Quick Review: March, by Geraldine Brooks

I read this for school originally, because I (perhaps unwisely) decided to teach this based on the recommendations of others before I actually read it. For a while I was worried. I had a hard time connecting with March's voice--he's so proper and civilized and idealistic that he almost seemed unreal. About a third of the way through the book, however, it clicked. March's idealism isn't just a sign of his goodness; it's also a sign of his failure. He can't live up to the picture-perfect image created in Alcott's Little Women or in his own mind. He wants to be the man his daughters think he is. He wants to be that image of goodness. And suddenly, I felt that connection that elevates a book from interesting to moving to powerful. Who hasn't at some point felt the spirit willing but the flesh weak? Who hasn't failed to live up to their own ideals at one point or another? That tension, as well as the series of events March encounters in the Civil War, provide a compelling force that drive the novel forward. By the end, when (Possible Spoiler Alert) the narrative switches to Marmee's narration, the book is not just a clever retelling of Alcott's classic; it's also a complex examination of relationships, of psychological shortcomings, and of the painful cost of war. A-

Four Signs You're No Longer a Struggling College Student

1. You buy a calendar for the upcoming year in December, not in the April bargain bins.

2. You just fill up your car with gas, rather than consciously test just how long the gas light can be on before the car stops.

3. You write checks in complete confidence that they won't bounce.

4. You pay off your student loans!

Ya-hooey

I've had Yahoo as my homepage for as long as I can remember. It's convenient, it's got a fine-but-not-quite-google-so-adequate search feature, it gives me copious amounts of information at a glance. But I wish I could sit down and have a little chat with the page editors about the annoying little ads and annoying-er (Sure it's a word. Why wouldn't you believe me? After all, I'm an English teacher) celebrity information links they stack the page with.

Today:
You decide: Hollywood's Hottest Celebs
Hottest Male Celebrity
Is it Brad, Justin, or . . .?

Or who? Yahoo, please tell me! Who else could it be? Tom Cruise? Russell Crowe? Denver Pyle? YAHOO PLEASE ANSWER! THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME!!!!1111!!

A Valediction: Forbidding Boredom

Lately, after stumbling across the Mental Multivitamin blog, I have been thinking of how much time I devote to unessential things. I waste my fair share of time, and then some, on things like video games and tv. I like those things, but I’m not sure how much they really better me. As a result, I’m trying to devote myself a little more to scholarly (that sounds too pretentious) mind-expanding (that sounds a little too drugged out) thought-provoking pursuits. I’d like to spend more time reading, for one—and reading things beyond Entertainment Weekly.

To that end I’m hooking up with a book club and trying to read James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in the next month. I’m also interested in the lost art of memorizing poetry and prose. I think that would benefit not only my teaching but my life of the mind as well. Who knows whether that will happen anytime soon. If it does, though, I think I’d start with this poem. It’s one of my favorites. That John Donne knew how to write. If you’re not a poetry person, check it out anyway. There’s beauty in the language of lines like “Dull sublunary lovers’ love” even if you have a hard time deciphering the meaning.

The scene is the separation of two lovers. Donne was leaving on a governmental assignment and his wife—pregnant and ill—did not want him to leave. The resulting poem explains both true love and separation in ways that, as an aspiring writer, I could only dream of. Enjoy.

A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING.
by John Donne

AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."

So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love
—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove
The thing which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.

And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.

Ya Grows Up and Ya Grows Up and Ya Grows Up

So, many of you will recognize the title of todays blog as a quote from a college favorite film: Swingers. If I can give you a little advice, however, let me suggest this: Don't do a google video search for "Swingers." And that's probably all I need to say about that.

This weekend Amelia and I felt like real live grown up adults for a day. We had a garage sale and actually made money. This is a first for us. We learned from our first garage sale in Pennsylvania that pricing things high and then hoping people will barter down doesn't really work. So we went with rock bottom pricing. It still amazes me, though, how much people want to a) buy our trash, and b) haggle at 25 cents. This woman had a new paperback copy of a John Grisham book in her hand--I mean the thing had never even been opened--and put it back when I said it was 75 cents. Huh?! Also, the most popular thing at the garage sale? The yard crap (wooden owls, etc.) that the old owners left behind. We sold that out within an hour or so.

At any rate, it was a good day for it, our friends Jonathan and Celeste came over and sold some stuff, and Amelia and I got rid of 2 couches--the one our home's previous owners had left behind and the first crappy crappy couch we bought 3 years ago. In all, we made enough to go pay for a big chunk of buying a new couch. It's a 2 piece sectional that is very comfy and hopefully will look good in our front room. Now if we could just get the 1080p hi-def tv, all would be right with the world...

School rolls on. Teaching is fun, but/and I look forward to the breaks. Next week: Veteran's Day off! The following week: Thanksgiving break! Now if we only had some family we could go see on Turkey Day we would be in a good position. Last year we did the "Loner Thanksgiving" which was fun, but once was enough. This year hopefully we can find someone to at least eat with. I think Thanksgiving is almost harder to be away from family than Christmas. At Christmas, you at least have stuff to distract you. Presents, and churchy type stuff, and the Christmas Spirit (my favorite spirit, after school spirit, that is) and all that can give you a pretty nice holiday even if away from family. Thanksgiving is all about family and friends though. You go to someone's house, eat a big meal, unzip your pants and fall asleep on the floor, watch a movie, watch some football, play some football, play some board games, and then eat pie. You can't do that with strangers, and it's not that fun alone. It's definitely a friends and family type of day.

Oh well. Maybe we'll go to a movie like last year. I suppose being separated is part of growing up too.