Cunning like a fox who got a doctorate in cunning from Oxford University
THANK JESUSU, THE SEMINAR PAPER OF DOOM IS DONE, DOWN TO THE LAST FOOTNOTE
Now I can put it out of my mind, at least for a few weeks until I have to work on it again in my summer class, augh.
In other news, tomorrow I have to turn in my booklist for Gen Ed Lit in the fall, and a course description. I imagine I'll crap something out revolving around looking at literature in context and engendering a lifelong love of literature for my course description; that's pretty much all I can do, since we have yet to have our proper orientation (it's in the fall, and the one we had last weekend was basically three hours of mentioning things and then saying we were going to talk about them in the fall). As for the two novels I'm going to teach, Pride and Prejudice is a shoo-in, of course, but I'm still debating between Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. I've got till tomorrow, so any suggestions?
Right now I'm leaning towards Atwood, just because I'm thinking it might be better to avoid TWO 19th-century female authors. On the other hand, I'm thinking about adding monster theory to my special interest area for comps, so maybe I should get some practice teaching Frankenstein?
And last night the second half of the new two-parter of Who aired, so my usual impressions post:
Doctor Who 04x04/04x05, "The Sontaran Stratagem"/"The Poison Sky"
- Donna continues to be completely awesome. Her not-leaving in the first ep was hilarious ("dumbo," indeed), and clearly being petrified on the Sontaran ship but doing what she had to do was the most realistic I've felt a companion has been on NuWho when it comes to the action-y stuff.
- O HAY THAR MARFA...as usual, I enjoyed Martha, and evil!clone!Martha was pretty awesome too. My favorite part was the way that the Doctor totally knew she was a clone from the start. Also I'm glad she's coming along for the ride that is the next episode (and is wearing a different jacket from the one last season). Also, her pineapple-hair is back! :D
- OH MY GOD THE BRIG GOT A MENTION, I TOTALLY SQUEALED LIKE A BABY...also apparently he's now Sir Brig, and is in Peru for some reason. C'MON, RUSTY, YOU KNOW YOU WANT NICK COURTNEY BACK ON THE SHOW
- On a similar note, UNIT's back! I actually liked Colonel Mace, despite the heavy-handed "oh hay, the military is stupid! and guns are bad!" stuff (more on which later). And of course Ross was love. ;_;
- I don't know whether it was Helen Raynor or Rusty, but seriously, could we get some subtlety up in this place? OH HAY DID YOU KNOW GUNS AND POLLUTION ARE BAD? ALSO, MILITARY INTELLIGENCE IS AN OXYMORON
- Luke Rattigan was a whiny little quisling and of course his manner of death was blazingly obvious the moment the Sontarans betrayed him. They could have at least TRIED to make him seem at least mildly sympathetic? At least a little? Then we'd at least feel "wow, what a waste of intelligence and potential" instead of "what a maroon." (Also, for someone supposedly so clever, he was pretty stupid when it came to anything that mattered.)
- The Sontarans...I actually mostly liked, but really just because of Christopher Ryan (Mike the cool Sontaran, for anyone who's seen The Young Ones). He totally had the Kevin Lindsay Styre-voice down pat. The other Sontarans were kind of...unfortunate. Unlike a lot of other people, though, I didn't really see a problem with the Sontaran haka. Also, the Rutans got a mention! :D
- So we got another Rose appearance, very blink-and-you'll-miss-it. Mostly I was just shocked at how unflattering it made Billie Piper look. (I can also only assume it's intentional, since Billie Piper is very pretty normally, in spite of her ever-so-slightly apelike jaw.)
- ...The science of Who is never particularly well-done, but seriously, Raynor? SCIENCE DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT. Making the atmosphere flammable and setting it on fire wouldn't stop a mile or so up, and the fire would also consume OXYGEN, which we kind of need to BREATHE, so if our lungs weren't seared by the fire we'd asphyxiate.
- And next week we get what looks to be ripped straight out of the Whedonverse (Buffy plus Connor, with a dash of Time Lord). This could be awesome or dire, only time will tell. BUT RUSTY, YOU BETTER NOT MAKE HER TEN AND ROSE'S LOVECHILD, OR HEADS WILL ROLL
In miscellaneous "awesome" news, have some scary fake babies, the oldest sound recording ever, and Japanese boobie pudding.
