Other than that, I'm waiting for a package to arrive to an empty house in The Woodlands. Hopefully I will get it when I go back tomorrow because Sunday I'm off to Kentucky!
I also need to get cracking on some research and studying for publishing school.
Contemporary Critical Theory class was intense today and I loved it. Suffice to say language is language and that is the only definition there is without causing it to become instrumental. Also, a poem is pure language which calls things into being. These things, by themselves, thing (ie a hammer hammers and a knife knifes). This is the only uninstramentalized definition there is when the thing is alone. Yes a knife cuts, but now you are A) showing it in reference to something else (ie what it cuts) and B) it is no longer simply a thing, it is now an instrument. In a poem however, many things are called into being to create a greater fourfold and thus, in relation to the other objects, these things are more greatly defined. If you have only seen a hammer in your entire life, you know what it does, but you do not know what it truly is in comparison to say a screwdriver or a marshmallow which show you what it is not. Through this fourfold, this calling into being of multiple things, a poem delivers pure speak.
SO COOL!
So yes, I'm currently riding the philosophical train of awesomeness. Also we went over why we study literature and the answer is, "because I am studying the basis of everything: art. Something that transcends humanity. Language calls humanity into being. Why aren't you studying Literature?" haha. Seriously though, I had this intense feeling tonight where I felt like I had become one with the literary community. A poem is just a poem. It is not a communication from another time or place or person, it is simply a poem to be enjoyed due to the fact that it is a poem. What a way to join a timeless part of humanity.
And the Super Bowl. I cried. I had to leave the room when people were in Dave's face yelling about how his team lost because I know how much this meant to him all year. I think I've decided that sports are not for me. I can't handle the intense anticipation and the giant let down you have to deal with while those around you are making fun of you. Sports brings out the mean in people!
That's it for today. I'll leave you today with another poem, one that I had to write in class today. The assignment: write a love poem about a "dried leaf"
The Passage of Love
You lay crimson below naked trees
limbs exposed to the oncoming cold.
We used to pile you up and make love
to you, surrounding ourselves
with you. Innocent and pure love
I remember
Your smell
woody, musty, and as you left your body
your aroma could drift miles
to my open window as I write
and remember
how you fell to my feet every time.
Figure the speak of that out! hahaha.
Today started early with revisions of a poem for my first class and I was duly rewarded multiple times over with one of the best compliments I've ever received: "This is the best poem I've ever read by a student." Wow. Were we reading the same thing? I'll post it here for the great beyond to read.
Verismo
The graves line the earth,
each name a mark on yellowed staff paper.
Each life a scherzo in D minor
slowed to lento then silence.
Off in the corner the old willow keeps time.
Waiving branches wait and wilt.
They must not play here.
Laughter loses its breath
when held by these violent cast iron spikes.
Red rovers and Miss Mary Macs lie
dormant, their song silenced
by the curled edges.
They must not play here.
Parents, grandparents, and their parents.
Their movement is caught
between the bars,
held up in ledger lines.
But the magnum opus
continues prestissimo,
discrepant and discordant.
Eventually it will run out of codas,
But they must not play here.
(Listen to Frank: Symphony in D Minor: I. Lento while reading J)
Apart from that...I found out that I'm about 1 1/2 inches away from getting a nice hair cut and donating to locks of love so I suppose I'll have to wait until April-ish, but this gives me time to work out more and thus it will be like an extra cool, charity filled Virginia makeover! I think it will be so much easier to cut my hair to shoulder length knowing that the hair will be for a child's wig.
Finally, before I wrap up for the day and read East Lynne until my eyes bleed or spontaneously combust out of spite, I wore my wellies for the first time today and, is it just me?, or when one buys these rubber boots do the puddles never seem big enough anymore? haha.
- Music:(above mentioned song is playing in my head)
Classes seem good so far and, apart from having to wake up for my one and only T/TR class at 8:30 am, pretty nicely spaced out as well. "The Victorian Woman Question" is proving better than I would have hoped. Honestly, I am getting a bit sick of this time period in literature, but starting off with the mysterry/sensation-esque novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall has rekindled my interest. On the other hand, my "Contemporary Critical Theory" class started with a bang when the Prof asked us, "Why do they call Cinnibon, Cinnibon?" and he continued to question everything else for the next two hours until I wasn't sure of my own existence. Last night's class covered the used of art as a device within poetic language (the used of enstrangement so that we don't merely recognize images, we VIEW them!) and the rules set so that one can avoid over analyzing texts. He gave us Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 which was translated, by a Yale Prof, into a love letter for the Tudor Family. He said our resident Shakespeare expert would tear you a new one if you handed something like this in. haha.
Holidays went well. Birthday went well. I actually was given a surprise party which was truly a surprise and a wonderful party at that. Now if only I could get people to come to the next party I'm planning.....
I've decided to start to volunteer. Looks good on the resume and I'll meet new friends. Maybe someday I'll find that close girlfriend I've always been lacking. You know, the one you can call up any time and hand out with? I've systematically tried to find this person among my current "girl friends", but no one has been very receptive. The search must go on though! Someone out there is bound to understand me lol.
Oh! I watched the premier episodes of "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicals" (admittedly initially because of Summer Glau) and, though it's got some corny parts and some predictable parts, the story is good enough to make me want to find out more! So now, Monday nights at 10 on CTV, I have a new show to watch. Someday my Thursdays at 8/10 slot will return....but until then I have my pretty new Office calendar to look at.
