The Twilight Of Our Youth, Part 7

(In college, I work as the student assistant for my major department. Part of my job is designing flyers for upcoming courses. The professors usually let me get creative with them, to try catching students’ attention. This is during the high point of the “Twilight” craze. All of the books have been published and at least one movie is out. I have finished all of the course flyers for the following semester except for one, for a course on how film/pop culture relates to religion. It is a really interesting class, with a list of films the students have to watch and discuss that includes many different genres. In fact, I am already signed up for this class myself. I go to ask the professor about the flyer and he hands me one he made himself. At the top is the course title and number, and beneath it is a HUGE photo of a scene from “Twilight,” and then the course description and class time. I’m paraphrasing our conversation, because it’s been several years since this happened.)

Me: “Uh… [Professor]? Why is there a Twilight picture on the flyer?”

Professor: “Read the fine print at the bottom.”

(I look, and there at the bottom in tiny, red print is, “We will NOT be watching ‘Twilight’ in this class.”)

Me: “You’re doing this to see how many people sign up just to watch Twilight, and who actually reads everything, aren’t you?”

Professor: “Yep!”

(I am a little hesitant at first about posting it, but figure most people will read up on a course they’ve chosen to take. It is his class, so ultimately it is his choice. Fast forward to the next semester, on the first day of the film class. The room is pretty full, considering this is a smaller school and there are only around 50 spots open for this particular class. The professor comes in, sets up his things at the podium, and then turns to face us.)

Professor: *holds up the flyer* “How many of you signed up for this class, purely based on the picture on this flyer?”

(Several hands shoot up; I am actually kind of surprised.)

Professor: “Well, congratulations. We will not be watching Twilight in this class.”

(There was a significant pause before an entire back row, probably four or five female students, stood up and walked out of the class. We never saw them again in there, which I felt was their loss because it turned out to be a great course. For me, the really ironic part of this whole experiment was that everyone was sent a syllabus and list of films BEFORE the semester started. They had the entire break to read the list and see that “Twilight” wasn’t on it. Oh, well.)

Related:
The Twilight Of Our Youth, Part 6
The Twilight Of Our Youth, Part 5
The Twilight Of Our Youth, Part 4