His name is Michael. He was a Literary Studies major, so I figured he'd be interested to know I plan on changing my emphasis. I thought he'd be excited for me, but when I told him he made the weirdest exasperated kind of face. "You like to read," he said.
I nodded emphatically and asked, "Have you read Middlemarch?"
He nodded.
"Well, when we started reading it," I said, "I hated it. But now that I've finished it, I want to read it again. I want to write another paper on it." (even though I haven't actually written the first one, but that's beside the point) "Dr. McCuskey's Victorian Literature class is my favorite this semester."
Michael squinched his eyes and snort-giggled and said, "Christina you've got it bad! Wouldn't you rather work at a computer all day and make money and then come home and read Middlemarch?"
The answer is no. I want to read. It's one of the things I've always loved. I once got grounded from reading in the fifth grade because I wasn't doing my math homework, and it was horrible. And I don't actually want to read books like Middlemarch all the time; I'd prefer to read scholarly work for a career so that fiction is still fun.
So after that Michael and I had this great, albeit depressing, discussion of why such rewarding intellectual work is undervalued, especially by universities. If Lit Studies students are "only reading a novel" (Middlemarch), then why do they need any money? The problem is that university people are only interested in the economic, quantitative value of things, and the benefits of the humanities can't be measured that way.
P.S. I want to put pictures on here; my blog feels really boring compared to others, but when I'm not talking about movies what kind of pictures can I post? Ideas please! They're always welcome in the humanities! ;)
Friday, April 10, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
For Sarah
I'm blogging again. You can all give your thanks to my totally awesome roomie Sarah who reprimanded me on Facebook for not updating my blog regularly, like I said I would. The problem has been the last two weeks of stress and laziness. Odd combination, I know. C'est moi.
I was supposed to have McCuskey's Middlemarch essay done a week ago, at least a rough draft so I could meet with him again. So far I have nothing. By Thursday, since the essay is supposed to be done, I'm supposed to have gathered some outside criticism of the novel so I can build up that essay into something worthy of being published by, say, the Sigma Tau Delta Review. I'm also supposed to have gathered similar materials so I could do the same thing with an essay I wrote last semester about Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale" (if you remember that far back; that was some of my first blogging). I have nothing for either essay.
I'm also behind in my poetry homework. That class feels like such a waste of time. Sometime soon I'll have to start working on a revision of one of my stories for Advanced Fiction Writing to hand in during finals week. I can't express in words how excited I am for another class and writing exercise that feels like a waste of time. If you've been reading regularly (even though I haven't been posting regularly), you know that my dislike for these classes has been fairly consistent this semester. But I have good news: I'm changing my emphasis from Creative Writing to Literary Studies, so next semester I should at least feel more fulfilled and satisfied by my classes, if not actually happy with the workload. I realized about two weeks ago that the reason I wished I could fit the British and Commonwealth Studies minor into my schedule was because I really wanted to write a 20 ish page paper in the Directed Studies class; that realization led me to consider which classes all my favorites have been. All my favorite classes were/are Literary Studies, Dr. McCuskey kind of classes. It occurred to me that I would rather read a book and write an essay on it, even a huge one, than just make up something on my own.
This led to another realization, even more life-changing than the first. Part of why I don't like my Adv. Fiction Writing class is because we only ever workshop, which gets old fast. If I don't like writing fiction regularly in class, and I don't like workshopping fiction regularly in class, then why in the world would I ever want to become a fiction editor? One of the best things about my schedule this semester has been my internship at the University Press, which only publishes scholarly, research-based work, and I have loved all the minor editing tasks I've been assigned. As an RA (Rhetoric Associate) I regularly read and edit scholarly, generally research-based writing, and I love that too (except on weeks like this, when it prevents me from getting all my homework and other good plans done, so I always feel like I'm running to do something). I'd rather write and edit scholarly work, which means I can get a job at any university press or non-fiction publisher, like Gibbs Smith in Utah, and not be backed into the New York/Los Angeles based industry! I can live almost anywhere! Yay! That might seem like a silly thing to be happy about but I really don't want to live in NYC or LA.
