That fabulous snake-dancing harlot...
Jun. 22nd, 2004 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teleidoplexAnd no, I don't mean pythia_akrypta...at least, not directly!
Some more ruminations from across the pond...
So, the Keough Institute in Newman House is part of University College Dublin, the first university for Catholics in Ireland (established sometime in the 1850's. Before that Catholics weren't allowed to go to university). So there's lots of cool leftover and contemporary religious paraphernalia. One really great thing that I got a picture of is a statue of the Virgin Mary. She's looking all virginal and mary-esque, but underneath her right foot is a serpent with an apple in it's mouth. I know what they were probably intending to symbolize with this, but the moment I saw it, I recognized that fabulous snake-dancing harlot. There's this little Mona-Lisa grin on her face. The Virgin Mary. How she must be laughing at all of us...
Well, she's certainly laughing at me. I just got an e-mail from Collins. The class that I proposed that was accepted has now been cancelled due to lack of funding. This is especially amusing because last week I got an e-mail from then asking me if I could teach MWF instead of TR, and if I could send them a finalized summary of the class for the catalog. I spent some time polishing up my summary and sent it off, but apparently that was more work down the drain.
This really just adds tinder to my blazing fire of rage against the INCREDIBLY crappy funding situation at IU. What really cranks my screw is that I've been talking to some of the people here in departments besides english, and they are all shocked and appalled to hear about what's going on at IU. Moreover, all the ND students have funding coming out of their ears. Since Kevin Whelan and Lou Gibbons (who head the seminar, the Keough Institute, and are pretty big-wiggy in the field) both seem really open to interdisiplinary research, I'm definitely going to be sounding out the feasibility of tailoring my project to an English/Cultural Studies type program. I will probably have to redo some of my coursework, but as long as I don't have to do languages, I'm fine (and I can continue Irish Gaelic there, which really wouldn't suck). According to several people I've talked to, a letter from Kevin Whelan pretty much guarantees you'll get in the program. So, keep my fingers crossed that he'll think that I can fit into the program. I'll still need to think through the affects this might have on my marketability. Grr...
In other random news, Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash is the bomb-diggity when you're travelling, especially when you're stuck in airports for several hours. It reads so quickly and so smoothly that time passes before you realize it. I was also really excited by his heavy use of George Steiner's "After Babel", mostly because Brian Friel uses the same work for his play "Translations" (which I adore above all things). So reading Snow Crash for me was like reading a cyberpunkian interpretation of some of the same themes that Friel was working on in Translations. Some of Stephenson's deeper thematics regarding language, metaviruses, and religious history don't quite work out if you really think about them, but they hold up pretty well, and don't spoil the read too much. The book also just kind of ends. It really needs fifty more pages.
Well, the first workshop is about to start, so more later.
kitsune
now 200% more glad that she's missing all the livejournal/gaming angst. Dodged that poo.
Some more ruminations from across the pond...
So, the Keough Institute in Newman House is part of University College Dublin, the first university for Catholics in Ireland (established sometime in the 1850's. Before that Catholics weren't allowed to go to university). So there's lots of cool leftover and contemporary religious paraphernalia. One really great thing that I got a picture of is a statue of the Virgin Mary. She's looking all virginal and mary-esque, but underneath her right foot is a serpent with an apple in it's mouth. I know what they were probably intending to symbolize with this, but the moment I saw it, I recognized that fabulous snake-dancing harlot. There's this little Mona-Lisa grin on her face. The Virgin Mary. How she must be laughing at all of us...
Well, she's certainly laughing at me. I just got an e-mail from Collins. The class that I proposed that was accepted has now been cancelled due to lack of funding. This is especially amusing because last week I got an e-mail from then asking me if I could teach MWF instead of TR, and if I could send them a finalized summary of the class for the catalog. I spent some time polishing up my summary and sent it off, but apparently that was more work down the drain.
This really just adds tinder to my blazing fire of rage against the INCREDIBLY crappy funding situation at IU. What really cranks my screw is that I've been talking to some of the people here in departments besides english, and they are all shocked and appalled to hear about what's going on at IU. Moreover, all the ND students have funding coming out of their ears. Since Kevin Whelan and Lou Gibbons (who head the seminar, the Keough Institute, and are pretty big-wiggy in the field) both seem really open to interdisiplinary research, I'm definitely going to be sounding out the feasibility of tailoring my project to an English/Cultural Studies type program. I will probably have to redo some of my coursework, but as long as I don't have to do languages, I'm fine (and I can continue Irish Gaelic there, which really wouldn't suck). According to several people I've talked to, a letter from Kevin Whelan pretty much guarantees you'll get in the program. So, keep my fingers crossed that he'll think that I can fit into the program. I'll still need to think through the affects this might have on my marketability. Grr...
In other random news, Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash is the bomb-diggity when you're travelling, especially when you're stuck in airports for several hours. It reads so quickly and so smoothly that time passes before you realize it. I was also really excited by his heavy use of George Steiner's "After Babel", mostly because Brian Friel uses the same work for his play "Translations" (which I adore above all things). So reading Snow Crash for me was like reading a cyberpunkian interpretation of some of the same themes that Friel was working on in Translations. Some of Stephenson's deeper thematics regarding language, metaviruses, and religious history don't quite work out if you really think about them, but they hold up pretty well, and don't spoil the read too much. The book also just kind of ends. It really needs fifty more pages.
Well, the first workshop is about to start, so more later.
kitsune
now 200% more glad that she's missing all the livejournal/gaming angst. Dodged that poo.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 02:35 am (UTC)Um, I think I need to go to bed.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 04:41 am (UTC)And hey kitsune! I totally think you and I were off sunning ourselves and enjoying the weather. Poo dodging is ungainly and unseemly... we were both just smart enough not to be anywhere near there, don't you agree? :)
no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 05:46 am (UTC)Oh Binah, how we love ya. ;)
Have you ever read Snow Crash before? Could you picture an ethnic Bryn as Juanita? ;) And, while you're absolutely correct about the ending, isn't the Deliverator opening one of the best cyberpunk scenes ever? *g* Man, I loves me that book.
And yeah, LJ poo is, well, poo. And poo's for monkeys. ;)
Alleycat
now missing the Kitsune 85% more ;)
no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 08:01 am (UTC)As far as the poo.
You know what they say about arguing on the internet and the Special Olympics?
~Bry~
no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 10:56 am (UTC)you'll notice the woman leads.
The serpent lets her guide its every move.
Who is she?
See her circle?
See her tilt.
And Arch.
And Curtsey.
See her dip.
She is our solace and our
comfort in this wilderness
of stars.
When the bereaved Rossetti tries
to ressurect his love in paint
and canvas, it is she, sat at his side,
who steers the brush; she who
leads Machaen out of pain and up
the Hill of Dreams.
Look closer still, and
she is hardly there at all,
pale and ethereal, translucent,
made from moonlight. She is life's sole
partner in this Waltz of Being, yet she is
imaginary. More than this she is imagination,
the most beautiful and splendid partner
we could ever need; could ever hope for.
Naked save for moonshine, save the borrowed
finery of Isis and Selene, she inspires
our dance to new and unfamiliar steps,
gives us the come-on. Sexier than anything,
imagination moves our feet upon the rungs of the
genetic ladder, leads us from insensate slime
and into consciousness. Dances us up from dumb,
cold mud into the blazing heavens.
This, then, is the Universe, the great Romance:
flesh and imagination cling and glide beneath a wash of stars."
no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 10:58 am (UTC)