I am still on the English mailing list from UW.  Often I find myself reading emails like this, making me wish I were back in school.  How I wish I could spend 20 hours of each week devouring and digesting this literary conversation!


ENGL 307: Critical Approaches to Tolkien: Cultural Studies and Fantasy Literature

J.R.R. TOLKIEN, in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings, insists and argues, "I should like to say something here with reference to the many opinions or guesses that I have received or have read concerning the motives and meanings of the tale. The prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them...As for any inner meaning or 'message', it has in the intention of the author none. It is neither allegorical nor topical" (xiv). This course will decidedly not believe the author's intentions, rather we will draw on the broad archive of Tolkien's novels, Peter Jackson's films, and scholarship as occasions to identify and explore the key concepts, moves, and terms of the interdisciplinary field of cultural studies.

CENTRAL QUESTIONS AND ENGAGEMENTS INCLUDE: What are the different critical practices and methodologies of cultural studies? How might we employ different cultural studies approaches and lenses to Tolkien, film adaptations, and fantasy literature more generally? Why study fantasy, how is this oft dismissed "genre" important, and what values, ideals, and norms does it have? In this course, we will look at and analyze Tolkien through the lenses of cultural studies and deploy literature as theories about and dramatizations of different social relationships and realities, to unpack and analyze the intersections of cultural formations like race, gender, class, nation, and sexuality, particularly in the US context. Ursula K. Le Guin in "Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?" argues, "For fantasy is true, of course. It isn't factual, but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it too, and that is precisely why many of them are afraid of fantasy." This class will spend the quarter reading, watching, thinking, and writing about how and what these texts argue, reveal, narrate, hide, perpetuate, and complicate the world we live in. In other words, we will try to challenge Tolkien's denials above and to answer Le Guin's proposition about fantasy.

I went to the fabric store yesterday.  It's been too long.  I frequent craft stores often enough that I know my way around, but fabric stores?  I haven't been to one of those in probably two years.  And I've never been without my mom.  I felt like a lost little kid.  All three sweet ladies working there watched me wander around (trying to appear as if I knew exactly what I was doing and was on the hunt for a very specific thing).  Really, I was wandering aimlessly through every aisle.  When they asked me how many yards I needed (the part I'd most been dreading), I admitted, "I don't know, my mom always does that part for me!"  I'm twenty-four.  I have got to get better about the measuring.  Whatever we're building, sewing or otherwise creating, I do the random abstract ideas and my mom always pulls out the measuring tape and pencil.  I'd really like it if whoever I marry wouldn't mind taking over that part of the creating too... but I figure I better not count on it.  Not to mention, in the meantime, I'm not sure I can always drag my mom along (such as this time).  I figured out about what I'd needed (with the woman's help) and added half a yard.  That's about how I tip too.  Numbers, I was always good with them in high school, but somewhere in college and my submersion in the written word, numerical digits became foreign and frightening to me.  It's really an unwarranted fear, I know.  And I'm trying to get over it.  I'm taking baby steps, such as filling in the actual number on the tip line rather than writing an arrow to the total.  If I do decide to go to grad school, I'm going to have to take the GRE, which includes some nice math in there.  It would probably be good for me to brush up on Algebra and Geometry regardless.  Who would guess I used to be smart.

I miss my campus.   It's less mine than others now, but, it will always be mine.   I'll always remember my first year wandering there, knowing I won't run into anyone I know.   That feeling of being lost in a place full of people, a nameless drop, carrying around her books, notepad and pen.   My first time wandering about with the leaves all changing, and the sun setting early, getting caught in the rain and having another class to sit through, soaking wet.   My first time wandering through Magus Bookstore, and into Allegro behind.   Getting coffee at Bull Dog Newsstand, and sipping it as I walked to my first class, my breath making pillows in the cold winter air.   Or my last Spring there, with my sister living down the street and me taking every opportunity to spend warm evenings on the Ave and sleep over.  Yes, I miss class and school and I can't get that back, but I also just miss the campus itself, this place I love.   And that is why I sneak off to it from time to time, all alone, a quiet rendezvous.

By the time others I knew started showing up on the campus (Kyle and Tyson started with me, but chances of running into each other were very slim), I was more than happy to share this special place.   And now, it's their's too.   And to be fair, I know it was many other's before it was mine... Tom, Jen, Courtney...

Tuesday I spent the evening with Kristin, Esther, and Elisa on the Ave.   We hardly even wandered, but just being there in September was sweet to my heart. :)

This handsome fella (the one in the middle), is graduating today!

Congratulations to one of my best friends, and one of the greatest guys I know. So glad we both ended up at UW, who knows if we'd been friends otherwise!? (No, but really!! It's a terrible thought!). You definitely made my years at UW all the better and I know you really are going to change the world. Perhaps one day we'll run into each other on a park bench in New York... hopefully it won't be mine.

