Not the droids we were looking for

[pbray]

The summer community education catalog arrived today from the local community college. The cover is a brilliant rainbow, and as I flipped it open my eye landed on "NEW! WORKING WITH FAIRIES"

The course description did contain such gems as "Discover what types of fairies there are and how to work with each type to bring you insight, wisdom and joy," but the rest of the text made it clear that this would not be my type of thing.

I'm tempted to sign up and then express profound disappointment that the subject matter isn't related to workplace diversity, but with my luck the instructor would suffer from a chronic lack of humor.

Comments

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

Currently reading Boundry by Eric Flint and Ryk Spoor. Therein, "Faeries" are small, highly versitile drones used for space exploration.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Now that would be a fun topic.

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

More fun that these people actually sound. I have a feeling if you went as you are, they would not appreciate you :-(. But OTOH, if you took a friend, the two of you could wreak havoc together.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHA :^D

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

Hee!
A humor impairment is almost a guarantee, I think. ;-)

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

...And probably a prereq for the class as well. Check your funny bone at the door, please.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's the earnest and deadly serious ones that I always seem to run into.

[elven-wolf.livejournal.com]

*snickerfit* Oh I'd pay to see that.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

It could be fun....

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

The obvious explanation occurred to me last night as I passed my copy of Connie Willis's Bellwether on my way to brush my teeth: the instructor offering this course is a time traveller from mid-1990s Boulder, Colorado. Expect po-mo pink handouts, bread pudding at the class potluck, and duct-tape hair wraps. ;^)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Winces, but you're probably right.

What gets me is the naivete inherent in the description-- the assumption that all fairies are good and having nothing better to do than bringing humans wisdom, insight and joy.

If the class description said something like "Learn about the types of fairies, including which ones you can safely approach and which ones are too dangerous for human contact" then I'd have more respect.

[elven-wolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah they obviously didn't see the episode of Torchwood with the faeries that looked like a cross between Gollum and green spider monkeys and drowned people with rose petals. That was actually a good episode. LOL

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

I have friends who believe in the existence of fairies, and who will also tell you why it's a very good idea not to piss them off. That's the kind of belief that makes sense to me, while the "La, la, rose colored glasses, all of the spiritual world has nothing better to do than to attend to your petty complaints" version seems to me hopelessly naive-- wish fulfillment "I'm special because my magic invisible sparkly pony says so."

[elven-wolf.livejournal.com]

Haha.

... it's not a pony, it's a unicorn. ;)

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Clearly this person's experience with fairies (fictional or otherwise) has been extremely limited. S/he needs to read some Susannah Clarke. And some Holly Black. And "Sleeping Beauty" (and The Stepsister Scheme). Et cetera.