reading lately: everything by mark twain, HANDMAID'S TALE by atwood, TONTO AND THE LONE RANGER FISTFIGHT IN HEAVEN by alexie, and a book about american girls and their bodies which i think is called THE BODY PROJECT by someone i can't remember and am too lazy to google for. also, lots of student papers. i've been thinking about how i feel about how my classes went this semester and if i would teach 1033 again the same way. there are definitely some alterations that i'd need to make, bu...
I had to read A Sentimental Journey by Sterne in an English class I took as a sophomore at Hendrix College and then again as a senior during our comprehensive exams. I didn’t like it the first time, but the second time (because by then I realized what Sterne was actually doing, juggling sentiment and silliness and sentimental, silly language), I did sort of enjoy it. By then, I was ready for a little nearly-(Post-)Modernist-ish play with language. The same sort of guff appears in Trista...
i used to only love britain from 1830 to 1914. now, i also love it from 1700 to 1800. as much as imperialism and colonization and masculinity and christ as working man are fabulous topics of discussion... i'm going to be a textual critic. i'm going to write about the marketing of books. high culture and low culture. canonicity. genre. the look of books. the rise of the novel. dailies. periodicals. diaries and journals. illustration. editing practices. books as product. skimm...
i'm putting these here so i don't lose them: "Men rarely, if ever, manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child." -Robert A. Heinlein that one reminds me of some lines in nabokov's PALE FIRE. but in that poem, the speaker says something like this: the most man can invent is a "domestic ghost." the next is from the preface to defoe's ROXANA (the full title being ROXANA THE FORTUNATE MISTRESS OR, A HISTORY OF THE LIFE AN...
okay, so the behn story i read after the one about the nun was so lame i barely even remember what happened. it was just drama drama drama and (aptly) very reminiscent of restoration drama (the characters were named after their foppish or coquettish or moralistic characteristics and all). at least it was short. there are two more and then more poetry. so, oroonoko's tale was the most significant of the writings, the end. after i get done with behn tonight, it will be on to ROXANA by defo...
OROONOKO AND OTHER WRITINGS is now my favorite of the summer reading for 18th century class. the section below caught my interest--i was already into the piece for the plot, but the lines below cemented my interest in behn's writing: This was delivered to the still doubting captain, who could not resolve to trust a heathen, he said, upon his parole, a man that had no sense or notion of the God that he worshiped. Oroonoko then replied, he was very sorry to hear that the captain pretended t...
TRISTAM SHANDY now reading OROONOKO still reading DUNE
my dear nothingness, i had to do it. the empty words and terrible hypocrity came to me compulsively every day, as i couldn't stop my hands from hitting those same urls and taking me further into the rotting minds melon rinds dirty stinking gutterubbish tripe for attention even now, infected, i put words to screen with my fingers know the keys i can't seas and feel out letters and play with spellings and syntax sintax the wages of i won't see the gaze you give me with your comments ...
TOM JONES is humorously narrated, i keep forgetting to mention. sometimes fielding reminds me of vonnegut. or vice-versa. he uses odd syntax purposefully to be entertaining and is conscious of being an author and that people will read his text and think things.
finished CLARISSA. so long, so long. V FOR VENDETTA by moore and lloyd. which is coming to theaters this fall and which will feature agent smith and padme. now beginning TOM JONES by fielding.
AMERICAN SPLENDOR (re-reading) makes me feel better about menial work DUNE (still reading) set to begin CLARISSA by richardson and MR. CLEMENS AND MARK TWAIN by kaplan in the next few days. this is the first of my reading for the upcoming semester. i love you so much, skool. don't ever let me leave you again! you can beat me as much as you need to; i understand now that you only hurt me because you love me. i promise not to ever press charges. i miss BUFFY. a store that sells suc...
finished season 6 and 7 of BUFFY HOCUS POCUS by vonnegut a volume of vonnegut books including SIRENS OF TITAN, BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS, MOTHER NIGHT, CAT'S CRADLE, PLAYER PIANO (which i was reading during the last entry), and SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE LITTLE WOMEN (still reading) by alcott SHADOW DIVERS by i don't remember THE TAKING by koontz INVISIBLE MONSTERS by chuck paliblahblahsomething SMOKE AND MIRRORS by gaiman
every time i am with everyone, we always end up talking about or referencing all the horrible texts that are put up on people's horrible blogs on the horrible internet (horrible because it lets this inefficiency happen) and about how this is a waste of time and space et cetera. i was thinking about that while driving on highway 75 back to the the hotel to drop off a load of people and luggage... this problem is similar to what truckers experience while driving down such and such interstate ...
LITTLE WOMEN (re-reading) by alcott CAT'S CRADLE by vonnegut PLAYER PIANO (in beginning-middle) by the same excerpts from a book about/possibly titled POETRY edited by helen vendler TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE by someone i can't remember PALE FIRE by nabokov SANDMAN v. 10 by gaiman BUFFY seasons 4 and 5. have begun season 6. PALE FIRE is gorgeous and fun. writers who consciously play with language and sound are the best. i need more nabokov and am on an intravenous diet of vonnegut. t...
getting back into grad school. learning spanish in the back halls of the hotel. fucking visa over. i wasn't proud of myself until i saw it all written down. was for serious close to being depressed. now realizing am using text message diction. SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE DROWNING RUTH SANDMAN V. 9 THE OLYMPIA READER stories from A TONGUE IN YER HEID YOU CAN'T KEEP A GOOD WOMAN DOWN the marriot "spirit to serve" pamphlet FUN WITH MILK AND CHEESE have viewed seasons one, ...