Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Socialism Lite

Last night in class we broke up into groups to discuss the music in the novel A Room with a View.
Somehow I had mentioned that the Emerson's were considered to be "bad people" because George hadn't been baptized and he and his father were Socialists.
The girl sitting next to me said, "Yeah, Socialists. What's that?"
I tried to explain and gave her a brief two sentence description of Socialism. (Note of snark: this is a 400/500 level class -- wtf???)
Oddly enough, last night I wore my The Communist Party shirt to class - I should have used it as a visual aid.
She looked at me and said without guile, "So Socialists are what Paris Hilton is."
And then I did something horrible.
I laughed in her face.
I forced myself to stop and told her, "No honey, she's a socialite."

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh. My. God.

I loved that book and the movie, by the way.

Kat said...

Thank you. I am no longer too intimidated to begin my graduate program. :)

Jennifer said...

Ah... youth is once again wasted on the young. Maybe Paris Hilton is a socialist socialite? OK. I know I'm stretching.

Micky said...

Totally off topic.
I have been where you've been and I left you a message.
Heehee!
:)