Spring Semester 2012....Almost

I return to campus in less than a week....and I'm so excited.  It's bittersweet, of course, because I've been having such a great time at home with my family and friends, but I can't help but look forward to a whole new semester of exciting classes, work, and my new internship.  And of course, the Roomie is returning from France and will be living right next door to me and Italia :)

I'm totally drooling over my book list for this semester; there has to be about 20 books, and out of all of them, there's ONE that I was SUPPOSED to read in high school, but totally didn't. (yikes!)  That means I'm going to be hit with thousands of pages of untold stories over the course of the next fourteen weeks.  I can't wait! :)

This semester is--without a doubt--going to be the busiest I've had yet.  I'm really looking forward to it, though.  I see it as an exciting challenge.

Yep.

First semester of English classes without anthologies....this is my life.

English Major Armadillo

 

I think that these jokes will be most appreciated by Chessie and Sarah, but hopefully most of you will find at least one that you get a kick out of. English Major Armadillo is a fun little meme where everything is an inside joke that English majors would understand. I subscribe to the RSS feed for this Tumblr account, and get myself a daily dose of English major jokes. These are some of my favorites :)

If you don't get one of the jokes, please let me know; I'll be able to fill you in (and don't worry if you were confused; there were a lot that confused me, too.  It just depends on what you've read...)



Oxherding Tale

I've just finished reading Oxherding Tale (Charles Johnson), for my African American Literature class....and I must say, it was quite an experience. We approached the book from a completely different angle than I normally would; namely, we tore the book apart, analyzing every little detail and countering every argument we proposed with another. Everything had two answers; it could be this, but it could also be that. I was fascinated.

Another big thing this professor stressed was to "destroy those virgin pages" (or, in my humble opinion, RAPE those virgin pages).....Basically, write all over them. That was really hard for me...I couldn't believe he expected me to write all over my books, to leave notes in the margins and smears of yellow highlighter over passages and quotes. But, after I got past the initial stress of the situation, I really started to enjoy it....A lot. That's not to say I'm going to write in all my books, but it makes it a lot easier to understand and focus on things in the class if I allow myself to write on the pages.

Oxherding Tale was a fascinating experience. I'm going to have to read it again, because there is so much that I have missed, but I feel like I've also picked up on a lot. I know that I would never have gotten this experience if it wasn't for my professor. He brought the book to life; which is what a good professor does, right? ;)

Oxherding Tale is the story of Andrew, a slave with a black father and a white mother. Because of his mixed blood, he is able to pass for white, so he escapes from slavery and tries to make a name for himself. The book carries a weird, almost ethereal quality to it, like a dream at parts. One character in particular seemed to fade in and out of reality; at times, it was hard to tell if he was even a real person or the incarnation of some dark force. This is the Horace Bannon the bounty hunter, also known as "The Soulcatcher".

There is not a lot I can say about Bannon without giving stuff away, but this is a book you should definitely, read. Just make sure to give yourself the time to read it before you do. It's a book that deserves your time and attention, and needs you to look it over bit by bit. If for nothing else, read it for Soulcatcher....he fascinated me throughout the novel.

A Poem in Old English

N.B. Please pardon my grammar; I'm sure that its not correct, although I've tried to translate to the best of my ability using an online dictionary and an online translator. So, please don't smite me down for improper grammar, word order, cases, or whatever else should earn me a prompt smiting. Mostly, I wanted to write a poem, I wanted to write it in Old English, but, I haven't taken the Old English Language course yet....Oh well...Enjoy the poem :)

Ic i wéne sum cniht

eac wyrtgernang meolc æðm,

eac pylecan brúnne feax

ond déop brúnne heáfodsiéna;

ond twelf Johnny Depp rósan.

The Lady of Shallot

For English class, we read Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem The Lady of Shallot and our Professor played this song for us. It was sooo pretty! The song doesn't contain all the verses from the original poem, though, so I'm including a link to the whole poem. I hope you enjoy!

http://www.love-poems.me.uk/tennyson_the_lady_of_shallot.htm

Canceled Class, Carmel Coffee, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

So, today was the Ides of March. I come to Latin and we talked about Caesar for quite a while, which was awesome, but then I go to my literature class, expecting some wonderful literary analysis of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (I had even highlighted the passages I wanted to discuss) and to my chagrin, I come to class only to find no professor! Now, of course, we only assume that he is running late, but we waited for fifteen minutes, and he still didn't show up! At that point, we all just left, but I will freely admit that I was disappointed. :'(

So, I've come down to the campus coffee shop, and am attempting to warm my spirits with a cup of coffee (Carmel flavored, of course :P). It it most depressing, since today is a misty, wet, and grey day (which I love) but I only love it because its the perfect day to read a book; and the only thing that could make reading a book any better is reading it with a class and discussing every little nuance of it!

As I'm sure you guessed already, I'm currently reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Samuel Clemens. I"m not a huge fan of Mark Twain, but so far, it is rather interesting. I've been highlighting like crazy (something I try very hard not to do in books, but since I have two copies of it, its okay). And, during one of these highlighting sprees, I came across this passage...

"Things ran along, a tournament nearly every week; and now and then the boys used to want me to take a hand-- I mean Sir Launcelot and the rest-- but I said I would by and by; no hurry yet, and too much government machinery to oil up and set to rights and start a-going."

~Samuel Clemens (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court)

This passage seriously makes me laugh; or gape, my reaction varies every time I look at it. I mean, basically, Hank Morgan, the narrator, makes it seem so commonplace to be able to talk to one of the greatest knights of all time!!! He refers to Launcelot as though he was just "one of the boys," as though he was just a kid from the neighborhood! I can't even imagine that, especially after just having read excerpts (because we don't have enough time in class for the whole book) from Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, which makes Launcelot out to be this amazing hero!

One does have to give Clemens/Twain points for being original, hehe!