-signed, your friend, the hopefully not future starving writer

*****

Turned out he was graduating across the street from our office, so we were able to run down and say "congratulations" in person.

BRILLIANT.

By JOE FRYER / KING 5 News
Bio | Email| Follow: @joefryer
KING5.com
Posted on May 31, 2011 at 10:43 PM
Updated Thursday, Jun 2 at 7:39 AM
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SEATTLE -- With finals just around the corner at the University of Washington, students found a rather unusual way to unwind while helping charity.

A large group of students gathered on Parrington Lawn, then proceeded to strip down to their underwear. Their discarded clothing was thrown in boxes, which will be given to the Salvation Army.

"Basically the premise is you come, you show up in clothing and you donate it," said organizer Nolan Heintz. "And then you do what is logical and you run."

After standing around in their undies for about 30 minutes, the students took off and ran through part of the campus. They even swung through the library, catching many studying students off guard.

Organizers have yet to weigh this year's donations, but they're hoping to beat last year's total of 560 pounds of clothes.

Nine other colleges around the country also held "Undie Runs," which are sponsored by Virgin Mobile USA. So far, Arizona State University is in first place after collecting 8,300 pounds of clothing.

Praying for all my finals-taking friends today... blessings on all of you.

Peace over your minds, clarity, focus, perseverance, recollection, grace, and favor.

Finish strong and with peace. The end is in sight. ;)

love you.

Ecclesiastes 3. How had I forgotten all about this chapter? And how has it never seemed quite 'right' before? Somehow, this past week, it's been exactly what my heart needs to hear.

3:1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

9 What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.

(ESV)

Oh Lord, help me to perceive what each time is... what time today is, and not to worry too much about what kind of time tomorrow will be. Help me to live today in a beautiful and courageous way. Give me Your joy that can't be overcome. Help me to be faithful, today. Lord, give me courage and grace to accept whatever season I am in and see the changes from where you see them- a sure ground and safe place that never trembles. George MacDonald once said, 'The best preparation for the future is the present well seen to and the last duty done." Oh the sound of faithfulness. Let my life make such a sound.

Procrastination: the great over-achiever. 

I am always amazed by what I can get done, when I am putting off an assignment. Yesterday, I cleaned my (clean) room, vacuumed, did a load of laundry (towels... mine was already done, I've had a week of this remember). I stopped myself when I began redecorating and rearranging. Then, I decided to upload all the pics from Elsa's memory card and export some to facebook.

This morning: worked a shift at Starbucks, made coffee for dad, cleaned the bathroom, doing another load of laundry, checked facebook, and am about to go for a run (and it's not yet 11am). Procrastination, it is the best friend of progress and the enemy of discipline. 

As Jon Pinkston reminded me weekly through my two years of SLT, "Discipline is doing what you ought to be doing, when you ought to be doing it." 

Yet, to confess.... I need mental breaks (and exercise!) or I'll go crazy in this project... and if I must take breaks, I'd prefer they be productive ones that make my room and bathroom clean and orderly. Cleaning: the way a Kelly girl handles stress. (Also, sleeping. And for me, exercise.)

 

I swear, my room never looks so great as during midterms and finals!  ;) 

[You can now add blogging to the list of Procrastination's achievements this morning!]

I'm reading through some South African poetry, a poet recommended by my Professor, Laura Chrisman. She did not recommend it as a delightful read, in fact her exact words were "It is very painful to read." She did not mean it is poor writing, she suggested it to me because the content is graphic and it most closely reaches into the literary trends I am examining in times of political crisis. Thus far though, I have been amazed. I might even be a fan. His poetry is indeed painful, but it also carries some hope. It carries a memory of paradise, and a desire to return. It doesn't shy from the truth, it hangs the decrepit, rotting nature of things right in your face. Here is one of his poems, entitled Rap 3:

On the walls of present memory 

hang hand-faded portraits of harmony

when ar another man could still smile

not shy away as from bile

when man's growth was vertical

the abundance of life was radical

when streams still ran cool

& the devil could only drool

when rivers still sustained

before they turned bloodstained

before the crimson downpour

had vampires in drunken stupor

when man had calabashesful of joy-drink

& the land was pure of corpses' stink

when mothers' hearts still sand

as over hill & valley children's laughter rang

when man was man

& morality was not under ban

when life was dear

& each word was clear

before law meant crook

& justice was an open book

before home meant prison

& reason means treason

before some slept in beds of clover

while others trampled the world over

searching for compassion in distant lands

they couldn't find at their own countrymen's hands

before from a tree man started to dangle

as nothing more than a bangle

this world's sorry decoration

long gone out of fashion

god if I partook of Jesus' flesh-bread

could I too raise the dead

-Lesego Rampolokeng, Horns for Hondo

If you are reading this, please pray. 

Thank you. 

I'm working on my thesis, and it is going alright... but I am not hitting that greater revelatory moment I need to hit to make this paper work... and really brilliant. Right now, it's nothing grand, nothing new, just a paper. 

