A Racket at the Mill

December is the month of writing

2010-12-10T05:20:00.000-08:00

Finals this month, yet so much writing. Some personal projects, and also some stuff that might lead to publication. The problem is finding the time and motivation -- I usually have one or the other.

K'zoo 2011

2010-09-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

I have had a proposal accepted for the Kalamazoo medieval conference in 2011. Two years in a row! Little old me! Crazy!

It's like, "Hey stupid, get to work already, people clearly value what you have to say!"

I've been keeping track of my time, and a lot of it is spent just goofing around on the internet. I mean, I work, I clean, I hang out with friends -- those are all important things. But there's no reason not to work. Other than inertia or fear.

So I'll get right on that tomorrow, or Monday, or....

A New Plan

2010-09-05T02:52:00.000-07:00

I just looked through the UPenn Call for Papers and found some things to...try out for? submit to? It all sounds so seedy. Anything, something tangible to work towards.

Starting Monday, I'll write for at least 10 minutes. If I can't make it 10.5 minutes, that's okay. Just 10. And I'll increase it a little bit each day, and maybe take one day off (Thursdays, those are long days).

I love it, why is it so hard?

I wonder what I can do in 27 years?

Looking Ahead

2010-09-03T22:38:00.001-07:00

Today is my mother's birthday. She would have been 56. She died last year, when she was 54.

I am 27. In 27 years, I will also be 54. I don't even know what to make of that. What if I only have half of my life left, instead of 2/3 or something? (What if I get hit by a bus tomorrow?)

My dad was 58 when he died. Needless to say, I don't think I'm going to live a long time anyway.

So I've done a lot. I have a lot to be proud of. But suddenly I'm struck with the thought....Only 27 more years. And I dare to waste them by just sitting around the house? Why aren't I writing?

I spend a lot of time grading and I think that is worthwhile. If I help even one student, that student can go on to help his/her child, or sibling, or coworker, who can then go on to help others. That's pretty darn awesome.

But if I keep putting things off, assume I can get to it when I'm 40 or 50, I'll find myself out of luck. The world won't mourn the loss of my non-existent Chaucer articles. But I will.

Planning

2010-08-09T22:52:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine just pitched a book idea. The idea was met well, but my friend has more work today. Which got me thinking about my own plans. It sure is easy to plan. I think I'd be a great event planner, actually. It's the doing that's the problem.

Anyway, everyone wants to write a book, it seems. In my writing courses, at least half of my students tell me that. I don't teach lit or creative writing or anything like that. Something about the word "writing" or "composition" in a class title brings out the inner author. Which is good.

My current situation rather encapsulates my life. There is a call for papers I would like to respond to. It is a little outside of my area of expertise, but it is a topic in which I am interested. I have an old paper that sort of meets the guidelines. I could just send it in and see what happens. Or I could pull out my books and write something new. I like writing and research; I like planning.

But so far I've done nothing, not even check that other paper for typos. I'm definitely tired of rejection letters.

For Free

2010-08-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

In thinking about writing and my last post....so many post so much to the internet. How is anyone going to make money any more? Or maybe no one ever made much to begin with?

Maybe I could write a research paper about this.

Book

2010-08-01T18:34:00.000-07:00

Like so many, I have an idea for a book.

But I can't seem to start writing. What if no one wants to publish it, or read it? What if someone beats me to it?

What if I'm a hack, or not as smart as I thought I was?

I have nothing to lose by writing. Other than a lot of time. And the cost of postage.

Still. Thinking about my book is easier than writing it, or writing journal articles.

K'Zoo 2011

2010-07-31T20:03:00.000-07:00

Last week, I sent out my proposal for the Kalamazoo Medieval Congress 2011. It's about Chaucer and children's lit. Whomever is chosen, I'm sure it will be a really cool panel.

I'm definitely nervous: Will I get chosen two years in a row? Will I be able to afford it? (This was fun, but not cheap.)

I feel that my paper this year was very successful, but I also feel like...I'm not living up to my potential. I haven't written any articles or anything. I should. I totally should. But there's always another paper to grade....

Titles

2010-07-22T22:34:00.000-07:00

I like reading. I'm okay on research. Thesis statements and intros aren't bad. I rather dislike conclusions. But titles. Oh titles are the worse.

Gotta be descriptive. Gotta avoid cliches. For some reason "My Cool Paper" just won't do.

When I was a little girl, my friends and I joked about compiling a list of phrases people could use for titles. We'd make a book, a book of nothing but potential titles! Oh, I wish I had that now...

Reopening?

2010-04-05T01:30:00.000-07:00

I was reminded of this blog while preparing some materials. The thesis was happily finished nearly two years ago, but I am back to writing and researching. I love them, and I had missed them.

So I think I shall return to blogging, too, at least the research process.

It's nice to have someone to talk to. :)

Conclusion

2008-06-20T01:52:00.000-07:00

Defense (April 28): Passed

Thesis: Turned in and cataloged

Graduation (June 15): Graduated

More Editing

2008-03-12T17:30:00.000-07:00

I am now on the last big round of editing. (Whatever that means.)

It'll be turned in Monday, then we'll look at it as a whole over Spring Break.

I'm waiting to hear back from my committee members as to the best time for my Defense, but it will most likely be the final week of April.

Yea!

Death of the Father (Curse you Harold Bloom)

2008-03-09T18:20:00.000-07:00

I am in the thick of revising. I hate revision. I hate it. I love editing other people's works. But my own -- blah.

I was about to make a salient point about Chaucer -- really thought-provoking, you know -- when I realized I was doing so through the use of Shakespeare. Damn.

More on Editing

2008-03-02T21:11:00.001-08:00

I'm still editing. The third and final small edit is done. The second big edit is due Tuesday.

In my head, I'm so excited to keep writing. Then I stare at the computer. . .and I'm done. I want to take a nap or check cuteoverload.com one more time.

Right now I'm watching Food Networ. Helpful, helpful.

In Which My Students Break My Heart

2008-02-23T22:07:00.000-08:00

16 responses. 3 said they’d read Chaucer“I spent a lot more time studying Shakespeare”

“Instead of reading his work, we read Hamlet, Shakespeare, etc”

“Chaucer. . .don’t even know the guy. We studied other stuff like Shakespeare.”

“I don’t know much about Geoffrey Chaucer. I did study ‘The Canterbury Tales’ in high school, but at that time I didn’t know it was written by Chaucer. I don’t remember much about ‘The Canterbury Tales.’”

“I have never studied Geoffrey Chaucer.”

“Thought his work was okay. Only liked only a couple of the Canterbury Tales”

“I do not even remember what [it] is really about because it was so difficult to read and comprehend.”

“No idea who Chaucer is. I did not study his work at all in school.”

“I have never heard of Chaucer.”

a little field work

2008-02-23T17:17:00.000-08:00

My class on Thursday: History of the English Language and Chaucer day.

