This Tuesday ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
deadkytty9 and I ventured, finally, to the Harry Ransom Center for their tour. That's right; I have been here for two years and have not yet really explored the HRC (though I did go to one of the reading rooms with my Romantic Lit class, where I got to breathe on Cassandra Austen's personal copy of Emma). The truth is I have been intimidated. It's a huge collection, and trying to figure out where to start and how to proceed gives me the fantods. Ridiculous, really; I'm going to pass up one of the best reasons to come to UT Austin just because I've got the Stendahl shakes?
So, let me tell you what we saw just in the lobby and the gallery (disregarding the milliions of manuscripts and artifacts within the bowels of the collection): a Gutenberg Bible (illuminated with what looked to my undiscerning eye with blue Bic pen); the first photograph; an exhibition of Fritz Henle's photography; a hundred plus beautifully bound and beautifully illustrated copies of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat (which became a Victorian sensation upon its translation in 1859 by one Edward FitzGerald, and as you can imagine is treated with all the cultural sensitivity one can expect from that particular time period); and one of my favorite Frida Kahlo portraits, "Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird."
Evidence that we do more at UT than paint ourselves orange and pound the snot out of Sooners. Though we do that too.
It's odd to know how much stuff we have, and while I'm glad a lot of this material is in the hands of trained archivists in one of the most climate-controlled environments in the state of Texas, I do wonder if there are places and people that have firmer claims to these treasures. Still, collecting all these physical artifacts in one place makes good sense from a research perspective. The collection is fully open to memebers of the public, as well, which I find beautiful. You too, dear reader, can waltz into the building and read Tennessee Williams' first draft of A Streetcar Named Desire (spoiler alert: Blanche and Stanley run away together in this version. No joke.). You can walk into Earl Stanley Gardner's living room. You can read Carson McCullers' letters, Edith Wharton's letters, Henry James' letters, Paul Bowles' letters, and so on.
Also if I ever have any degree of success as a writer the HRC is my retirement plan. Selectively, of course. The eight-grade Newsies fan-fiction and the blues song I composed for a grade-school project on Roald Dahl's BFG might not make the cut.
- Mood:
happy
This week, I think I edged closer to comprehending the complexities of gatos en fuego. I turned on my oven to roast some pecans. Suddenly, one of my foster kittens, Azuki, came bolting from behind the stove like the proverbial Chiroptera out of hell. I didn't even know there was a hidey-hole back there for him to get into. He was covered all over with a fine dusting of black stuff. "What did you get into?" I scolded. "Meow," he said.
When I brushed him off, I realized he hadn't gotten into something; the black stuff was the outer layer of fur burned to a crisp down his back. He had a slightly...sizzled odor.
So we all learned a valuable lesson. I now do headcounts when I turn on the oven, and Azuki, I suspect, will never venture near a stove again.
( are you gonna eat me? )
- Mood:
sleepy
This afternoon, the company's CFO sent out an e-mail. It read:
"please say hi to ee cummings who is covering our front desk"
So I sent him back a reply:
"since hunger is first
who pays attention
to the syntax of things
will never give you tacos"
Meanwhile, all day, the rest of the office has been stopping by my desk in confusion. "I thought your name was Jennifer?"
- Mood: amused
( We're all pretty good at lip synch too. )
( Invisible Arches )
( the fairy Melusina )
- Mood:
thoughtful
I've always been really affected by the book, but I'm having a really hard time writing about it. Reason being that there is so much to notice, built into the structure and the art. I'm overwhelmed by how many ways the book works. It gets me agitated and light-headed when I start to unpack it. It is hard to focus when you are hyperventilating.
This is why I will not see the movie. It can't work the same way. It might be a perfectly viable movie (I don't know, Hodge said it wasn't as bad as most Moore adaptations at least) but it just can't be the astonishing work of art the book is.
- Mood:
busy busy
Among my (predictable) favorites:( holy pony paradise batman )
( So of course you grow up... )
- Mood: ready for karaoke night
- Music:Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
By the way: Dollhouse? A show pivoting around identity, misogyny, and Eliza Dushku? Was there ever a show more geared towards my own interests?
Anyway, the interview was a little bit obnoxious. Jacki Lyden asks the oft-feminist-lauded Whedon how having a disempowered identityless protagonist who is programmed to have sex with whoever is willing to pay for her when she's not going on crazy black-ops missions is remotely a feminist idea. This would be a reasonable question once, but she grills him on it throughout the whole interview. What makes the interview worth listening to is that Whedon articulates the conundrum of the politically-aware storyteller quite gracefully.
