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May. 11th, 2005 09:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelseagirlThey're right on our heels as usual department: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
psycholibrarian and linaerys, thought you might be amused by the writeup in this month's Lucky (aka guilty pleasure) magazine on the wonders of shopping on 74th Street in Jackson Heights.
We were flipping past *28 Days Later* on tv last night, and M. pointed out Christopher Eccleston to me. I'm impressed; I recall the character quite vividly (and creepily) from when we saw the film. Just hadn't made the connection.
Yesterday, we had our instructors' meeting for the classics-through-Dante class I teach in the fall and we've made some positive changes in the syllabus. We're adding Ovid, the Bible (Genesis, Exodus and a gospel or two), and probably some of Aristotle's Politics and Physics (both of which play into the second semester course); I'm dumping tired old Oedipus (which is so key for those who didn't get it in high school, but such a rerun for the half of them that did) for Medea and possibly Lysistrata. I still don't have to teach Augustine, and the best bits (Odyssey, Inferno) are intact, as well as Virgil (eh). And, amusingly, "O Brother Where Art Thou?", which I showed last year, seems to have become enshrined in the syllabus.
Ever-so-slightly sulky about the movie meme that's been going around, or rather about this new LJ trend towards "passing the baton." I fully recognize I could go ahead and tell you all what my five favorite movies are without being asked, and nobody would mind one bit. So this is not a request for someone to ask me; more a "not loving this trend" observation. There's always been a sort of randomness and cheerful anarchy about these things that picking people undermines a bit.
Reading:
In Ruins by Christopher Woodward. A quiet, nicely-written meditation on a subject that's always fascinated me, from the 18th-19th c. reaction to the ruins of ancient Rome to the preservation vs. restoration of WWII bombing sites. Just a pleasurable little book of the sort that it's nice to see still published once in awhile.
Murder of Angels by Caitlin Kiernan. I find her prose *too* compelling -- I read the thing altogether too quickly. I'm not a horror fan ordinarily, but I really enjoy Kiernan's writing and characters. This was a sequel to Silk, a book where certain characters and situations resonated for me deeply (particularly Daria's fascination/entanglement with a heroin-addicted musician which reminded me strongly of someone in my past). Here, the characters are dealing with the aftermath, a decade later. It wasn't quite as strong, but still compelling -- the damage that had been done, and the various survivors' ways of coping with it, felt very real, which considering the un-realist nature of what they'd been through, shows a writer who can really handle her characters.
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey. I'd seen this mentioned all over my f-list, so I thought I'd try it.
The world she sets up is quite interesting, but the main character was too into herself for my taste, and considering the subject matter I didn't find it particularly erotic. Oh well.
psycholibrarian and linaerys, thought you might be amused by the writeup in this month's Lucky (aka guilty pleasure) magazine on the wonders of shopping on 74th Street in Jackson Heights. We were flipping past *28 Days Later* on tv last night, and M. pointed out Christopher Eccleston to me. I'm impressed; I recall the character quite vividly (and creepily) from when we saw the film. Just hadn't made the connection.
Yesterday, we had our instructors' meeting for the classics-through-Dante class I teach in the fall and we've made some positive changes in the syllabus. We're adding Ovid, the Bible (Genesis, Exodus and a gospel or two), and probably some of Aristotle's Politics and Physics (both of which play into the second semester course); I'm dumping tired old Oedipus (which is so key for those who didn't get it in high school, but such a rerun for the half of them that did) for Medea and possibly Lysistrata. I still don't have to teach Augustine, and the best bits (Odyssey, Inferno) are intact, as well as Virgil (eh). And, amusingly, "O Brother Where Art Thou?", which I showed last year, seems to have become enshrined in the syllabus.
Ever-so-slightly sulky about the movie meme that's been going around, or rather about this new LJ trend towards "passing the baton." I fully recognize I could go ahead and tell you all what my five favorite movies are without being asked, and nobody would mind one bit. So this is not a request for someone to ask me; more a "not loving this trend" observation. There's always been a sort of randomness and cheerful anarchy about these things that picking people undermines a bit.
