Homer to Hollywood: a Student Epic

Ok. So I know we’re technically meant to put our real names in brackets in the title but I really don’t want to. There’s only one of me (as in my name) that goes to my college and given my proneness to vicious and bitter rants, I’d rather not.

Just think of me as the mysterious Level12 (unless you’re a fellow blogger and then you probably know my real name). I mean, if I wanted to use my real name I would’ve made it my username right? So for the ease of the reader I’ve actually used the tagging system and tagged all my posts ‘Leve12’ this means that instead of scrolling down you can just get all posts tagged Level12 and hurrah! – there I am.

Actually it’s very efficient. *Sigh* – what a clever little bunny I am.

So this week has been good. I caught a small bout of what is cheerfully named ‘Fresher Flu’ at Canterbury which involves incredibly swollen glands and feeling as though I just swallowed a porcupine with a lighter fluid chaser. Hence I’ve been a little behind with my work, but I did a mammoth effort this morning, so it’s all good now.

Now granted I haven’t posted as much as my delightfully enthusiastic peers (yeah, I know. Where DO they get the energy?) but I know what you’re thinking already because I’m nothing if not wretchedly predictable.

You’re thinking:

“Go on Level12. We know you want to whine about something. It’s ok, we love and accept you and may we just say that man, that skirt-overall thing you’re wearing offset with the gray singlet was risky but you pulled it off!”

To which I’ll blushingly reply:

“REALLY? I SO wasn’t sure about it when I walked out today! But then I looked outside and it was that weird kinda muggy-but-not-so-muggy and I thought: hell, just go for it! What about the shoes? I mean thongs are fine but I thought the flats with the -”

“Uh… Level12?”

“Oh yeah… sorry. Where were we?”

Now, as an Arts student I have the fantastic requirement of an Interdisciplinary Foundation Subject, or IDF. “What’s an IDF?” I hear you ask? Well dear reader, just ask the Melbourne University website:

Interdisciplinary Foundation Subjects will expose you to core ideas across our vast range of disciplines in your first year, assisting you in making an informed decision regarding your specialization or study major at second and third year level. Imagine that.

God bless ‘em, they wanted to sound pretentious and by gum they sure nailed it… but enough sarcasm. Truth be told the subjects aren’t that bad for forced subjects, and the one I do is called ‘Homer to Hollywood’ (that’s Odyssey Homer people, not the Simpsons), which basically goes through some major literary works throughout history paying particular attention to the shifts and consistencies in the portrayal of war.

It’s heavy on reading, but that’s not really my gripe with it (although forking out for those books hurt! This was the only subject I was obliged to do and I paid more for it than all of my others combined!), no, my main gripe with it happens to be that so far THEY EXPECT US TO HAVE PRINTED OUT OVER 125 PAGES WORTH OF MATERIAL! And that doesn’t even include the handbook (another 100), and that has so far cost me $13.35 and angry students behind me waiting in queue, and approx 2 hours of my time trying to format this abomination.

And that’s not even the worst part! Those 120 pages is only the material for the FIRST TWO WEEKS! There’s presumably hundreds more where that came from!

I know what you’re thinking (aside from “holy crap! She’s a mind-reader!”) you’re thinking “Oh, but Level12, there was a reader for Homer to Hollywood last year, they should be getting one soon!”

Wrong.

Turns out that they’re considering not even doing that, because of how expensive the reader would be. Well, prepare to be thwarted by my superior brain (in matters of finance and pain-in-the-asses, not Homeric literature)

• My printing place charges me 11cents per page. They’re making a profit. For me to print everything out each week is going to cost me heaps more than the one-off cost of the reader and potentially hours of my time (which I need to actually READ the damn things).
• FACT: you can’t read a 34 page document off the screen. It’s impossible.
• Not everyone has a printer at home, and you try printing of 100+ pages with a queue of students behind you, some potentially environmental activists. Eep.
• If there’s too much course material to BIND, then maybe consider for a second that perhaps you have too much material? Admittedly going from the Iliad to Hollywood was ambitious, but if you’re expecting us to read novels and the reading I have a startling news flash:

1. Some people who do your subject do so because it was the best choice out of the IDFs, but still aren’t as interested in it as the rest of their subjects. For them, it’s too much effort. THEY WON’T READ IT.
2. Some people LIKE having things bound in a comprehensible order rather than carrying around millions of sheets in their bags and then having to rifle through them to figure out what’s going on.
3. Some people… won’t bother unless you do it for them, and that’s the honest truth (at my tutorial today I was one of 3 who actually made the effort. 3.

Actually readers, I LIKE this subject, but with this printing hassle I honestly wouldn’t recommend it if you’re thinking of switching – with the amount of reading you’d already be so far behind that it’s just not worth it.

So H2H you’re trying my patience. If I could swear on this site I’d you to get your _ _ _ _ (fill in the blank) together and print the damn reader because I think if you set that amount of reading you probably have to take on the responsibility of ensuring that the material is in an accessible format. We’re students, not the Printing Press. Most of us are first years. Give us a break. Please.

Ok… so rant over, and wishing to put a positive light on this I shall go through the plan of action.

1. I have emailed the course coordinator to stress the importance of the reader (don’t complain yet, they haven’t fully decided, just write a forceful plea), and why I would like them to produce one.
2. I made a fuss to my tutor, highlighting the above points.
3. I’m encouraging you. If you do H2H feel free to write a comment here or attach a link to this page when you fire an email off to the coordinator (I’d love to give you the details for contacting her but look them up on LMS, I don’t want any spamming to occur as a result of my hyper linking).

Hmmmm. Would I that I had some other, more positive stories for you, but consider this the ironing out of kinks. Melbourne University’s not perfect, nowhere is, but if you’re unhappy with something you need to do something about it, because in some cases the staff may not even be aware (unlikely, but hey I’m a generous and lovely creature so I shall give them the benefit of the doubt).

Let’s hope this doesn’t end up like Troy. Or I’ll be rowing paddleless up a certain creek, and I’m all out of Dettol.

*EDIT: I just realized that this is the 500th post. Awesome.