So that's my life so far. Major thinking going on if you couldn't tell. And that's not all either: I need to see Career Services for what I can do to prepare myself for a publishing career, make an appointment with my advisor so I can actually change my emphasis and talk about graduation and career plans, keep writing all genres regularly so I can get my own stuff published, get a job and make tons of money so I can finish school and maybe go to University of Denver's Publishing Institute program in summer of 2010, read Sigma Tau Delta stuff and various literary magazine stuff to get to know the market and find calls for submissions, figure out how to nominate myself for a leadership position in Sigma Tau Delta besides just wanting a leadership position, get a job (did I mention that one yet? it's really important), clean my room, wash my sheets, read something for fun...the list is never-ending.
Ah! One more thing before I sign off for today (or this week): anyone ever heard of freelance editing? I hadn't before this week. It sounds like an interesting way of gaining experience, beefing up my resume, and making a little extra cash. I realize I couldn't charge much because I would compete with the Writing Center and other RA's, but I'm wondering how I would go about doing that. Where on campus could I advertise my service of scholarly editing? How much would be a reasonable amount to charge? Would anybody actually be interested in my "service"? Let me know what you think. Also if you have any other ideas for my never-ending to-do list of career advancement, you can tell me that too. ;)
I was supposed to have McCuskey's Middlemarch essay done a week ago, at least a rough draft so I could meet with him again. So far I have nothing. By Thursday, since the essay is supposed to be done, I'm supposed to have gathered some outside criticism of the novel so I can build up that essay into something worthy of being published by, say, the Sigma Tau Delta Review. I'm also supposed to have gathered similar materials so I could do the same thing with an essay I wrote last semester about Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale" (if you remember that far back; that was some of my first blogging). I have nothing for either essay.
I'm also behind in my poetry homework. That class feels like such a waste of time. Sometime soon I'll have to start working on a revision of one of my stories for Advanced Fiction Writing to hand in during finals week. I can't express in words how excited I am for another class and writing exercise that feels like a waste of time. If you've been reading regularly (even though I haven't been posting regularly), you know that my dislike for these classes has been fairly consistent this semester. But I have good news: I'm changing my emphasis from Creative Writing to Literary Studies, so next semester I should at least feel more fulfilled and satisfied by my classes, if not actually happy with the workload. I realized about two weeks ago that the reason I wished I could fit the British and Commonwealth Studies minor into my schedule was because I really wanted to write a 20 ish page paper in the Directed Studies class; that realization led me to consider which classes all my favorites have been. All my favorite classes were/are Literary Studies, Dr. McCuskey kind of classes. It occurred to me that I would rather read a book and write an essay on it, even a huge one, than just make up something on my own.
This led to another realization, even more life-changing than the first. Part of why I don't like my Adv. Fiction Writing class is because we only ever workshop, which gets old fast. If I don't like writing fiction regularly in class, and I don't like workshopping fiction regularly in class, then why in the world would I ever want to become a fiction editor? One of the best things about my schedule this semester has been my internship at the University Press, which only publishes scholarly, research-based work, and I have loved all the minor editing tasks I've been assigned. As an RA (Rhetoric Associate) I regularly read and edit scholarly, generally research-based writing, and I love that too (except on weeks like this, when it prevents me from getting all my homework and other good plans done, so I always feel like I'm running to do something). I'd rather write and edit scholarly work, which means I can get a job at any university press or non-fiction publisher, like Gibbs Smith in Utah, and not be backed into the New York/Los Angeles based industry! I can live almost anywhere! Yay! That might seem like a silly thing to be happy about but I really don't want to live in NYC or LA.
So that's my life so far. Major thinking going on if you couldn't tell. And that's not all either: I need to see Career Services for what I can do to prepare myself for a publishing career, make an appointment with my advisor so I can actually change my emphasis and talk about graduation and career plans, keep writing all genres regularly so I can get my own stuff published, get a job and make tons of money so I can finish school and maybe go to University of Denver's Publishing Institute program in summer of 2010, read Sigma Tau Delta stuff and various literary magazine stuff to get to know the market and find calls for submissions, figure out how to nominate myself for a leadership position in Sigma Tau Delta besides just wanting a leadership position, get a job (did I mention that one yet? it's really important), clean my room, wash my sheets, read something for fun...the list is never-ending.
