I memorized the third verse of “Le vieux rocker” (The Old Rocker) by Serge Gainsbourg and changed the last word again on the first line of the second verse. I decided to go with the French word “cure” instead of “toure” because it sounds closer to what the singer is pronouncing. So now the translation is “The last tango is my cure / I'm greasing up with butter.”
I weighed 89.6 kilos before breakfast.
I had time for a bowl of grapes and a few sips of coffee before leaving for tutorial.
I chatted with Nabia and Paco before class. “Nabia” means “Intelligent” and “Paco” means “A Good Friend.” Even though Paco is from Hong Kong and his parents are Chinese they picked a Spanish name. Paco told Nabia she is intelligent. She often does have good observations.
I always try to guess what the attendance question will be and this time I thought it would be Halloween related. I was right. She asked what we were planning to do for Halloween. I said I haven't gotten into Halloween since my daughter grew up but twenty years ago I went out as a shrink wrap mummy and I was naked underneath. Sarah asked if I lost weight. She said she's going out as Pregnant Kylie Jenner.
We looked at the three short stories.
“Circumstance” is antebellum. I pointed out that it's publication could be seen as antebellum but I think it's set before the Revolutionary War. “The Sheriff's Children” is postbellum.
It is important for us to know for our exam if the literature was published before, after, or during the Civil War. The Civil War changed everything.
“Circumstance” is melodramatic. There is a question of whether there is wild animal-indigenous conflation. There is also the idea of voice.
“Chickamauga” is more naturalist and not sentimental.
The horror of war is a literary device.
Sarah mentioned that I had said in lecture that the little boy in "Chickamauga" could be a metaphor for the public reaction to the war. I said I'd been thinking that it could also be a metaphor about the military command.
Power allows the white subject to shape reality but war is the limit of power.
“The Sheriff's Children” is after the war. Later we will see the south left behind in the historic literature we read.
Charles Chesnutt was white passing. Sarah tells us if we are reading aloud and see the N word, don't say it, but say “the N word.”
When writing about more than one text at a time use comparison for analysis.
She asked us to list elements that two or more of the stories have in common. We came up with the child figure, nature, solitude, destruction of home, racialization, death, weapons, and abrupt endings.
The cat is racialized in “Circumstance” and the townsfolk in “The Sheriff's Children” assume Tom is the murderer because he is a Negro.
“The Sheriff's Children” could also be a captivity narrative observed by the objective narrator.
We broke into three groups. There were four in ours: Hannah, Amy and another young woman who didn't say anything. Each group picked a topic for comparison and I suggested we look at death. The others agreed so we went with that.
I started the ball rolling by saying that although there are deaths at the ends of all three stories only two of them are tragedies. In those cases the death is of a human individual family member. The death of the predator in “Circumstance” is not something we feel bad about. Hannah found a great quote from the end of “Circumstance” when the woman and her family see their cabin and those of their neighbours destroyed that illustrates that it is not a tragedy: “Desolation and death were indeed there and beneficence and life in the forest.” The balancing of life with death as a conclusion shows that it is not tragic. It almost suggests that the death of the other settlers was a community event.
In “The Sheriff's Children” the lynch mob wants the death of Tom to pay for the death of Captain Walker. Amy came up with a great quote from the end of the story: “An unnatural rigidity about his attitude.” This is the first indication for the reader that Tom is dead but the line “unnatural rigidity about his attitude” could be applied to the sheriff and the lynch mob in the story.
I don't always like breaking off into groups because quite often it's awkward and nothing is communicated but in this case, for three of us I think it worked out well. I enjoyed the exchange of ideas.
I rode to Yonge and Bloor and then on the way home I stopped at Freshco. I first went to the ATM but it initially rejected my card. This has happened before and seems to be some kind of computer glitch. When I tried a second time I had no problem getting my money.
I bought five bags of red grapes, a bag of kettle chips, two cans of peaches, Roman spicy red pepper pasta sauce, shaving gel and a pack of paper towels.
