senior senior senior
Thursday
Who knew the sun was up at 7:30(a.m.)? I mean, other than my dad of course. [Okay, SunriseSunset.com tells me the sun actually rose on my coast at 6:08am. When did sunrise get that early?] Mmm... temps in the 40s. Bracing cold that made me close all the windows and reminds me that warm showers are the love of my life.
Being up so early meant i actually went to class with dry hair, which hasn't happened in ages. And i saw Zia at breakfast, which was nice.
Presentation went reasonably well. I am such a text girl, so more interested in close-reading the text than in doing biographical research (not that i'm not interested in that and in sociohistorical context -- i mean, we talked about the 4 ways of reading a text, and Skarda singled me out as a contextual criticism girl). Triggered by one of the presenters, we discussed briefly the difference between talent and genius. I decided not to profer my ever so unhelpful "Simon is talented; River is a genius," but now i have the Murmurs song stuck in my head. (EmilyF offered the classic distinction that normal people get from points A to D via points B and C, but geniuses can go direct.)
Meg (and her boy) took me out to lunch at Haymarket -- which neither of them had ever been to, surprisingly. Meg ordered a Spanking (because really, what else would she order?) and it is indeed yummy. Stew was weirded out by the mayo in my grilled cheese, said the smooshiness would have been too much for him. I attempted to validate his concern, but couldn't come up with an appropriate adjective. "Aesthetic" would be more along the lines of "Your smoothie looks like tar; I don't think I could eat it." "Textural" sounds like "textual" which would be confusing for this English major. Stew suggested "sensual," but that had too much erotic implication for me. (I pointed out that a sensual concern would be more like "But the crumbs..." :) )
In seminar we talked about Angela Carter's "Beauty and the Beast" stories -- "The Courtship of Mr Lyon" and "The Tiger's Bride." The former is in my opinion one of Carter's weaker stories and really doesn't grab me much. We talked about them as companion pieces and i appreciated it a bit more than i had.
Becca referred to the end of "The Tiger's Bride" as them freeing each other and also about the beneath the skin, neither of which i had thought of before. The latter was a particularly good analogy for what Carter does. Liz talked about folktale as skeleton -- Shakespeare for example takes some bones, but Cater fleshes it out. Becca used an extended coversong analogy (folklore as jazz, bits and pieces of tale as sampling) which i thought was great.
I got talk about getting in touch with the primal via dark sex. Class discussion included such professional academic phrases as "extra layer of awesomeness" :)
In discussing Carter, someone mentioned pulling out latent elements, and i thought "fanfic!" April used the term "plotbunny," and e_clare mentioned the sex that brings the house down ["The Tiger's Bride"].
Multiple people mentioned how after reading Carter, the story is never the same. I don't particularly disagree, but i find it problematic to single out Carter like that. I have read/seen so many fairytale reworkings (as well as discussions thereon and discussions about the original tales) that there's a lot influencing my readings of the originals.
Some people were upset at having their childhood stories ruined, which kinda threw me 'cause i like dark&twisted, plus i wasn't attached to these stories to begin with.
I went to the first batch of Eng. Dept. thesis presentations immediately afterward and thus missed tea, slideshow, and the beginning of Banquet itself, which i'm okay with. Banquet went until 10 (and HP!Emily finally just decided to will the rest of her stuff later -- really there has got to be a more efficient way to do the willing). I had forgotten how much i enjoy Nicole&Carrie. (Carrie: "If I'd known how gay this house was gonna get, I might have stayed.") Prophecies were the usual mix of boring and raunchy, obscure in-jokes and accessible in-jokes. I was last. [Being late meant i didn't get to choose a seat, so i ended up at the end with all the drunken seniors. Kate later told me i looked "small and awkward," which is not entirely inaccurate.] Emma, Felicia, and Cat did a skit. Including props from my room. There had been prior mention of stealing stuff from my room, but i didn't believe them enough to actually lock my door. Clearly i underestimated them. And while i'm not sure most people there got any of it, a number of such people said it was entertaining, which was the important part as it came at the end of nigh on three hours of Prophesying and Willing. And i laughed a lot. Oh the in-jokes. And i didn't even have to make plans to kill anyone in their sleep afterward.
Kate got my Black Death: European Tour t-shirt, and i didn't will anything else. Partly because i haven't had time to think, but mostly because i try not to hang onto stuff i don't want. (The problem, of course, is that i want lots of the stuff i have.) I don't expect to take my posters with me, save maybe a few (though really, if i decide i need posters for my apartment or something, it's not like they're super-expensive), and i also have a bunch that aren't even up on my walls currently. And i have novels from classes that i'm never gonna read again. And if you think i have something you might want, let me know. And no, i haven't forgotten the people i've already promised stuff to.
