Bits and pieces of assorted thoughts, for the digestion
Sometimes teaching ancient philosophy that you know nothing about can be quite difficult.
Of course I think I am supposed to be teaching analytical reading/thinking skills more than the philosophy itself, but that still means I gotta do a bunch of background reading and fact-checking and the aforementioned analytical thinking so that I don't say something ridiculous.
----------------
Sometimes I also think it's quite odd that I chose to be a Victorianist and I really don't like Dickens or George Eliot (if there is a Victorian Holy Trinity, they occupy two top spots in convential academic standing) much at all. I just find them exceedingly glurgy and boring (Eliot with a heavy dose of self-righteousness thrown in), and I have the hardest time getting through their overly lengthy books. I was much more patient when I was younger. I had quite a higher tolerance (even "like") for sentimentalism then, and 9-year old me had the impressive capability to read the dullest, longest books and enjoy it even if I felt they were long and dull and didn't understand them. I don't think I could read all the stuff I read back then.
----------------
I have decided that 19th century personnages continuously quoting poetry or whatever to convey the Deepness Of Their Thoughts is no better, and in fact rather a lot worse, than teenagers quoting song lyrics for the same purpose. These "citations" are invariably trite, either out of context or so self-evident and brief as to invalidate context, and tell me nothing except "I am too dumb to say this innovatively in my own words, and think just because I am quoting a published author, it makes my insipid, cliched little thought somehow meaningful."
At least with song lyrics you often have to use some sort of critical thinking to apply their greater abstractness to your situation. (What I mean by this is that modern song lyrics are often more abstract/metaphorical/whatever than the poetry that 19th c. characters keep quoting.
----------------
Mansfield Park supposedly boasts one of the most complex and nuanced characters in Jane Austen's fiction.
It does have such a character, but to my mind it is not Fanny Price. It is Mary Crawford.
Mansfield Park the 1999 movie is a cute, entertaining, clever and witty film.
It has, however, absolutely NOTHING to do with Mansfield Park the novel.
I suppose that's what happens when the director admits she hated the novel's protagonist and thus makes her movie version of the protagonist act and behave in complete contrast to the book version.
----------------
In my general dislike of Labyrinth as a pretty awful movie (albeit with attractive qualities) that people insist on liking way too much, I forget sometimes that most of the Bowie bits in there are more than "amusing enough to make them worth watching," and in fact quite genuinely good. And that some of his songs there, and particularly
"Underground," are really very good. And that I love this video for stripping most of the cheesyness away and making it darker and lovely and really worthy of standing up as a proper song. Even if you could still call them somewhat teenage-ish, I don't care, lines like "it's only forever... it's not long at all," and "gotta gotta get me out of here... ah ah, Underground, where nothing ever hurts again" call up all the promise of the movie's premise and the dropped nuances of Bowie's role for me. I even like "don't tell me truth hurts, little girl, 'cause it hurts like hell" when Bowie sings it. Ooooh. Shivers.
Really, that song has some of Bowie's best vocals. And considering 80s fashion, he looks smashing in the vid. Oh, Bowie. I forget how I love you, and how wonderful you were past-classic-70s. Also, you support the Jena 6, so, yay.
Of course I think I am supposed to be teaching analytical reading/thinking skills more than the philosophy itself, but that still means I gotta do a bunch of background reading and fact-checking and the aforementioned analytical thinking so that I don't say something ridiculous.
----------------
Sometimes I also think it's quite odd that I chose to be a Victorianist and I really don't like Dickens or George Eliot (if there is a Victorian Holy Trinity, they occupy two top spots in convential academic standing) much at all. I just find them exceedingly glurgy and boring (Eliot with a heavy dose of self-righteousness thrown in), and I have the hardest time getting through their overly lengthy books. I was much more patient when I was younger. I had quite a higher tolerance (even "like") for sentimentalism then, and 9-year old me had the impressive capability to read the dullest, longest books and enjoy it even if I felt they were long and dull and didn't understand them. I don't think I could read all the stuff I read back then.
----------------
I have decided that 19th century personnages continuously quoting poetry or whatever to convey the Deepness Of Their Thoughts is no better, and in fact rather a lot worse, than teenagers quoting song lyrics for the same purpose. These "citations" are invariably trite, either out of context or so self-evident and brief as to invalidate context, and tell me nothing except "I am too dumb to say this innovatively in my own words, and think just because I am quoting a published author, it makes my insipid, cliched little thought somehow meaningful."
At least with song lyrics you often have to use some sort of critical thinking to apply their greater abstractness to your situation. (What I mean by this is that modern song lyrics are often more abstract/metaphorical/whatever than the poetry that 19th c. characters keep quoting.
----------------
Mansfield Park supposedly boasts one of the most complex and nuanced characters in Jane Austen's fiction.
It does have such a character, but to my mind it is not Fanny Price. It is Mary Crawford.
Mansfield Park the 1999 movie is a cute, entertaining, clever and witty film.
It has, however, absolutely NOTHING to do with Mansfield Park the novel.
I suppose that's what happens when the director admits she hated the novel's protagonist and thus makes her movie version of the protagonist act and behave in complete contrast to the book version.
----------------
In my general dislike of Labyrinth as a pretty awful movie (albeit with attractive qualities) that people insist on liking way too much, I forget sometimes that most of the Bowie bits in there are more than "amusing enough to make them worth watching," and in fact quite genuinely good. And that some of his songs there, and particularly
"Underground," are really very good. And that I love this video for stripping most of the cheesyness away and making it darker and lovely and really worthy of standing up as a proper song. Even if you could still call them somewhat teenage-ish, I don't care, lines like "it's only forever... it's not long at all," and "gotta gotta get me out of here... ah ah, Underground, where nothing ever hurts again" call up all the promise of the movie's premise and the dropped nuances of Bowie's role for me. I even like "don't tell me truth hurts, little girl, 'cause it hurts like hell" when Bowie sings it. Ooooh. Shivers.
Really, that song has some of Bowie's best vocals. And considering 80s fashion, he looks smashing in the vid. Oh, Bowie. I forget how I love you, and how wonderful you were past-classic-70s. Also, you support the Jena 6, so, yay.