What on earth is someone going to put in their roommate's ear? A Q-tip, perhaps? What perilous path are we about to tread upon?
And there you have it...those fateful words. My poor student had awakened to find someone trying to place a penis in his ear. A shock to the nervous system, to be sure. And a shock to the reader. When I first started writing Something to Teach I knew that I had to lead off with a good scene - something to grab the reader's attention. Fortunately, this sort of nonsense happened all the time on the inside. I was (and am) very lucky because I have a ton of excellent source material to draw from. I guarantee most readers were not expecting this line...just as most listeners are not expecting the thunderous opening chords of his piano concerto.