I talked about the history of our delightful language.

I had them do some writing on Chaucer, then we listened to Baba Brinkman's rap version of "The Pardoner's Tale" -- finally, I read them some stories from my Chaucer picture book while they ate cookies.

I've only glanced through their writing. It's been pretty surprising. Overall, they really like "The Pardoner's Tale." I think it's boring now and I thought it was boring in 11th grade, so I was quite surprised by this. (Gah, ten years ago.) They didn't like the rap format.

I also asked them to write down anything they knew, if they read him in high school, etc. The majority of my students -- I mean, like, 20 out of 23 -- claimed not to know who Chaucer is/not to have him in high school. I find this a little odd, in that I wonder if they read him and just don't remember. I'm sure I don't remember everything I read in high school. Still, the fact the wouldn't remember is also quite telling.

But then pointing out that there are flaws in the American school system is like -- well, like any number of cliches.

Editing

2008-02-23T17:14:00.001-08:00

I'm now thick in the editing stage. My advisor and I are doing this in terms of small edits and big edits.

Small edits -- 20 pages a time, just a sort of cleaning and rearranging.

Big edits -- larger changes, adding in more research, etc.

Two small edits are done (so about 2/3 have been edited in some form). The first big edit is due on Tuesday. Yikes!

Not much time, really. Now, technically, I can't remember when I'm supposed to defend by. First week of May, I believe. (Luckily my advisor is generally more on top of these things than I.) But I'd really like to get this thing done by the middle of March. Before Spring Break, anyway.

The new (and final!) quarter beings March 31. I'd like to go into knowing the big stuff is out of the way. Since I'm taking both Chaucer and Magic in Medieval Lit, I would like to be able to devote all of my time to my studies.

Behold: The Internet!

2008-02-03T19:59:00.000-08:00

At the suggestion of my adviser, I am attempting to create a website for my thesis.

I've gotten a little done -- I've figured out how to upload pages to the server my university provides.

I don't really know what I'm doing, but it's fun.

Frustration

2008-01-13T14:54:00.000-08:00

This weekend (this weekend? It's Sunday afternoon!), I was supposed to start revising my thesis. I need to do some structural work. Also, my advisor suggests making a multimedia thesis -- awesome!

But while I'm proud of the work I've done, it's difficult to get up the enthusiasm to work.

Again, this week, I have heard from fellow grad students and others how they hate Chaucer or hate pre-1800s lit (where my current university makes the distinction; I believe my former uni split it at 1650 or 1700). People tell me they hate what I do -- it's not an honest mistake, they know what I study and what I love. Their comments are not mocking or malicious, but still.

How am I supposed to take them? Do people go to bio majors and say, "Oh, I hate biology"? Maybe.

But it's frustrating to have my own colleagues belittle my work. In so many ways, I am glad I'm moving to history.

page count

2007-12-31T17:55:00.000-08:00

64 pages.

Happy New Year!

That was Easy. A Little Too Easy

2007-12-26T10:27:00.001-08:00

All online applications have been submitted. All supplementary materials were mailed off today, except I still need to send out a few transcripts. I can only get out three at a time here (my undergrad will give you as many as like) and there's a hold on my account. I paid it today. It was thirteen cents.

I also dropped by the grad school, to make sure everything is cool. I need to contact a grad rep to attend my defense -- I got the list so I can begin begging. I actually have some time before I need to schedule my defense. You're allowed to bring food. . .I should set it up like an SCA vigil ceremony (they, in turn, are modeled on actual medieval ones) and bring period food and stuff. I make really good medieval gingerbread. Hmmmm.

Now I'm at the library. I have a book that's seriously overdue that I need to take notes from.

Then I'm going to go home and take a nap.

Page Count

2007-12-24T19:38:00.001-08:00

Top of 60!!!!

Thank you, Alcuin!

page count

2007-12-24T18:56:00.000-08:00

58 and a quarter. So close.

I'm hoping, on this Charlemagne Coronation Eve, Alcuin of York will inspire me.

updates

2007-12-22T23:09:00.000-08:00

Page count: Top of 54.

PhD school: all online applications are in (all eight). Wednesday, I will send in the remaining supporting documents, then I will be finished.

Goodness, there will be quite the hole in my life come early January. Good think school starts soon!

page count

2007-12-21T16:00:00.001-08:00

Top of 53!

OT musings

2007-12-21T15:44:00.000-08:00

Last night, I watched A Knight's Tale. While watching it, I got to thinking about the nature or royalty, as well as their servants; the female romantic lead has a lady-in-waiting who's name is never uttered, let alone does she have any kind of personality.

From there, I started thinking being imprisoned -- Jane Grey, Elizabeth, Marie Antoinette. When I was in Hawaii, I saw the room in the palace in which Queen Liliuokalani was kept. It was rather small, and she served it with a servant.

I thought about this servant -- I do not think her name was mentioned while I was on the Palace tour (though I might have missed it). She is rather like the lady-in-waiting from the movie, then.

I wonder what that's like. You're a prisoner, but you have to be someone else's strength. Is it worse, better, the same?

page count

2007-12-21T04:16:00.000-08:00

Top of page 51! I have written 50 full pages!

I was in bed, reading, trying to sleep when finally the last page and a half popped into my head. I think I could keep working, but it's after 4 in the morning, so it might be best to stop.

For now, I'll shoot for 60 by Monday. That would appropriate. Then I could have a carefree Charlemagne Coronation Day and William the Bastard Extravaganza.

Page Count

2007-12-21T00:54:00.000-08:00

48.

Damn, I was really hoping to make it 50. I don't know what to write about anymore.

movie notes

2007-12-20T21:06:00.000-08:00

I just finished watching Knight's Tale.

I watched it a few years ago, and absolutely hated it. I don't hate it quite so much now, but. . .

Here are my notes:

Sentence fragments in the opening subtitles

How is William a squire if he’s not noble?

Music by carter burwell? I love carter burwell!

Why dreadlocks? I mean, I guess it’s possible, but. . . I like his braies though

“a man can change his stars” – Wm. Very Early Modern

So if they’re peasants, who are they? They’re supposed to be squires, maybe it’s meant to be more like grooms/attendants

I get the point with the music, but I find it jarring. I think what we need is Baz Luhrman’s Knight’s Tale

Why is shirt technology always the first to go?

The boys know how to sew!

Chaucer! And he’s naked and covered in mud!

Chaucer creates the word “trudge” “To trudge: the slow weary depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in his life except the impulse to simply soldier on”

Steps on a thorn, pulls it out with his teeth, then introduces himself: [Roland asks ‘Who are you?’] “Liliments of venus. [?] Lily among the thorns. Geoffrey Chaucer’s the name, writing’s the game.”

