Venita Wolf

            On Tuesday morning I finished my first translation of "Fugue" by Boris Vian. It's kind of surreal and goes from people following each other like boxcars, to spouses paying for their partner's hairdressing, to flying on a plane. Once I start singing it my translation might change. 

            I published "Beau Oui Like Bowie", my translation of "Beau oui comme Bowie" by Serge Gainsbourg on my Christian's Translations blog. I memorized the first verse and the chorus of his song "Le bonheur c'est malheureux" (Happiness is Very Sad). 

            I weighed either 84.9 or 84.6 kilos before breakfast, depending on where the scale was positioned. I'll go with the lighter weight because it would tend to be lower on a Tuesday than a Monday since I always eat more on a Sunday. 

            I left for the Bildungsroman seminar at around 11:15. It started sprinkling along the way and almost became mist by the time I got there. 

            I talked to my fellow student Will outside the class about our essay. 

            There were no presentations today. 

            Professor Jaffe started us off discussing the old men minor characters of David Copperfield. I said Mr. Dick is the most prominent of the old man characters. He is supported by Aunt Betsey and well liked. Even when he is not lucid Betsey thinks he's a genius. He flies his kite and uses it to send messages to no one and everyone.

            Each character has a little story. Dick had a sister who married a bad partner. He couldn't save her and then started his memorial that never ends. 

            David is renamed several times and does not resist any of the names, even the humiliating ones.

            Besides Dick there are other characters that write. Doctor Strong has his dictionary, which also doesn't end. I think he was only at the letter "D" after several years just before the end of the novel. 

            I pointed out that Micawber writes letters. He is always positive in speech but then sends a letter as a postscript to the conversation, announcing that he is financially ruined. His signings off for each of these letters are almost like concrete poetry because the script looks like it is tumbling down to reflect the fact that he is falling. 

            Of the servants, Pegotty is a mother figure but I pointed out that she is nonetheless separated from David in class. She is not part of the wedding party when David gets married. She is relegated to the balcony and there is no mention that it should be otherwise. 

            Rosa is a borderline type of servant as she serves as a companion to Mrs. Steerforth. Uriah Heep begins in a servile position. He calls David "Master" until he gains power and then begins fluctuating between called him "master" and "mister". 

            David has no control over his own or anyone's servants while no one else has that problem. David is acquiescent. Why does he have no control? 

            David's descriptions of Uriah and his judgment of him based on his appearance and mannerisms are extremely disturbing. At one point he refers to him as a "red headed animal". The descriptions are like the insulting caricatures of Jews that were published in Germany in the late 19th and early 20th Century. I ask if Uriah Heep is Jewish. The professor says she doesn't know. I found out that Uriah is a Hebrew name meaning "my light is Yahweh". Heep is a name that most frequently occurs in Germany. 

            I point out that only Uriah and Emily try to rise above their class and they both fail. 

            About our essays I said I am writing about the mirror stage applied to Jane Eyre but I told the professor that I don't understand the Lacan lecture. I asked if I can use outside sources that explain it better. She said I can but said that we should contain the information we bring in because this is a short essay and it's supposed to be our own ideas drawing lightly from the secondary readings. 

            I stopped at Freshco on my way home where I bought seven bags of cherries and a bunch of bananas. 

            I weighed 83.4 kilos before a late lunch at 15:00, which is the lightest I've been at that time in three weeks. 

            I weighed 83.9 kilos at 18:00. That's the least I've weighed at that time in almost three weeks. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 20:08. 

            I worked a bit on my essay but not enough to show any significant progress. I just did mostly some editing. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast beef with a beer while watching season 4, episode 25 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs along with Gladys Flatt are coming to visit and Jed wants Jethro to drive him to the airport to pick them up. Jethro has installed a helicopter propeller on the truck so it can fly over traffic. Incredibly it works for rising in the air but not for moving forward. Also the only way to get down is to turn off the engine, which causes them to drop and wreck the truck. 

            Jed calls Jane Hathaway to ask her to drive to the airport to pick up their friends. She is in charge of the office because Mr. Drysdale is away but she knows he would want her to help Jed and so she leaves Miss Murray at her desk and goes to the airport. On the way to bring the visitors to the Clampetts they decide to have a singalong and sing "Little Brown Jug". Mr. Drysdale happens to see her on the highway from his limo and he thinks she's on a date, so when Jane gets back she finds she's been fired. The other secretaries take up a collection for her and she gets fifty three cents. After she explains the situation to Drysdale he wants her back but she is angry and refuses to return. 

            Meanwhile at the Clampett mansion Lester and Earl put on a show. Gladys puts on a tight gold lamé gown and sings "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" with Lester and Earl accompanying on guitars. She wants to go on the road with them but Lester tells her she doesn't sing their kind of music.

            Jethro fixes the truck and adds rockets so it can both go up and forward. He has Granny up in the air and is about to use the rockets when Jed calls for her not to turn off the key. All she hears is "turn off the key" and so they crash again. 

            In the end Jane arrives because she now wants to be a folk singer. Gladys also wants to prove she can sing Lester's music and so they all sing "The Wreck of Old 97". 

            Miss Murray was played by Venita Wolf, who started out as a model and beauty contestant. She was Queen of the 1962 May Festival in Orange, California. She was on the cover of the July, 1967 issue of Playboy. She made appearances in a few TV series and one movie. She is most noted for playing Yeoman Teresa Ross on the Star Trek episode "The Squire of Gothos". She was married four years to Skip Taylor, the manager of the band Canned Heat. 

            

            

            

            For the second night in a row I found no bedbugs.