The Witch

            On Wednesday morning I started working out the chords to “Des vents des pets des poums” (Farting Up a Storm) by Serge Gainsbourg. I think I got them all.

            I worked on my journal.

            I took an early siesta from 9:30 to 11:00 so I’d be fresh for class.

            There was still snow on the street but wetter and dirtier than on Tuesday. It was still a bit slippery under the railroad bridge on Brock.

            There were two other students in the classroom when I got there.

I sat and read almost two chapters of The Picture of Dorian Gray under my breath. I find it’s a lot easier to concentrate that way.

Class started with a review of our previous class two weeks before.

The point of reading Walter Pater is not to like him or dislike him. He can be divisive. The point is to see something different so as to scrutinize one’s own position. If you still have your opinion after reading Pater then you have found your own view. She compared it to multiculturalism, the essence of which is to see the positions of others. Pater can be existential.

We took one last look at the poetry of Ernest Dowson with the poem “Nuns of the Perpetual Adoration”. He writes about the inside and the outside of the convent, starting with the inside. It’s calm and sad on the inside. It’s bitter and sweet on the outside. “Sad" signals something we do not want to see in a contrast.

I said the thing that stands out for me is the question that the speaker asks near the end, “Surly their choice of vigil is the best?” The question mark casts doubt on the statement. When you say "surely" do you need a question mark?

I also pointed out that the phrase “impenetrable gate” is ironic because if it were impenetrable it would defeat the purpose of it being a gate. There is also a sexual meaning to the word “impenetrable" when talking about nuns.

We moved on to some female poets. In Victorian poetry there were tentative ideas of the new woman. Female poets had a tough time. They were odd and strange to the reading public and they were not welcomed. They were out of the mainstream. Decadent poets were treated in the same way and called unsophisticated. Today we take women’s issues for granted.

We looked at “The Witch” by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge. The last line of all but the last stanza reads, “Oh, lift me over the threshold, and let me in at the door!"

I pointed out that it’s like a bride being carried over the threshold. The tradition apparently comes from a Roman superstition that there are evil spirits on the thresholds of doors. I think in this context the threshold is that of the world and women are asking to be let in.

The new woman was not universal. The women had no models to follow and so they were testing the waters.

We had a five-minute break followed by the seminar starter.

Ashley wrote on the poem “Love’s Mirror" by Constance Naden. She thought it was about the speaker disguising her identity in order to be loved. I didn’t think anyone else agreed with that interpretation. The speaker is basically saying to her lover, look, you have an ideal woman in your mind while I have an ideal for myself. We are not there right now so let’s love each other for what we are rather than for what we might be.

We looked at “Love Versus Learning” also by Naden and I read it.

It’s also about the problem with romantic ideals but in this case it’s more humorous.

There is a reference to an Oxford M.A. Professor Li pointed out that there are no B.A.s at Oxford and so if one graduates one does so with an M.A.

People kept commenting as if the speaker is married to the person she is referring to. I pointed out that there is nothing to indicate that she's married to him. If he were her husband he wouldn’t be knocking on her door at the end of the poem.

The professor had thought there might be an indication of danger for the speaker by the exclamation point at the end of the poem. Those of us that spoke up agreed that it meant the speaker is excited that this man is knocking.

We started looking at the preface to Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. 

Of the first line, “The artist is the creator of beautiful things” I said that it depends on what is meant by beauty. The professor said that if beauty is contentious then the opening fits.

Of the second line, “To reveal art and conceal the artist is the artist is art's aim” I suggested that for art to be creative it must not be autobiographical.

Professor Li mentioned Henry James's idea of the difference between showing and telling although I don’t think she said what he thinks the difference is. I think it implies that showing is better than telling.

Of the third line, “The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things", I said that it implies that critics are not artists since they do not create the beautiful things that they interpret. The professor seemed to disagree.

I told Professor Li about my essay topic of "artist as outlaw" and she said, “Charming!” We discussed the idea that artists are destroyers and critics. It doesn’t necessarily follow however that critics are artists. I told her that artists must destroy before they can create and I recounted the story of the book burning performance art event I’d attended years ago. She acted interested to a certain degree but was looking at her phone by that time.

It was still daylight for my ride home and so I felt comfortable enough to stop and buy three bags of grapes at Loblaws. Riding was mostly problem free except for riding past the road construction site and its narrow space to get between it and the streetcar tracks.

I had a late lunch of cheese on toast.

I typed my lecture notes and forced myself to stay awake until dinner.

I had melted cheese and salsa on oven fries for dinner with a beer while watching Zorro.

This story is a direct continuation of the events of the previous story. Don Diego’s father Don Alejandro is wounded from a bullet. As Zorro he is trying to get Alejandro to safety before the soldiers close in. He reaches the secret cave that leads underground to the house of his father. He leaves Alejandro resting just inside the cave while he goes through the secret passage to his father’s house. He emerges from the secret passage just as Captain Monastario and his men arrive searching for Alejandro. Don Diego is placed under guard but his guards are Sgt Garcia and a couple of others under his command and Don Diego easily gets them drunk. The sergeant sings a song called, “Here’s to a Soldier of the King” (by Hazel George) and while everyone is drinking and singing Don Diego changes back to Zorro. Back in the cave he finds his father gone. Alejandro has used what little strength he has to stagger out of the cave but then collapses in a field just as the soldiers find him. Captain Monastario decides to spear him like a wild boar but Zorro arrives and challenges the captain. They charge each other on horseback with spears until Monastario is knocked off. Then Zorro takes Alejandro on his horse and they escape. As the soldiers pursue him he suddenly sees more soldiers ahead of him and tries to think how to escape. But the soldiers ahead turn out to be the governor's men escorting Don Nacho back from his meeting with the governor. Zorro asks Don Nacho to care for Don Alejandro. Monastario arrives but the governor’s soldiers won’t arrest Alejandro. Monastario's men pursue Zorro but his horse jumps an impossible chasm and Zorro escapes. Monastario comes back to Don Diego's house to hear the drunken sergeant continuing his song with an added verse that insults his Commander. When caught, the sergeant lies that he was singing about a previous commander that he had back in Spain.