...The Book!

Okay, so my department has a list serve for announcements, information, argumentation, etc. Of late, an oft visited topic on the Canon vs. new forms of literature (condensed classics, blogs, graphic novels) has been making the rounds. Amongst the bickering was a link for this video (I'm not cool enough to know how to embed it) about the technology problems one encounters nowa, -er yesterdays.

Speaking of books, what have I been reading lately, you ask?
Well, while I've read the introduction to Jean Rhys 's (of Wide Sargasso Sea fame) first novel Quartet, I've not so much actually started the text, perhaps tonight, definitely by Thursday. I've been reading Milton (whose early life story feels eerily similar to my own), some of his Prolusions and the essay "Of Education." Mostly I've been doing a close reading Dracula for the class I'm teaching. What a great novel!

Today, my literary focus will include a few Renaissance essays on Friendship, but primarily will entail creating my own essay. Look for "Of Oscars" in the near future!

Anita and Me

I love finding myself in books. This weekend I finished reading Meera Syal's Anita and Me for my independent study. By the by, the movie is wonderful fun, I encourage everyone to see it, you won't regret it. But, this passage perfectly nails what I have often been troubled about, but never been able to put words to:

"My mind drifted into practical overdrive, as it did with all my daydreams. It was never enough to have a vague picture, such as 'I save Donny Osmond from near death and win a medal'. I had to know what I was wearing, whether it was a fire in a top London hotel or a runaway horse in a summer meadow, what the weather was like, who was watching and how my hair looked at the moment of rescue.

It was an annoying trait, I admit, and often I got bored with the fantasy halfway through, bogged down by stylistic detail when I should really have been concentrating on the emotion and wish-fulfilment side of things." (202)

Grr.

The Bears lost. I didn't expect them to win, but then the first quarter was so exciting--they taught me to hope.

It's very very cold. My mom's school is canceled but mine remains on. At least the class I teach isn't meeting in the morning per usual, but in the afternoon to watch The Innocents. And the students that can't come are sending me cranky emails, despite my repeated warnings that this film was hard to find, so they should borrow my copy. I refuse to let it be my fault, even though inside I feel like apologizing.

So, I give you a grumpy " 'airy co' " and the home of an extremely annoying French soldier.

Sorry...

I know I've been terrible about posting. For some reason it just seems like so much energy; I'm not sure why. Topics often go through my head for posts, plus there's still European adventures to share. I know that my audience isn't large, so there's not pressure to post. I don't know...and I'm sure reading apologies are ridiculous and boring, so...

I've been reading a lot of and thinking about British literature. I'm starting to prep for studying for my field exams, which I'll take in a year. I've already started having panic dreams. But, I've been in the British mindset, so I'm including a shot from the top of the London Eye, where we had one of the two days of sunshine my entire trip, and Brighton pier (at night and in the day) where we spent a night, dreaming of the Regency Era.

Top Chef Finale and Belgian Waffles

I am incredibly stoked. The man that I have rooted for from the beginning made to the final two. Is it the hair? Possibly. The cool name? Probably. The fact that his arrogance is hot because he actually is super talented, so it's not really hubris, but confidence? That he didn't personally attack people even when unfairly villanized? That he's clearly a geek in his field? Definitely. Marcel, I love you; if we get married, we'll be able to have amazing dinner parties for the English department, and I promise I will eat anything you make me...even if it's something gross with peas, mushrooms, olives, or green peppers.

And now, a foodie moment from Brussels.

Sunday Comics

Sunday is the best day for comics, well I don't get a paper anymore, but that's what I remember from being a kid. Brussels takes their comics seriously; they were continually refered to as the 'ninth art'. (I don't know what the first eight are, but I'm sure it's they are the more accepted classic ones.) Katie and I went to the Comic Strip Centre, which has history of comics, production of, etc. Most of the exhibits didn't have English explanations, and though we had a book from the desk that had the English translations, it was incomplete and difficult to follow at times. But, Belgium is the home to Tintin, the Smurfs, and the guy with a red mask (sadly, Katie has those pics, so you won't see him).

Beyond the obvious coolness of the Museum, it was housed in a former department store that was designed by Victor Horta, one of the first architects to encorporate the principles of Art Nouveau into buildings. It was wonder-bar, but there'll be more on him later.

So I Went to Europe...

The past few weeks have been extremely busy. Once school ended, I had a few days off before going to Boston to be with my family for Christmas. Since my brother and sister -in-law recently moved into a new house we spent most of the time moving boxes, painting walls, and doing other general home repair (well, my dad did, I just stuck to painting and carrying things). It was nice that I got to see the Family Roomie while in Boston.
On the 27th , I flew to Chicago to fly to London to get on a bus to Coventry to get on another bus to get to Birmingham to see Katie. It was an exhausting day-plus of travel, but worth it! I was abroad until Jan 14th . Katie and I spent time in London, Brussels, Brighton, and, of course, Birmingham, until Eden showed up on the 10th when we trekked up to and all around Scotland, where we saw Nessy!At the beginning of December, I received a lover-ly Olympus Stylus 750 digital campus for my birthday/Christmas. I have since taken hundreds of pictures, some more of which I will post, describing my travel adventures as the spirit leads. I assure in no way will I attempt to follow a linear narrative of events because that is too daunting a task that would surely fall by the wayside in light of my extremely busy semester that is just starting, but more on that later.

