lunedì, settembre 25, 2006

Should aulde acquaintance sound like a drug-addled schizophrenic folk singer

The Reunion was fun. I’d go to another College one, but probably not one for any other school I’ve gone to. Having stayed close to a good number of people there it was guaranteed that I’d have a nice time, but otherwise people I’d lost touch with were too nervous and guarded, or else seemingly crystallized into sharper versions of themselves that had annoyed me in the first place. So it was a touch annoying. Nice to see old professors again though, and feel a little teacher support network that is so very, very different from the French experience. And that’s all I have to say about that. Except I realized one of the professors, who I've always disliked in principle because of a reputation he has of being shockingly rude to his wife, sounds EXACTLY like Mickey (Eugene Levy's character) from A Mighty Wind. So much so I'm pretty sure they've met.

On the way over to the reunion I read Silas Marner, my first ever George Eliot book. Yay George! Longish sentences and a style of narrative I’m not really used to, in that years would pass in paragraphs – closer to a verbal storytelling style than I’d been expecting. It’s very hard for people to use such a style now, or at all, without sounding laboured and clumsy since you can’t really sync up events and present plot points in a sort of pleasing harmony very well when you do. Except when you’re George Eliot, I suppose, who in setting the fairly simple story of the weaver and his daughter against the tail end of Napoleonic war and the buds of the Industrial Revolution, pulls off a coup, a masterstroke, an oh-my-god that’s cool juxtaposition of the personal and the political.

Or maybe that’s just me, I don’t know. Read it anyways, it’s good.

6 commenti:

Melbine ha detto...

So that was your book on the coffee table! Hmm, I'll have to check it out.

Now I remember what A Mighty Wind is. I'll also have to check this out to see if I agree with the comparison.

It was a nice time wasn't it! I hope you and Figaro managed to make it to the Island?

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

No, we didn't, I didn't get in until three in the afternoon and then I felt like a dishrag. But we had a nice afternoon.

Melbine ha detto...

Oh yes, I guess you didn't factor in the whole travelling yucky feeling. I'm sure you managed to have a nice afternoon. Heh heh.

Sugarplum ha detto...

I felt like a dishrag and I didn't travel. I blame it on the nasty hangover and the early phone call (thanks, Mel) that kept us from getting even 4 hours of sleep either night.

It was a great time and I'm glad you were able to come. It is always nice to share your hangover with someone who is more hungover - it made me feel less guilty about missing the daytime activities.

I'll pass the book on to Melbine when I'm done reading it.

Mistress La Spliffe ha detto...

I'm glad my violent hangover served some purpose besides building my inner abdominals and my character!

It's too bad we missed the day's activities - I would have loved one more lecture with the Redhead - but at the same time I feel like I've gotten out of the reunion what I wanted to and more would have pushed it over the edge into annoying.

Anyways, it was good to see alot of the Mr. H before he moves to Hali and the Dude before he moves to New York, and the fucking melon liqueur was an important part of that I suppose.

Melbine ha detto...

Wait, how many the Dude's are there?!

Hey man, I just made the phone calls like we all agreed I would!