Janine Grandel

            On Tuesday morning I wasn't quite able to memorize the final verse of "Rupture au miroir" (Crack in the Mirror) by Serge Gainsbourg. One word kept on slipping away, but I should have the whole song nailed down on Wednesday. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            I got caught up on Monday's journal just before lunch, and I weighed 84.6 kilos. 

            I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos at 17:15. 

            I logged onto Zoom at 18:00 for the last "Medieval Literature" lecture. 

            Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is multilayered. 

            Someone compared it to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in which the horseman is returning to a transformed community but here the community is the same.

            I said the other world cycles seasons by years. We see this in the Mabinogi as well but we didn't have a class on that text. The Green Knight comes at the beginning of winter and loses his head. He comes in green when the green has left the land for the year. He is a reminder of the cyclical resurrection of life. 

            The story has elaborate symmetry. 

            Between Bertilak and Gawain there is a parallel with hunting and the bedroom. We went into breakout rooms to investigate this. 

            I say the deer is running in the woods but Gawain's pretending to be asleep in his bed is also running from the lady of the castle. There is a loud hunt in the woods, and a quiet hunt in the bedroom. I said there is a smooth transition between the woods and the bedroom without separating sentences: "Thus this nobleman sports along the edges of the woods, and the good man Gawain lies in his fine bed …" It is as if Bertilak is hunting Gawain. 

            Layering violence with the erotic. 

            I say that the standoffish and courtly way that Gawain and Lady Bertilak interact in the bedroom is less erotic than the way that Gawain, without hesitation gives the same kisses to Bertilak. 

            The diction is erotic. Like early cinema images that imply eroticism without speech. 

            In the movie Gawain orgasms. The professor hasn't seen the movie and neither have I. 

            I say that the deer and the boar are both edible but the fox is gifted to Gawain as a pelt. He has already been given the belt by Lady Bertilak, and so there is a parallel of garments as gifts that accentuates that Gawain has chosen not to share the belt in accordance with his bargain. 

            Professor Walton says a student once had a seizure during an exam. 

            I said Gawain feels manipulated by learning that Lady Bertilak's flirtations are planned by Bertilak. I related a story of when I was 16 at a high school dance when the most beautiful girl in the school asked me to dance. But while we were dancing she said she was just doing this on a bet. So since Bertilak told his wife to try to seduce Gawain, it may have been a similar feeling for Gawain to learn that she was not acting on her own desires. 

            Gawain is simple.

            Layering of sexuality and violence. 

            I said that the other knights rob Gawain of his precious guilt by wearing copies of the belt. 

            The crown of thorns is circular. 

            I said that this is a winter's tale which is traditionally supposed to be fantastic. In the beginning Arthur will not eat until he has heard a fantastic tale. After the Green Knight comes and leaves, Arthur treats it as if it had been a fantastic story and so he feasts. Similarly, at the end, the knights treat Gawain's adventure as a story that is fun, even though it happened. The Green Knight makes a sacrifice similar to Jesus or John the Baptist. 

            The girdle is a trophy of the shame Gawain clings to. 

            I say he should feel shame for breaking his own rules of behaviour. 

            He was also gotten the better of.

            He has to perform his standards because can't trust himself anymore. 

            Will he be wearing it next year? 

            I said to feel shame one has to be afraid of doing it again but if you know you wouldn't commit the same action there's no need for guilt. I relate how my ex-girlfriend thought that I should feel remorse for having stolen wine twenty years before, even though I wouldn't do it again. That's like feeling remorse for someone else's actions. 

            Essay talk. 

            Conclusions. 

            "In sum" is a way to go, but a conclusion can be stronger than summary. Claims like "all" or "every" are useful. Appeal to the reader at the end. The last sentences are to frame it in a positive or optimistic way. Diction in simple language gives a sense of an end. Zoom out in the middle and then close in. 

            To talk about thesis statements we broke off into groups. I was in a group of three. We all had in common that we don't begin with a thesis, but work it out as we write. I said that my essay would be on the theme of the Green Knight and Julian's Jesus as magical outsiders because magic comes from mystery. 

            Gawain is reclaimed as an outsider. 

            Professor Walton asked for feedback and so I told her that it really bugged me that our course took place online. I said it especially bothered me that we weren't told why we had to be on Zoom. I said it felt to me that the university had used the pandemic to Trojan Horse Zoom classes. She said that this was a medical issue and she can't disclose the person's condition. So I don't know much more than I did before. Other students said that they understood my feelings but for them it was much more convenient to take the class online. Nobody agreed with me. I really don't get how a medical situation that someone is experiencing affects whether we have a live class. It never did before the pandemic.

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken leg while watching season 2, episode 31 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            In this story Granny, Jed, and Jethro are trying to catch Elly May to force her to take a cooking lesson from Granny so she can land a husband. She manages to elude them for several minutes until she is finally caught and compelled to try to make biscuits. She uses all the baking powder and baking soda there is in the house and causes an explosion and everyone is covered in dough. They have to catch Elly again. 

            Jed goes to Maurice at the dress shop that Jed gave to him and asks him to help teach Elly good manners and how to wear pretty dresses. Maurice is very grateful to Jed and says that he will do anything to help. 

           They carry Elly into the shop bound up in a blanket and struggling. Later Maurice and his assistant Madame Potvin have Elly looking fabulous in a gown and Potvin is going to teach her poise and some French. She puts Elly in a black wig. 

            Mrs. Drysdale comes to Maurice and says she wants something exquisite to wear to take her mind off the Clampetts. Then she sees Elly Clampett walk by in a gown and a black wig but she doesn't recognize her. She thinks she is royalty and Potvin confirms that Maurice did refer to her as a princess. Mr. Drysdale and Jane arrive and when they recognize Elly May, Drysdale says, "Isn't that Elly" but Jane makes it sound like she is finishing his sentence by saying "...gance …Isn't that elegance?" because she realizes that they don't want Mrs. Drysdale to know it's Elly. 

            Elly is about to call out to them when Maurice and Potvin lead her away to the back room. They explain that Mrs. Drysdale is a snob and that she can help to teach her a lesson. Jane is let in on the plot and she tells Mrs. Drysdale that the princess has agreed to allow her an audience. Elly comes out and says, "Enchanté" while Mrs. Drysdale curtsies. Then Maurice and Potvin lead Elly away again. 

            Mrs. Drysdale wants to throw a party for the princess. The Clampetts arrive through the back and don't recognize Elly at first. Jane tells Mrs. Drysdale that the princess will attend her party if her family are also allowed to attend. Of course she agrees and then tells her husband that they have to get rid of the hillbillies first. Milburn says, "How would you like it if the princess and her family were to occupy the Clampett mansion?" She says she would be very happy. "No more complaints about the hillbillies?" he asks and she swears. Then Elly and her family come out and Elly talks to her in her normal voice, resulting in Mrs. Drysdale fainting. 

            Madame Potvin was played by Janine Grandel, who was a French actor who played a lot of supporting roles in film and television, especially in the horror genre, such as Return of the Fly.