No Brontes? No Problem!


I have been on a little sabatical this week, and not a pleasant one. All final assignments are coming due, there is much researching, writing, and more writing to be done- there was even the tedious task of marking over a thousand lines of poetry with ETI code (like English literary html). On top of this my family is going through yet another crisis (which will soon be resolved and has nothing to do with ill-health).

What is a graduate student to do but play Oregon Trail? If you're not from North America, or were not a young'un in the 90s you might not know of the appeal this educational game has over 20-somethings. I was deprived of Oregon Trail as a child, not being American and there being no Canadian equivalent (like... Jesuit Adventure). Anyway, I downloaded a trial today but gave it a Bronte twist:

It is 1848, and you are going to settle in the wild west. Where, and how are almost entirely up to you but choose carefully because at every turn you will encounter disaster and death. I lead Jane, Mr Rochester, Adele, and St.John to Salt Lake City, Utah. Well, I tried to lead them there. Each character was surprisingly consistent: Mr Rochester wasn't far along the trail before he spained his ankle, Jane was bitten by a snake but soldiered on after sucking out the poison, and St.John caught cholera, broke his leg, and almost drowned after falling through the ice of a frozen river we were trying to cross. His accidents had nothing to do with my being leader of the expedition. Somewhere in the deserts of the midlands we lost poor little Adele. None of our fellow settlers would trade us water and she died of thirst! There is no justice! But that's the 1840s for you.

I proved handy as a hunter, fisherman, and food gatherer but then I was mauled by a hamster (prairie dog, actually) and had to travel across state 'bleeding and in pain.' Then there was the time I accidentally shot myself...

Next time, Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell move to Sacramento!