Reality Check!

Oh, whoops! I typed that title 20 minutes ago. I got caught up with twitter and a fellow blogger's story on how she met her husband.

Here's the deal, I'm a month and 5 days away from graduation. I am 32 days and a wake up from graduating with my BA in Literature.

(As I type, there is a cat fighting to find his footing behind me on the back of my chair)

I have one last research paper to write. The subject? History. Did you see that my major is in LITERATURE?

I'm just grand at history as it pertains to literature, but the history of sexuality? I'm so lost! All I can think about is the time Helen slammed the door on Arthur's face in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. So racy! So unheard of for a woman of that time to deny her husband! How about Shakespeare and all of his bawdy language? Or how Adam and Eve ravished each other in Milton's Paradise Lost after having eaten from the Tree of Knowledge?

I feel like we've had this talk.

I'd really like to write about fetishism, perhaps even Sadomasochism. Why? Because all of the readings I have done on these subjects are completely different form the way they are portrayed in the media and in pop culture.

This paper is due the last Thursday in April... in 23 days. I'm really good at working under pressure but I'm already feeling anxiety's sick grip on my stomach as I type. I can chose any topic as long as it relates to gender studies and/or sexuality. I also have to chose a time in history that effected or was affected by the topic. For example: how prostitution was affected by the printed pornography during the Victorian era.

That actually sounds like a good topic. The Romantic Period is my absolute fave but a close second is the Victorian era. Did you know that Pornography was the most popular (purchased and read) form on literature during that time? And now you know.

If you have stuck through this entire post PLEASE just make one bitsy comment that you are still here. I would love to know how many of you can get through these stuffy school posts. I promise that after I graduate I will write more about fun books, rather than old books. Or I will find a way to make the old books fun! Love ya!



*** I am not a fan of pornography or the objectification of women (or men) of any kind. These ideas and topics are strictly for academic purposes. Besides, Victorian era pornography? Hey baby, lemme see dat knee cap.... but really. I am purely interested in the history... not repeating it.

****Random catstgrams? To keep my readers who are not interested in school/literature/history of sexuality interested. Hey, everyone likes something different.

Book Smart

I've been looking for a way to tie my love of books and all things Lit into my blog without going the book review route. I'm not against reviews, they are very helpful sometimes. I just suck at them, that's all. I'm better at critiquing and analyzing. You know, looking for themes and conventions of discourse then trying to apply all that to the meaning of the universe. Agh! So maybe just for now I'll start by posting what I know and if I happen to stumble on something cute (ahem):

Source

I'll pass it on with a comment or five. I found this comic on my sister's tumblr page and traced it back to it's origin. Which really meant, I had to do a google search because the little twat (excuse my French) it was credited to on tumblr didn't credit the photo properly. Anyhoo, this isn't a "careful to link" rant.

I love this particular take on Pooh and Poe because I feel like "The Tell-Tale Heart" doesn't get read often enough. Heck, I don't think Poe gets read often enough at all! In fact, I never read any for high school and I only read one short story for college. Everything I have read was on my own time and I think I enjoyed it more for that reason.

If you like Thrillers, Horror, or Mysteries take a look at some of Pooh, I mean Poe's work (teehee). My personal favorite is the "The Cask of Amantillado." I was really stoked to see a Poe themed haunted house at Busch Gardens's Howl-O-Scream last year. In fact, the second time I walked through I identified all the poems and short stories that were being enacted. The guy from Cask looked pretty surprised when I yelled "Oh, your from "The Cask..(yadayada)." He said, "Yes!" 

Is any of this interesting? I kinda got excited and started typing. We'll do this again some time, thanks for hanging in there!

Crazy things my professors say...

Tonight in class, it occurred to me that the teaching staff at USF St. Pete is way more humorous than the staff at St. Pete College (I went there for my AA). If the SPC teachers are funny, I never saw it.

So here goes:

Bible as Lit, Dr. W suggests we all watch Dogma because Alan Rickman is in it and it's really funny. He also throws in as a side note that Silent Bob is in the film as well, and it also "very funny."

Brit/Irish Lit, Dr. W (different than above) makes hilarious references to the movie Office Space when talking about how long essays should be at the minimum. At the beginning of the semester in each class (this is the 3rd class of his I've taken) he says, "Don't get caught wearing the minimum flair!" He compares page count to flair. Haha silly.

Yesterday he compared Nine Inch Nails to the superior/ inferior thoughts in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." I zoned out a little, but it was something along the lines of that insecure feeling conveyed through some of the NIN lyrics and Prufrock's thoughts.

Brit Lit, Dr. R. has suggested all different sights to see in England throughout the semester. Poet's Corner, Wordsworth's home, 221 Baker St....yadda yadda. Tonight she says (in a very up-beat tone) "There is also a night tour that you can go on in London where you are taken to a several spots where Jack the Ripper killed women." *awkward silence + crickets* Then lots of laughing. You could tell she was in a moment and it was hilarious! She's so fun. (I'm taking one of her classes in the Fall, too).

Also, while talking about "The Lady of Shalott" she was very excited to talk about Lancelot, almost like he was a literary crush. Don't hate, everyone has one.

Brit Lit, Dr.C haha where to start! One day he did a really great Obi-Wan impression. "These aren't the droids you're looking for" from A New Hope.

There are more, my brain just has water on it right now. So, goodnight! xoxo