lessons from an inverted world
I'm not all that clear what the lessons are that we can learn from the inverted world (except maybe that inversion is better than eversion -- it's generally better to be backwards than inside-out), or even where exactly the inverted world is (though rumor has it that it may be as close as the nearest mirror, or as far away as Cleveland).
Cleveland this last weekend wasn't really inverted, only a little strange in that it was full of college friends and acquaintances, drinking a quantity of alcohol -- and good stuff too -- that I generally associate only with grad school. I was a little hesitant about going to this wedding; it's been so long (subjectively speaking) since I spent hours talking about comic books that I wasn't sure I would be able to do it; but sure enough, it all comes back to me in the moment, and my hesitant first hugs on Saturday were replaced on Monday by the hugs I used to give people when saying goodnight in Rueger. College friends and all could stand to be physically closer, but I do like that we had this opportunity to stage a little reunion-esque event, and look forward to a possible cabin-bound Vanguard Day in 2008.
Other than that, I'm attempting to make my inverted life livable without turning myself inside out. It's crazy to me to think that by this time next month I might have a short essay published in the New York Review of Science Fiction and will be giving my first paper at a conference (at the Science Fiction Research Association conference in Kansas City, MO). That's what I'm working on right now, now that I've finished another quarter of classes, both teaching and taking; it's weird to be slipping away from "taking" and towards "teaching," but if this is the mirror-world, I have to admit that some inversions feel better than their original, non-reversed states.
Cleveland this last weekend wasn't really inverted, only a little strange in that it was full of college friends and acquaintances, drinking a quantity of alcohol -- and good stuff too -- that I generally associate only with grad school. I was a little hesitant about going to this wedding; it's been so long (subjectively speaking) since I spent hours talking about comic books that I wasn't sure I would be able to do it; but sure enough, it all comes back to me in the moment, and my hesitant first hugs on Saturday were replaced on Monday by the hugs I used to give people when saying goodnight in Rueger. College friends and all could stand to be physically closer, but I do like that we had this opportunity to stage a little reunion-esque event, and look forward to a possible cabin-bound Vanguard Day in 2008.
Other than that, I'm attempting to make my inverted life livable without turning myself inside out. It's crazy to me to think that by this time next month I might have a short essay published in the New York Review of Science Fiction and will be giving my first paper at a conference (at the Science Fiction Research Association conference in Kansas City, MO). That's what I'm working on right now, now that I've finished another quarter of classes, both teaching and taking; it's weird to be slipping away from "taking" and towards "teaching," but if this is the mirror-world, I have to admit that some inversions feel better than their original, non-reversed states.