Meetings and Thoughts

I think one of the things I love about England is the immediacy of the past. Today I went on the BBC website and one of the first boxes that pop up on the site is how to make a 'Victorian Christmas'. Obviously I'm a sucker for anything Victorian at this point, but the fact remains that history is a part of the everyday consciousness in a way that I just don't see in the US. Anyway. Did you know that Christmas cards were invented in Victorian Britain? FYI. Fun times with the BBC is what's on the agenda for me tonight, apparently.

Had my meeting with Richard Salmon today, and he seems like a really nice and easygoing guy. From what I've heard (hilariously, through my very gossipy seminar buddies) he doesn't really care for loud people, so we both sort of murmured our way through the meeting quite comfortably. He seemed to like my topic a lot, and we briefly discussed what sort of primary sources I'd like to concentrate on, and it looks like narrowing those down will be my main task for the winter break. I've amassed a lot of secondary reading so far, so as of now, I'll be starting off by checking out Samuel Butler's utopian satire Erewhon, which I had never heard of until my Brontes professor mentioned it to me the other day, but apparently has lots to say about machinery and it's potential uncanniness. So that's a start, and it's not even Dickens! Although Hard Times might be making an appearance too. Good thing I actually read that on my own a while ago. So overall, I'm apparently not in bad shape. Win! I have a limit of six hours total meeting time with Dr. Salmon, so hopefully by the time I get back on campus, I'll be able to use that time wisely.

And now, classes are officially done! I sort of don't know what to do with myself, except that I totally do have things that need to be done. They're just schedule-less, which is rather disconcerting. But with any luck/proper work ethic, I'll be able to make dent in the next few days before break in the essays I'll be needing to finish for January. This has all gone down way too fast holy crap.

Fun fact: While my student visa was not checked a single time during the process of actually getting into the country, it is checked with infinite care every time I buy a bottle of wine at the supermarket. Oh, England.

Grammar rant, ahoy!

Last week of classes! I'm reading Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Bronte, and Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, which looks like a ton of fun. Apparently he wrote it on a bet with his brother that he could write a better book than Treasure Island. I don't know whether he succeeds or not yet, but I am always up for adventure novels a la Stevenson.

I've also set up a meeting with Dr. Salmon on Friday, which I have to prepare for, so there's much reading to do this week. I also ought to decide what my final paper for my Victorian module should be on--I'm leaning towards A Tale of Two Cities, but it might also be useful to look at the working class poetry in relation to Marx. The latter could probably serve as some preliminary research towards my dissertation, so perhaps I should do that. Then again, there are elements to A Tale of Two Cities that could also be mined for dissertation stuff, so...I'm torn. Time to go and download some critical articles or something.

In other news, I ended up having to help Erin grade some freshman papers because some of her fellow classics scholars bailed on her, and all I have to say is: Who is teaching these people before they get here?? The lack of grammatical coherence in a frightening number of those papers was just reprehensible. With some I couldn't even tell what they were trying to say enough to know what was wrong with it. And just to check that I wasn't being overly judgmental, I went home straight after and reread some of my essays from high school, and while that was a fairly shaming experience, I definitely could at least structure my thoughts more coherently at that point than what I was reading from Erin's kids. Run-on sentences, lack of basic things like apostrophes and even a semblance of effort towards proper citation...I could go on. It was rather distressing, to say the least. I think I liked maybe three out of the ten or so I ended up grading.

Luckily, while I felt like screaming by the time we were done, I also had an overwhelming urge to become a tutor just to prevent these types of things from happening. So, I guess I'm entering into the right profession. Man, I really didn't think I was much of a grammar nazi, because I know I make lots of mistakes myself and do grammar entirely by ear and not by rule. And I'm definitely not picky when it comes to proper formatting and bibliographies, because I know just as everyone else does that getting those things right is a pain, but...jeez. It was out of control. Be prepared to endure further yelling when you actually see me in person.

Sorted!

I have a dissertation adviser! His name is Dr. Richard Salmon, and was actually the person I first emailed about my topic, which I'm taking as a good omen, particularly since his interests, as stated on the web, were the most closely related to my own out of the faculty. I've only seen him briefly in lecture, but he reminds me a bit of Tom Sauer in his manner, which would be fantastic, really. Hopefully we'll be able to create a good working relationship, particularly since I have him for both coming semesters while some other people are switching it up. Anyway, I'll be meeting him some time before break, so we'll see how it goes! Also, I need to do more reading for that. Yeah, I'll go and do that, then.