The star of the first Lit Hum lecture

When 2 o’clock rolled around today, it was finally time for the Class of 2014 to close the Iliad (or at the very least close the Sparknotes tab in their browsers), and trudge off to the Literature Humanities lecture with Professor Christia Mercer. Emma Stein, CC ’14, was on hand to share the fun with everyone left out by this CC-centrismfest.

During the non-stop fun that is NSOP (well, aside from those pesky “required” diversity seminars), students understandably were not thrilled with the prospect of sitting in a class of 1,400 for two hours, though some JJers expressed relief at the prospect of AC. Many came with cell phones brandished, ready to combat boredom with more force than Achilles used to desecrate Hektor’s corpse.

But these preparations were unnecessary. Mercer anticipated the freshmen’s need for humor (and in particular, humor induced through gratuitous amounts of nudity). This, she was willing to provide, grabbing the attention of the girls (and guys too), with photos of Orlando Bloom’s abs (when he played Paris in “Troy”) that she promised were “clearer on [her] computer.”

After finishing up her lecture on key points in the Iliad and some crucial questions, she moved on to a discussion phase that even she acknowledged might be a bad idea. Students talked amongst themselves (with surprisingly limited chaos or diversion) and afterwards shared their thoughts with the class, bravely standing up in front of 1,400 of their closest friends. Some fumblings ensued, but Mercer applauded all.

Delighting everyone perhaps even more than the abs did, the program ended thirty minutes ahead of schedule.