The men are silent, unimpressed.
“Chaucer? Geoffrey Chaucer? The writer?”
“a what?”

“For a penny, I’ll scribble you anything you want, from summonses to decrees to edicts creeds, warrants, patents of nobility. I’ve even been know to jot down a poem.”

“You probably read my book?”

“No, well, that’s fine then, it was allegorical.”

[We won’t hold that against you, that’s for each man to decide on his own.]

Wm introduces himself, Chaucer makes fun of him, Wm pulls a sword on him

Chaucer gives them a plot point – they need a patent of nobility. Chaucer asks for clothes, shoes, food, to write a horse, then says he’ll give ‘em the patents

Oh, apparently they’re in France. Funny, I’ve never heard of patents of nobility outside of this movie, but apparently they are real.

I like Burwell’s music – a mix of medieval and modern – much better than the modern stuff

Chaucer says “I have to see a man about a dog”????

Women in movies never hold their dresses right when they go up stairs

Wm rides his horse into a cathedral, which actually gives a good idea of the expanse

The bad guy’s in black.

Simon the Summoner! “I must detain you on behalf of your herald.”

Chaucer admits to a gambling problem. He’s naked again.

Peter the Pardoner

They’ll take a pound of flesh

Chaucer: “Yes, yes I lied. I’m a writer! I give the truth scope!”

Chaucer talks him up. Everyone is like “Dewd, what>” “We walk in the garden of his turbulence”

Oh noes, a woman blacksmith!

“winner of the joust in France” What does that mean? Where are they?

Yea, the girl doesn’t know the rules, so she and the audience can be educated

Chaucer as promoter . “I got their attention, you go and win their hearts”

What on earth are they sleeping on?

The woman who plays Kate the Farrier was Lavinia in Julie Taymor’s Titus. I thought she looked familiar.

“I will eviscerate you in fiction.”
“I was naked for a day. You will be naked for eternity.”

Chaucer teaches em how to dance

Roland makes Wm fancy tunic. Cool. But what is up with Wm’s pants?

Beauty beauty very important, sheesh.

What the hell is Rufus Sewell wearing? And apparently the screenwriter or costume designer is confused as to what a tunic is

Makin’ friends with the Black Prince

Wm: “Don’t you ever get tired of putting on clothes?”
Chaucer; “She’s talking about taking them off”

Why are Will and Jocelyn fighting? Stupid romantic comedy

Wait, adhemar is the count of Anjou, how could the Black Prince command him, or was Anjou an ally of England? I know they were much later, but I thought that was solidified with Margaret’s marriage to Henry VI

Chaucer help Wm write a love letter. The other boys help, too. But why did they fight in the first place?

Can the movie take a time out so everyone can put on real clothes?

Wat: “Watch out, Quasimodo”

Wait, “No Englishman will win” but they’re saying Wm is from “Gelderland” gah

Wat:”I don’t understand women.”

Chaucer: “Nor do I, but they understand us.”

Chaucer observes Jocelyn going to Wm’s tent: “Guinevere comes to Lancelot. Bed him well, m’lady. Bed him well.”

Oh good the Summoner and Pardoner are back. Why isn’t this movie over yet?

Chaucer’s naked again! His wife Philippa has shown up.

She says “They seem much more fun than those boring old pilgrims you hung out with last year.”

The royal guards look like Conquistadors.

Chaucer calms the crowd when WM’s in the stocks

Chaucer: “I ask you, what makes a man noble? Is it his lineage or his heart?”

The people say, Heart, good heart.

Oh, burn, the Black Prince is in the crowd. “Release him.” “My personal historians have discovered him to be of an ancient royal line.”

So, does the Prince have to show patents of nobility? I shouldn’t think so, but. . .

That’s a sweet sweet duster the Prince has on

Chaucer: “all human activity lies within the artist’s scope”

fun with search terms

2007-12-20T00:40:00.000-08:00

Googled:

“knight’s tale” 322,000 First – imdb movie page 2^nd luminarium

“a knight’s tale” 385,000 first – imdb 2^nd Wikipedia

“the knight’s tale” 61,000 first -- luminarium 2nd Wikipedia

Page Count

2007-12-19T01:36:00.000-08:00

Forty! 40 40 40 40!

Twenty more to go!

In the last twelve hours, I have written about ten pages -- pretty amazing, since I tend to go about a page an hour, and I have not been working continuously.

Now, I should add there are quite a few block quotes, but still.

In theory, I could finish by the end of the week. Holy cow!

writer's block

2007-12-18T16:55:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, I'm stuck again. I've only written another page and a half.

The trouble is that the last thing I've written is about the vagina. I feel a bit odd about that, since this is an academic paper and all. A Master's thesis and all.

slut

2007-12-18T16:43:00.001-08:00

According to the OED, "slut" and "slutty" goes back to the fifteenth century. It originally meant "dirty" -- so, a house could be slutty. "Slutty" as applied to a woman (a la Brinkman below) was added to the OED in 2004, and their first example is from the 1970s. "Slut" for a loose woman does date back to the second half of the fifteenth century; surely "slutty" was used before 1970 if that's the case.

History is interesting, yes. But even reading the word in the OED makes me uncomfortable. So many connotations.

The Rap Canterbury Tales

2007-12-17T22:47:00.000-08:00

Brinkman, Baba. The Rap Canterbury Tales. Vancouver, B.C.: Talonbooks, 2006.

You can hear them here: http://babasword.com/index/audio.html

This has been -- sorry! -- interesting. On the one hand, it seems ludicrous. Rap? Canterbury Tales? Rap Canterbury Tales?

But Brinkman makes a lot of good points. One could (and he does) trace the roots of rap back to Chaucer's poetry. Chaucer was meant to be recited. Rap has usurped poetry in that regard. In that way, I think what he is doing works. Now, unfortunately, to my eyes, his versions tend to be a little heavy-handed. But still, I think it's better than many of the translations I have seen. Binkman doesn't try to hide anything.

More to the point, if my project is to look at Chaucer in pop culture, I applaud anyone or anything that brings people to Chaucer. (I think.)

Still, I am left at a pop culture nexus that leaves me somewhat uncomfortable. If it's due to tropes commonly used in rap, I can't say.

Brinkman describes my beloved alisoun in this way:

195: Alisoun’s cheeks are “painted up slutty pink” She has a “naughty stink”

The "naughty stink" -- okay, a little weird, but I can see the connections.

The "slutty pink" line, however, really bothers me. I'm trying to put my finger on why. I don't like the word "slut" itself. I hate the binary it presents -- men who sleep around are fine, women who do are not, etc etc.

It's very distasteful to me. To me, alisoun is not a slut. Perhaps this is a difference in interpretation? One could say she fits the standard definition of slut; one could find that in the text. Maybe if I believes that about her, that modern word would bother me less?

