, such entertainment is a loss to real virtue, deadening the present to its own vices in favor of jeering the dead's. I confess, I see precious little morality in that."
[Merriweather's shock increased. Goodwill lingering, she floundered for a way to continue the conversation.]
"Oh, well, I see. Um...what vices don't get much attention nowadays?"
[His eyes lightly gave her a once over, noting that she was slightly overweight.]
"Gluttony, perhaps."
[Her face reddened.]
"O-oh, well, my friend is over there, and we really need catching up. Ah, Happy New Years!"
"Likewise."
[Frollo was blessed with a severe baritone and a preacherly knack for sermonizing, so his lecture and the fallout drew more attention than just his poor interlocutor. Good; that'll teach them to share their inane recreations. And Frollo's nothing if not an excellent teacher.]
no subject
Frollo looks pleased. Not out of any disinterested joy of teaching, of course, but of the prospect of making a student's life almost as hellish as the fate he's so certain will come to them. Indeed, description of hell and how very, very deserving it is for its tenants will feature prominently.
"Your knowledge of that book is wanting. Let's see if we can't remedy that." Loath as he is to admit, deity spares a great deal, despite Frollo wishing He wouldn't.
"As you wish. I recommend you familiarize yourself with Aquinas or some of the decretals. We'll be covering much of the Summa, and it'd be dreadful if the subject was all strange."
Resolutely, he sits back is chair.
"That will be all for now. Good evening, Ms. Porrim. I'll be looking forward to your presence there." In the worst way.