He's a Tramp...

So one of my day jobs is teaching writing to newbie college students. My job is not that hard at this point. I've been doing it for years. What usually starts to wear on you is the monotony of hundreds of papers on the same stuff that nobody is interested in anyway. So...what do I do?

I teach the boring stuff...and assign papers on things that interest me. Mostly because I do so enjoy torturing students with forced cultural growth. 

One such recent endeavor to spice up my grading life involved one of my favorite Korean dramas, Secret Garden. I was not at all surprised to hear "Kim Joo Won is an asshole!" and "I love him!" in the same sentence. I often suffer a similar dichotomous reaction myself. For me, it all goes back to Darcy. We love those guys who seem like jerks, but just need a little tender loving understanding, right? Especially when they're rich. Or, you know, poor. We love the down and out guy who could do so much if only, too. 

But I do know this as well...If I met Kim Joo Won or Darcy in my everyday life, I would probably consign them to the depths of purgatory and mutter potential comebacks to myself in the shower for days. I would not fall at their feet in the throws of love. 

So, like I ask my students, what in the hell are we doing? Why are we writing and reading these stories so voraciously? What is it about these guys? What is it about us?

What do you think? Who's your favorite A-zzle from fiction? Are you viva la Tramp (Disney, peeps...keep your mind semi-outta the gutter) or viva la Darcy?