Mona Marshall

            On Monday morning when I got up I felt a bowel movement coming on but held it back because it was the wrong time. I waited uncomfortably until I'd finished my yoga and finally went to the toilet while I was finishing my memorization of “Apocalypstick” by Serge Gainsbourg. I looked for the chords but no one had posted them so I worked out most or all of them myself. I’ll probably finish it up on Tuesday. 

            In the late morning I worked on cleaning my main cooking pot with soap, baking soda, a cloth and some brushes. I got it pretty shiny. Next I’ll try to do the same thing with the steamer. 

            Just before noon I went online for my first British Literature Part 2 lecture but there was a message that the lecture wouldn’t be available until after 14:00. I downloaded the syllabus and saw that unfortunately this course has a final exam. The required reading material consists of a Custom Course Reader which I have to buy at the U of T Bookstore. We are also reading Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen and On Beauty by Zadie Smith. I found those two online and downloaded them but I might look for hard copies at BMV when I go downtown. 

            I had lentils with chili sauce and chips for lunch. In the afternoon I took a bike ride and rode twenty five minutes in one direction which took me to Avenue Road and Bloor. I went down Queen's Park and University to Queen and headed home. It was cloudy and so even though it was before sunset it was like it was after. There are a couple of tent villages in Trinity Bellwoods Park now. 

            When I got home Benji and Shankar were having a conversation in the hallway so I stopped for a while to chat before unlocking my door. I called them “Shocking Shankar” and "Swingin Benjamin". We talked mostly about Trump and the pandemic. 

            When I got settled at home I watched the intro lecture for 1 British Literature 2: ENG203. Thom Dancer stands to give his lecture wearing a light brown tweed jacket and a gold and black diagonal striped tie. He has white chin whiskers, a brown moustache and longish prematurely greying hair. He looks like a former bass player for a sixties pop band like the one that sang “Winchester Cathedral".

            The course covers the last 350 years in a sampling platter for a taste of a bit of everything. It doesn’t cover or survey everything and bypasses a lot. It’s just to you’re your whistle. He confesses he is not an expert at video communication. Email is the best way to get in touch with him but he can arrange for a one on one zoom call. There are more than 200 students in the course. He might miss an email so try again in three or four days without making him feel bad. The course admin is Ryan Stafford. He says we have fun TAs and he is jealous of us. No tutorial this week. 

            The course is laid out in historical periods: The Long 18th Century from 1680-1815; The Romantic Period from 1789-1837; The Victorian period from 1837-1914 or 1901 according to some; The Modernist period from 1890-1945; The Contemporary period until now. Every discourse needs to be organized in some way. Sometimes by genre. In English we conventionally use historical markers. English is relatively new to university. It wasn't until 1900 that it began to be taught. In those days the logic was why take a course in English when you can already read English? Connecting the study of English to history invigorated it. We could organize around genres like Detective Novels, lyric poetry; country house poetry, Science fiction, the novel, poetry, and major authors but our way is conventional. He won't ask what Romanticism is on the exam but we should know about its relationship to the French Revolution. Texts are selected with similar themes. The focus is on the way the writers think of art and literature. The goal is threefold: to familiarize us with historical organizations of writing, to show what runs commonly across periods and how all periods speak to today, and to show how context informs our understanding beyond history. Literature is situated in moments and understanding it helps us understand the moments. We don’t want to use history to understand literature. History doesn't tell the meaning. What is the value of art is the main point. The best and most interesting works on the theme of art in British literature. Not distinctively British other than in their way of talking. There are lots of different kinds of literature such as short lyrics, long lyrics, novels, prose, essays, and poetic genres. The point is there will be a small taste of all of them. 

            The Key point is exposing the insidious lie that that the canon of British literature is white and male. Many of the best and most respected writers were women and people of colour. He’s trying to return to the idea of the canon as it existed originally and not the fake version. British culture has always been shaped by the larger world because of the empire that extended throughout. The English language is already transformed by the world outside of Britain. Race gender and sexuality will be normalized and women and LGBTQ will not be treated as special. They have always been there. he won't always refer to identity. Sometimes it is relevant but not to tokenize.

