job interviews and academic anxieties

[heresluck]

I did a lot of journalling while in Philly for last week's conference/job interview gig; the whole event just seemed so wildly improbable that I had to keep writing things down to convince myself they were really happening. This post is my first attempt to process and synthesize some of that stuff.

Warning: this got pretty long.

Comments

[coffeeandink]

I just want to see the notes on Clarissa.

[heresluck]

The fact that thus far 20% of the respondents to this entry have said this? Assures me that I am hanging out with The Right People. I love it.

[coffeeandink]

I liked Clarissa. I'm not sure I ever want to read the entire thing straight through again, and I bailed on Sir Charles Grandison halfway through, but I did like Clarissa.

[heresluck]

Good lord, there's no need to read the entire thing straight through more than once. Judicious skimming of the boring parts is definitely the way to go.

I thought briefly of proposing Clarissa/Anna for yuletide, just because the idea amuses me so; but of course I don't actually want to participate in yuletide, so it couldn't happen.

[coffeeandink]

I suggested Clarissa version in the initial brainstorming, actually, and someone did submit a request for it, but they wanted Clarissa/Lovelace. I think they also specified the BBC TV version, which I find really amusing in a recursive way, since it was clearly influenced by Dangerous Liasons, while Choderlos deLacos had been influenced by Richardson.

You *are* hanging out with the Right People. I'm sure that there are several people in the comments thread who'd get the joke.

[heresluck]

Well, practically EVERYONE was influenced by Richardson. Without Richardson we would have no Henry James! ...a fact that I pointed out when I proposed pairing them for a Major Authors course at one of my interviews. La la dead white guys la...

[coffeeandink]

Without Richardson we would have no Henry James!

*bites tongue*

[heresluck]

::eyes you suspiciously::

You're not one of those people who doesn't like Henry James, are you?

[renenet]

Cat fight!!!!!!!!

[coffeeandink]

I like What Maisie Knew.

[heresluck]

That's interesting. Masie was the first Henry James I ever read (as a college freshling), and I have come to appreciate it but did not at all like it at the time. I think it's a very bad first James to read. My Intro To Lit syllabus includes Washington Square, which I think would be a great first James (a theory I hope to test sometime).

It occurs to me as I type this that Washington Square would also make a really interesting double feature with Death of the Heart. Huh.

This is making me want to re-read The Golden Bowl. And read The Spoils of Poynton, which has been sitting on the to-be-read shelf for months now.

Must... focus... on... Dickens...

[coffeeandink]

See, the first two James novels (novellas?) I read were Daisy Miller and Washington Square, and I did not like them at all. I was surprised by how much I liked What Maisie Knew, though it helps that it's very, very wicked.

I haven't actually read much James beyond that. Perhaps he should be on the list for this year.

Washington Square and The Death of the Heart is an interesting thought. Not Portrait of a Lady?

[heresluck]

It would depend on whether it was an intro or advanced course, actually. For an advanced course, you're right, Portrait would work just as well and make more canonical sense. I default to WS because it's shorter and easier (thus doing a tidy end-run around the "but his prose is so dense!" complaint) and because I am more likely to get to teach James in an intro course than anywhere else.

Portrait back to back with Wings of the Dove would also be really interesting, but of course that would *have* to be the Major Authors course.