Edit: Edited for GIP. :D
Now I can put it out of my mind, at least for a few weeks until I have to work on it again in my summer class, augh.
In other news, tomorrow I have to turn in my booklist for Gen Ed Lit in the fall, and a course description. I imagine I'll crap something out revolving around looking at literature in context and engendering a lifelong love of literature for my course description; that's pretty much all I can do, since we have yet to have our proper orientation (it's in the fall, and the one we had last weekend was basically three hours of mentioning things and then saying we were going to talk about them in the fall). As for the two novels I'm going to teach, Pride and Prejudice is a shoo-in, of course, but I'm still debating between Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. I've got till tomorrow, so any suggestions?
Right now I'm leaning towards Atwood, just because I'm thinking it might be better to avoid TWO 19th-century female authors. On the other hand, I'm thinking about adding monster theory to my special interest area for comps, so maybe I should get some practice teaching Frankenstein?
And last night the second half of the new two-parter of Who aired, so my usual impressions post:
Doctor Who 04x04/04x05, "The Sontaran Stratagem"/"The Poison Sky"
- Donna continues to be completely awesome. Her not-leaving in the first ep was hilarious ("dumbo," indeed), and clearly being petrified on the Sontaran ship but doing what she had to do was the most realistic I've felt a companion has been on NuWho when it comes to the action-y stuff.
- O HAY THAR MARFA...as usual, I enjoyed Martha, and evil!clone!Martha was pretty awesome too. My favorite part was the way that the Doctor totally knew she was a clone from the start. Also I'm glad she's coming along for the ride that is the next episode (and is wearing a different jacket from the one last season). Also, her pineapple-hair is back! :D
- OH MY GOD THE BRIG GOT A MENTION, I TOTALLY SQUEALED LIKE A BABY...also apparently he's now Sir Brig, and is in Peru for some reason. C'MON, RUSTY, YOU KNOW YOU WANT NICK COURTNEY BACK ON THE SHOW
- On a similar note, UNIT's back! I actually liked Colonel Mace, despite the heavy-handed "oh hay, the military is stupid! and guns are bad!" stuff (more on which later). And of course Ross was love. ;_;
- I don't know whether it was Helen Raynor or Rusty, but seriously, could we get some subtlety up in this place? OH HAY DID YOU KNOW GUNS AND POLLUTION ARE BAD? ALSO, MILITARY INTELLIGENCE IS AN OXYMORON
- Luke Rattigan was a whiny little quisling and of course his manner of death was blazingly obvious the moment the Sontarans betrayed him. They could have at least TRIED to make him seem at least mildly sympathetic? At least a little? Then we'd at least feel "wow, what a waste of intelligence and potential" instead of "what a maroon." (Also, for someone supposedly so clever, he was pretty stupid when it came to anything that mattered.)
- The Sontarans...I actually mostly liked, but really just because of Christopher Ryan (Mike the cool Sontaran, for anyone who's seen The Young Ones). He totally had the Kevin Lindsay Styre-voice down pat. The other Sontarans were kind of...unfortunate. Unlike a lot of other people, though, I didn't really see a problem with the Sontaran haka. Also, the Rutans got a mention! :D
- So we got another Rose appearance, very blink-and-you'll-miss-it. Mostly I was just shocked at how unflattering it made Billie Piper look. (I can also only assume it's intentional, since Billie Piper is very pretty normally, in spite of her ever-so-slightly apelike jaw.)
- ...The science of Who is never particularly well-done, but seriously, Raynor? SCIENCE DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT. Making the atmosphere flammable and setting it on fire wouldn't stop a mile or so up, and the fire would also consume OXYGEN, which we kind of need to BREATHE, so if our lungs weren't seared by the fire we'd asphyxiate.
- And next week we get what looks to be ripped straight out of the Whedonverse (Buffy plus Connor, with a dash of Time Lord). This could be awesome or dire, only time will tell. BUT RUSTY, YOU BETTER NOT MAKE HER TEN AND ROSE'S LOVECHILD, OR HEADS WILL ROLL
In miscellaneous "awesome" news, have some scary fake babies, the oldest sound recording ever, and Japanese boobie pudding.
Edit: Edited for GIP. :D