Benevolent Misanthropy

I’m a nut. Let’s just get that out of the way right now, right here. I have a history of biting off more thn i can chew and delivering much less than I had hoped.

So keep that in mind: I’m a nut.

My latest nutty idea is to open-source an old idea for a TV series and make it a virtual show a la Star Trek: Renaissance, except that this series will be wholly original. I’ll serve as Executive Producer (head writer), recruit a couple or three other co-execs, and invite anyone who wishes (and shows a talent) to contribute an episode or two. Though I’m working out a story arc for the series, most episodes will be wide open, storywise. Also, while there will be recurring characters, and a central one, any given episode may focus on any character — major, minor, or original to you, so long as the story is good and the central character at least puts in an appearance.

The series, ideally, will post a new episode script every week or two, as if it were actually airing.

The rights will be handled under Creative Commons licenses along the following lines: the series, characters, overall story arc, and bible are mine, but anyone is free to play with them so long as he acknowledges my ownership. Every word you write is yours, every character you create is yours. However, you must leave them free for others to use in their own episodes if you want to be part of the “official” series.

So what the hell is this series, anyway?

It’s called Teach. Its principal character is a man named Gabriel Quenten. After making a considerable fortune as an entrepreneur and investor, he’s changed gears and gone into teaching in a public high school, one superintended by an old college friend of his. He thinks public education is broken, and wants to help change it from within. This position makes him Enemy #1 to most of the school faculty and administration; though he does have some secret sympathizers and allies in addition to the superintendent.

He’s taken a position as an English teacher for several reasons: as a business teacher, he would be marginalized and cut off from the majority of the student population; he wants to guide kids into loving literature, not hating it, and to see its value to their own lives; and English is the class where students learn how to reason — that is, to think and to write discursively, and in his opinion most schools fail this duty utterly. (Including his own when he was a youth.)

The students will NOT be the center of the series, though they may feature in individual episodes. This is not Dawson’s Creek, it is an adult world, even if many of the inhabitants are mental children.

The one real formula I have in mind is that in each episode, Quenten will be teaching a different work of literature. The episode title should derive from the work taught, and have thematic significance to the episode’s story, even if the work of literature does not.

Quenten’s ideas of literature are broad, and he might well teach shakespeare one week, Stephen King the next, Alan Moore’s graphic novel Watchmen following that, and then Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. He teaches novels, short stories, plays, radio plays, ovie and TV scripts, and yes, even poetry.

Apart from that, and from certain episodes having set storylines, this won’t be a classroom, it’s meant as a playground. Want to write a musical epi? Give it a whirl! One where the school janitor is the hero? Have at it! A fantasy where the characters fall into the world of Flatland and meet A. Square? If you can make it work within the context of the rest of the series, why not? One episode done in the hyperkinetic style of His and Her Circumstances is also strongly encouraged.

I’m working on the series pilot, “Dukedom Enough”, wherein Quenten teaches Shakespeare’s The Tempest by way of introducing himself, as well as the series bible. Until those are ready for you to read, please don’t do your own script. (A treatment should be okay, though.) If you want a clearer idea of Quenten’s problems with public schools, meanwhile, go and read Richard Mitchell’s Less Than Words Can Say and The Graves of Academe. Mitchell is one of Queten’s heroes, and mine.

At present, if you are interested in writing for this project, drop a line to <teach -=-AT-=- ianhamet -=-DOT-=- com>. If you’ve time and inclination, and want to be one of the co-execs, for Pete’s sake LET ME KNOW!!! I don’t want to be crazy alone on this.

I’m not sure what all this will accomplish, but at the very least we will build an archive, a big damn archive, of writing samples. Also, if we reach any kind of success, we’ll have built a nice little community of writers and readers. (Or a nice big community? Nah, too much to hope for.)

Technical note: To make this virtual series as real as possible to the writing crew, each episode will have a budget and a maximum number of sets. The series bible will include a list of both standing sets and “swing” sets. The bible will contain further details.

And, oh yes, this project will be getting its own WordPress blog, located at http://teach.ianhamet.com/ (not yet active). Until we start making enough money for a separate domain and hosting, anywho.

I’m nutty as a Payday bar, huh?