Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: ecstatic
  • Music: Emmylou Harris, 'Bang the Drum Slowly.'

Education is fun!

As many of you may or may not be aware, I am a fairly prolific songwriter. And when I say 'prolific', I really mean 'I have released two albums, I'm recording a third right now, and if I had the money, I would be heading straight back into the studio for number four, just to try to get some of my backlog down on CD.'

It's been determined that there's just about nothing I'll refuse to write a song about. I'm not much for bathroom humor or things of that sort, but I've written songs ranging from the sweet and wistful to the cheerfully macabre, and the ratio stays pretty consistent at fifty/fifty 'really pretty'/'totally crazy.'

Last year, after reading a fabulous book called The Return of the Black Death: the World's Greatest Serial Killer, I wrote a song titled, naturally enough, 'The Black Death.' (The lyrics are linked so that you can understand the horror.) Several CDC installations have printouts of this song tacked to their walls, and at least one teacher has decided to use it as part of his lesson plans. I Have Arrived.

Quoth the teacher in question:

"I gave the students lyric sheets and had them listen and list 'reasons why epidemiologists think that the Black Death was NOT Bubonic Plague.' Some of the kids, when I asked the same question on the test, even quoted back song lyrics!"

I WIN AT EVERYTHING.
Tags: good things, music
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  • 18 comments

spectralbovine

May 28 2008, 17:25:00 UTC 9 years ago

That is AWESOME.

Also, I had no idea the Black Death did not necessarily equal the bubonic plague. I thought that was one of the few constants in my life.

seanan_mcguire

May 28 2008, 17:30:29 UTC 9 years ago

Yup. There's some very good evidence that the Black Death did not mean 'the bubonic plague'. I've summarized most of the book's points in the song, but if you're in the mood for some really fascinating medical and epidemiological archeology, I hugely, hugely recommend reading the book.

scifantasy

May 28 2008, 17:35:32 UTC 9 years ago

I thought that was one of the few constants in my life.

If you run into either one, your life is not something which will contain constants for much longer...*grin*

seanan_mcguire

May 28 2008, 22:48:00 UTC 9 years ago

Hey, now. You can recover from bubonic plague these days...

kyrielle

May 28 2008, 17:47:22 UTC 9 years ago

*grins* Yes, yes you do.

Wonder if you can sell the teacher in question a copy or copies of your new CD when it comes out. *grins*

happyfunpaul

May 28 2008, 21:23:47 UTC 9 years ago

Oh, I'm a big fan and buy all of her CDs regardless. :-)

- the teacher in question

seanan_mcguire

May 28 2008, 22:48:54 UTC 9 years ago

And thus do I adore you.

kyrielle

May 29 2008, 04:30:45 UTC 9 years ago

Yay! :)

seanan_mcguire

May 28 2008, 22:48:21 UTC 9 years ago

Victory is sweet!

archangelbeth

May 28 2008, 18:28:26 UTC 9 years ago

Education is always better in verse.

Especially catchy (or should that be catching, as in contagious?) verse.

seanan_mcguire

May 28 2008, 22:49:09 UTC 9 years ago

If nothing else, it definitely stays with you!

vixyish

May 28 2008, 18:31:02 UTC 9 years ago

What age were the students?

bercilakslady

May 28 2008, 19:27:22 UTC 9 years ago

I'm not the teacher in question, but I know he used the song with a 9th grade World History class.

seanan_mcguire

May 28 2008, 22:49:46 UTC 9 years ago

Win! I corrupt freshmen!

seanan_mcguire

May 28 2008, 22:49:34 UTC 9 years ago

The youngest person that can reliably recite the song is four.

MY CORRUPTION STARTS YOUNG.

naamah_darling

May 28 2008, 20:23:17 UTC 9 years ago

That is absolutely amazing. I am totally . . . uhh . . . charmed, actually. How cool!

That song delights me.

seanan_mcguire

May 28 2008, 22:51:07 UTC 9 years ago

The book is really, really awesome. I mean, there were things I just couldn't find a way to fit into the verse, like all the stuff about using the dovecoats to track the spread of the non-native rats across England. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Poor Kate and Cat had to endure an entire dinner where I just kept giggling madly and breaking out with new Dr. Seuss-style couplets about plague.

batyatoon

May 29 2008, 02:03:42 UTC 9 years ago

This?

Is why teaching songs are AWESOME.

And also why you are awesome, but we knew this.