The Victorian Literature test was today! I don't know what was wrong with me today--I was fine in Institute this morning--but by the time I got to RBW 306 my left eye was partially blind, like the snowy stuff on a TV with bad reception. I had no peripheral vision; I probably wasn't safe to drive. A fervent prayer five minutes before class replaced the blindness with a pounding headache but at least I could read the exam questions and get home safely to crawl in my bed.

Anyway, the test: I love Dr. McCuskey's tests. He designs them to help me pass. There were 20 quotations we had to match to authors, but the quotations were all examples I could use to answer the four short essay questions. We criticized the effects of industrial capitalism using three authors (I used Charles Dickens, Friedrich Engels, and Thomas Carlyle), female education/female role of "angel in the house" using three authors (I used Caroline Norton, John Stuart Mill, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning), the idea of the gentleman using two authors (I used Robert Browning and Christina Rossetti), and Tennyson's illustration of and attempts to reconcile the conflict between science and faith, which means we all had to use "The Kraken" and "In Memoriam". Even with the headache I think I did pretty good. Now I must use the long weekend to write the essay! Ahh!

On a totally different note, I met with Dr. McCuskey yesterday to discuss literary criticism, since I want to improve that kind of writing and increase my portfolio of it. The whole point of the discussion was for me learn how to be flexible in my writing. It was a fabulous meeting: he had great ideas of other professors I can contact for more specific information; he directed me to three magazines that I can use to learn more about how popular critics write (for your information, they are the New Yorker, Harpers, and Atlantic Monthly, and I've only ever heard of one of them); and he explained the different kinds of literary criticism so I can decide what I want to write. I don't think I'm much interested in academic literary criticism because you basically have to go to grad school and become an English professor so you can do it full-time. He told me not to sell myself short on the idea of going to grad school; apparently he thinks I could do it. Yay for encouraging teachers! Probably not, though. What I really need to do is talk to a fellow student of mine named Trent, who's really on top of presenting and trying to publish his work. If I could get published before May 2010 (when I will graduate), that would be a very cool thing. I need to email some of the other professors to talk about nonfiction and literary/cultural reviewing, although I know very little about nonfiction because I haven't taken my Nonfiction Writing class yet. Anyway. More stuff to do.

I thought I might post my surreal poem I mentioned in my last post, but I don't want to type it all up. It will be an excuse to blog later.

While we're talking about writing, I have a draft of my 20-page story due for a student/teacher conference on Wednesday and I HAVEN'T WRITTEN ANYTHING YET!!!!! I actually have this totally random idea (thanks to Ellie for helping me think this through) to write about an existential character. The point would be to make fun of her; I really want to write something funny, but I honestly have no ideas other than this one. The prompts my professor emailed me haven't helped (true, I haven't tried them, but still). I'm a little concerned about writing an existential character because I don't really like existentialism, the story would be totally inside her head and how do I make her interesting/entertaining to follow? Especially for 20 pages? The idea is basically to have her sitting in a window seat and watching significant events in others' lives; the funny/satiric part would probably come from the totally random things she worries/thinks about immediately after the significant event. The only two existential things I've ever read to help me with this are The Stranger, which I suppose could actually happen but it was totally random and the narrator/main character was so not clued in to life; and The Metamorphosis, which was just plain weird. Both characters in these books worried about random things that really had nothing to do with what was happening around them. I almost want to discuss the lack of religion generally inherent in existentialism, but I don't know how to make fun of the associated emptiness. Any ideas?

On another totally random note, my internship at USU Press is AMAZING FABULOUS and WONDERFUL!!! I do things like compare old and new copies of a work to make sure the changes have been made, double-check page numbers and citations, accept changes on document in MS Word, proofreading, making copies, merging documents, etc. To most people this sounds really boring (and part of my mind does get bored with it very quickly, which is why I love my iPod) but I have discovered that this job is exactly what I want to spend the rest of my life doing. My top career choice used to be an editor in a fiction publishing company, which I think I would still love, but that kind of editing is more thematic and organizational, whereas being an editor in a university press or scholarly publication seems to be more double-checking the research and organization of the argument so that it makes sense. Just a different kind of thinking I suppose. I might also spend the rest of my life writing literary criticism; I do enjoy it and it would make me more flexible as a writer and editor, but I'm concerned about the job security of writing in general. On the other hand, there's always a need for good editors. And just because the economy seems to be taking a downturn doesn't mean research will end.

I was probably going to say something else--every time I start blogging I always have more to say than originally planned--but I don't remember. More blogging later. Hopefully I can read some Jane Eyre this weekend (Mason has just left Thornfield after being attacked supposedly by Grace Poole), write about an existential character, brainstorm an essay, write my poetry homework, learn more about literary criticism, and have some fun. And watch a movie to talk about! My roomies and I are supposed to watch Return to Me and My Big Fat Greek Wedding in celebration of Singles Awareness Day, neither of which have I seen all the way through. I'll keep you posted (no pun intended).