Ah! One more thing before I sign off for today (or this week): anyone ever heard of freelance editing? I hadn't before this week. It sounds like an interesting way of gaining experience, beefing up my resume, and making a little extra cash. I realize I couldn't charge much because I would compete with the Writing Center and other RA's, but I'm wondering how I would go about doing that. Where on campus could I advertise my service of scholarly editing? How much would be a reasonable amount to charge? Would anybody actually be interested in my "service"? Let me know what you think. Also if you have any other ideas for my never-ending to-do list of career advancement, you can tell me that too. ;)
Friday, March 27, 2009
So much blogging...so little time!
HUGE apologies for not blogging regularly everyone! I made some bad decisions with my time the two weeks before this one, and this week I've been paying for it. And since I haven't been blogging regularly I have TONS to tell everybody. I never think that I'll have much to talk about with books, movies, and writing as my main topics, but I'm an English major! There's always something to say about books, movies, or writing, or at least about my plans in those areas. Fingers crossed that I'll do better at writing regularly in the future!
I've been reading To Draw Closer to God a second time, and since I have my own copy now I've been able to mark it up. Y'all should read it. Fabulous book. I learn something new everything I read through it. My new favorite quote is from that book: "If you wish to get rich, save what you get. A fool can earn money, but it takes a wise man to save and dispose of it to his own advantage. Then go to work, and save everything, and make your own bonnets and clothing." (from Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 11:201) Of course Pres. Eyring says tons of great things of his own, but this quote is the one that speaks to me the most right now. Only problem is I can't make my own clothing...it'd be cool if I could...but for now I guess I'll just reuse and recycle!
So a long time ago I talked with Dr. McCuskey about literary criticism and undergrad publishing opportunities, etc. He told me to talk to my fellow undergrad Trent, which I did on Tuesday. He's done lots of conferencing so I learned a lot about something I've never done. He also suggested the British and Commonwealth Studies minor (BCS), which I have always been interested in but up til now have found reasons why I couldn't do it. So the week I pick to email the people who would have answers to my questions is the week that those professors don't check their email! How frustrating! What's worse is that I think registration for summer classes begins next week and if this minor works for me I would take a summer class. The longer they take to answer me, the less time I have to make up my mind and finangle my finances!
Anyway...pretend that they've answered me, and I'm signed up to take three credits of Directed Study. I have to write a proposal for the topic of my 20 ish page paper that I will produce under the direction of my supervising professor (Dr. McCuskey or...or...just Dr. McCuskey). With this in mind alongside my angst about unanswered emails, I've come up with a few paper ideas.
1. Film Adaptations of Jane Austen's Novels. I would probably investigate how these adaptations change modern perceptions about the era in which she wrote; what thematic and formal changes have been made in the transition from book to movie; how do those changes reflect or affect modern society. I like the idea of the paper, but I feel like I'd have a hard time researching for it.
2. Domestic Angels/Cult of Domesticity/Female Gender Roles in Jane Austen's Novels. This is the topic I am least excited about, mostly because I feel like this is a topic that everyone will have written about. I suppose that's helpful for research, but there's no point to my paper if this something everyone talks about.
3. Dancing and Physical Activity, either in Jane Austen's novels or in Romantic/Victorian literature in general (I'm getting less specific as I go along...). How did dancing function in society? How did it change between the Romantic and Victorian periods? How did it differ between classes? I think this would be a really fun paper to write because it's so random.
4. Love Letters in Victorian Literature. This idea comes from our reading of Middlemarch by George Eliot. And doesn't Darcy write something of a love letter? or Mr. Ferrars? I might even use Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Letters from the Portugeuse" (sp?), I don't even know. I think it would be fun to write though, because love letters in Victorian literature just don't really ever work, so why do they come up?