            Monday’s lecture videos might be early or late, maybe by a day. Lectures will not be available during exams so take notes. On every other Wednesday there will be a reading quiz from 5:00-12:00 with 12 minutes to complete it. Tutorials are from 12-13. The quizzes are a reward for reading and a preparation for tutorials. There will be a closed book quiz approximately every other week. Multiple choice, analytical questions, the best interpretation of an aspect of the reading. We are allowed to appeal one question per term. There are three writing assignments. The first is a 250 word paragraph introducing fundamentals of literary analysis due February 7 and worth 5%. This has strict rules and will be graded rigorously; the second is a short writing assignment of 500 words due March 7 and worth 15%. If this is better than the first assignment the first assignment will be scratched and an extra 5% will be added to the second assignment; the final 1250 word essay is worth 20% and due on March 31 but there is an automatic extension until April 11, but aim for March 31. We can revise any work and have it re-graded, but there must be a substantial change. We have two weeks to do the rewrite after we receive the grade. He will drop one low quiz grade. There are no grade penalties for late work but it makes life difficult to be late. Let him know if we’ll be late with no excuse, but the mark will be much later. The final exam tests comprehension of lectures and tutorials. It will be open book and open note but with no research. We have 24 hour window to take the exam. Tutorials cover material not in lecture that will be on the exam, in quizzes and assignmentss. Participate in lectures, speak. There may also be discussion boards. The tutorials will be video chats so try to have your webcam on. TAs are better when they can see you. Different tutorials will be different. Tuesday or Wednesday he will post the second video, which will be on Oroonoko. 

            I rubbed ten chicken drumsticks with curry powder and roasted them. I had two with a potato and gravy while watching the South Park Pandemic Special. This came out in September so I doubt if I’m spoiling it for many. 

            Randy Marsh’s marijuana business is the only one that’s thriving during the pandemic and he decides to add to that having a pandemic special on his weed. The only kid that is enjoying the pandemic is Eric Cartman because he doesn’t have to go to school. During Zoom classes he just puts up picture of himself in front of his camera and then goes to have fun. He is devastated when her learns that kids will be going back to school. The regular teachers won’t be there because they don't want to catch covid, but the cops, who have recently been defunded have taken over the teaching jobs. In class Eric says he is going to throw up over Kyle. Kyle starts beating up on Eric and the police open fire. After they hit Token, the only black kid in class, they shout, “Got em!" and cease fire. Token is taken to the hospital for covid exposure and the school is put under quarantine. None of the students are allowed to leave. Kyle questions the idea that Token has covid when everyone saw the cops shoot him. The chief explains that if not for covid the police would not have been serving as substitute teachers, therefore covid 19 caused Token to be shot. Meanwhile Randy learns that the source of the virus may be a bat in Wuhan, China. Suddenly he remembers when he went to Wuhan last year and got high with Mickey Mouse. They were in a bar when Mickey saw the bat and found a mouse with wings to be incredibly sexy. Later Mickey fucks the bat in their hotel room and encourages Randy to take a turn. Randy came home from China with what he’d thought was the flu but now he realizes he was the cause of the pandemic. But later he is relieved that researchers have discovered that it wasn’t a bat after all. Then he finds out that the actual source is a different animal called a pangolin. But now Randy remembers that he and Mickey also had sex with a pangolin. Because he doesn’t want it to be discovered that he caused the pandemic he steals the pangolin from a research facility that is trying to use the animal to help develop a vaccine. When he later learns that all the scientists needed was a foreign DNA that entered the pangolin's body he gets an idea. His wife Sharon’s brother Jimbo is dying of covid and so Randy goes to the hospital, jerks off in some marijuana, rolls it into a joint and forces Jimbo to smoke it. A few days later Jimbo gets better so Randy begins to put his semen into all of his marijuana. He is masturbating so much he has to walk with a cane. But the only result is that people start getting moustaches like Randy’s including his wife. Randy hands the pangolin over to the researchers but suddenly President Garrison appears with a flame thrower and incinerates it. He doesn’t want a cure because it's mostly Mexicans who are dying from the virus. 

            The voice of Sharon and several other female characters on South Park are done by April Stewart. 

            The voices of Sheila Broflovski and Linda Stotch are done by Mona Marshall. She also portrays the voices of several young males in Japanese animations.