[W]e’ve got to blurt — [...] blurt bravely and get some words on paper and have lots of conversations with lots of people. I think that’s very important — connecting and having conversations, that’s a huge part of my life. Being interested. Somehow, I’ve been able to remain interested in everything that’s happening, and you want to hang on to that as long as you can.
–Carol Shields quoted in an interview with Eleanor Wachtel in January 2002. This was her last interview with Carol before she passed on in the Summer of 2003. This interview is recorded in a lovely new book: Random Illuminations.
I’m alive — just barely — but am consumed with the work of writing and grading. Conference experience was good — check out In the Middle or Literature Compass for more on the proceedings at Kzoo. I didn’t get to have all the authorship conversations I wanted to, which was frustrating since I went out on a limb (again) and stepped outside my primary field (even though some people keep telling me I’m really a medievalist, even though I’m not so much). I did hear several good papers/conversations on queer theory and medieval lit, which was helpful. Saw some friends and profs that I wouldn’t normally get to visit with. Also went to the famous “dance” and did some mean MC Hammer moves with my old super-brilliant college pal. Had an all around a good time but now I have to finish everything up for the term so I can move onto other things.
A List. Of what no one knows exactly. Observations perhaps. Does it matter? Must lists have consistent or linear themes?
1. Nothing is working out as I wanted it to today. Learn how to relinquish control, control freak. You list-maker you.
2. Watching someone try to back out of a lie is sort of pleasurable, though I know that doesn’t make me sound like a nice person. It just proves what I had already been suspicious of.
3. “You’re not queer enough.”
4. Seems like an accusation that is very likely to spiral out of control. You’re not woman enough, Hillary. Feminist enough. Black enough. Butch enough. Patriotic enough. Soft enough. Done enough. Warm enough. Good enough. Enough already — ‘nough is ‘nough!
5. Paranoia reigns supreme. “You’re so paranoid you probably think this blog is about you,” says Eve. (Potentially spoken to Adam, the presumed atom that started this big authorship mess.)
6. I like the bunnies hopping around here. As a sort of post-Easter event.
7. Not sure why blog name changed where the bunnies now hop. This poststructuralist problem haunts me in other arenas as well.
8. Too many competing events this week. I feel like ducking out of all of it, but know I will be pressured into attending some things.
9. Like the one I organized for tonight.
10. Umbilical cord needs to be cut on project 1. Otherwise, I’m having triplets and that sounds painful. Too many pooping bodies. Too much potential for — poop.
11. I could go for a c-section though.
12. Does the rise in the number of c-sections in women have anything to do with the impatience of medical physicians? Medical or cultural pressure to hurry it up, punch it out, and purge ourselves of the foreign bodies/texts that are indeed of our own making. What about fear of complications?
13. “How can you complicate this idea further” seems to be a standard academic request. Request posed as a question.
14. How does the technology available affect the birthing process? Or, as Minh-ha suggests, is this really about female productivity? The inability to produce on cue or the waiting for the thing/body/baby to materialize?
This list is incomplete. It’s not a list of commandments. It’s not a to-do list. There’s no authority presumed here. This is just a list, only a list. You should now return to your regularly scheduled lives, as dictated by npr.
Some random interesting links worth taking a look at:
Lang Poets on the Body
Barret Watten on “How the Grand Piano Is Being Written.”
(Don’t worry I haven’t forgotten to review the first to editions; I just haven’t been able to. My reviews should be coming along soon, like within a few weeks.)
The Mother-Load if you’re interested in authorship theory (even though my field isn’t Rhet Comp).
A new online mag put together by one of my good college friends: GetUnbound.
