tapes for the town

. . . at least, that’s what I think. I’m holding off on reading Yancey until I can read it on paper.

Clearly, I am not among the next generation.

I’m looking forward to reading Kathleen Blake Yancey’s report on writing in the 21st century, but I am holding off for now as I’m a bit tired from working late at the UWC. But while it’s on my mind, I wanted to relay a post from my friend Matt regarding Second Life.

More specifically, this:

I’m really just thinking in general terms here, but I believe the real advantage of Second Life is not that students can move to a university, walk to class, then log in to the virtual world, but rather that this can be done from home.

Right. Not to denigrate Matt’s reaction here, but this is a very practical reaction to something that a lot of us look at as a novelty or something that might be useful for teaching our students to write because, well, it’s electronic. So I can relate to his response to this sort of thing.

I should also mention that I attended a lecture this afternoon delivered by David Bordwell, who is apparently a pretty big deal in Film/Lit circles. Bordwell was great, but the gist of his talk (or at least what I saw of it before I had to go to work) was basically this: digital filmmaking techniques–like anything else–are adapted rather piecemeal and only where they make sense. That is, the “digital revolution” hasn’t reinvented the way we make movies, but it has made a lot of things possible that previously weren’t. Makes sense to me.

I think I’ll leave this post open-ended for now, but I’m guessing Yancey’s point is that we ought to encourage composition in any way we can. And although I am probably generally more interested in all things digital than your average English major, I remain skeptical of these so-called multiple literacies–at least as long as our students are (in their other classes and in their eventual professions) expected to write. At any rate, something I will no doubt be thinking about in the next few days.

Because I have spend the past two and a half years working on a degree in English, my friends and family back home assume I do a lot of reading. I guess that’s true, but for some reason I’ve fallen into the habit of only reading books that directly pertain to one of my classes. I think a lot of us are like this.

Yesterday, I made a slight exception: I read an entire novel in one sitting. I don’t think I’ve done that in years.

I must confess that it was somewhat work related. I work at the University Writing Center here and some of us are in touch with a former coworker, whose own students are participating in a sort of long-distance book club in which we will presumably exchange letters about books of the students’ choosing.

I have two–students and books–and yesterday I read Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney. Although it was something I normally might not pick up, I liked it. The book is ostensibly about capricious youth and drug use, but it ends up on touching on a number of things I didn’t expect (the details of which I’ll spare here–at least for the moment). After all, it’s the former that I’m assuming drew X student to the novel, but the latter that I actually am interested in talking about at this point at my life. Most importantly, I want to know what the experience of reading that book is like for someone who is 16 or 17 and definitely ready to get out of high school. And I’ll save what my experience was like to read this as a 26 year old for him.

I only bring this up because I am trying to get in the habit of writing here, and because I am tired I am not planning on pushing it too hard. I just want to write down that it was nice to start and finish something–especially something that won’t “count” and something I won’t write a paper on.

Tonight, I’ll start a book for me, and I’ll explain later.

It’s been a big weekend for me.

I was fortunate enough to receive offers of admission from the PhD programs I applied to, and I have finally made my decision: I’m staying here.

I am happy and relieved and excited.

And I did not expect this, but the act of making this commitment has switched me on somehow. I have big ideas about conference presentations, areas of emphasis for my degree, and even a tentative dissertation topic. About a week ago, I wasn’t even close to where I am right now. At least, I didn’t feel that way.

A lot of my friends took their comprehensive exams yesterday, which is basically their final requirement for completing their MA degrees. Most of them panicked–a lot–leading up to and immediately following the exam, and I hope they get the same sense of relief once they get word that they are OK.

That is basically what I wanted to say. And really–I just wanted to get the first post out of the way without trying to make a big deal out of it. I’m going to write about school a lot, I’d imagine, but I need to get back to my lazy Sunday morning.