It just seems so biased. So final. This is who she is. The end. With the original text, there are options. With *any* original text, not just Chaucer. Perhaps that's the trouble of interpretation and translations. We translate her into who we want her to be -- for me, a woman who does the best with what she has. For Brinkman/rap, she is a slut (a ho?).

I'm also wondering if there's a double entendre. Is "slutty pink" meant to specifically evoke the vagina and thus a layered comment on her sexuality? Given Chaucer's use of the word "queynte," an image suggesting vagina would not be out of place. I can't decide how I feel about that, either. My poor feminist head, my poor feminist heart. They are at odds. It's an apt description. But it's so ugly. Should I hide from that, embrace it? am I seeing things that aren't there? (It's just a word, as my students would say.)

What modern equivalent is there for alisoun? Does she exist in the modern (Western) world? Yes, there are young women that marry old men, yes there are women that cheat on their husbands. But there is a much greater element of choice. Just as I think it's wrong to ascribe feminist or anti-feminist motives to non-twenty and twenty-first century authors, I think it is wrong to apply this modern word to alisoun. If she is a slut, she did not choose it. Can she even be a slut?

I shall be thinking about this for awhile yet.

Oh, that's my least favorite subject

2007-12-17T22:32:00.001-08:00

Now, I suspect lots of people from all walks of life get this, but I only have my only biases to rely on:

I just got back from vacationing in Hawaii. I shared my shuttle to the Honolulu airport with a family, on their way to another island. The mom, a very nice lady, asked me about what I do. I explained my work (heh) and then concluded by saying I would like to get a PhD in history.

She replied, "Oh, history, my worst subject. That's my least favorite subject."

Why? Why do people say that? What am I supposed to take from that? To work harder as an educator? To switch to another field?

I'm sorry my greatest love is your greatest hate. There's a Romeo and Juliet story in here somewhere.

back

2007-12-17T22:08:00.000-08:00

Back to work.

applications update

2007-11-16T23:58:00.000-08:00

Three applications are in. Well, I have to mail in writing samples and transcripts and such. But whew! Five to go.

Break

2007-11-02T00:43:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, I made it to the top of page 31. My thesis has been workshopped in MAWG (MA Workshop Group) and my adviser has looked over it.

It's deemed okay.

Since I'm at the half-way point, I am going to take a short break.

By working on PhD applications.

Wheeee!

Whoa

2007-10-29T00:24:00.001-07:00

I have made it to the top of page 31.

Oh my.

Writing Update

2007-10-25T00:52:00.000-07:00

I'm on page 26. I was really hoping to get to 30 tonight. I think I could have, but I kept getting distracted by shiny things. Still, five pages in one night isn't too bad.

Right?

Right?

Secret Origins

2007-10-24T19:18:00.000-07:00

If you were wondering:

McCaughrean’s retelling, specifically, seems interested in pointing readers to certain conclusions. Each tale has been renamed. Some of the titles are certainly fitting – “The Knight’s Tale of Chivalry and Rivalry” for example (McCaughrean 7). Other titles seem to miss the point of the tale, especially “The Miller’s story is A Barrel of Laughs” and “The Reeve insists on recounting A Racket at the Mill” (McCaughrean 19, 38).

Writer's Block

2007-10-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

Okay. It's early in the evening. I'm fed and hydrated. I am not tired. I have all of my work and all of my notes.

So.

Why can't I write anything?

small crisis

2007-10-23T23:10:00.000-07:00

It was bound to happen.

Some of my work has been lost.

I usually work at the library -- less distracting than home. I always save every few minutes, then email myself the whole shebang. I'm not sure what happened, but all of the work from yesterday -- it's not here. I'm thinking maybe it got saved to a temporary file or something.

Luckily, I guess, it was only a page or so worth of work. Still, though.

ETA I found it! I think I'm going to pass out.

Images

2007-10-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

I thought it might be neat to include a discussion of cover art in my thesis.

Of course, I only just came up with this idea, so I haven't been making notes about covers as books have passed into and out of my hands.

So I thought: an Amazon search!

God, I hate myself.

First I did a search, and just looked at the top twenty pages of results -- I got some good stuff, but I know I wasn't getting everything.

So I switched to a "literature" search, arrange by publication date. I'm on page 24 of who knows how many -- Showing 277 - 288 of 3,128 Results. I'm only on August 2006.

Oh, well, not like I had anything better to do tonight.

ETA: I stopped at page 56. I was going cross-eyed.

Writing Update

2007-10-22T16:56:00.001-07:00

Twenty pages! A third of the way there. Well, in theory, who knows how much will get tossed out.

And I have charts. I bet the MFAs don't have charts.

Charts

2007-10-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

I just spent the last hour or so making charts in Excel. Hee.

The numbers might change as more text books trickle in, but for now, I looked at 12 literature texts/anthologies/children's books.

The Pardoner's Tale was featured in nearly every book -- it was the most represented tale. The Wife of Bath and the General Prologue tied for second.

Poetry Books

2007-10-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of poetry books I got through ILL at the library.

One is called 101 Famous Poems (2004). It was originally published in 1958. I can't quite figure out when this copy was published, but it looks very new. The lending library got it in 2004.

It's neat to see what were famous poems 50 years ago. There is a lot you would expect -- Shakespeare and Whitman and Poe. There are a few women -- Dickinson, Barret Browning, Millay. There are some weird additions -- the Gettysburg Address, the Declaration of Independence, the Ten Commandments, the Magna Carta.

There were also poets I'd never heard of, poems I'd never heard of. There was a poem by Sidney Lanier, who I didn't think anyone knew outside of Georgia. Indeed, I'm always tempted to write "Lake Sidney Lanier." Poor guy.

The other text, Western Wind: And Introduction to Poetry, by David Mason and John Frederick Nims, is really cool. It starts with the medieval poem "Blow Thou Western Wind," which I love, and had not thought about in a long time.

Westron wind, when wilt thou blow?

That the small rain down can rain.

Christ, that my love were in my arms,

And I in my bed again.

Word's Suggestions

2007-10-15T23:14:00.000-07:00

Currently I am writing about Harold Bloom. Oh, yes, Harold Bloom.

I am using the word "critizing" which Word doesn't like. Oh, Blogger says its, "criticizing." Right, I see the problem now.

Anyway, the suggestions Word gave me: cruising, citizen, eroticizing, iridizing, and crediting. Notice, none of them are the word I actually need.

More to the point: No! I'm not eroticizing Harold Bloom! Dear god, no!

Choices

2007-10-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

This is from John Gardner's biography of Chaucer. It comes from Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales: Selected Works and Related Readings. [Nevill Coghill, trans]. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2002.

271: “After careful thought, if we were given the choice of living then or now, we might well decide to scrap out modern world. . . .”

Really? Are there people who would really prefer to live in the 1300s? I mean, even if one was in favor of the religiousness of it, or the patriarchy, what about the sanitary conditions (or lack there of), the poor medical care, the great disparity between the rich and poor, the shortened life span.