Reading:
In Ruins by Christopher Woodward. A quiet, nicely-written meditation on a subject that's always fascinated me, from the 18th-19th c. reaction to the ruins of ancient Rome to the preservation vs. restoration of WWII bombing sites. Just a pleasurable little book of the sort that it's nice to see still published once in awhile.
Murder of Angels by Caitlin Kiernan. I find her prose *too* compelling -- I read the thing altogether too quickly. I'm not a horror fan ordinarily, but I really enjoy Kiernan's writing and characters. This was a sequel to Silk, a book where certain characters and situations resonated for me deeply (particularly Daria's fascination/entanglement with a heroin-addicted musician which reminded me strongly of someone in my past). Here, the characters are dealing with the aftermath, a decade later. It wasn't quite as strong, but still compelling -- the damage that had been done, and the various survivors' ways of coping with it, felt very real, which considering the un-realist nature of what they'd been through, shows a writer who can really handle her characters.
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey. I'd seen this mentioned all over my f-list, so I thought I'd try it.
The world she sets up is quite interesting, but the main character was too into herself for my taste, and considering the subject matter I didn't find it particularly erotic. Oh well.
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 01:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 01:50 pm (UTC)Of course, in true lemming fashion, I did it anyway.
None of which means that I'm not babbling around this early in the morning, only vaguely coherent, nor that I'm not interested in your 5 movies.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 02:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 02:20 pm (UTC)I feel kind of left out, but I always do.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 02:25 pm (UTC)passing the baton
Date: 2005-05-11 02:41 pm (UTC)When I originally wrote my response to the movie meme, I entered a mini diatribe about chain letters and chain letter-like manifestations, but then I wimped out and retreated. I didn't want to seem to imply that the person handing it on to me shouldn't have done so, or that I wasn't a good sport. So I simply left it at not naming more people, and not really explaining why. And thus do minor evils continue . . .
Re: passing the baton
Date: 2005-05-11 02:47 pm (UTC)Speaking of chain letters, I got one from a friend of ours in the UK. I said to M., "Your friend K. sent me a chain letter." Him: "Don't you mean our friend K.?" Me: "When she's sending me a chain letter, she's *your* friend."
no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 02:59 pm (UTC)1. I want to take this class.
2. Mind if I kibitz on the Bible book selection? James is a good way to go with the New Testament. You get an excellent, concise summary of pretty much the whole Bible, an overview of Jesus's life, and a little bit of the Apostles'
fuckupperypost-Jesus philosophies. And did I mention it was clear and concise? As opposed to the random anecdote style of the Gospels? 'Cause that's huge.no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 07:52 pm (UTC)You might be interested in David Denby's book about the great books where he went back to Columbia and took Lit Hum and Contemporary Civilization. Of course, he was a grown up film critic, and he took sections with some of the Grand Old Men rather than the typical overstretched grad students. I haven't read it myself (too much like work).
D'OH!
Date: 2005-05-11 07:58 pm (UTC)I'm sorry. You read 'em through right quick, and they all mash up together, eh? James is actually a letter, not a book. *is doofus*
Re: D'OH!
Date: 2005-05-11 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 04:11 pm (UTC)And while the world was intriguing- which is why I read all 3- I don't think in the end that it was very well-thought-out.
I also got very, very tired of some of the word misuses: "mayhap" does not equal "maybe," nor "somewhat" "something". And I do not find it poetic, as seemed to be the goal, just increasingly annoying.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 04:24 pm (UTC)Been meaning to read more Caitlin Kiernan. I've always loved her work in comics, but I didn't like Silk all that much. It had some good ideas, as you've so eloquently mentioned - and I LOVED the Jenny Dare/Roanoke Island thing - but for some reason the book just didn't do it for me. Maybe I should give it another go.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 05:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-11 07:57 pm (UTC)Or try another one? Maybe she's just not your flavor -- but the Daria plot, as I said, hit home with a past experience of mine.