P.S. Thanks to Laura for sharing the Godiva Cocoa Annie willed to her.
I found myself wishing i had opted to do my paper in Mr. Dalloway instead of The Eyre Affair. However, it ended up the appropriate length, as i went along, i sort of found rich themes in the book. (The entire exercise, of course, inspired in me further suspicion of lit crit, as i was taking a book i had found merely enjoyable and arguing for serious literary merit in it.) My essay feels so casual, though. Eh, whatever.
Oh how i turn into background music girl as a way of not doing my work. Though it's nice to be reminded that i have so much music that i like.
It started raining when i handed in the paper Friday after dinner. (yay!) I came back, intending to read fanfic and maybe do some for-class reading as well. I ended up having an orgy in the hallway for about six hours. Cat's friend's Julie's mom's friend made cake in a boobies-shaped pan, so cake=sex. (The other bakery option was eventually decided to be eclairs, and Laura pointed out the obvious pie to get all the parts covered.) Cat gave me speed hickeys on my arm, i groped her a lot, stressed-out Felicia got gayer as the night went on, Laura=Oz, and Emma is easily traumatized though she will dress Felicia up in a dominatrix outfit for me in exchange for dinner. Oh, and Maria returned my stereo, Anna shared leftover Easter candy that was still yum, and i decided that Devon is the Blaise of Whedonverse fandom. Clearly this was more fun than Senior Ball could have been.
[Cat, this is the Phin quote i was trying to think of: "Even when we're not having sex, i could just, theoretically, put my hand on her breast. Hee. Four breasts to choose from! Now that's america."]
I had sent Skarda the YSI link to the aforementioned Murmurs song. Her response: "Thanks for the song--freaky, kinda weird, she's a genius. Just for fun, Smith's new SPAM collector got to it first. I guess we're not supposed to give one another pleasure these days."
Have been crap about commenting on the flist, though i am reading. Need to put together a curriculum unit this weekend, so i don't foreseee this situation improving. Le sigh. Two more weeks.
If I am elected, my pope name will be:Pope Scandalous Doug XI
Who knew the sun was up at 7:30(a.m.)? I mean, other than my dad of course. [Okay, SunriseSunset.com tells me the sun actually rose on my coast at 6:08am. When did sunrise get that early?] Mmm... temps in the 40s. Bracing cold that made me close all the windows and reminds me that warm showers are the love of my life.
Being up so early meant i actually went to class with dry hair, which hasn't happened in ages. And i saw Zia at breakfast, which was nice.
Presentation went reasonably well. I am such a text girl, so more interested in close-reading the text than in doing biographical research (not that i'm not interested in that and in sociohistorical context -- i mean, we talked about the 4 ways of reading a text, and Skarda singled me out as a contextual criticism girl). Triggered by one of the presenters, we discussed briefly the difference between talent and genius. I decided not to profer my ever so unhelpful "Simon is talented; River is a genius," but now i have the Murmurs song stuck in my head. (EmilyF offered the classic distinction that normal people get from points A to D via points B and C, but geniuses can go direct.)
Meg (and her boy) took me out to lunch at Haymarket -- which neither of them had ever been to, surprisingly. Meg ordered a Spanking (because really, what else would she order?) and it is indeed yummy. Stew was weirded out by the mayo in my grilled cheese, said the smooshiness would have been too much for him. I attempted to validate his concern, but couldn't come up with an appropriate adjective. "Aesthetic" would be more along the lines of "Your smoothie looks like tar; I don't think I could eat it." "Textural" sounds like "textual" which would be confusing for this English major. Stew suggested "sensual," but that had too much erotic implication for me. (I pointed out that a sensual concern would be more like "But the crumbs..." :) )
In seminar we talked about Angela Carter's "Beauty and the Beast" stories -- "The Courtship of Mr Lyon" and "The Tiger's Bride." The former is in my opinion one of Carter's weaker stories and really doesn't grab me much. We talked about them as companion pieces and i appreciated it a bit more than i had.
Becca referred to the end of "The Tiger's Bride" as them freeing each other and also about the beneath the skin, neither of which i had thought of before. The latter was a particularly good analogy for what Carter does. Liz talked about folktale as skeleton -- Shakespeare for example takes some bones, but Cater fleshes it out. Becca used an extended coversong analogy (folklore as jazz, bits and pieces of tale as sampling) which i thought was great.
