"The patchwork girl has come to cinch the deal"

[hermionesviolin]

Nothing like an unintentional all-nighter to knock my sleep schedule back into whack.

7am: pale purples and blues, the shining moon above the buildings.

Mmm, Hubbard has yummy (pea)nut butters again. And Smith plowed liek whoa.

Filling out Skarda's "Student Introduction" form was fun.

Telling and Retelling: Modern Novels and Their Literary Antecedents
English literature background or academic experiences (or, why take this course?)
You've written my grad school recommendations; you know the answers to this one :)
Background: approximately 18 college literature courses.
Why this course: because the stories that get told and retold is something i wanna engage with for the rest of my life.
Interests and talents, likes and dislikes with some mention of why, when, how:
particular interest in contemporary retellings (or sequels/prequels) of classic narratives -- particularly fairytales, vampire mythos, and Christian tropes.
often a "bad English major" in that i dislike much of the Western canon.
Self-description, life adventures, travel observations work experiences:
self-description: addicted to stories and rational discussion
life adventures include 2 cross-country camping trips with family and a summer in Oxford
work experience includes public library circulation department, independent bookstore full of crazies, and office bitch
On the back of this page, identify one book you have read on your own in the last six months and tell me why it appealed to you. This book will be made known to your classmates, so keep that in mind. Please name the author and year of publication, too, so your peers and I can find your selection.
Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram (1996)
It's a fictionalized account of the last days in the life of director James Whale. I originally picked it up because i've heard people talk about the film Gods & Monsters and learned that the film was based on this book. The book ended up being really interesting, in large part because of how it narrated almost through Whale's dementia, with memories and perceptions and films all shifting into each other.

Class with Skarda continues to rawk. She was late to class and there was much banter, and then we actually started on Ourika and she said something like "Didn't you find it haunting?" and i said "No" and she said something like, "You can always count on Elizabeth [surname] to not like a book," and i said, "I'm a bad English major, what can i say?" and she said, "No, you're a good English major, that's the problem." I didn't actually participate much in the discussion, but much fun was had.

Meg and i finally got together and now have a standing lunch date for Tuesday/Thursday for the rest of the semester -- because what is a Tuesday/Thursday lunch without an off-campus Smithie? though of course no one could replace my darling.

And Moriah-from-NHS is coming to visit next Friday. Yay for people.

All week i've been saying that my seminar is the one class that isn't allowed to suck (because it's the one thing i can't drop/fail) and lo, i think it's my least favorite of all my classes. A whole lot of the Chaucer kids seem to have just migarated into the seminar, and the class is maxed out. Not that this is a bad thing, just a note. Something about the prof kinda bugs me, but i can't put my finger on it. I really think this course is gonna be my lightest reading load, even with the course reader, which is weird since it's a seminar. Though all of my classes seem to have really easy workloads in terms of papers/projects/exams, which makes the Booklists of Doom so totally doable. I have visions of a semester full of Been There Done That as far as the seminar goes, but we shall see.

For leading discussion, my first choice would have been

Fairy Tale to Contemporary Short Story I: Beauty and the Beast. Versions in Tatar, pp. 25-73, with special attention to Angela Carter's "The Tyger's Bride" (also in The Bloody Chamber) and "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon," The Bloody Chamber, pp. 41-51.

Instead i got

Folktale in Elizabethan Tragedy, contginued. King Lear III-V and "Cinderella in Maria Tatar, ed., The Classic Fairy Tales, 101-37

which upon reflection might in fact be a better one.

Serenity appears about 16 minutes into the Battlestar Galactica premiere episode.
Countdown 'til crossover fic, anyone?

Question for Firefly fans:

[Poll #426399]
I'm not looking for official statements about the character's ages but rather am curious as to what your impression of the age gap is as a viewer (feel free to tell me a range).