Month!

More than a month, actually. What have I been doing?

Well, as far as writing goes, I did write an article for every letter of the alphabet. Some topical, most autobiographical, more as an exercise than anything else. I don't think, right now, I'd like to post all of them here, but I'll post a few; they should appear below shortly after this post.

I spent time at home, spent time at Leslie's home, spent New Year's Eve with friends, and then came back and enjoyed a little quiet. Finally, school started again. This semester I'm taking the following:

1. Chaucer. He's a big, important figure in English, I'd say. Even in the century after he wrote (he died in 1400) he was proclaimed to be the best English writer ever. So the class is setting out to read all of Chaucer's major works in chronological order, a biography on him, and lots of secondary sourcework. There are 5 students in the class, including one that joined us for the first time today. It's a cozy group. The professor knows what he's talking about, and isn't averse to occasionally going off on tangential subjects. The discussion is refreshing, though like any class we're not always right, and don't always have an immediate answer to the professor's questions.

2. Simulation/simulacra. Simulacra are what Plato calls evil copies. Copies are already derivative and degraded from an original ideal. Simulacra are entities that no longer resemble the original idea, that are too far removed from the original to be identified with something. He used it to speak against things like, for instance, drama, which is far removed from the real. So far we've only read one thinker in the class (Deleuze), but his big schtick is overturning Plato's order, that what distinguishes copies is not their similarity to an ideal, but their difference from it. One resulting claim is that simulation can produce its own sense and be as real as anything else. We go on talking along those lines throughout the course, studying technology, the military, game theory, and other things; what I look forward to most is when we talk about artifical intelligence. The people are good, but here I feel most underwater.

3. Histories of Sexuality. It doesn't get more specific than the title. We're going from African diaspora fiction to medieval fiction, studying representations of history and sexuality in different works. Sexuality here doesn't just imply sexual acts, but understandings of sex, gender, and sexual orientation. With certain people, I tend to trail off by the time I mention this one. There are more people in this class, and the professor sometimes likes taking long asides, but he has a challenging intensity that makes us talk more. It's good.

So, overall, I'm pleased. I have one more class that starts in February with a famous novelist whose books I haven't read. Since I'd rather remain anonymous, let's just say his name is Sir Fish Speeddeath.