I love my classes sometimes.

[hermionesviolin]

I had forgotten just how much Valentine talks. I read the majority of the Norton essays on the text and had notes on several; had talking points but no real outline or anything. I say 5 sentences about the Ian Watt essay and solitude and mythicization and he goes off on that and madness and we get into the fact that there's no sex in Robinson Crusoe and how that's contrary to reality and sex in the Navy and how that's a big issue now with allowing women in the Navy and doesn't anyone know what he's talking about which gets us into a discussion about American media and the European interpretation thereof and i reference Christopher Rick's remarks last night and after a half an hour it's back to me. I talk about Flynn's essay on cannibalism and Crusoe's anxiety about savagery and he starts talking again and we talk about cannibalism and taboo and in relation to good/bad, (un)clean eating i mention Peter's vision, and another time i discuss cannibalism and Alice mentions Stranger in a Strange Land before i can (even though that isn't where i was taking my rationale from). Then it's 5 minutes before class ends and he asks if i have anything else to say before we leave and i mention Damrosch's essay and his idea, first, that Robinson Crusoe is a novel that got away from its author, and then about solitude and how Crusoe can't sin without other people around so the anxiety created by the arrival of the cannibals (aside from the previously discussed anxieties that brings up). I actually had a lot more i could have talked about about savagery and religion and solitude as well as the other theme of labor and God and selfhood. I think i'm going to do my paper on labor, Puritanism, Weber, solitude, selfhood, Robinson Crusoe both because i've already read and taken notes on so many of the essays and because Protestantism is a big interest of mine. He "suggested" about a dozen works for us to read on George Eliot, which is a bit of a laugh because that's for Tuesday and we all have another class which is finishing up next week. If Trinity has the essays he wants us to read i will certainly read them (though it sounded like they were lengthy and dense) but then he was talking about the various "standard life of"s that are out there and hello, i am not reading a biography of George Eliot over the weekend.

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Give me just a minute of your time...

[carpdeus.livejournal.com]

From http://www.abacci.com/books/authorDetails2.asp?authorID=48&misspellID=168

George Elliot was the pen name used by Mary Anne Evans born in Warwickshire, England in 1819. From an early age she was attended various Boarding Schools. She was a very plain woman. It was her intellect and her soft voice, which were to be her saving graces.

In 1839 her mother died and Mary Anne, who was then 19, returned to look after father and home. He was proud of her erudition and her intellectual ability. He continued to have her tutored privately and provided books for her. At this time in her life, she questioned not only the values of the society around her, but religion.

In 1841 she met Charles and Caroline (Cara) Bray who were progressive intellectuals. It was primarily through them that her social circle widened and she met her staunchest friends of later years.

In 1849 her father died. She had by this time been writing for some time. It was her translation of Strauss's Life of Jesus which first gained her some recognition. (Although her name was not at first placed upon the work)

From 1850-1853, she worked for the Westminster Review as a translator (German literary works) and reviewer and editor. In 1853, she met the critic, George Henry Lewes with whom she remained, until he died in 1878. They had a strong relationship, he provided her with great support and protection.

Lewes was already married and the social difficulties of their relationship were enormous. Even when she became famous and people became aware of the fact that she was indeed the mysterious George Elliot, public censure and her family's condemnation of her lifestyle and beliefs remained throughout their time together. Her reaction to the conservative life of country gentlefolk of her day, left a mark on all her works. She travelled to Europe on a number of occasions spending some time in Germany with Lewes and some time researching for Romola in Italy.

She first used the pseudonym George Elliot in a serial for Blackwood's Magazine in 1857 titled The Scenes of Clerical Life. She next produced the great novel Adam Bele (1859),then The Mill on the Floss (1860) and Silas Marner ( 1861). <editorial note: Steve Martin's "A Simple Twist of Fate" is a one of the better renditions of Silas Marner, highly recommended... now, back to Biography on A & E (or is that L & J?)

Later novels Romola (1862-3), Felix Holt (1866) and Middlemarch (1871-2) well display her breadth of knowledge.

In 1880 she married John Cross, a long standing friend and financial adviser, nearly twenty years her junior. She however died within 8 months at the age of 61. <last editorial note: Proof that marriage can be deadly.>

George Elliot quotes:

• Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.
• I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.
• Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
• The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.
• The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.
• One must be poor to know the luxury of giving.
• Be courteous, be obliging, but don't give yourself over to be melted down for the benefit of the tallow trade.