One of our Shakespeare essay options is to follow a minor character through the play they are in and write about what they inform us about the plot and how they affect the action. Professor Lopez gave a list of characters to choose from but there was the option of choosing our own with his approval. So yesterday I sent him an email asking for permission to follow the thief, trickster, disguise artist and song salesman Autolycus around The Winter's Tale. He got back to me today and told me it was a good idea, so that's a relief since I'd already made three pages of handwritten notes in stream of consciousness with that idea in mind.
I weighed 89.5 kilos before lunch.
In the afternoon Shankar's wifi network disappeared from my list and there was no Internet. I knocked on his door and I think I woke him up. He said he'd look into the connection but I suspect he went back to sleep.
I prepared my blog for posting and typed my tutorial notes. I was caught up at 17:45 but the wifi was still down and so I couldn't post my blog or my daily Twitter tweet.
I weighed 89.1 kilos at 18:00.
I read “Desirée's Baby” by Kate Chopin. Desirée is a southern, Cajun belle whose husband is rich and owns many slaves. Desirée gives birth to a baby and somehow doesn't notice right away that the baby is black. She asks her husband and he says the baby is black because she is black. She writes her mother about it and her mother says to come home and bring the baby. Her husband has rejected Desirée now that he knows she is part black. She wanders off with the baby in her bedclothes and is never heard from again. Her husband has his slaves burn all of the rich clothing and furniture that he had bought for Desirée and their baby. We learn at the end that the husband is also part black.
I typed my handwritten notes on Autolycus.
I started reading “Daisy Miller” by Henry James. So far there isn't much of a story. It starts out in Geneva, Switzerland. A young man from the US meets a precocious little boy from the US and then meets the boy's sister with whom he falls in love like a shot, which is his habit.
I had a potato with gravy and two pieces of chicken while watching an episode of Gomer Pyle.
In the previous episode, a choir formed from within Carter's platoon wins a role in a film about Marines. In this story, they arrive in Hollywood at the studio where the movie is being shot. They go for lunch at the studio commissary where Carter keeps trying to find a table that has a beautiful actress to sit down with. He keeps trying and failing to meet someone. While Gomer is just looking for a place to sit an attractive young woman invites him to sit with her. Her name is Linda Farrell and she is a stunt woman but is also an aspiring actor looking for her big break. She offers to show Gomer the sights when she finishes work that day. When Carter sees Gomer with an attractive woman he joins them and keeps trying to take over. He joins them on their sight seeing date and constantly tries to get Gomer out of the way. That night Carter pulls Gomer aside and tells him to leave so he can walk Linda home, but while they are talking two guys come up and try to harass Linda. She uses judo to subdue them both and Gomer and Carter run to pick the guys off the ground and hold them just when the cops arrive. The next day in the paper is an article about Gomer and Carter having protected a helpless woman from a couple of bad guys. They are invited to appear on a popular talk show where Carter tries to monopolize all the conversation, even answering questions directed at Gomer. When asked about the incident Gomer finally talks about Linda and her judo. He surprises Carter by saying that he invited Linda to come and she's back stage. Linda comes out and the host wants a demonstration of her judo. Gomer volunteers Carter and he gets flipped. But to save Carter embarrassment Linda says that Carter taught her the self defence moves that she'd used. In the end Linda gets an acting role in a movie by a producer who'd seen her on the show.
Linda was played by Judith Brown, who co-starred in The Big Doll House, Women In Cages, Babes Behind Bars, A Woman For All Men, and a Danish soft porn film called Threesome. She now runs a bed and breakfast in Mexico.
Other women who appeared were Michele Cochrane,
Sandy Freeman, and Sharon Hillyer.
The wifi was still off.
I finished reading the first chapter of Daisy Miller. The young man, Winterbourne is very charmed by Daisy and finds her to be a coquette but a less dangerous kind of coquette than the European type he's experienced. They may go to visit a castle together.
A daisy is a common flower and Miller is a common name. Daisies have white petals and yellow tops. Daisy Miller wears a very frilly white dress and she has blonde hair. She speaks in a very common manner and does not seem educated. She admits that her bratty little brother is smarter than she is but that does not bother her. Winterbourne is not a common name. He is presented as the opposite of Daisy and daisies do not grow in winter.
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