Mission

Bibliophiliac is the space where one passionate, voracious reader reflects on books and the reading life. You will find reviews, analysis, links, and reflections on poetry and prose both in and out of the mainstream.

A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. Franz Kafka

Friday, April 23, 2010

The Real Lives of Teenage Boys

I just had to post this snippet of real life from my classroom today. On an impulse, I decided to show Bright Star to lead into Romantic poetry with my seniors. Quite a few students were out today for a senior trip, so it seemed like a good day for such a treat. In case you aren't familiar with this film, it focuses on the love story of the poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, to whom he wrote or dedicated some of his poems. I was thinking probably the girls would love the film and the boys might tolerate it. Not so. It seems my male students are harboring romance in their teenage hearts. A few of them were actually riveted, and most seemed to find the film very engaging, despite what one student deemed "the most ridiculous hats in the universe."

Here is some actual dialogue. Two guys, sitting front and center, their body language conveying rapt attention. I hear one say "What ever happened to chivalry?" A few minutes later, a non sequitur: "Where do you get a suit like that?" I love it.

9 comments:

Jessica said...

LOL oh bless them. I remember I once saw a interview with the author of the Time Travelers wifeand she said that nearly all the people that turn up to her readings are women but bearly all the e-mails she receives are from men.

bibliophiliac said...

So the men are secretly reading her books! I want to see 19th c. dress become a fad at my school!

Ben Carroll said...

haha. that's great dialogue.

i don't know where the 'girls are more romantic than boys' notion comes from. it's the opposite among my friends, mostly.

Astrid (Mrs.B) said...

How interesting! I wouldn't have thought teenage boys would have been interested in this film. It's good to see there are some budding romantics left in this world. Great post!

Lesa said...

Hi Biblio! Yeah, I'm with Ben-- boys aren't all about car chases and shoot outs.

You might really enjoy a teacher post that DeLynne just put on her blog-- she was very surprised by some of her rougher male students--such a sweet story. Here is the url if you want to check it out:
http://delynnesblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/endeavour-foundation.html

Grad said...

I raised two boys and one girl and I didn't see very much difference when it came to affairs of the heart. All hearts were breakable.

Grad said...

Oh, forgot to tell you, I loved your Blog Hop!

bibliophiliac said...

The votes are in, and boys are just as romantic as girls. Thanks for everyone who stopped by on the blog hop. A clarification: the blog hop is the genius idea of Crazy-for-Books...so next Friday you can start with her blog!

Priya Parmar said...

that is fantastic! i am going to use that to talk my boyfriend into seeing bright star!