kitewithfish (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kitewithfish) wrote2009-02-07 12:28 pm
kitewithfish) wrote2009-02-07 12:28 pm
in which a listing of life events are passed off as writing
School has begun, and it looks like the schedule which I created for myself the months ago will hold water and not overload me too much as I try to get the last drips of good out of my four years of education.
Latin 201- The Aeneid- May I just pause a moment to indulge my deep fangirlishness? ARMA VIRUMQUE CANO, MOTHERFUCKERS. This class is roughly on the subject that Latinists never stop talking about- how awesome Virgil is, and how much we love Latin. This is exactly what I needed to be incredibly geeky. I am well pleased. I need to be a bit more baddass about my translation, tho.
Greek 102- The second semester of Greek, which I miraculously passed last semester, is at the same ungodly hour four days a week, but the professor this time seems to be far more comfortable in her own skin than my last one. We are having fun, I am doing my homework, and I am enjoying myself. There are, just as a reminder, only four people in the class, and thus the pace of the teaching is rather faster than the professor is used to. This is because, in a class of FOUR, when one person slacks off, it shows. Oh, dear lord, how it shows.
German- 389- The Berlin Republic and Globalization. This is looking really, really fun. No high-faluting literature, but a fair amount of pop writing from the era after the fall of the Berliner Mauer. I know most of the people in the class, and none of the books. I really need to get working on reading it- I find I can read a sentence in German fairly easily, but I don't retain the information from it as easily as if it were in English.
Greek and Roman Religion- I am slightly disappointed by this class, but that's more to do with format than with subject matter so far. The professor has a distinct fan club, but this is my first class so I am not yet part of it. I am not sure that I will ever be part of, actually. The professor is clearly smart and competent, if unwilling to use technology, but the format of the class is more plain lecture than I usually get in my classes these days, and I am less into it than I thought I would be. Also, while the professor is indeed funny and charming, there is a practiced nature and slight arrogance to his witty asides that I find slightly personally off putting. Of course, I need not like the man to learn from him, and the topic is really, really interesting as well. This looks to be one of the more reading heavy of my classes.
Book Arts- I am terribly pleased with this class in a way that I am unable to fully explain. We're doing printmaking and some art-book binding, and I am looking forward too it just a little too much. It puts me in contact with large amounts of high quality paper on a weekly basis, and I am content. Our first assignment is a short run of printed broadsides of our own choosing and composition. I have selected something from Peter Pan, which I will add below. I am enjoying it immensely.
"In the midst of them, the blackest and largest in that dark setting, reclined James Hook. He lay at his ease in a rough chariot drawn and propelled by his men, and instead of a right hand he had the iron hook with which ever and anon he encouraged them to increase their pace. As dogs this terrible man treated and addressed them, and as dogs they obeyed him. In person he was cadaverous and blackavized, and his hair was dressed in long curls, which at a little distance looked like black candles, and gave a singularly threatening expression to his handsome countenance. His eyes were of the blue of the forget-me-not, and of a profound melancholy, save when he was plunging his hook into you, at which time two red spots appeared in them and lit them up horribly. In manner, something of the grand seigneur still clung to him, so that he even ripped you up with an air, and I have been told that he was a RACONTEUR of repute. He was never more sinister than when he was most polite, which is probably the truest test of breeding; and the elegance of his diction, even when he was swearing, no less than the distinction of his demeanour, showed him one of a different cast from his crew."
Latin 201- The Aeneid- May I just pause a moment to indulge my deep fangirlishness? ARMA VIRUMQUE CANO, MOTHERFUCKERS. This class is roughly on the subject that Latinists never stop talking about- how awesome Virgil is, and how much we love Latin. This is exactly what I needed to be incredibly geeky. I am well pleased. I need to be a bit more baddass about my translation, tho.
Greek 102- The second semester of Greek, which I miraculously passed last semester, is at the same ungodly hour four days a week, but the professor this time seems to be far more comfortable in her own skin than my last one. We are having fun, I am doing my homework, and I am enjoying myself. There are, just as a reminder, only four people in the class, and thus the pace of the teaching is rather faster than the professor is used to. This is because, in a class of FOUR, when one person slacks off, it shows. Oh, dear lord, how it shows.
German- 389- The Berlin Republic and Globalization. This is looking really, really fun. No high-faluting literature, but a fair amount of pop writing from the era after the fall of the Berliner Mauer. I know most of the people in the class, and none of the books. I really need to get working on reading it- I find I can read a sentence in German fairly easily, but I don't retain the information from it as easily as if it were in English.
Greek and Roman Religion- I am slightly disappointed by this class, but that's more to do with format than with subject matter so far. The professor has a distinct fan club, but this is my first class so I am not yet part of it. I am not sure that I will ever be part of, actually. The professor is clearly smart and competent, if unwilling to use technology, but the format of the class is more plain lecture than I usually get in my classes these days, and I am less into it than I thought I would be. Also, while the professor is indeed funny and charming, there is a practiced nature and slight arrogance to his witty asides that I find slightly personally off putting. Of course, I need not like the man to learn from him, and the topic is really, really interesting as well. This looks to be one of the more reading heavy of my classes.
Book Arts- I am terribly pleased with this class in a way that I am unable to fully explain. We're doing printmaking and some art-book binding, and I am looking forward too it just a little too much. It puts me in contact with large amounts of high quality paper on a weekly basis, and I am content. Our first assignment is a short run of printed broadsides of our own choosing and composition. I have selected something from Peter Pan, which I will add below. I am enjoying it immensely.
"In the midst of them, the blackest and largest in that dark setting, reclined James Hook. He lay at his ease in a rough chariot drawn and propelled by his men, and instead of a right hand he had the iron hook with which ever and anon he encouraged them to increase their pace. As dogs this terrible man treated and addressed them, and as dogs they obeyed him. In person he was cadaverous and blackavized, and his hair was dressed in long curls, which at a little distance looked like black candles, and gave a singularly threatening expression to his handsome countenance. His eyes were of the blue of the forget-me-not, and of a profound melancholy, save when he was plunging his hook into you, at which time two red spots appeared in them and lit them up horribly. In manner, something of the grand seigneur still clung to him, so that he even ripped you up with an air, and I have been told that he was a RACONTEUR of repute. He was never more sinister than when he was most polite, which is probably the truest test of breeding; and the elegance of his diction, even when he was swearing, no less than the distinction of his demeanour, showed him one of a different cast from his crew."
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Also I love Aeneas' first speech, and the description of Priam's death, but for me once Dido kills herself the book is over. Fuck Aeneas, man. Fuck him.
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(Anonymous) 2009-02-08 06:43 pm (UTC)(link)As for Guy Rogers... Heh. In my experience you either love the pompous man or you don't. The reason I love him is yes, he is brilliant, and the pure fact that he has a bit of an ego about it. His classes are lectures, period, and he has no problems ripping you apart for sharing an interpretation that he doesn't agree with. He's a traditionally trained Classicist. My advice, sit back, and just listen to him, try to take it all in. Don't take notes conspicuously, he hates that, he wants you to take your notes while reading and then come to class prepared for him to put it in context with you.
That was really long... Sorry.
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