Anyway, those are my ideas so far. Let me know what you think.
I've been reading To Draw Closer to God a second time, and since I have my own copy now I've been able to mark it up. Y'all should read it. Fabulous book. I learn something new everything I read through it. My new favorite quote is from that book: "If you wish to get rich, save what you get. A fool can earn money, but it takes a wise man to save and dispose of it to his own advantage. Then go to work, and save everything, and make your own bonnets and clothing." (from Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 11:201) Of course Pres. Eyring says tons of great things of his own, but this quote is the one that speaks to me the most right now. Only problem is I can't make my own clothing...it'd be cool if I could...but for now I guess I'll just reuse and recycle!
So a long time ago I talked with Dr. McCuskey about literary criticism and undergrad publishing opportunities, etc. He told me to talk to my fellow undergrad Trent, which I did on Tuesday. He's done lots of conferencing so I learned a lot about something I've never done. He also suggested the British and Commonwealth Studies minor (BCS), which I have always been interested in but up til now have found reasons why I couldn't do it. So the week I pick to email the people who would have answers to my questions is the week that those professors don't check their email! How frustrating! What's worse is that I think registration for summer classes begins next week and if this minor works for me I would take a summer class. The longer they take to answer me, the less time I have to make up my mind and finangle my finances!
Anyway...pretend that they've answered me, and I'm signed up to take three credits of Directed Study. I have to write a proposal for the topic of my 20 ish page paper that I will produce under the direction of my supervising professor (Dr. McCuskey or...or...just Dr. McCuskey). With this in mind alongside my angst about unanswered emails, I've come up with a few paper ideas.
1. Film Adaptations of Jane Austen's Novels. I would probably investigate how these adaptations change modern perceptions about the era in which she wrote; what thematic and formal changes have been made in the transition from book to movie; how do those changes reflect or affect modern society. I like the idea of the paper, but I feel like I'd have a hard time researching for it.
2. Domestic Angels/Cult of Domesticity/Female Gender Roles in Jane Austen's Novels. This is the topic I am least excited about, mostly because I feel like this is a topic that everyone will have written about. I suppose that's helpful for research, but there's no point to my paper if this something everyone talks about.
3. Dancing and Physical Activity, either in Jane Austen's novels or in Romantic/Victorian literature in general (I'm getting less specific as I go along...). How did dancing function in society? How did it change between the Romantic and Victorian periods? How did it differ between classes? I think this would be a really fun paper to write because it's so random.
4. Love Letters in Victorian Literature. This idea comes from our reading of Middlemarch by George Eliot. And doesn't Darcy write something of a love letter? or Mr. Ferrars? I might even use Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Letters from the Portugeuse" (sp?), I don't even know. I think it would be fun to write though, because love letters in Victorian literature just don't really ever work, so why do they come up?
Anyway, those are my ideas so far. Let me know what you think.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Inkheart
I've been in Kaysville since Friday (I get to spend my Spring Break at my parents' house--exciting) and I discovered on Saturday that the wonderful amazing dollar Kaysville Theatre had some great movies playing this week, including Twilight, Valkyrie, The Tale of Despereaux, Bolt, Marley and Me, and Inkheart. I've already seen Twilight twice, and of the rest I wanted to see Inkheart the most. My little sister Katie came with me and we had a whole row to ourselves.
Now before I talk about the movie, I want to extol the virtues of Kaysville Theatre. Dollar theatres are just fabulous anyway you dice it, even if they can only play 3-6 movies in any given week. The theatre is located along the west side of Main Street attached to all the other old buildings and shops in town and right across from Kaysville Library and the city hall. I absolutely love this theatre. It's a Kaysville institution. I have great memories of seeing movies I've long forgotten with friends, of learning to save my money so I could spend it on something I really enjoyed. The best thing about Kaysville Theatre is the "keep the theatre clean" message they always play before the previews: two guys are watching a movie in a theatre (all you see is their knees down), and one of them is nice and tidy--he puts his drink and candy wrapper inside his empty popcorn bucket, which he sets between his feet--and the other is wholly absorbed in the movie--he drops his drink and popcorn, which spill all over the floor, etc. At the end of the movie, the tidy guy picks up his popcorn bucket of garbage and leaves hassle-free; the not-so-tidy guy stands up with gum stuck under his shoe, and as he pulls his foot up off the floor everybody shouts "EEWWWW!!!!" It's great. If you ever get a chance to go to a dollar theatre in a little town, like Kaysville, you should do it. You get to know a community that way.