My Shame

I literally asked the Blockbuster checkout girl not to judge me by movie choice this evening: Step Up and Alex Rider. I generally am fairly free about owning up to my low brow proclivities--I vehemently argue for the inclusion of pop culture in education--but, I guess I was feeling guilty about putting A Scanner Darkly and Don't Come Knocking back on the shelf in favor of these.

I've watched Step Up, and I'll admit to enjoying it quite a bit. The exciting/interesting/disturbing? portion of the film came when I noticed that Nora's (female protagonist's) mother was wearing a shirt that I have hanging in my closet. This was the first time that I've ever had that experience hence the excitement. It made me wonder, gee, whose job is it to go to Ann Taylor Loft to shop for movies, how interesting. But, seriously, I'm 26, should I be wearing the same thing as the mother of a high schooler? That I find slightly disturbing.

Most Exciting Thing Ever?

The first day of break is always wonderful, especially when I already cleaned my room amongst the height of finals week becasue I needed a break from writing my papers! So, that leaves the not-to-be-taken-lightly task of choosing the first book to read for fun. Right now contenders are:

• Small World by David Lodge "a post-structuralist parodying academic comedy," basically it's supposed to be a smart, funny, book about academics. It was short-listed for the Booker Prize and will probably be on my field exam list.
• Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes, whom I've met! Interestingly, this was short-listed for the Booker the very same year (1984) as Lodge's and will also probably be on my field exam list.
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, a teen fantasy novel about vampires.

In the mean time, I've done a little de-tox by watching Mindhunters and Love the Hard Way. I also am extremely excited about seeing Eragon, forget that I haven't seen any of the probably Oscar contenders like The Departed, The Queen, or Babel yet. Bring on the dragons!

1.9 Miles Close to Home

Because it's such a 'breaking news story' and because it's right down the road from me, I'll draw your attention to this associated press article.

"A man who authorities said wanted to commit acts of "violent jihad" against civilians was charged Friday in a plot to set off hand grenades in garbage cans at a shopping mall, authorities said." You can read the rest of the article here.

That shopping mall is my mall. The one I go to for coffee on my way to school, the one I worked at last year, the one that is my mall. He was planning to attack on Friday the 22nd when the mall would be chock full with all the holiday shoppers in this, the second largest city in the state.

There are times that I get frustrated with the current war on terror and by no means do I claim to be up-to-date on what's going on with the politics of the day; however, this does make me realize that there is a threat, that people do want to kill lots of other people for religious reasons. Now this man was acting alone and is not affiliated with an organization, so there's no clear group enemy just a single extremist. I'm not sure what that would mean for national politics.

However, for locals, it makes me wish that this guy had been loved more. A person who is truly loved and accepted can't do these sorts of things, can he? I love my church here, and I am excited by its mission, by its message. They (We!) believe that people matter to God and they should be loved like Jesus loved. Is it naive to hope that a difference can be made through this institution? That the community can becoming more loving and accepting, so that hate won't drive people to actions like setting of grenades in a crowded mall?

Robert Altman (1925-2006)

An amazing and innovative director.




Obituary

Crisis Averted?

The stress knot in my spirit has been gradually increasing in regards to The Future. I often struggle with perceived implications of importance. Case in point: what I do next semester in regards to both the classes I take and teach will determine what my dissertation looks like, and what I do for my dissertation takes up the next two and a half years of my life, determines my academic persona, which is how I can present myself on the job market, thus affecting the kind of job (if any) that I get and decides the entire rest of my future and any career happiness and satisfaction I may wish to have. The fact that I haven't yet published an article (to get into the profession, they expect that you are already a functioning member of the academy) seems to indicate that I will never have anything of interest to say in this my chosen field. See how simple, logical, and tortuous?

Yesterday, however, I had an hour and a half conversation with my professor/mentor/hopefully-dissertation-chair about The Future (at least my academic one), which was comforting. I feel as though I'm on the right track with the course I'm planning for next semester (it's actually literature, not comp!), and we set up a plan for an independent study that will allow me an official time and space to explore what I want to do with my dissertation, rather than me needing to do that undirected and in addition to the rest of my load.

I feel better. At least, I know what next semester is going to look like. Although, I still have to put together an independent study proposal, which means research to find a book list, etc. Plus, finish this semester, I have a paper due in two weeks that has not been started yet, egads.

