Writing Class

Jellia licked the tip of her pencil. She liked being an archaic in writing class. She could write a lot faster on her comp, but she wasn’t convinced she could write better. Not poetry, anyway. And that was the subject for today: poetry. Specifically limericks.

There once was a daughter named Sue…

There, that was a pretty standard start. And she could rhyme it with ‘Do’ or ‘Who’ or even ‘you’, although that would seem tricky to make sense…

“Jellia?” she looked up, her mind in another place. 

“Yes, Teacher?”

“I received a snip this morning; I believe you have an announcement?”

“Oh, yes.” She stood up. “My mother is being assigned to another planet, Libertas. I will only have a few more weeks in school here. I’m not sure how many.”

“Well, isn’t that interesting. After you all have finished your poem, I would like you each to research one work of fiction from that planet and prepare to present on it.”

Jellia wanted to get to that, but this assignment was in the way. So. Read a couple of archaic limerics and get in the mood:

There was a young lady of Cork,

Who partook of her soup with a fork,

"If I eat it like that

I shall never get fat!"

Said this clever young lady of Cork.

There was a young woman named Bright,

Whose speed was much faster than light.

She set out one day,

In a relative way,

And returned on the previous night.

Well, those were fun. Think, think… 

There once was a daughter named Sue

Who never had nothing to do

That seemed fun. And limericks were supposed to be nonsense. Now for the other rhyme…

There once was a daughter named Sue

Who never had nothing to do

So she went off to sea,

With four sons and a pea,

Oh, that was silly enough. Now the final rhyme…

There once was a daughter named Sue

Who never had nothing to do

So she went off to sea,

With four sons and a pea,

Three sheep and a typewriter too.

There, that made no sense at all, but it rhymed. Now, fiction from Libertas…

—

“I read a short story from Libertas,” Marsha said, standing in front of the class. “I loved it because of the language. It was a story about two ‘cousines’.”

Hands shot up all over, “Yes, I will explain,” Marsha said. “You see, here on our planet, most of us don’t have brothers or sisters. And many of our mothers don’t have brothers and sisters. But on Libertas they do, so they use these words, ‘cousin’ and ‘cousine’… which we have, actually, but aren’t used much.”

“The word ‘cousin’ is generic and means ‘the son of your mother’s brother, or your mother’s sister’. It’s generic, so son or daughter, but if you are definitely talking about a daughter, then you would say ‘cousine’. That is, the person you are talking about is a daughter. And in the plural, ‘cousins’ or ‘cousines’. And their mothers are called your ‘aunts’. There is even a word for their progenitors… ‘uncle’. And it used to be used a whole lot.”

“So, anyway, this story involved a whole group of ‘cousines’ who went on a trip together. And here is the shocking part, or at least the part I found shocking. They weren’t even in advanced classes yet! None of them! One of them wasn’t even in school yet. Yet their mothers and this man that they had living with them, let them go on a trip. They didn’t hardly even ask!”

“So, they went on this trip to this beach and…”

Jellia’s mind raced. All these new words. All these new ideas. She knew that the man was called a ‘Ska-drek’, and if they had needed permission, it would have been mostly from him. And, think, in a few weeks, she would be off to that planet. She might even get to walk on the beach that the story was about!

“My story,” Trisha said a few minutes later, “was about school. Advanced classes. A whole bunch of daughters that got mad at each other and all. But the funny part was the classes they had! There were a whole bunch of classes that they didn’t have! They didn’t have any history classes, or safety classes, or even writing classes!”

“Surely not,” Teacher said. “Jellia, have you researched your class schedule?”

Jellia rose. “Yes, Cit,” she said. “Trisha is sort of right. As you get to advanced classes, you have fewer and fewer actual classes.  I will have math, art, and engineering classes exclusively when I get there. I read the syllabus, though, and writing will be judged in my engineering classes. Proposals and all.”

“And Safety class?!”

“No, ma’am. They have something called ‘Code and Custom’, which I will have to study up on before I get there, and I might get assigned extra study for. Oh, and the ‘ska-drek’, the man that Marsha was talking about, he is responsible for making sure that everyone in the house knows and follows Code and Custom well. Or even what they call ‘Code, Custom, Command and  Contract.”

“So they just call it something different?” Trisha asked.

“No… no, it’s really different. They don’t have safeties, really.  Just sort of after-the-fact safeties. Oh, and all of the sons wear guns all the time.”

“Stars and Comets!” Teacher said. “And you will have to live there. Well, go on, Trisha…”

“Ok, Jellia, everyone else has gone. What did you read?”

“Well, we are doing poetry, and so I thought I would try that. This poem is not actually from Libertas, but it is one of the poems from their founding ceremony. I don’t understand it hardly at all; it makes me shudder rather, but it sounds powerful, anyway. And it seems to go along with their idea of Code and Custom… that liberty can only come with strong laws, strongly enforced:

To the Judge of Right and Wrong

            With Whom fulfilment lies

        Our purpose and our power belong,

            Our faith and sacrifice.

        Let Freedom's land rejoice!

            Our ancient bonds are riven;

        Once more to use the eternal choice

            Of Good or Ill is given.

        Not at a little cost,

            Hardly by prayer or tears,

        Shall we recover the road we lost

In the drugged and doubting years.

        But, after the fires and the wrath,

            But, after searching and pain,

        His Mercy opens us a path

           To live with ourselves again.

        In the Gates of Death rejoice!

            We see and hold the good—

        Bear witness, Earth, we have made our choice

            For Freedom's brotherhood!

        Then praise the Lord Most High

            Whose Strength hath saved us whole,

        Who bade us choose that the Flesh should die

            And not the living Soul!

        To the God in Man displayed—

            Where'er we see that Birth,

        Be love and understanding paid

            As never yet on earth!

        To the Spirit that moves in Man,

            On Whom all worlds depend,

        Be Glory since our world began

            And service to the end!

(Rudyard Kipling)

---

Thank you for reading Von’s Substack. I would love it if you commented! I love hearing from readers, especially critical comments. I would love to start more letter exchanges, so if there’s a subject you’re interested in, get writing and tag me!

Being ‘restacked’ and mentioned in ‘notes’ is very important for lesser-known stacks so… feel free! I’m semi-retired and write as a ministry (and for fun) so you don’t need to feel guilty you aren’t paying for anything, but if you enjoy my writing (even if you dramatically disagree with it), then restack, please! Or mention me in one of your own posts.

If I don’t write you back it is almost certain that I didn’t see it, so please feel free to comment and link to your post. Or if you just think I would be interested in your post!

If you get lost, check out my ‘Table of Contents’ which I try to keep up to date.

Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,

Von

---

Links

Contract Marriage Chapters, Newest to Oldest

---

I would like to give credit for the genesis of many of these ideas to the Liaden series by Mr. and Mrs. Steve Miller, which is available for free on the web. They do a great deal of cultural exploration, although they rather dramatically skip the moral exploration. (And their math doesn’t work.)

Other concepts were taken, in one form and another, from the book Freehold by Michael A Williamson.