I got talk about getting in touch with the primal via dark sex. Class discussion included such professional academic phrases as "extra layer of awesomeness" :)
In discussing Carter, someone mentioned pulling out latent elements, and i thought "fanfic!" April used the term "plotbunny," and e_clare mentioned the sex that brings the house down ["The Tiger's Bride"].
Multiple people mentioned how after reading Carter, the story is never the same. I don't particularly disagree, but i find it problematic to single out Carter like that. I have read/seen so many fairytale reworkings (as well as discussions thereon and discussions about the original tales) that there's a lot influencing my readings of the originals.
Some people were upset at having their childhood stories ruined, which kinda threw me 'cause i like dark&twisted, plus i wasn't attached to these stories to begin with.
I went to the first batch of Eng. Dept. thesis presentations immediately afterward and thus missed tea, slideshow, and the beginning of Banquet itself, which i'm okay with. Banquet went until 10 (and HP!Emily finally just decided to will the rest of her stuff later -- really there has got to be a more efficient way to do the willing). I had forgotten how much i enjoy Nicole&Carrie. (Carrie: "If I'd known how gay this house was gonna get, I might have stayed.") Prophecies were the usual mix of boring and raunchy, obscure in-jokes and accessible in-jokes. I was last. [Being late meant i didn't get to choose a seat, so i ended up at the end with all the drunken seniors. Kate later told me i looked "small and awkward," which is not entirely inaccurate.] Emma, Felicia, and Cat did a skit. Including props from my room. There had been prior mention of stealing stuff from my room, but i didn't believe them enough to actually lock my door. Clearly i underestimated them. And while i'm not sure most people there got any of it, a number of such people said it was entertaining, which was the important part as it came at the end of nigh on three hours of Prophesying and Willing. And i laughed a lot. Oh the in-jokes. And i didn't even have to make plans to kill anyone in their sleep afterward.
Kate got my Black Death: European Tour t-shirt, and i didn't will anything else. Partly because i haven't had time to think, but mostly because i try not to hang onto stuff i don't want. (The problem, of course, is that i want lots of the stuff i have.) I don't expect to take my posters with me, save maybe a few (though really, if i decide i need posters for my apartment or something, it's not like they're super-expensive), and i also have a bunch that aren't even up on my walls currently. And i have novels from classes that i'm never gonna read again. And if you think i have something you might want, let me know. And no, i haven't forgotten the people i've already promised stuff to.
P.S. Thanks to Laura for sharing the Godiva Cocoa Annie willed to her.
I found myself wishing i had opted to do my paper in Mr. Dalloway instead of The Eyre Affair. However, it ended up the appropriate length, as i went along, i sort of found rich themes in the book. (The entire exercise, of course, inspired in me further suspicion of lit crit, as i was taking a book i had found merely enjoyable and arguing for serious literary merit in it.) My essay feels so casual, though. Eh, whatever.
Oh how i turn into background music girl as a way of not doing my work. Though it's nice to be reminded that i have so much music that i like.
It started raining when i handed in the paper Friday after dinner. (yay!) I came back, intending to read fanfic and maybe do some for-class reading as well. I ended up having an orgy in the hallway for about six hours. Cat's friend's Julie's mom's friend made cake in a boobies-shaped pan, so cake=sex. (The other bakery option was eventually decided to be eclairs, and Laura pointed out the obvious pie to get all the parts covered.) Cat gave me speed hickeys on my arm, i groped her a lot, stressed-out Felicia got gayer as the night went on, Laura=Oz, and Emma is easily traumatized though she will dress Felicia up in a dominatrix outfit for me in exchange for dinner. Oh, and Maria returned my stereo, Anna shared leftover Easter candy that was still yum, and i decided that Devon is the Blaise of Whedonverse fandom. Clearly this was more fun than Senior Ball could have been.
[Cat, this is the Phin quote i was trying to think of: "Even when we're not having sex, i could just, theoretically, put my hand on her breast. Hee. Four breasts to choose from! Now that's america."]
I had sent Skarda the YSI link to the aforementioned Murmurs song. Her response: "Thanks for the song--freaky, kinda weird, she's a genius. Just for fun, Smith's new SPAM collector got to it first. I guess we're not supposed to give one another pleasure these days."
Have been crap about commenting on the flist, though i am reading. Need to put together a curriculum unit this weekend, so i don't foreseee this situation improving. Le sigh. Two more weeks.
If I am elected, my pope name will be:Pope Scandalous Doug XI