I really haven't done very much this week, which in itself was nice. I've applied for a job and written an abstract for a forthcoming conference. I've also sorted out some stuff for the flat and obtained currency for the holiday in Tuscany, which starts tomorrow. Fun times. I've also read two novels (The Great Gatsby and The Man Who Was Thursday) ( Read more... )

Earlier this week I finished reading The Great Gatsby (1925), F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel of ‘the Jazz age’, for the first time. Here are some thoughts.

( ‘I’m thirty, […] I’m five years too old to lie to myself and call it honour.’ )

My first published academic article!

http://englishjournal.blogs.ilrt.org/

(Click on issues and you'll find it on the contents page for issue 1)

Musical theatre is the last bastion of artistic prejudice. Nowadays, hating opera is something people do with reservations and liking classical music is becoming a downright respectable pastime among even the most alternative musical circles. Musicals, on the other hand, are usually written off as a pretty unconvincing artform with no real ( Read more... )

Christmas then, eh? I did the customary thing with the dead horse (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=195941350349), visited friends and family on Christmas Eve and had a lovely Christmas Day at home with my parents and sister. Didn't make it to church this year (God will, I'm sure, forgive my not getting up at six due to a massive ( Read more... )

Chris and I were in Morocco last week. We sepnt a few days in Marakech being hassled by locals, visiting tombs, mosques and museums, eating lots of nice food and trying to locate alcoholic beverages. Marakech is a nice place - its narrow backstreets and walled courtyards are strangely reminiscent of Oxford and have a similar sort of undefinable ( Read more... )

In, Between Men, her seminal study of homophobia in history and literature, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick posited a phenomenon which she called 'homosexual panic'. According to Sedgwick, homophobia is an offshoot of sexism, since keeping women subordinate means rigidly separating heterosexual marriage from the homosocial relationships (male friendships) ( Read more... )

"Aspects of the gem as a model for queer visuality emerge in chapter four of Against Nature, in which Des Esseintes takes us through a catalogue of jewels, all possible candidates for the camp adornment of his tortoise."

Best. Sentence. Ever.

I also like the bit later in the article where she goes on to talk about the recent "advent of bling" in ( Read more... )

I'm going to keep this LJ going despite the fact that I can't really be bothered with it in light of Twitter being much easier ( Read more... )

So a tax for people who've been to university. I'm honestly not sure what to think about that.

On the one hand I guess it will have advantages in terms of how it's paid. It will get rid of the effect of your student loan on your ability to have a higher mortgage, for example. It will also mean potentially fewer money problems while actually at uni. ( Read more... )