On to the movie!
Inkheart, rated PG, is based on a book of the same name by Cornelia Funke, which, sadly, I have not yet read. Because of this movie it is now on my summer reading list. Inkheart stars some big names and good actors, including Brendan Frasier (The Mummy, Journey to the Center of the Earth), Paul Bettany (Da Vinci Code, Firewall), Helen Mirren (National Treasure 2, The Queen), and Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, all three). Basically, Mortimer (Frasier) is a Silvertongue, which means his reading out loud brings stories to life. Once nine years ago he read the book Inkheart and brought some of their villains--and a random fire-juggler--into our world, but by reading them out of their story, he read his wife into it. Now he, his daughter, and the fire-juggler have an opportunity to put characters and people back into their proper places. I love the idea this move poses about the relationship between author, reader, and character. My sister Katie said she's read the book and that it's better. We'll see. I highly recommend this movie, although there are a few scary images for a really young audience. Eight years and older should be able to handle it.
Now before I talk about the movie, I want to extol the virtues of Kaysville Theatre. Dollar theatres are just fabulous anyway you dice it, even if they can only play 3-6 movies in any given week. The theatre is located along the west side of Main Street attached to all the other old buildings and shops in town and right across from Kaysville Library and the city hall. I absolutely love this theatre. It's a Kaysville institution. I have great memories of seeing movies I've long forgotten with friends, of learning to save my money so I could spend it on something I really enjoyed. The best thing about Kaysville Theatre is the "keep the theatre clean" message they always play before the previews: two guys are watching a movie in a theatre (all you see is their knees down), and one of them is nice and tidy--he puts his drink and candy wrapper inside his empty popcorn bucket, which he sets between his feet--and the other is wholly absorbed in the movie--he drops his drink and popcorn, which spill all over the floor, etc. At the end of the movie, the tidy guy picks up his popcorn bucket of garbage and leaves hassle-free; the not-so-tidy guy stands up with gum stuck under his shoe, and as he pulls his foot up off the floor everybody shouts "EEWWWW!!!!" It's great. If you ever get a chance to go to a dollar theatre in a little town, like Kaysville, you should do it. You get to know a community that way.
On to the movie!
Inkheart, rated PG, is based on a book of the same name by Cornelia Funke, which, sadly, I have not yet read. Because of this movie it is now on my summer reading list. Inkheart stars some big names and good actors, including Brendan Frasier (The Mummy, Journey to the Center of the Earth), Paul Bettany (Da Vinci Code, Firewall), Helen Mirren (National Treasure 2, The Queen), and Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, all three). Basically, Mortimer (Frasier) is a Silvertongue, which means his reading out loud brings stories to life. Once nine years ago he read the book Inkheart and brought some of their villains--and a random fire-juggler--into our world, but by reading them out of their story, he read his wife into it. Now he, his daughter, and the fire-juggler have an opportunity to put characters and people back into their proper places. I love the idea this move poses about the relationship between author, reader, and character. My sister Katie said she's read the book and that it's better. We'll see. I highly recommend this movie, although there are a few scary images for a really young audience. Eight years and older should be able to handle it.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
reading, writing and facebook...and Spring Break!
My titles are getting lamer.
Eventually I will post more often. I would have blogged last night: I had a great idea while chatting on facebook with my new friend Abraham and editing my personal information (favorites etc), but when I pulled up the blogger window the great idea vanished. Bummer.
