My Outlander Obsession
Also, castles
A book to read: OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon
I’m not a series reader. I don’t watch much TV. I’m not part of any book fandoms. I rarely reread books.
Except OUTLANDER.
I’m totally obsessed. I’ve read ALL the books, memorized the TV show adaptations, and have bonded with random people over our mutual Outlander love.
Once, I was absentmindedly humming the Outlander TV theme song as I was handing out papers at school and one of my students said “hey, my mom likes that show!” The next day, at the kid’s IEP meeting, his mom and I nixed talk of accommodations and just talked about Jaime Fraser the whole time1. For the next three years, whenever she was at school we’d find each other, like magnets, and gush about Outlander. Good times.
OUTLANDER is a time-travel historical romance/drama. The series begins right after WWII in Scotland where our protagonist Claire (who worked as a British combat nurse during the war) is on a second honeymoon with her husband. This is a much-needed second honeymoon, as they’ve been separated by the war for several years. A few days into this trip, Claire is sucked back in time at a circle of standing stones wherein she falls in with (is kidnapped by?) a gang of 18th-century Scottish Highlanders. This gang included the aforementioned Jaime Fraser, who is immediately rendered shirtless and there ya go - we’re in love.
The series (9 main books and counting, plus spin-offs) flips back and forth in time and eventually grows to include several generations, a million different points-of-view, and several countries (mostly Scotland, England, France, Jamaica, and the fledging USA).
OUTLANDER is my comfort read/watch whenever I’m feeling anxious or sad, so it is quite convenient that the next installment of series 7 is coming out on November 22nd, 2024. It’s been a very anxiety-inducing month. I’d better figure out how to reactivate my STARZ account this week. For the absolute best recaps of each episode, I highly recommend Outcandour.
I initially discovered the book series when I stumbled upon an interview with the author. I often watch author interviews from The National Writers Series (a nonprofit organization that brings authors to Traverse City for conversations) on YouTube while I’m grading papers. Outlander author Diana Gabaldon is a particularly fascinating interviewee. Listening to her describe her scatter-shot writing process is a pure delight. Here is a link to the interview.
And here’s a link to the first four books. Although, if you are on Libby, I’d recommend the audio, because then you get the lovely Scottish accent and you learn to say all the name correctly. Davina Porter has narrated all the books so far, but apparently she is retired and there will be a new reader for subsequent books. I’m nervous.
A place to visit: Oberhofen Castle in Switzerland
I’ve not yet been to Scotland. My husband loves drinking scotch and hanging out at pubs on rainy nights. I love driving through gorgeous countryside in search of castles and history-type things. As such, we’re both desperate to visit Scotland.
However, our children are underage and prone to carsickness. A pub-and-castle trip is not for them. Since we can’t bear to leave them with my parents for an entire week, Scotland will have to wait.2
However, we did visit a castle in Switzerland a couple of summers ago. Does that count?
When our family stayed at Interlaken, one of our day trips was a gorgeous boat ride around Lake Thun. It was one of those hop-on-hop-off operations, so we disembarked about halfway down the lake to explore Oberhofen Castle.
It was a perfect castle to explore with kids: not too big, renovated to look as it did in the 1880s (a time period easier to grasp than the 1200s), and there is a cute “mouse trail” through the castle. The kids got a little card with clues about where to find a stuffed mouse hiding in several rooms. The activity was a tad young for my 10-year-old, but the 9-year-old and I got into it.
Castle favorites were the toilets (so modern!) and the “double-decker” library. I loved all the old pictures of the aristocratic family that lived in the castle at the end of the 1800s.
For more Switzerland content, check out my newsletter on Switzerland and Mary’s Monster
A lesson to teach: Not Outlander. Way too much sex.
There is actually a scene wherein Jaime (fully clothed and everything!) is working a printing press that I’d love to show my students. It’s tough to verbally explain how a printing press works, you’ve got to show them a video.
But about twenty seconds after the printing press scene is a sex scene, so that’s a classroom no-go. What if I don’t press that stop button quickly enough? Nope, nope, nope.
So I guess my OUTLANDER curriculum tie-in is going to have to be castle-related.
My students spend approximately 2 minutes of their year-long World History class learning about castles. Here it is:
The above question/picture is part of my one-day lesson on feudalism. Before the lesson, I cut a bunch of pictures/graphics out of IT’S A FEUDAL, FEUDAL WORLD, and taped the pictures to construction paper. Then, I wrote a question to go with each picture. Students trade the pictures around and answer the questions in their notebooks. Easy peasy.
I like this lesson because it allows me the time to sit down with each table group and chat about pictures 1:1 or with a small group of students - much better than lecturing.
Happy teaching, reading, and castle-hunting. Also, happy Outlander release week for those who celebrate.
If you purchase Outlander using the link in this newsletter, thank you! Your purchase supports me, the author, and your local independent bookstore.
Just kidding school district IEP compliance office! We totally talked about accommodations first! I swear!
This is not a huge life problem or anything. The kids are worth a delayed trip :)
I LOVE Outlander! I read through the first four books, but the first one I would consider a pretty much perfect novel.
Your title got me this time. ("Wait! Your *what* obsession?") And somehow I've never heard of these books. Thanks for introducing new things as always!