Georgetown class dons trench coats

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen

By

The eight trainees sit quietly, waiting for their debriefing. After a short while, their handler enters the room: He clears his throat, adjusts his spectacles and begins to talk about the link between game theory, the prisoner's dilemma and the gentleman's game of baccarat.

"The amount of information -- known or not known -- complicates the game," the man tells his charges enigmatically. "That's what espionage is about; it's the perfect metaphor."

Call him Sebastian -- John Sebastian. And while he's not a spy, Mr. Sebastian does teach a summer course on "Spy Stories" at Georgetown University.

"There have been spy stories as long as there have been stories. There's Moses in the Book of Numbers as spymaster.... There's Odysseus and the Trojan Horse," Mr. Sebastian says.

"Spy stories have been around for a good, long time."

He says the best spy stories are inextricably tied to lies, identity crises and the enemy within: "The question is, 'Who am I?' 'Am I any different from the bad guy I pursue? Is it just the context? Just the ideology I believe in?' "

"I think it's great material to talk about in a class," Mr. Sebastian adds. "It's not black and white. There's all these shades of gray."

Mr. Sebastian, a self-described "medievalist by profession," originally taught medieval literature at Loyola University New Orleans. After the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Sebastian moved to Georgetown University, where he primarily taught medieval literature.

He recently added "Spy Stories" to his repertoire, having only begun reading spy stories in the last few years. "In this, I'm just an imposter," Mr. Sebastian jokes.

Based on the reading list of "Spy Stories," however, it seems as though Mr. Sebastian knows more than he is letting on. The course began with W. Somerset Maugham's work "R," from his 1928 short-story collection "Ashenden," and was followed by Rudyard Kipling's "Kim," the story of a socially invisible Indian recruit during English rule.