I love Victorian Literature. It's my favorite class. Dr. McCuskey is awesome, the book is hard and I'm behind BUT I love discussing it and learning how to think critically, and I'm just excited to go to class every day. The difficult part is that next week over spring break I have to read two sections in the novel, which is at least 100 pages. Not looking forward to that one.
So I told you that for story #2 I was writing about an existential character and having a hard time of it, remember? I got a whopping 2 1/4 pages written. Well, on Monday my Fiction Writing professor told us if we were having a hard time to just scrap it and write something we really cared about (which is ironic because wouldn't that be creative nonfiction? not fiction?). So I ditched the existential story and decided to write something a little closer to home. She's been telling us to try new things since this is Advanced Fiction Writing, and I've noticed that religion is a theme I keep coming back to in my last two stories, so this one that I'm working on right now for class is an exploration in fiction (obviously) of the impact religion has on dating, and how/in what ways such an experience could change a character. In about three hours of sitting at my computer I've written 5 ish pages!! That doesn't include brainstorming. The Lord has really helped me with this one. As far as the brainstorming goes this could be one of the most complex stories I've written. This story is due the Monday after Spring Break (3/16), so I'm hoping I can get it finished by next Wednesday or Thursday, and then use next weekend in revision and maybe get a friend or two to read it. Wish me luck!
Nothing to write about poetry. I would post one for y'all but we turned in our journals today. No cool Christina poetry for you. :(
Speaking of Spring Break, my bff roomie Ellie is getting her wisdom teeth out! Wish her good luck! We're going to have a Masterpiece Theatre Jane Eyre party. And I'm going dress shopping with my mom for my brother's wedding reception, and I might get my hair cut, and it will just be a great week. I'm also job hunting in Logan so if you know of any good opportunities, let me know.
Happy Spring Break!
Eventually I will post more often. I would have blogged last night: I had a great idea while chatting on facebook with my new friend Abraham and editing my personal information (favorites etc), but when I pulled up the blogger window the great idea vanished. Bummer.
I love Victorian Literature. It's my favorite class. Dr. McCuskey is awesome, the book is hard and I'm behind BUT I love discussing it and learning how to think critically, and I'm just excited to go to class every day. The difficult part is that next week over spring break I have to read two sections in the novel, which is at least 100 pages. Not looking forward to that one.
So I told you that for story #2 I was writing about an existential character and having a hard time of it, remember? I got a whopping 2 1/4 pages written. Well, on Monday my Fiction Writing professor told us if we were having a hard time to just scrap it and write something we really cared about (which is ironic because wouldn't that be creative nonfiction? not fiction?). So I ditched the existential story and decided to write something a little closer to home. She's been telling us to try new things since this is Advanced Fiction Writing, and I've noticed that religion is a theme I keep coming back to in my last two stories, so this one that I'm working on right now for class is an exploration in fiction (obviously) of the impact religion has on dating, and how/in what ways such an experience could change a character. In about three hours of sitting at my computer I've written 5 ish pages!! That doesn't include brainstorming. The Lord has really helped me with this one. As far as the brainstorming goes this could be one of the most complex stories I've written. This story is due the Monday after Spring Break (3/16), so I'm hoping I can get it finished by next Wednesday or Thursday, and then use next weekend in revision and maybe get a friend or two to read it. Wish me luck!
Nothing to write about poetry. I would post one for y'all but we turned in our journals today. No cool Christina poetry for you. :(
Speaking of Spring Break, my bff roomie Ellie is getting her wisdom teeth out! Wish her good luck! We're going to have a Masterpiece Theatre Jane Eyre party. And I'm going dress shopping with my mom for my brother's wedding reception, and I might get my hair cut, and it will just be a great week. I'm also job hunting in Logan so if you know of any good opportunities, let me know.
Happy Spring Break!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Sorry it's been awhile...
I keep getting headaches that keep me from doing what I love: blogging, facebooking, reading Victorian literature, writing fiction and poetry. I'll try to blog more regularly for my my devoted followers. :) And I'll try to keep myself hydrated, eating and sleeping right, etc so I don't get these stupid headaches.