More to the point, every history class I have sat in, with a few exceptions, have been teleulogical in nature. That is to say, human history is seen as drive towards perfection -- the best time to be alive is right now (or perhaps the near future) -- the past has been striving to reach this point.

Which isn't to say that's not entirely correct. I am not about to suggest that 2007 in America is the Best Thing/Place/Time Ever!!!!, but it's pretty darn good. I like that even though I am a lower-class (socio-econmocially speaking) female I can attend university. I like that I don't have to worry about the Black Death -- though AIDS is worse, so. Etc Etc.

Anyway, I just think that's an odd claim, working on a lot of faulty warrants.

Dear Harold Bloom

2007-10-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

Chaucer and Shakespeare are two different people from two different eras writing in (more or less) different genres.

I really really really really think you can talk about Chaucer without mentioning Shakespeare.

This isn't the freaking Bible, where everything in the Old Testament anticipates and is redeemed by the New Testament.

It's just history. No one is anticipating anyone else. Chaucer is not borrowing from Shakespeare; he can't.

Chaucer wrote. He wrote beautiful works, important works. But he is his own person.

Leave freakin' Shakey out of it.

Writing Begins

2007-10-08T23:03:00.000-07:00

I have all of my notes in one large Word document. (21 pages, single spaced, if you're wondering.)

I have started the introduction.

Yikes!

University Bookstore

2007-10-08T21:16:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the university bookstore to check out their Chaucer inventory.

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

Oh, Boccaccio, yes. Boccaccio everywhere you looked. Paradise Lost, even, and Gilgamesh. Shakespeare by the boatload.

But no Chaucer.

It's just a little weird, is all I'm saying.

Local Bookstores

2007-10-07T15:58:00.000-07:00

I visited the local bookstores and took stock of their Chaucer inventory. I still need to check out the university bookstore, though.

Large Used Bookstore

West, Richard. Chaucer: His Life and Times. 2000.

Chaucer: Sources and Backgrounds. Oxford, 1977.

Geoffrey Chaucer of England. 1946. [I can't make out what I wrote for the publisher.]

Barron's Interlinear.

Wife of Bath. Cambridge, 1965, 2000.

Troilus and Criseyde. Penguin, 1971, 1985.

Gardner, John. Life and Times of Chaucer. 1977.

T and C. Oxford, 1988.

T and C. Modernized by G.P. Krapp. Vintage, 1932, 1959.

T and C. Everyman, 1953, 1991.

On the one hand, I'm surprised by how much T and C there is. Of course, given this is a used bookstore, maybe it's not so surprising that's what people don't want to keep.

Small Used Bookstore (Comparatively Speaking, of course)

Bantam dual-language. 1978.

MaxNotes [some kind of Cliffs Notes thing]. 1995.

Skeat edition of CT. 1929.

Lowes, J.L. Geoffrey Chaucer and the Development of his Genius. 1934.

Viking Portable CT. 1968.

Bantam CT, 1981.

Penguin CT (trans. Neville Coghill), 1960. There were three copies.

Bowden, Muriel. A Reader's Guide to Geoffrey Chaucer. 1967.

Intro to Chaucer. Cambridge, 1968.

CT in modern English. 1934.

Everyman CT. 1926. It was a pretty little book; I almost bought it.

Signet [a selection from the CT], 1969.

Riverside, edited by R. Pratt -- a selection -- 1966.

Independent Bookstore

Nothing other than Chaucer's inclusion in an anthology of poetry edited by -- wait for it -- Harold Bloom!

Cliff's Notes

2007-10-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

I bought a copy of CT Cliffs Notes, from 1997. I got a good deal -- cover price is $4.50, but I got them used for $3.00. Of course, it's scribbled on, and the cover is adorned with a multitude of smiley faces.

I was going to read it and take notes, but. . .I can't bring myself to do it.

I still can't belive I bought Cliffs Notes, really.

. . . .

I was more of a SparkNotes girl.

Kid's Book

2007-10-07T14:28:00.000-07:00

I quite like this, from The Canterbury Tales. By Geoffrey Chaucer. Adapted by Diana Stewart. Illustrated by Dan Hubrich. Austin, TX: Raintree Steck-Vaughn Publishers, 1991:

7: “The language of the CT may be strange, but the people Chaucer wrote about are not that different from people today. That is why his tales are still so popular. The people he writes about have the same thoughts and desires as the modern reader. They are greedy for money or love, or they just want to be happy and entertained.”

44: “Chaucer was one of the first important writers to write in English. . . .”
“Today he is often called the father of English Poetry.”

I think these are quite lovely explanations of who Chaucer and his poetry were.

bad translation

2007-10-03T17:42:00.000-07:00

From: The Bedford Anthology of World Literature: The Middle Period, 100 C.E. – 1450. Paul Davis, et al. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004.

885: When zephyrs have breathed softly all about

. . .what?

Buuuurn Chaucer

2007-10-03T16:46:00.000-07:00

Would you like some ice for that burn?

From: Elements of Literature. Annotated Teacher’s Edition. Sixth Course. Literature of Britain. Anderson, Robert et al. Orlando: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc: 1993.

85: “Most important, in 1387 Chaucer began CT, a work he never completed, but must be considered one of the very greatest works in the English language. CT alone – perhaps even only the Prologue to the Tales – would be sufficient to place Chaucer in the company of Shakespeare and Milton."

How kind!

Good and Bad

2007-10-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

From: Western Civilizations: Their History and Culture. 14th ed. Judith C. Coffin, Robert C. Stacey, Robert E. Lerner, Standish Meacham, eds. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2002.

This part I thought was great:

412: “Similar in many ways to Boccaccio as a creator of robust, naturalistic vernacular literature was the Englishman Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340-1400). Chaucer was the first major writer whose English can still be read today with relatively little effort."

What a nice introduction to Chaucer. The textbook compares him to another author that's just been described, providing connections for the students. The book makes Chaucer sound interesting -- there's a lot of dynamic adjectives (if there is such a thing). And I love the last line, I really do -- it acknowledges that there were other authors before Chaucer and that he had contemporaries -- but it's true, he is one of the easiest to read.

Then:

412: "Remarkably, he was both a founding father of England’s mighty literary tradition and one of the four or five greatest contributors to it: most critics rank him just behind Shakespeare and in a class with Milton, Worsdworth and Dickens.”

Gah! Founding fathers, blah blah blah, Shakespeare, blah blah blah. The Dickens part cracks me up. I mean, sure, he's considered a major author now, but at the time. . . .

Oh, well.

Zombies

2007-09-30T15:56:00.001-07:00

I am deathly, irrationally afraid of zombies.

Oh, I know they are not real, etc. But I saw the Dawn of the Dead remake when it came out in 2004 and I still have nightmares.