A Different Kind of Flood

Of late, I feel like I haven't had much to post about, but then all in a rush, I'm so overwhelmed with options and such little time that I again I fail to post. A minute sampling:

David Sedaris. We all know and love him, but now I've seen him live and loved him, though still from afar. I didn't wait in line to meet him; Liz's long ago blog about how chatty he was frightened me. I really don't want to meet and talk to famous people, especially ones that I like. I seriously doubt my ability to be unique and engaging, and I'd rather be anoynmous than ordinary.

Marie Antoinette. I enjoyed it a lot. I love the 80s glam-rock and anachornisms (Converse sneakers in 18th century Versaille?!), but my complete and udder lack of knowledge about the history hurt the impact the film could have made. So, I recommend a bit (seriously, I'm sure whatever wikipedia has will do just fine) of research to give the film a little context. Otherwise, the movie is like Lost in Translation, pointless.

For My People...

Because I know that my (albeit small) readership is heavy on the English nerd scale, I submit a fun grammar website that I actually found because there's a podcast--Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. Uber-cool.

Jump Start

Being well on top of things that I need to do is not my normal state of being. I've set today aside to work on a presentation that I have to do in two weeks, but all I can seem to do is watch Food Tv (with the occasional foray into Style and BBC America) and stare at the piles of books and articles in a semi-circle about me. I've gotten brand-spankin' new post-it page markers and index cards, so I've got everything I could possibly need. Except being engaged in my topic--you, clever reader, are correct in assuming this blog seems to be yet another procrastination technique. I think I'm going to abandon the presentation work and work on next week's class work...

On a completely unrelated theme, I watched The Singing Detective yesterday. Now, Robert Downey, Jr. is one of my boyfriends; Jeremy Northam and Adrien Brody are nice as well; I love the noir and modern takes on it; I enjoy complex narrative structures; I'm a sucker for musicals; so, keeping all this in mind, why didn't I like it especially well?

Ernie, Why Do You Have a Pot on Your Head?*

This weekend I switched desks in my room, which turned out to be a much larger project than I had originally anticipated. One issue was that I was going from a computer desk with a couple of shelves to a desk (I think a bureau, actually) that belonged to my grandmother. So, the organization of materials was different. Because I intended to do a minimal amount of work, I put everything on my bed, pulled the desk out, vacuumed and put the new one in.

But that's just the beginning, then I decided to move where the desk was to the corner that had my entertainment center. So, piece by pice I moved out the clutter that lined the wall, pushed the 800 pound center (without moving any of the electronics out of it--those things are a pain to connect) to its new home, put the desk it the now vacant corner, and painstakingly recreated the precarious balancing along the wall with the remainder of stuff because attempting to go through all that is definitely another day's project.

*The entire time I felt like the Seaseme Street sketch where Ernie broke the cookie jar so he had to put the cookies in the flower jar and had to put the flowers in the milk jug and put the milk in the fish bowl and had to keep the fish in his hat, so he had to wear the cooking pot on his head--or something like that...

Stilling Running in the Same Hamster Wheel

My Google homepage quote of the day struck me as dreadfully apropos:

Someone's boring me. I think it's me.

Dylan Thomas, in Rayner Heppenstall, Four Absentees (1960)

Man Movies

Last night, I watched She's the Man and Inside Man. The first was, eh, just okay. I think Amanda Bynes is quite talented in general, but not especially brilliant in this. True, the boy was beautiful, but I really didn't see their relationship develop at all. As far as the Shakespearian adaptation, it was interesting enough, but no where near the dead on meld of teen and Bard as in 10 Things I Hate About You.

The second film was interesting. I didn't see much of Spike Lee, the auteur in it however, which was a little disappointing. Of course, my boyfriend, Clive Owen was wonderful--when isn't he? (oh right, Derailed), and I enjoyed the clever aspects of the heist--who doesn't? Samuel L. Jackson's character was interesting, more nuanced than one might expect; I guess that belongs to Mr. Lee. All in all, a nice film.

Some Quotes From This Week's Reading

For a classic Hollywood cinema presentation:
"Few people recognize opportunity because it comes disguised as hard work and application." Cary Grant

For American literature 1830-1865:
"No reason can be asked or given why the soul seeks beauty. Beauty, in its largest and profoundest sense, is one expression for the universe. God is the all-fair. Truth, and goodness, and beauty, are but different faces of the same All." Emerson from "Nature"

And last, but not least, from Old English:
"Nu tod[ae]g Godes gela[th]ung geond ealne ymbhwyrft m[ae]rsa[th] p[ae]ra eadigra cildra freolstide,..." King [Ae]lfric circa 1000. Pretend that all the [th] have one of two interchangable symbols (thorn or eth) and that all the [ae]'s are smooshed together into the symbol for the a, as in bath, sound. I spent about three or four hours translating ten lines. Blah-dy-blah.

Diluvian Rain

We had a lot of rain on Monday, or rather it all came in a short period of time. This picture from The Rockford Register Star (am I going to get into trouble for using it?) is about two miles from my house. Coming home from a church function with my parents, our car stalled in the middle of three feet of water a block from home. We got out (the water filling the car), waded home, and waited a few hours until we could walk back and get the car, which--thankfully--started!