So I got the Madagascar 2 soundtrack from my little brother and I love most of the music but I haven't even seen the movie yet! But hopefully I'll get to see it in about 3 weeks when my family drives to Portland, OR for my brother's wedding. Yay!
I finished and turned in my Victorian Literature paper but I haven't gotten it back yet. You guys will be one of the first to know the result! I got my test back and I got 4 out of 5 on all four short essays (100% on the other parts!!!) so my final score was 92. I got an A-. And I'm way behind in my reading! We're reading Middlemarch by George Eliot which is really slow and hard to get into because it's a "study of provincial life". Stupid serious novel. Even worse is that I haven't done that most basic and essential of reading skills for English majors: reading with a pencil in hand to mark metaphors and things worthy of discussion and/or essay-writing!!! I'm doing it now but that just slows me down even more. Hopefully Spring Break will be a good catch-up time.
So I have again decided not to type up that surrealist poem that I wrote about a couple posts ago. I probably won't. But today the chapter in the book for my poetry writing class was about writing ecstatic poetry, which was rather erotic and strange and I didn't like it. The exercise was basically a free-write and then cutting out the lines that weren't powerful or musical. It's kind of a random poem:
Sunlight looks orange through my eyelids.
Fanciful lights spreading from the poles—purple, green, yellow—
Beautiful ribbons of Aurora covering the Earth—
We die with our necks craned to see the lights as the colorful
Burning rays destroy us with cancers and strange sunlight.
The personal transportation structure of our country is poisoning it.
But I don’t want to ride the bus, the train, the metal monsters
That trap us together like so many bugs in a fly-trap light.
Bzzt! Another one dead.
The moon bathes me in the music of crickets and a soft white light.
The stars are millions of bubbles floating away—if I stretch out my
Hand far enough I can catch them all without lifting my head
From the pillow—far better than the best fireflies that give only
The yellow light of pure artificiality.
I am warm, laying in the cool grass after a picnic.
Sunlight looks orange through my eyelids.
Told you it was random. If you have ideas and/or opinions for me, leave a comment!
So I got the Madagascar 2 soundtrack from my little brother and I love most of the music but I haven't even seen the movie yet! But hopefully I'll get to see it in about 3 weeks when my family drives to Portland, OR for my brother's wedding. Yay!
I finished and turned in my Victorian Literature paper but I haven't gotten it back yet. You guys will be one of the first to know the result! I got my test back and I got 4 out of 5 on all four short essays (100% on the other parts!!!) so my final score was 92. I got an A-. And I'm way behind in my reading! We're reading Middlemarch by George Eliot which is really slow and hard to get into because it's a "study of provincial life". Stupid serious novel. Even worse is that I haven't done that most basic and essential of reading skills for English majors: reading with a pencil in hand to mark metaphors and things worthy of discussion and/or essay-writing!!! I'm doing it now but that just slows me down even more. Hopefully Spring Break will be a good catch-up time.
So I have again decided not to type up that surrealist poem that I wrote about a couple posts ago. I probably won't. But today the chapter in the book for my poetry writing class was about writing ecstatic poetry, which was rather erotic and strange and I didn't like it. The exercise was basically a free-write and then cutting out the lines that weren't powerful or musical. It's kind of a random poem:
Sunlight looks orange through my eyelids.
Fanciful lights spreading from the poles—purple, green, yellow—
Beautiful ribbons of Aurora covering the Earth—
We die with our necks craned to see the lights as the colorful
Burning rays destroy us with cancers and strange sunlight.
The personal transportation structure of our country is poisoning it.
But I don’t want to ride the bus, the train, the metal monsters
That trap us together like so many bugs in a fly-trap light.
Bzzt! Another one dead.
The moon bathes me in the music of crickets and a soft white light.
The stars are millions of bubbles floating away—if I stretch out my
Hand far enough I can catch them all without lifting my head
From the pillow—far better than the best fireflies that give only
The yellow light of pure artificiality.
I am warm, laying in the cool grass after a picnic.
Sunlight looks orange through my eyelids.
Told you it was random. If you have ideas and/or opinions for me, leave a comment!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Today...