But alas for me, I am friends with (and have dated) people who just adore zombies. So I've read the synopsis of every zombie movie I could find on Wikipedia and as such feel I'm pretty hip with the zombie culture. To further enhance my zombie street cred, I have a zombie shirt my sister gave me -- and I do in fact wear it.

So, while reading the chapter on the Plague in Tuchman's Distant Mirror, I was struck but just how much it sounded like a zombie movie. I learned about the Plague a long time ago, but Tuchman's writing is especially -- emotive? Provocative? Evocative? It was the first time I could really imagine the horror, the terror of living through that first outbreak.

It reminded me of Dawn of the Dead, and how I felt while watching it and immediately afterward. That movie, this chapter. . .both grip my imagination, both are so real. Both haunts me, it all haunts me.

So, what is going on? What are the connections?

Do zombies serve as a modern dans macabre? I mean, it's tempting to say zombies are a response to AIDS or something, but the first zombie movies date to the 1930s. But of course, those movies followed a time of intense warfare, and the flu epidemic of 1917.

Maybe zombies are part of some sort of "race memory" (Tuchman uses that term, I don't know if people use it anymore) -- the same thing that compels cultures all around the world to tell stories about dragons. Etc.

I wish I was less scared of zombies so I could write a paper about this

Stating the Obvious

2007-09-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

From Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader. Volume One: To 1550. Kevin Reilly. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000:

ix: “World history is nothing less than everything ever done or imagined, so we are not going to cover it all.”

No kidding.

Gag me With a Spoon

2007-09-29T12:46:00.000-07:00

From World History: The Human Experience. The Early Ages. Teacher Wraparound Edition. Mounir A. Farah and Andrea Berens Karls. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2003.

322: “The Crusades accelerated the transformation of western Europe from a society that was crude, backward, and violent – showing littler cultural and technological advancement – to a civilization that exhibited some early features of modern Western civilization. Towns grew, trade expanded, and learning and the arts thrived.”

The Victorians are responsible for this viewpoint. God I hate the Victorians. More to the point, I can't believe this is in a textbook from 2003. Though I shouldn't be surprised.

eta:

325: “Troubadours appear in scenes of romance, a novel idea in medieval times.”

What? And Daphnis and Chloe is what, chopped liver?

Borders Bookshelf

2007-09-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

I went to Borders the other night, just to look around and kill some time. I decided to see what kinds of Chaucer books they have on the shelf; I plan to visit the other bookstores in town, too, just to get an idea of what's readily available.

There wasn't much. Tons of Dante, yes, but not much Chaucer.

There were six different books total:

CT, Oxford World Classics. 1985, 1998.

This was a modern translation. It was okay.

CT, Everyman's Library. 1908, 1958, 1992.

It was in Middle English and severly annotated. It looked pretty good, but seriously? 1908?

CT, Penguin. 1951, 2003.

This one is pretty standard, actually -- one of the most common copies of Chaucer you'll find.

CT (selected), Barron's. 1948, 1970.

This is an interlinear translation. Useful, I suppose, but pretty brutal to read.

CT (selected), Bantam Classic. 1964, 1981.

Another pretty standard edition.

CT, Enriched Classic. 1948, 1987, 2001.

This one is in prose. I have mixed feelings about this. Translating Chaucer's rhymes is rather difficult -- not least of all (as others have pointed out) because some lines "fit" into modern English while others don't. But it's just really weird to pick up Chaucer and see big paragraphs.

That's it, that's all the Chaucer.

What is striking to me is just how old most of these are. 1908? 1948? Holy cow, no wonder people don't want to read old stuff -- it's too old. When the "modern" translations are antiquated, why bother slogging through it? (Which, I suppose, is an argument against translation.)

It seems to me quite obvious: we need a shiny new version of Chaucer, with an original publication date of 2007 or 2008 or 2009. Considering that Beowulf and Gilgamesh have just gotten new translations (and lovely ones), I think there is a market for a new Chaucer edition, translation or otherwise. I mean, does anyone know what Seamus Heaney is up to these days?

Violence

2007-09-28T01:02:00.000-07:00

I took a pedagogy course last year. It was a valuable course, yes; and we discussed not only theory but -- critical themes. Such as Holocaust Literature, or Graphic Novels. One of my friends did a project on Violence -- she read books with titles like Teaching in a Violent Age. She is very passionate about this line of theory -- acknowledging that we are a community, and that we are in a community in violent times.

This year, I plan on taking a class on Post-9/11 Literature. I'm very excited.

But I do find this sort of odd. When was the non-violent age? My parents grew up learning to duck-and-cover. Wars dominated the first part of the twentieth century. The 1800s saw our Civil War, but also a lot of turmoil in Europe -- wars for nationalism and independence. Same with the 1700s. The 1600 and 1500s, too, with religious wars thrown in.

I picked up Barbara Tuchman's Distant Mirror today. It's about the fourteenth century ("calamitous" she calls it). The preface mentions that the 1300s suffered from war and plague. Tuchman points out she wanted to write the book because of the similarities to that time and the present.

. . . .

For all of our talk of a Violent Age and Post-9/11 world -- Chaucer was writing in a violent age. He would understand the Iraq War and other conflicts, he would understand AIDS. Art Spiegelman wrote In The Shadow of No Towers; Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales. Which isn't Chaucer not more relevant? Why isn't he presented as -- why is his time, why is he so distant from us? He is not, he is not.

I don't know that Chaucer is universal. I don't know that any person from any time from any place would or could find him relevant. (Or good. Good for who, good for what?)

But we, modern Americans, are some of the inheritors of Chaucer's culture. He is, in fact, speaking to us.

Why don't we listen? What is preventing us?

Answer

2007-09-27T14:21:00.002-07:00

Oh, I have my answer now, at least in part: Harold Bloom.

Adventures in Nebraska

2007-09-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

I bought a pile of magazines for my trip to Nebraska, including the Utne Reader, which I’ve been reading on and off for nearly ten years. The current issue looks at history (as an academic subject).

An article by Keith Goetzman, “History lessons: What we’re taught and what’s ignored” points out that, “While many of us are reflexively bored when we hear the word history and downright repulsed by the idea of a history book, we flock to period movies and biopics about historical figures, watch the History channel, and consume shelf loads of historical fiction and biography” (50). He goes on to suggest that we (modern Americans? Modern people?) are interested in the people behind history, not just Great Events or Great Ideas. (Well, duh). This seems very self-evident, and it’s been my experience with my students. But I hadn’t thought about the pop culture aspect – historical movies are sometimes flop (I liked Marie Antoinette), but they are sometimes very popular (300). Why the disconnect? Shakespeare movies are fairly well-received, but we also still study him (and feel we should study him), see theater performances, etc. But anyway, Goetzmann, I think, crystallized a bit what it is I want to study, want to accomplish.