- Music:Tori Amos - Under the Pink
First, how is a painting of Jesus as a child with his family where no one has a halo not displaying religion with a humanistic slant? Someone please tell me. (in reference to the pre-raphaelites)
Second, WHEW, being a publisher for a university mag is turning out to be tough...or I'm being forced to be tough...A fellow class mate asked me for about the fifth time why her story, which someone emailed her and told her was accepted (still not sure who that was), is not going to be included in this year's publication. I calmly told her for the fifth time that the fiction editors picked their top ten stories in a certain order and I fit in as many as I could in that order. She then said loudly for the whole class, "Well I'm pissed!" ...not much I can do...as I've said before...sigh...
In happier news I may be acquiring grunt work for a local publisher. Not for sure yet, and it would only be publicity, but it's experience right? I'm quite interested to learn how these businesses work. It's nice to know that there are still options in my future and that I can chose to be an editor or I can chose to be a prof. It is my choice.
I'm making a Christmas list! Yay Christmas. My favorite Christmas song right now: "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" Judy Garland. Such an amazing voice. Such feeling.
¡OH! Mi beca esta finida también. Y el día final está el próximo lunes. No puedo esperar volver a casa.
- Music:The Celtic Circle
Now on to bigger and better things. My scholarship is finally coming together. Hopefully my prof will write his letter in time. I am also almost done with my LAST STORY for fiction. I think what I've learned from the class is that I might want to be an editor or a publisher when I "grow up." Finally, Fathom is almost done, though now the teacher is holding it up because he wants me to make more changes and then bring it into class and project it in class as he talked about publishing i think. Should be funny the reaction my Star Trek background gets.
I find this journal interesting in a sense that I am supposedly writing for an audience, there is that word supposedly. I really have no idea if anyone is reading this so HELLO OBLIVION! WHY AM I TAKING THE TIME TO WRITE TO YOU WHEN I HAVE A SPANISH EXAM TOMORROW!?
I woke up. There's a start. I woke up and got ready, got some breakfast, and got me some workbook study in....lol.
Seriously, Spanish was interesting today. I got a test back and was quite disapointed when I was one point away from an A-. Ah well, I guess it's good that it's factored in numerically rather than letter-aly? I then sat around for four hours and worked on the first draft of my story, which went pretty well, but got me thinking I should go into publishing. Let me explain. I find the first draft to be a mind numbing process where I have to force myself through my perfectionism to get words down on paper. I would so much rather edit my already written words and make them into a wonderfully complex story. I am also enjoying this crazy publishing job with Fathom. Don't tell anyone, because it will make me lose all sympathy, but I'm kind of excited that my co-publisher has disappeared and left me with everything. I can do everything the way I want to and I look very good doing it because I'm all alone now. haha. Oh the inner thoughts of me...
I also got my fiction prof to agree to write me a good letter of recommendation. One step closer to this scholarship application being over.
And finally the cherry on top! Tonight was my first public poetry reading! I read Crumpled Pink Dress and The Sale (I tried to do the cut thing with a link to them, but it seems too difficult for me). It was nothing big (my class, prof, the tavern owner, and a few seedy people with beers in the corners) , but it was exciting for me to get out there and share my stuff. I think I'm also leaning away from fiction and toward poetry these days....GOOD THING I'M NOT IN IT FOR THE MONEY!
Who knows when I'll write again. I have a million things to do, as do we all.
I'm sitting here, eating my sushi, and waiting for the feeling to come back into my arms. I lugged a ten pound turkey up Queen St, along with all other Thanksgiving sides (and a pie), on my back and in two bags, one on each arm. If that doesn't show my dedication to this American holiday, I don't know what would.
Interestingly, on my way to the grocery, I was passed by a procession of police followed by a black car with a British flag on the antenna. I wonder what politician is in town...
Also, this being my first year paying for Thanksgiving, HOLY CRAP THIS STUFF IS EXPENSIVE! Could be worse I suppose. I could be paying for it all. Good thing I have friends who make food.
I'm quite excited, actually, and I think I'll go start cleaning and decorating now. Soon it will be time to pop in the turkey!
Do you ever wonder why they put plastic grass in the tray with your sushi?
Funny incorrect answers from today's pop-quiz:
Bulstrode's social destruction at the end of Middlemarch is an example of:
(A) Eliot's principles of utilitarianism.
Because of the reception to Jude the Obscure, Hardy:
(D) moved to Canada where the people were more liberal minded.
And, HAPPY DAY, I got permission to skip out on the final...and write a five to seven page paper.
The first day of my blog...
This has been one crazy week, mostly because of my procrastination tendencies (exhibit A: This blog). It started with a bang on Monday with a small paper due as well as a request for the permission to write another paper. Why you ask? So that I can skip out on the final. That leaves only one final at the end of this semester. And, I still only have two full-length essays: one 1500-2000 to turn in on Dec. 6 and one 2500 to turn in on Dec. 10 (sorry ahead of time dad!). Not to mention the Spanish test I have tomorrow and the in-class final next week. Oh, and the 3000 word story due next Wednesday that just changed in my mind! I'll be non-existent this weekend...
On a brighter note, Thanksgiving is tomorrow (v2.0) and I'm throwing a dinner party at my apartment for all the Canadians. I currently have Adam Sandler's Thanksgiving song stuck in my head, too bad I can't annoy Dad with that one...>:D
I'm afraid my procrastination quotient has been filled and I must now get ready to go class...Yay for the inevitable pop quiz on Eliot, or perhaps Hardy...?
Here's a picture I drew yesterday when my eyelids were so puffy from lack of sleep that they wouldn't close...
- Music:Nat King Cole
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