The crowd in the streets is thick at midday, but you follow the banks of the Thames toward the London Bridge. You can hear fishermen showing off their hauls at the docks and sailors calling out from boats on the water. People on the docks are gathered around makeshift tabletops on barrels, openly gambling or listening to astrologists tell their horoscopes. “Protect your neck, little boy?” a woman calls out to you, holding up a necklace with a small ringing bell. “Or maybe your mum’s? Guaranteed protection against the Plague, helped hundreds survive last year…”

You turn away and push past a crowd watching a display of bear-baiting. You know it’s a popular sport here in town, but it’s still scary to you and you look away. When the bear roars in pain, the crowd starts laughing and cheering. You walk faster.

When you finally get to the bridge, it’s hard to imagine a script could still be here. This is the only bridge connecting north and south London, so it has a lot of foot traffic. Also, the heads of traitors to the crown peer down from spikes today. You can’t imagine Henry wanting to stay here for any length of time.

Towards the far side, you start to notice small pieces of torn-up parchment on the bridge. Maybe it’s the script! You gather them all up, and try to sort them out.

where could Henry have gone after this?

in the quotation from passage, connie willis states that literature is a way for authors from the past to communicate with readers of today. we can read their stories, books, and other texts to learn lessons about life. willis refers to these lessons as messages “from beyond the grave.” willis has a favorable viewpoint about the timelessness of literature.

explanation:

the intellectual community is a place like a university where people with high marks, or original thought or an outstanding interest in something gather. they take classes together. they discuss things. they argue sometimes, and not always in a friendly way. but if they argue, it is because they are passionate about something, and there is nothing the matter with that.

lately i've been hearing rumors that it is not the way it was when i went to school. the one thing all schools used to have was free speech. the 1st amendment rights were sacred. now i'm hearing they are not. students can be reported and disciplined for giving an off the wall opinion.

that is shameful.

intellectual ideas are meant to be discussed. they are meant to be chewed up and worked on. that is the primary responsibility of every intellectual community. if that is not the way it is, then that is not a school to go to.

social media, in my opinion, and this is just an opinion. i wouldn't take it too seriously, complicates everything to do with human communication. you can want to share things and others feel they have the right to be very critical or sarcastic or mean about what you share. lack of respect is an immeasurable intolerable condition and social media abounds with that sort of thing.

one of the things i really like about is how careful people are because they must have some idea that the mods are exactly what the word says they are. they police this board very well, and what is so remarkable about them is that they are no older than the average grade 12 student.

my hat goes off to them (which means i respect them quite a bit).