[Kalimac]

Since when did liberal arts courses have anything to do with life or being useful? [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]. Of course I'm slightly influenced by the fact that my college had a short course in STAR TREK - never took it, but sometimes wondered if it was any more useless than the "Aufklaerung: Sturm und Drang" courses I was suffering through.

I agree that it sounds a little over-the-top, though. Tolkien might be a good subject for a discussion seminar - there are Shakespeare and Milton seminars, and I think there's a good argument to be made that JRRT ranks up in their league - but it doesn't sound like that's quite what they're doing here, they're taking more of a science-class approach, and to be honest, if I want to spend hours memorizing names that don't necessarily mean anything to me, I'll take Intro to Chem which is at least vaguely useful.