What do “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the fall of Icarus, and Alexander the Great have in common?
They are all songs by the heavy metal rock band Iron Maiden, which students can study this fall in a one-credit honors seminar.
The course, spearheaded by Director of the Dow Journalism Program John Miller, will tackle the literary and historical lyrics of “the most successful heavy metal band ever,” according to Miller.
“They don’t sing about sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll, but about literature and history,” Miller added.
Professors across disciplines will come in and lecture from week to week — everyone from College President Larry Arnn to Associate Professor of Philosophy Nathan Schlueter, Miller said. The majority of the guest professors are fans of the band, although Miller said he asked Arnn because he would be perfect to teach on the song Miller had in mind.
“You will get some of the best professors on campus, and me,” Miller said.
Professor of Theatre James Brandon, an Iron Maiden fan since high school, will teach a class on the song “Phantom of the Opera.”
“The class should be a blast,” Brandon said. “If you told me as a high school student that I’d be lecturing a class on Iron Maiden, I wouldn’t have believed you, but I wouldn’t have thought it’d be that bad.”
He said he discovered Miller’s love of the band before he ever met Miller.
“I was reading a National Review article about this guy’s favorite Iron Maiden album that was my favorite Iron Maiden album,” Brandon said. “A number of years later I was introduced to this new professor and made the connection.”
Brandon said it is his favorite National Review piece to this day.
Professor of English Stephen Smith will join their ranks and lecture on the song “The Flight of Icarus.”
“I want to look at how the vision of Iron Maiden compares. Are they more insightful than Ovid? Dante?” Smith said, laughing. “Why would this myth be as interesting to an ancient poet, medieval poet, and crazy rock ’n’ roll?”
Smith added that students often only associate their professors with high things, but he said they were once high school students who loved heavy metal.
“I didn’t know who Coleridge was when I first heard ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner,’” Smith confessed.
All three professors said the class will be fun and intellectually stimulating.
“It’s the kind of course that the name and content sounds like it could end up on a “dumbest courses in America” list that conservative academics put out, but we can get away with it because students here are so well-grounded,” Miller said. “It’s not a substitute, it’s a supplement. It’s ornamentation.”
The goal of the class is to look at how great ideas and literature translate into a pop culture medium, Miller said.
“As Monty Python used to say, ‘Now for something completely different,’” Smith said.
Smith joked that only the adventurous and daring should take the course, and Miller added that the class might be easier for students who are already fans of the band.
“You don’t have to be a fan to join, but you will be when you are done,” Miller said.
