Grendel's Mother

            On Wednesday morning I was dreaming about a shape shifting digital hostess for a pornographic site. She was mostly various forms of petite and Asian but sometimes she only had half a body split vertically but unevenly. It was almost time for me to get up but I kept fading in and out of this dream because I wanted to see what she was going to do. 

            I got all but the final line of “Barcelone” by Boris Vian memorized and I finished memorizing the first chorus of “Privé" by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            Just before 10:00 I logged onto Blackboard for my first Introduction to British Literature tutorial. 

            Our TA is Alexandra Atya and she studies 15th Century drama and Spanish. 

            She split us up into small chat rooms for a couple of minutes to introduce ourselves. I was put with two people. Two of us used mics and one used text. Muhammad talked a bit but I was the one that had to fill the awkward silence. 

            Then Alexandra had the whole class introduce themselves and state their pronouns. Everyone was pretty specific about their pronouns. Only one woman said she also used “they". I was the only one who said they didn’t care what pronoun was used. 

            By Tuesday at 18:00 we each have to post to the discussion board the line and page number for a passage we would like to discuss along with a question about it. The question can also be about the text as a whole. If one is not able to do the pre-tutorial assignment one can alternatively do the post tutorial assignment by posting 250 words to the discussion board. We will not be penalized for technical issues. We can participate in tutorials in whatever way possible. 

            We had a fairly vigorous discussion on the question of “what is literature?" I said that literature is the creation of language and creation in language and that even a graphic novel without words can be literature because we use language in our minds to read the story. 

            Some people disagreed about the graphic novel but another person pointed out that each frame in the comic could be a symbol. I agreed and compared it to hieroglyphs which could be seen as a graphic novel at the very roots of literature. 

            We talked about Beowulf. The question was what are the respective environments of Beowulf and Grendel? I said Grendel, his mother and the dragon live in nature while Beowulf, the Danes and the Geats live in fancy buildings. 

             Grendel’s mother lives under the water and so she is beneath the humans at least in their assessment. But it’s also a magical world where water can burn. 

             Grendel was angered by the noise and light of the human environment. The text speaks of the sounds of joy but I suggested that maybe humans are just too noisy. 

             Alexandra said there is a new translation of Beowulf by Maria Headly with a different take on Grendel’s mother. There are subtleties of language that can be interpreted differently. In this version Grendel’s mother is not "bloodthirsty" and Beowulf is an invader in her realm. 

             I enjoyed the discussion. 

             I had time to tidy up before lunch. 

             I had Ritz crackers with cheddar and an orange juice. 

             In the afternoon I got caught up on transcribing my lecture notes and on my journal. 

             I wrote two responses to the Canadian Literature tutorial questions for this week: 

             Hal speaks of not being able to put words to form, whether that form is the war or Freya. War and anything else large, complex and cataclysmic turns from subject to form when it falls back in the memory. Perhaps of necessity for the survival of one’s peace of mind these things become landscape. When Hal speaks of Freya he uses some of the same language that is more at home in descriptions of war, such as “battles” and "arrows". Hal's inability to describe form is echoes by that of a watercolourist who says he cannot capture the ice fields. Byrne's scientific notes on the glacier are far more poetic than any of Hal’s writing that we see. This suggests that for a true poet there is always subject in form. 

             Sara is calm and lives in a relationship with one place while Freya is always in mercurial motion. Both of them are in a sense untouched. Sara is as aloof as the mountains while Freya is involved with her environment but only dancing through it like the wind. The link between these two women is that they have both come in close and perhaps sexual contact with Byrne, although that intimacy is in both cases ambiguous. Compared with Frey, Sara is under described in this story, but it seems that she and Freya are bookends holding up one book. Sara as Saraswati the daughter of Brahma the creator presides over the beginning of the story while Freya’s death serves as a harbinger for the end. 

             For dinner I heated my last burger and put it on a toasted whole wheat bagel. I had it with a beer while watching The Count of Monte Cristo. 

             This story is set in 1837 in Toulon where the Baron Danglar and his niece Simone live in exile under assumed names. Danglar is one day looking out the window of Simone’s sculpture studio and he shows Simone that the ship the Marietta is coming into port. He tells her that it is not only the key to their returning to their true stations in Paris but also for Simone’s revenge against the murderer of her father, the Count of Monte Cristo. The Marietta is owned by Paulo Vittorio who is at this moment meeting on board with the count who has hired it to deliver marble for his new chateau. After the count leaves Vittorio decides to inspect the cargo although the captain says he shouldn’t. When he opens a crate he finds rifles and then the captain pulls a pistol on him. He tells Vittorio that his daughter Rena is already being held prisoner and he will be joining her. That night the count is scheduled to meet Vittorio at the Two Anchors tavern and to be introduced to his daughter. When he arrives Simone is there posing as Rena and crying while saying that her father is missing. She tells the count that her father found out that the Marietta is being used to smuggle arms and she urges the count to investigate. As they are leaving Simone leaves her handkerchief on the table and so Jacopo retrieves it for her. The count goes back to the ship but it’s a set-up as the police arrive on a tip to inspect the cargo. When they discover arms they are about to arrest the count when Rico and Jacopo hold them at bay so the count and them can escape. Now they are wanted by the police and hiding out. Jacopo tells the count that Rena’s handkerchief was dry when he picked it up. The count concludes that it wasn’t Rena after all. The count returns to the tavern and forces the landlord to reveal the identity of the woman who posed as Rena. It is the family name that the Danglars are using in exile. The count and his friends sneak into their home. On the wall is a coat of arms that the count recognizes. Simone steps into the room with a pistol. She reminds the count that he murdered her father but he denies it and says they were friends. He admits that he did ruin her uncle because he was one of the people that caused him to be imprisoned on false charges. He tells her that her father came to him for help when he learned that her uncle was embezzling him. The count informs Simone that it was her uncle that killed her father. He reminds her that her uncle has also been smuggling arms but Simone believes only enough arms were placed on the ship to trap the count. He tells her that he is sure that an entire shipment of arms is in her uncle’s basement along with the imprisoned Vittorio and Rena. Keeping the gun on him she takes him to the basement just to prove him wrong but there she finds he is right. Just then her uncle arrives with a pistol and with his men behind him. The count kicks a stool at Danglar’s hand and causes him to fire wild. Jacopo and Rico hear the shot and come running. The big fight scene ensues and Simone shoots one of her uncle’s accomplices to save the count. The police arrive and arrest the bad guys. The count hires Simone to make all the marble sculptures for his new chateau.