I finished my essay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, I'm not entirely done. I still have to add a conclusion, and revise it for clarity and strong support, and it ends on the 6th page instead of the 5th so there's some cutting to do, but for all intents and purposes I'm done. All the hard thinking has pretty much ended. I just wanted to let everyone know how excited I am to be blogging instead of writing my essay. Remember all those things that I had to remember in order to write this essay? All of that has made it one of the most difficult essays I've ever written. But I still love being an English major. Occasionally I look at the requirements for other majors, and some of those classes sound like fun, but there's just no way in the world I would ever switch my major. If I changed anything it would be my Creative Writing emphasis (which I would hypothetically trade for Literary Studies) but I only have a year of that left so I might as well finish. And I am learning a lot.
I haven't written anything for my story yet. Yikes! I'm hoping to get at least 8 pages done tomorrow before my student-instructor conference on Wednesday.
I still haven't read any Jane Eyre this weekend, and it doesn't look like it'll happen for another week or so because I have to write this 20 page story and I have poetry homework to do and I'll have to start reading a Victorian novel. Think the length of most Charles Dickens books and I have to read that between now and the end of the semester in April. Which I guess isn't that bad except that this novel was originally published in sections over the course of a year, so Victorians had some time to delve deeply into the book.
So I realized I keep talking about my 20 page story #2 but I haven't said anything about story #1. That was a 10 page requirement and I wrote about an art history graduate on a tour of Italy (she told us to write about a gutsy topic and mine was a travelogue--lame I know). The thing I want to talk about though isn't the actual story but the workshop. I had to print 20 copies of this story for everyone to read, so everyone wrote comments on their copies and gave them back to me, so now I have this 1-inch thick stack of papers to go through whenever I find time to revise the story. The only good thing about that workshop was that they told me what I did well--apparently I describe scenes really well and observe characters--which was great for me since I by the time we workshopped mine I was convinced it was a crappy work of fiction. But I still don't know if I'll ever be able to revise the story because the stack of comments is really intimidating.
Okay, I'm not entirely done. I still have to add a conclusion, and revise it for clarity and strong support, and it ends on the 6th page instead of the 5th so there's some cutting to do, but for all intents and purposes I'm done. All the hard thinking has pretty much ended. I just wanted to let everyone know how excited I am to be blogging instead of writing my essay. Remember all those things that I had to remember in order to write this essay? All of that has made it one of the most difficult essays I've ever written. But I still love being an English major. Occasionally I look at the requirements for other majors, and some of those classes sound like fun, but there's just no way in the world I would ever switch my major. If I changed anything it would be my Creative Writing emphasis (which I would hypothetically trade for Literary Studies) but I only have a year of that left so I might as well finish. And I am learning a lot.
I haven't written anything for my story yet. Yikes! I'm hoping to get at least 8 pages done tomorrow before my student-instructor conference on Wednesday.
I still haven't read any Jane Eyre this weekend, and it doesn't look like it'll happen for another week or so because I have to write this 20 page story and I have poetry homework to do and I'll have to start reading a Victorian novel. Think the length of most Charles Dickens books and I have to read that between now and the end of the semester in April. Which I guess isn't that bad except that this novel was originally published in sections over the course of a year, so Victorians had some time to delve deeply into the book.
So I realized I keep talking about my 20 page story #2 but I haven't said anything about story #1. That was a 10 page requirement and I wrote about an art history graduate on a tour of Italy (she told us to write about a gutsy topic and mine was a travelogue--lame I know). The thing I want to talk about though isn't the actual story but the workshop. I had to print 20 copies of this story for everyone to read, so everyone wrote comments on their copies and gave them back to me, so now I have this 1-inch thick stack of papers to go through whenever I find time to revise the story. The only good thing about that workshop was that they told me what I did well--apparently I describe scenes really well and observe characters--which was great for me since I by the time we workshopped mine I was convinced it was a crappy work of fiction. But I still don't know if I'll ever be able to revise the story because the stack of comments is really intimidating.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)