Saturday night Gwyn and I watched "My Own Private Idaho." It's a Gus Van Sant film (which means little to me but everyone says it as though this is very significant) and has a neat concept: a modern retelling of Shakespeare's 'Henry IV part 2' in which Prince Hal, rather than heir apparent to the throne, is the son of a politician who rebels by ( Read more... )

I was reviewing The Oresteia today for the GREs and was reminded of a few favorite lines from Grene and Lattimore’s translation of Agamemnon, which I particularly love. (Not all translations are equal-this one is exceptional.) So, here they are ( Read more... )

I’m discovering quite an affinity with Edna St. Vincent Millay, which is totally unexpected since she’s a recently dead white American chick rather than a long dead white British guy ( Read more... )

To remind myself that Grad school is not primarily about stress, here are some tidbits from my studies ( Read more... )

I was trying to focus on representations of sexual violence in early modern England (aka rape in the renaissance), but my mind kept wandering. One of the lines of Faerie Queene made me think of The Goblin Market, which made me think of Amanda and, since to think on her is to miss her . . . [see subject line ( Read more... )

An example of why I'm friends with Alex. An e-mail ( Read more... )

Tonight Alex, Seth and I went to hear Neil Gaiman read from his latest book. The owner of Cody’s books introduced him and pretended that he’d been expecting to talk about Mother Courage, the current production at Berkeley Rep where Gaiman was speaking. He mispronounced “Gay-man” as “Guy-man” repeatedly, to howling laughter from the audience, and ( Read more... )

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses,” 1822.

This made me think a bit of my father, especially the last stanza. I actually enjoyed this poem a bit, to my surprise.

Here are some more poems that Princeton Review has told me to read. I actually really like Robert Herrick, but I don’t necessarily think the Julia Poems are his best works. In fact, I prefer “To Daffodils” and “To the Virgins, to make much of Time.” (You know it’s a quality poem because it’s quoted in Dead Poet’s Society! That movie is deep, ( Read more... )

C. Marlowe (1599)

V. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

COME live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.
( Read more... )