"The fact of the matter is, I've been worried about this. It's kept me up nights. But I believe the best way to examine anything is to go to a dark place," Whedon says. "You can't be a storyteller and a speechwriter at the same time."
This is something I fret over all the time. How do you create art that is dangerous, new, risky, etc., if you're hyperaware of the hegemonic potential of your medium? What if the story you need to tell involves women who are weak? I think part of why Buffy has been meaningful to so many people is that it reflects the power struggles young women face much more accurately than a consistently empowered heroine would. Guess what? We don't live in a world of consistently empowered women. We live in a world where you have to fight to become empowered, and it's so much more meaningful to see a Buffy who is sometimes naive, vulnerable, and powerful, because we know we can count on her to grow and fight exactly the way the rest of us must. I'm assuming Echo, Dollhouse's new heroine, is not going to be passive for a full season. I'm guessing we're going to get some fight out of her, and how satisfying will that be, to see her strength finally push through?
The audio is worth a quick listen (the printed version just paraphrases; the audio will be available later tonight) just to hear Whedon's calm confidence about the power of a narrative to do something that a polemic cannot accomplish.
Also, Dollhouse will be on my television this Friday, so if any of y'all is looking for a spot to watch it give me a ring.
(PS: I obviously fail at livejournal. Apologies. It has been that kind of month.)
drawgirl. Why? Because drawgirl and her boyfriend Slasher both got laid off their respective jobs this week. Merry Christmas, guys! If cute-culture is not your thing, check out Slasher's Jack of No Trades line for a more aggressive, political look.
Abernathy Green and Jack of No Trades shirts are comfy, high-quality, and sweatshop-free. This is a great time to support an independent artist and get a cool new shirt for the new year.
- Mood: restless
( The connection is interesting in part because of Wallace's obsession with David Lynch... )
- Mood: sick
It's not that I'm a Palin fan--obviously I'm not. And it's not that I don't think she was a factor. She might well have been. But even if it was Palin that lost the election, it was McCain's fault she was there to lose it. His camp vetted her for all of five minutes. Her nomination was a crass political maneuver, an attempt to make the GOP more appealing to women. Sarah Palin just did what she's always done: she showed up and acted like Sarah Palin. If they didn't want that, they shouldn't have tapped her for the job.
Yes, I'm glad she's being packed off to Alaska where the only people I have to hear complain about her are my parents. But it's not fair for the Republican party to blame her for their own miscalculation.
- Mood:
annoyed
Amidst all the celebration, I think it's worth remembering:
I believe Obama will be a fantastic leader. But he has no magic wand. He's not going to patch everything overnight. He will not be able to accomplish any of this change without us.
Stay vigilant, stay involved, stay invested. This is your democracy. It's only as healthy as you make it.
- Mood: optimistic
Yeah. He still lives here. His name is Maxwell I guess.
( he doesn't really like having his picture taken but that doesn't stop me from trying. )
The "new baby" excitement of an addition never really happened, since my acceptance of ownership was just a long slow process of giving up on finding him a home. But he's pretty much a world-class sweetheart so I'm happy to have him here. I'm not much of a dog person, honestly, but we're doing our best for each other. He likes it when I squeak that toy at him. He hasn't quite figured out how to squeak it for himself, though.
Um. He's not a genius.
But he's mine, and I love him.
The one I've liked the most so far is Laura Miller's over at Salon. Miller did one of the better interviews with him post IJ back in 1996, asking what I felt were all the right questions (or at least some of the right questions; it's not a long enough interview to nail him down on all of them). Her eulogy this weekend touched for me on the essence of his work, the essential question of empathy and how difficult it is. She articulates a few things about his work that I've always argued, albeit much more poorly:
( a few of Miller's quotes )
I have not yet been able to brave McSweeney's, which is currently posting memories from anyone who had contact with him. But I will say it was a comfort to see that Timothy McSweeney is as devastated and as lost as I feel. It really is bizarre psychic territory, to mourn a person I never met but who affected me so profoundly. What do you do to process a grief like that? Hodge thinks I need to write a eulogy myself, though he seems to have an inflated sense of my status as a Wallace fangirl (it does no good to tell him I am one of many; he thinks I might well be the archfan and thus have a responsibility to the internets to write something brilliant). But I'm not sure what I'd say that Miller hasn't said better, and I'm not sure I can eulogize right now anyway. I'm still doing the Kubler-Ross shuffle.
Anyway...thanks for all the patience and concern in the past week, I love you all. I am doing OK. I have mail for a few of you that has been deferred on account of me being a big old mess but hopefully it'll be on its way shortly.
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