First Day of Class

[Travelintheways]

And already known as a nutjob by all! Woo-hoo!

I'm majoring in political science, but my academic interests are pretty varied, so I try to take classes outside my field whenever possible. This semester I have a sociology class and something called "the notion of liberty in love". It grabbed my eye during registration, and I decided to take it--a nice literary break from political stuff once a week.

Friday was the first class, and we had a huge list of topics to choose from for our big 20 min oral presentation. There were a couple of books I'll have to look up, and while there were some interesting topics, I thought of one I wanted that wasn't on the list.

Perhaps I should have prefaced this by saying that I just finished reading The Story of O a week or so ago in the original French. It makes me giggle inside when I hear Charles de Gaulle airport referred to as Roissy, but that's another story. By the way, if anyone here has read it, what's the deal with the ending? In the version I read, the last page says, "The last chapter has been taken out, but blah blah blah happens. And there is a second ending to the story of ending, in which blah blah blah happens." Is it possible to get my hands on that last chapter and second ending? Should I start a different thread on Story of O?

Aaaanyway, when the professor finished explaining the list, he asked if anyone had any ideas for presentations that weren't on the list. I raised my hand right away and said in my scratchy, dying voice that I had just finished reading Story of O and would like to do a presentation on sado-masochism. He kind of laughed and said that no one had asked to do that before but that I could certainly do this.

Now, this isn't a nice, big, liberal Berkely I'm attending by any stretch of the imagination. It's a strait-laced, very academically-minded, elite school, and I volunteer to do my semester presentation on BDSM the first day I'm excited and a little nervous about the prospect. I'm not even sure I would label myself as anything BDSM, but I'm officially a freak in the eyes of the future political elite! And yes, this makes me very happy.

Oh, should this be in the other forum?

So that's my funny story of the day. Also, does anyone have any suggestions as to starting points, such as literature I could find at a library around here? There are about a million different directions I could go with this, including a virtual recreation of Roissy I've been envisioning.

 

[Aeroil]

There's the library here on the forums which is full of info, but maybe that's not what you need, I dunno. Also, feel free to just ask questions here, we'll answer you, even if it's just a redirection to another thread.

 

[Travelintheways]

Nod, I definitely plan on reading over the library again. Thanks for the reply!

 

[snowy ciara]

..

And already known as a nutjob by all! Woo-hoo!


Perhaps I should have prefaced this by saying that I just finished reading The Story of O a week or so ago in the original French. It makes me giggle inside when I hear Charles de Gaulle airport referred to as Roissy, but that's another story. By the way, if anyone here has read it, what's the deal with the ending? In the version I read, the last page says, "The last chapter has been taken out, but blah blah blah happens. And there is a second ending to the story of ending, in which blah blah blah happens." Is it possible to get my hands on that last chapter and second ending? Should I start a different thread on Story of O?

.

Congrats on official nutjob-hood. There's already a thread or two on "O", so you may want to do a short search, if the search function is behaving. But the short answer:

The original ending of O was a chapter in which Sir Stephen abandoned her at Roissy and she eventually asked permission to kill herself, which was granted. The ending was sufficiently dark and somewhat too graphic for the times. Maybe it's just that I'm a child of the 90's, but I've seen worse violence in the "modern" media. I don't enjoy it; it does bug me, but I didn't find it too disturbing. It did strike a chord in my psyche somewhere, resonated with my own personal self destructive possibilities, but it wasn't anything new or shocking to me.

There is a sequel that came out a few years ago that takes up where the last one left off, excluding the chapter where O dies. It's pretty good, she's back at Roissy and eventually earns a sort of freedom. Not as good as the original but sort of good.

My French copy of O is rather rare; so I'm not letting it out of my hands for love or money. (I have the original ending...) Well sort of, I didn't take it with me when I went to University. But if you have money to burn you may want to go through some collectors or something to find it.

 

[Caitlynne]

OMG Traveler!!!! It's a small world.

Of all the BBS joints in all the Internet, you walk in here.

The library here is very good, so please check it out. We're pretty open here, so if you have questions, ask. And if you want some help privately, you can just pm me or email. I'll do what I can.

Good to see you here, for whatever reason.

~ cait

 

[Travelintheways]

Thanks for the thorough and interesting reply, snowy ciara. I don't have money to burn right now, but that's something to keep in the back of my mind.

Cait... *boggle* There's only one person I can possibly imagine you would be, and it IS a small world in that case. Hi! How are you?? It is WEIRD to come across you here but good to see you in any case.

 

[Caitlynne]

Cait... *boggle* There's only one person I can possibly imagine you would be, and it IS a small world in that case. Hi! How are you?? It is WEIRD to come across you here but good to see you in any case.

Yes, it's me (Caitriona), and I am fine. It is strange to come upon each other here, but life is wonderful and strange and yes WEIRD.

~ Cait