The joys of academe

[gillo]

I am genuinely finding a great deal of joy in my studies right now. On Wednesday I was with the seven-year-olds again. It was dry and occasionally sunny, so we took them on an "expedition" around the school grounds - or, rather, out of the Stinky Swamp, through the Wondrous Wood (where we fought off werewolves and hid from an Evil Bagpipe Monster

Comments

[geekslave]

That "expedition" sounds so fun!

Stacey

[gillo]

I certainly enjoyed it! The children were brilliant about coming up with ideas for the journeys and the enemies.

[xrseyre]

It's great to see you enjoying yourself so much - something I can suddenly empathise with really well, rather than just, vampire-like, trying to suck up some of your mood to lift my own...

[gillo]

I prefer my vampires blond and blue-eyed, thanks.

I have your email and will try to address it later tonight or tomorrow...

[chiron14]

The freedom of unbridled thought is exactly what makes academic life so attractive, even at its lower, materially unrewarding tiers. I envy your ability to enthuse (if such a word exists) - I wish I could find some dregs of mine.
At a more prosaic level, "memento mori" = "reminder that thou shall die". It may well be a visual pun, but it's a long shot - a skull with such a meaning was almost an obligatory accessory to any secular illustration or tract with philosophical pretensions in the Reformation/Counter-reformation era. But the engraver does seems to have had fun drawing it.

[gillo]

Thomas More was in the habit of punning about his name, so the inclusion of the skull was probably intended to have more than one meaning.

It took me a while to get the level of enthusiasm back - a lot of hard work and a total change in direction. It can be done, but it's not easy. I wish you all the luck in the world in looking for yours.

[chiron14]

If he's a recidivist punner, then it's all right.

[gillo]

Incorrigible.

[lokifan]

Jealouuuuuuus, that sounds brilliant!

[gillo]

It makes me happy. I'm a litgeek above all else.