the usual mish-mash

[paranoid_monkey]

i put up a second string of xmas lights in my room (i always, always have at least one string up at all times). including some heaped in the fireplace (i really need to post pics). now it feels like i'm inside a christmas tree. this is a cool effect unless i'm playing xmas music, in which case it gets a little overwhelming

Comments

You have xmas lights?

[celesteh]

Is the british electricity 220 volts?

Ok, so I have no lights here. So there is a part A and a part B to this question:

A. Even though you have just gone to great effort to put up lights in your room, do you want to allocate some of them (perhaps ones not up) to the french xmas tree?
B. If not, do you want the lights I will purchase? I will have no use for them once the tree comes down, whereas perhaps you are planning on decorating your room with xmas lights college-style for the rest of the year?

I got me cheap-ass côtes de rhone and mulling spices. I know it's probably a sin to mull any apellation controlé, but at the price I paid for that côtes de rhone, it's for the best to hide the original flavor in any way possible.

Re: You have xmas lights?

[paranoid_monkey]

hmm. i'm certainly up for either A or B, but we'd need to get a plug adaptor, obviously, british plugs being these big heavy three-square-prongs deals unlike the smaller (and more elegant, dammit) continental ones. i need to get something like this anyway for my laptop (though i need to check in the box it came in cuz iirc apple included something similar with the computer), but still we'd need a seperate one for the lights. can you get such a thing? maybe it would be easier to find over here. i don't know where though.

it strikes me as actually better to mull an apellation controlé. i think some real badness could come about trying to mull a blended wine. though i don't know, mulling a bad cheap wine is probably worse than either, but otoh as you say it'll cover up the taste! anyway, i say, go for it. should i bring my nutmeg and cloves and things? i'll never use them anyway. how are you doing the mulling? people here seem to have all sorts of different recipes.

Re: You have xmas lights?

[celesteh]

i feel like i'm getting a flu. huzzah!

the apellation and the mix of grapes are related, but it doesn't mean that a bordeaux, for example, isn't blended.

Re: You have xmas lights?

[paranoid_monkey]

i bought a third string of xmas lights today cos they were on sale. so don't get any more. however, should you come across a plug adaptor thingie, that might be a good thing to pick up!

[den_down_unda]

Well, I'm one of the three. Why is Martin in particular Modernist?

[paranoid_monkey]

well, as you know Modernism (and pomo, only more extremely sometimes) is characterized by fragmentation and (sometimes circularity) and a lack of center. martin pretty much fits all of that. most epic fantasy (like RJ) is to some extent Modernist simply by virtue of the way they fragment narratives into different POVs and switch them around continuously. it's more pronounced in martin because the POV sections tend to be shorter - often quite short - so the fragmentation on that level is more obvious. also, there's no central plot like there is in RJ. i can't tell what martin is up to, you know? i don't see where he's going, particularly. i can tell that jon snow and daenerys are probably the absolute main characters in terms of those who will triumph, but this being martin, there's no certainty of that

[paranoid_monkey]

oh, but anyway, this topic really interest me, because epic fantasy in other ways is such an übertraditionalist form - on a superficial level. i mean, it's usually literally about a return to the past. that's been changing /a lot/ recently, though. but i mean, tolkien was being about as retro as he could (or so he thought, while also being modern). anyway, i find it ironic that postmodernism is entering the epic fantasy world. it would have to, since we live in the time of postmodernism, but it's still sort of funny given that this is a genre that tends to involve a lot of swords and agrarian societies etc.

[ladybird97]

I'm another one of the three :) And I'm really fascinated by this observation. I completely agree with what you're saying about the fragmented POV and lack of central storyline.

But what do you make of Martin's coincidences, then - the characters running into each other and not knowing it? That would seem to me to point to some degree of fate. Does that fit with your modernist theory? (This isn't a challenge, just a question - being a medievalist, I don't know that much about modernism/postmodernism, so I'm honestly curious.)

On second thought, I think it may only be Sam that has the chance encounters, so maybe he's just a lone medieval character stuck in a postmodern book :)

[androgy8]

I'm sorry. I've been really lame about reading people's blogs. Can you catch me up on what's going on with you? Are you just visiting France for the holidays or moving there?

Did you get a job and a place to live?

Are you applying to grad schools? In Europe or the U.S.

Your fans want to know! :)

(Okay, just one fan. Here at least. More elsewhere, I'm sure.)

[paranoid_monkey]

quick answers:

1. nope, no job, but yes, nice place to live (despite some housemate difficulties)

2. yep applying to 13 different grad schools, all in the US, including 4 in the bay area (UCB, stanford, UC santa cruz, and UC davis).

i recommend not ever applying to 13 graduate schools at once unless you feel you absolutely have to. the paperwork is INSANE.

hope you're well :-) you've sounded a bit down in your LJ lately.

[paranoid_monkey]

oh and i'm just going to France for the holidays, yes. not moving there, unfortunately.