A Short List of Rather Flabbergasting Comments

I know Zelda recently compiled a list of what she hated about "undergradlings". In a small response to that, my boyfriend and I have begun a list of our own.

1. From my first year, one of my classmates: "So did Sophocles use Freud's Oedipal Complex to write Oedipus Rex?"

And the Answer is: yes of course, you moron. We all know they lived in the SAME time period.

2. From Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound, "Does the name Birdboot mean anything in relation to a bird and a boot?"

And the answer is: what planet are you from? (Under) or Overanalysis at its finest.

3. "Are male poets only allowed to write using 'masculine' words, or can they use 'feminine' words as well?"

And the answer is: forget it, see answer to #2.

4. In my Shakespeare course last year, a student who had not shown up for the majority of the year: "So do we have to have read ALL the plays from the year?"

And the answer is: Why, of course not my dear, didn't you see that reading all plays was an OPTION this year?

5. And the coup de grace, in my boyfriend's THIRD year Shakespeare course: "The problem with movie adaptations of the character Caliban is that he is portrayed by a white man." My boyfriend then went on to state that this was merely a MODERN interpretation. This nameless student's rebuttal was: "Caliban must be NON-WHITE, and if you do not agree with me, you are RACIST."

This one really made me laugh. Considering that my boyfriend is white, I suppose he is being reverse-racist?

Puzzle over these for a while. This is why I feel sorry for people like Zelda and Dr J. Don't worry, not all of us undergrads are this hopeless.

Please feel free to add anything relevant to this list....