Another essay, “In the Trenches” by Patrick Hicks, discusses teaching WWI poetry to students – and why Americans ignore WWI. Drawing parallels to Iraq engages the students – yet a student with a boyfriend in Iraq asks the professor, “ ‘I’m already afraid for home. What good does this do me?’ ” (61). Hicks doesn’t know how to respond.

This made me think of one of my Women’s Lit professor’s favorite sayings (paraphrased): this is a good book. Good for who? Good for what?

What is Chaucer good for? What is literature good for? What does it mean to make a connection? How do we want to engage our students – engage anyone? Which I suppose is something else my thesis seeks to address.

Why is Chaucer good for me? . . . I don’t know. I can tell you about finding solace in Hamlet, but. . . . I like it, I like it. Is that enough? Is pure enthusiasm enough? But then, otherwise I fear I would descend into nihilism. Why do or study anything? It’s all meaningless ultimately.

Anyway.

So these are the questions, these are the thoughts rolling around my head as I begin real research. Maybe they will provide some answers, or at least some conclusions. Otherwise, I fear I will not be able to teach at all when school starts again.

*********
Sarah McLachlan's song "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" comes from the Wilfred Owen poem mentioned in the Utne reader article. Hmmm.

Dulce Et Decorum Est
Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep.
Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod.
All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!--
An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
Sarah McLachlan

All the fear has left me now
I'm not frightened anymore
It's my heart that pounds beneath my flesh
it's my mouth that pushes out this breath
and if I shed a tear I won't cage it
I won't fear love
and if I feel a rage I won't deny it
I won't fear love
Companion to our demonsthey will dance, and we will play
With chairs, candles, and cloth
making darkness in the day
It will be easy to look in or out
upstream or down without a thought
and if I shed a tear I won't cage it
I won't fear love
and if I feel a rage I won't deny it
I won't fear love
Peace in the struggle
to find peace
comfort on the way
to comfort
and if I shed a tear I won't cage it
I won't fear love
and if I feel a rage I won't deny it
I won't fear love
I won't fear love
I won't fear love...

Corruption Continues

2007-09-27T14:17:00.001-07:00

I discovered some more useful children’s books in the 800s (Dewey Decimal). There were many kid versions of Shakespeare, but I did fid A Selection from the Canterbury Tales by Selina Hastings.

Hastings’ book includes part of the prologue, The Knight’s Tale, The Miller’s Tale, the Reeve’s Tale, The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, The Pardoner’s Tale, The Wife of Bath’s Tale, and the Franklin’s Tale. I read through a few before bringing them into camp. The stories were illustrated, but there were many pages that were text only. In opinion, what illustrations there were were not very good/interesting. The stories retained their original flavor, but were slightly toned down. In The Wife of Bath’s Tale, for example, the Knight does not explicitly rape the woman, but he does attack her.

I brought the book I to my lunch group. I suspected the book might have been a little too old for them (my lunch group was K-2; I think the book was aimed at 3-5). I always presented a variety of books to my campers; in this case, The Canterbury Tales was continually passed over for the others. One day, I offered them CT, Lugalbanda by Kathy Henderson, based on a Sumerian tale, and an Egyptian story. The campers liked the other two books, so it didn’t seem to be an issue of historical stories – I think it came down to the illustrations. The illustrations for the other two books were lovely – the Egyptian book had a rather modern look, but Lugalbanda had gorgeous pictures reminiscent of Sumerian art.

Finally, the campers decided on CT. They argued over whether to read The Knight’s Tale or The Wife of Bath. We went with KT first. It was too complicated for them. Without a lot of pictures, they were easily distracted and continually asked me who the characters were. I can’t help but think a version with a lot of pictures, making clear who the different characters are, would be more successful. My campers love knights and such, and I think there is a way to make this store more accessible to younger kids.

The Wife of Bath’s tale was not very successful either; one camper was actually mad that the story was so similar to Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady. She said she didn’t like this one very much. This story was much easier to follow than KT; I think more illustrations would have helped – and if we hadn’t read the other book before hand.

I decided to give the book one more shot. That session of camp, I group led I the afternoon; that is, I helped get the kids from class to class, and helped the instructors. One of the classes was Storybooks, taught by a good friend. I liked this person a lot to begin with, but my admiration for her grew when, on the first day of class, she read a story book by bell hooks. I asked her if we could read a story or two from my book and she said yes.
Originally, I was going to read The Miller’s Tale, since it eve includes an illustration of Nicholas getting branded; my campers love anything to do with the buttock or bodily functions. But again, there were very few illustrations overall, so I decided to go with the Nun’s Priest’s Tale.

I told the campers they would have to use their imaginations. But they really weren’t into the story. We only got part-way through, and then class ended. Later that day, we had some extra time, so I pulled out Lugalbanda and read part of that to the campers.

The next time in Storybooks, I pulled out CT. The campers objected and wanted me to finish Lugalbanda instead. So I did.

Again, I am intrigued that the age of the story doesn’t seem to matter – I think it was the illustrations. Well, and Lugalbanda is about a young boy involved in a war – perhaps a little easier for the campers to relate to. I do wish I could have repeated this experiment with older kids, since I think the CT is aimed at a slightly older age group than the ones with which I worked. For the last two weeks of camp, I actually have a lunch group of 3-5. However, they are not interested in books (they scoffed at the Roald Dahl I brought!); they prefer to talk and play card games.

But these experiments bring up a lot of questions, especially related to childhood. My thoughts are sort of swirling; I am trying to pull them apart. On the one hand – most books did have illustrations. That modern children – and modern people in general – like to mix their text with images does not seem that strange. But many books were meant to be read aloud – more to the point, there weren’t children’s books, such a thing didn’t exist. So children had to just listen (as did most adults). Did children/people have longer attention spans in the past? Many would argue yes. Maybe this is a matter of past and present being a little too far apart to accurately compare things. Kids books have really existed for about two hundred years, after all.

I also found one other storybook version of Chaucer – a book based on a Disney cartoon of The Nun’s Priest’s Tale. It was awful; I did not bring it in to my campers. In the first place, I thought the drawings were hideous; I’m now curious what my campers would have thought, since the drawings were in the obvious Disney style. But – the story was completely different. Like most English majors, I get very angry about major changes – if they wanted to tell a story, great, but why name the characters Chanticleer, etc? Why not give them new names? I have a lot of issues with how Disney treats fairy tales, too. I think the theory that Disney is simply creating new fairy tales, or changing fairy tales, as has been happening for hundred of years is interesting – but I think with Disney it is more insidious then simply presenting re-workings of fairy tales (and there are certainly a lot of high quality re-workings and re-imaginings).