I know God has something new to say through this, I just am trying to discover what it is...

I'm on the UCLA grad school website, looking at the application process. I'm day dreaming... about life and hopes and the future, all the 'doors' ahead. And I'm feeling more aware than ever of what it really means to say, "Lord, all my hopes are in You." 

If you can accomplish your dreams on your own... they probably aren't worth living for. I want to be spent up on something that my life can't afford, I want to be poured out into something that my life can't fill up on it's own. Pressed down, shaken up, and pouring over....

One week 'til my rough draft of my senior thesis is due. One week. 

Reason #1 I am sad to be graduating:

When will I ever again be in a room with 15 other people, who all laugh at a joke about TS Eliot's The Wasteland's overuse of footnotes.

English major jokes... I will miss spending time with other Lit nerds. The jokes I can never quite explain to my friends... :(

(Chris next to me, says, "Stop calling us NERDS- I barely even read books"... but that comment was followed by a discussion on the different spellings of "Bear/bare" I WIN. My blog, I win. ;)

Last first day.

My first day of my last quarter (as an undergrad) ended with a nice treat- coffee with Ty. I'm so grateful for this guy. He's been my pal forever, ever growing more dear to my heart. Can't imagine my childhood, my school days, my summer evenings, my MC class, or my past 4 years of college without him. He's one of my best friends and will forever be. I'm so blessed because of the people like him that surround me, care for me, make me laugh dangerously hard, give me their arm when I'm slipping all over, and at times.... tell me the painful truth.


Funny story about this picture. We took it with my phone at the MLS Championship last year, and had my phone not been acting up it would have been sent to facebook. I thanked God (a LOT) when I soon-after found that a large-scale rumor had been begun on my facebook page (thank you Maher) while we were at the game. This pic would have popped right into the middle of a frenzy of comments- without us ever knowing. We had a good laugh later, and BOTH thanked the Lord for my retarded phone.

Spring 2009 (Juniors) - Guntis Smidchens's class, UW


Spring 2007 (Freshmen) - The Quad, UW

I have several dozens of beautiful Cathedrals, Abbeys, Chapels, Baptistries, Mosques and Reliquaries from across Europe listed out on individual index cards. Tonight, they are helping me study facts about how each building shaped and transformed architecture. I'm going to keep them in a box. Someday, I'd love to play a game with them: pull one out at random, and travel to it. :)

(Though I think I'd always be hoping it was Ste. Chapelle... perhaps I'll stack the deck for the first round.)



It adds a new idea for all my traveling. I think I'll fill out an index card for each of the places my dreams visit. Not just it's name, but why it's important- how it changed and transformed the world, architecture, language, literature, art, history, me. Perhaps key facts. This class has certainly changed the way I experience the world around me... I always look for beauty, but now I look for beauty in the structure, innovation and significance of the physical world around me. Beyond my own experience with whatever beauty I am looking at, I want to become knowledgeable about it. I may be about to graduate, but I've never felt more called to become a student then I do this year. I am a seeker, and I've barely touched the secrets I know are in store for me....

The struggle is simply studying what's before me, today, tonight. "Discipline is doing what you ought to do, when you ought to do it." Tonight, the index cards are equally important to one another. One day they will be destinations I'll fly to. Tomorrow they will be dreams I can ponder. Tonight, they are facts I must memorize...

I'm loving all my classes this quarter, and loving having all my homework done for my class in an hour. 3 articles read, and the first 120 pages of my book.

I nabbed a fourth class last minute and now have 18 credits. This is going to be a very challenging quarter, but also very exciting. I'm taking Honors English on noir/hardboiled fiction (the detective novels with the Femme Fatale and dark gloomy images of LA in the 20's-40's). I also have intro to Geology, Intro to American Politics, the next course in the Architecture series which I started last quarter- this one focusing on my favorite architecture periods (Renaissance- Gothic!), and largely on Italy!!

Mondays I have class straight from 9:30-3:20, and Wednesdays from 8:30-3:20 with a couple hour break. I feel back in high school almost-- with class after class. I am going to posture myself to stay as I am now, engaged and excited. I'm going to keep choosing to enjoy being studious and engaging new topics and questions.

It also helps that I have an extraordinary set of professors and TAs this quarter. Of them all the worst is probably my architecture professor (who is still better than last quarter's arch prof), and let me tell you- when you are lecturing on Italian architecture, you pretty much would have to be canine for me to not be engrossed and my heart incredibly awake! I walked out of class today thinking "man, my heart is SO in Italy!" I'm curious to see what that will one day mean... I really have no idea. But I love that culture. I love the architecture, I love the streets, I love the language, I love the people I have met, I love the art in general. Oh, and you KNOW I love the food, and the cappacinos!

Who knows, maybe its something that will play out in the destiny of one of my children, and the fullness of it for me will just be imparting the information and passion... or perhaps, it will be in my own tale...