Writing about Kids’ Books, Dancing About Architecture

2007-09-27T14:16:00.001-07:00

This summer, I have worked at a day camp for children in grades kindergarten through sixth. Despite saying several times that I prefer older kids, I have mainly worked with the youngest group, K-2. Throughout much of the summer, I have had a lunch group – it is my job to make sure they eat their lunch, don’t share food, and don’t kill each other. It can be difficult to think of activities that keep them contained (I can only supervise so many games of tag before I start to lose it), so I bring story books to read during lunch.

Which is nice, honestly, because I can use them to further my own feminist, multi-cultural agenda. I try to select books that take place in other countries and/or feature a strong heroine. I have also read European fairy tales – which are generally the most popular. But I have also kept an eye out for “older” stories – Greco-Roman myths or medieval tales. I was delighted when I found a lovely version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Mark Shannon, illustrated by David Shannon, at the Corvallis Public Library. The campers were rather excited about it – I think the “knight” aspect excited them. Both girls and boys enjoyed this story (at this age, generally the girls prefer listening to the books; the boys play with cards or with sticks). It was exciting for me to have the chance to expose them to a story that I’m pretty sure I didn’t even hear of until I was in college.

Earlier this week, I was back at the public library to get more books. Most of the myths and fairy tales are kept in the 398’s (Dewey Decimal). I scoured the section, hoping to find more stories like Sir Gawain. There was an illustrated edition of Beowulf I kept picking up and putting down – it was very wordy and the pictures small. I found several lovely books based on Sumerian and Egyptian stories that I happily added to my pile. I found a book entitled Medieval Tales that I knew would be too wordy for campers – I grabbed it for myself. But finely I hit the jackpot: a beautiful volume called Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady retold by Selina Hastings, with illustrations by Juan Wijngaard.

Friday, August tenth, I set out my pile of books. The little girls in my lunch group immediately asked me to read The Loathly Lady. The illustrations are quite lovely, which is what I think sparked their interest. They also asked if this was the next chapter in the Sir Gawain story; I said it sort of was. I had not read the book prior to reading it to my campers, and I was quite surprised by how different the tale was from Chaucer’s.

Now, I should add that nowhere in the book does it say that is story is a retelling of Chaucer’s tale. However, reviews on amazon.com do suggest that it is – and the story itself is clearly a version of the Wife of Bath’s tale. Even if Hastings did not set out to retell Chaucer’s story specifically, she clearly drew inspiration from Chaucer.

The story begins with King Arthur meeting a Black Knight who asks Arthur to answer the question, “What do women most desire?” Arthur has three days to answer the question. If he does not or cannot, he must forfeit his kingdom and his life. While searching for the answer, Arthur comes across an ugly crone who says she will give him the answer. She says she will give him the answer if he grants her one wish; Arthur agrees to this.
At this point in the book, my campers – mainly female, with a few males – were entranced by the illustration of the Loathly Lady. They commented on how ugly she was and didn’t want to look at the picture.

Once Arthur gets his answer, he asks the Loathly Lady for her wish. “My request is this: you must give me one of your knights to be my husband” (14) she says. At first Arthur balks, but then agrees. He then meets up with the Black Knight and is able to save his kingdom and his life. That night, Arthur confides in Guinevere that he’s not sure what to do. Gawain overhears and says he will defends the king’s honor. So Arthur and his knights set out to find the Loathly Lady and bring her back to court. The other knights make fun of her, but Gawain is kind to her. The wedding takes place, but no one is very happy.

Again, my campers were very intrigues with the illustration at this point. The wedding scene covers two pages, with the Loathly Lady and Gawain in the center. They again commented on how ugly she was. They were also quite taken with a small monkey in the corner of the drawing. They are always surprising me in noticing small details like that.

After the wedding, Gawain and the Loathly Lady went off to their chamber. While the author never made explicit what was going on, the sexual subtext was quite apparent to me, and I felt very odd reading this story to children. I don’t think they picked up on it. Still, as I was reading, I began to wonder if this is really a “kid’s story” or who the original audience might have been in the 1300s. Of course, a lot of Beauty and the Beast stories have this kind of subtext – in some versions, the beast does not turn into a human until he and Beauty have spent the night together. But then, many of those fairy tales were not intended for children per se. Finally, on the other hand, as one of my teachers put it – with everyone sharing such a small space, children had a fairly good idea of what sex was. Reading “older” stories to modern youngsters often troubles me for these reasons. Childhood is both the same and very different from earlier eras.
The juxtaposition of illustrations at this point is also a little confusing, at least to one who “knows” the story. On page 24, Guinevere kisses the Loathly Lady; on page 25, we see Gawain looking despondent in a chair, with a lovely long lady behind him. Is the lady Guinevere? Has her kiss transformed the Loathly Lady in some way? On page 25, the Loathly Lady explains that Gawain has half-released her from a spell. She then asks him the question: beautiful by night or day? Gawain answers her and she gets angry; he changes his answer, and she is still angry. Finally he says, “You must choose which you prefer” (27). She says this is correct answer and says the spell is broken. The next day there is a wonderful celebration at court.

The campers liked it.

The ending bothered me for several reasons. The Loathly Lady becomes beautiful before Gawain makes his choice. He does not actually give her the correct answer – he gives the “wrong” answer first. Gawain has not learned the true lesson of the tale and must be bullied into the correct answer. This seems to remove the agency of both characters – Gawain gets what he wants by default; the Loathly Lady has not really gained mastery over him. The ending sort of undermines the entire point(s) of the story.

I do not mind the changes in the beginning, however. If one is presenting this as a solidly children’s book, it would not do to start it off with rape. Introducing the Black Knight works rather well, though his question does seem rather odd. (If he’s a Black Knight, why not just fight Arthur for the kingdom?) Some kind of evil enchantress might have worked better. But that might be straying a bit too much from the Arthur mythology; at least there are Black Knights all over the place in Arthur stories.

I am left ruminating about the themes in this book – what is universal, what is modern, what is medieval. The campers’ reactions struck me – as universal. The point of stories like this was a way for people to deal with the prospect of marrying someone they had never seen – the fear that one might get stuck with a Beast or Loathly Lady – and the hope that whatever the outer appearance, the inner person would be a good one. I think my modern audience’s gut reaction to was not far off from the medieval one. But I find the changing of the ultimate “moral” very strange. The message that women desire to have sovereignty comes across as a fairly modern idea.

2007-09-27T14:15:00.002-07:00

I've discussed it with my advisors. I've decided to do it -- to post my reading log as a "blog" (rog?).

Just, you know, no stealing.

Enjoy!

Beginnings

2007-09-19T14:39:00.000-07:00

I am a Master's student. I am working on my Master's Thesis.

Are you with me so far?

This blog serves as a record of my research. Not my notes per se, but my impressions as I begin my work. A rather severly annotated bibliography, if you will.

My work has to do with Chaucer, Chaucer in this modern world.

But before I begin, I better get permission from my advisor!