is the world coming to an end?

it snowed last night....i woke up to a dusting...this is exceptional weather.

my trip to boston

wow, what a great city. i loved the old buildings and the sense of history that seems to be embedded in everything...from the architecture to the narrow roads that weave around the skyscrapers and the brownstones. i spent some time in cambridge as well. i walked around harvard and bought a couple of books at a very cool bookstore. the only thing that i wished was different was the weather. it was very cold and damp and i wasn't prepared. i guess i could have been but i am so sick of the cold weather that i was in a very sad denial.
i also thought that my presentation went fairly well. all of the speakers on my panel brought invigorating ideas and work to the table. we didn't get a lot of questions though but i figure since it was near the end of the conference people were tired. in any event it was a great conference and i am glad that i went. i only hope that when i go back there next month the american literature association's conference will be as good. needless to say, i will remember my camera this time.

poem for the week: keeping it in perspective

There Will Come Soft Rains
by Sara Teasdale

(War Time)

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,
Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

From The Language of Spring, edited by Robert Atwan, published by Beacon Press, 2003.

poem for the week

since devon and i will be traveling to boston this week to read papers at the aca/pca national conference i thought this poem by rita dove (pictured above) was most appropriate. beautiful poem; beautiful mind. sigh.

Vacation
by Rita Dove

I love the hour before takeoff,
that stretch of no time, no home
but the gray vinyl seats linked like
unfolding paper dolls. Soon we shall
be summoned to the gate, soon enough
there’ll be the clumsy procedure of row numbers
and perforated stubs—but for now
I can look at these ragtag nuclear families
with their cooing and bickering
or the heeled bachelorette trying
to ignore a baby’s wail and the baby’s
exhausted mother waiting to be called up early
while the athlete, one monstrous hand
asleep on his duffel bag, listens,
perched like a seal trained for the plunge.
Even the lone executive
who has wandered this far into summer
with his lasered itinerary, briefcase
knocking his knees—even he
has worked for the pleasure of bearing
no more than a scrap of himself
into this hall. He’ll dine out, she’ll sleep late,
they’ll let the sun burn them happy all morning
—a little hope, a little whimsy
before the loudspeaker blurts
and we leap up to become
Flight 828, now boarding at Gate 17.

sunday afternoon lyrics

well, i am not technologically savey so at this time i cannot incorporate music on this blog...hopefully one day i will be able to. until then i'm introducing lyrics. the lyrics to the song "something that you said" is sung by one of my favorite groups of all time _the beautiful south_ from their album _0898_. for you eighties music junkies _the beautiful south_ is made up of former members of _the housemartins_ another one of my favorite groups that i like a lot (anj, i remembered the space between the "a" and the "l" this time lol). anyway, words are important...while many people privilege the music over the words i thought i would mix it up a little and do the opposite...not that the music is any less important...it's just a matter of emphasis.

Something That You Said
(heaton/rotheray)

The perfect love song it has no words it only has death threats
And you can tell a classic ballad by how threatening it gets
So if you walk into your house and she’s cutting up your mother
She’s only trying to tell you that she loves you like no other
No other, she loves you like no other.

The only emotions that I know are love and hate
And she’s chopping & she’s changing & it’s making you afraid
I said close your eyes and imagine that I’m nice
She’ll kiss you or she’ll kill you but you’ll just have to wait

Because some things that I do make you go blue
And something that you said made me go red

The perfect love has no emotions, it only harbours doubt
And if she fears your intentions she will cut you out
So do not raise your voice and do not shake your fist
Just pass her the carving knife, if that’s what she insists
Insists, if that’s what she insists

A hate tattoo on my brain and a love one on my heart
I'd love to hate you, like I love you
And just tear your dreams apart
I said close your eyes and imagine that I’m nice
Cupid’s arrow looking more like cupids poisoned dart

Because some things that I do make you go blue
And something that you said made me go red

Because some things that I do make you go blue
And something that you said made me go red

The perfect kiss is dry as sand and doesn’t take your breath
The perfect kiss is with the boy that you’ve just stabbed to death

Is with the boy that you’ve just stabbed to death
Is with the boy that you’ve just stabbed to death

politics of nothing(ness)

ok, so the question that has been on my mind lately is the relationship between politics and subjectivity. as i have been reading about politics and overt political agendas in the media lately i have really been bugged at the overt political act of separating a personal space and speech acts that aren't considered political to public spaces that are expected to be framed as a politics as such. i know it's not a new issue and at the very heart of my inquiry is "the personal is political" mantra. but isn't the "act" of separating personal and political acts in and of itself political? i grapple with "the personal is political" on an almost daily basis. i used to think that politics were very much separated from personal acts and that politics informed decisions and that the discursive relationship between personal acts and political acts were pointed and strategic. however, i don't think that this is the case anymore. especially as i teach, i find myself attempting to disengage my politics in the classroom in order for my students to reach their own conclusions. they maybe young and immature at this point in their lives and they may still be encased within the political views of their parents but they are adults and they are capable of making informed decisions. however, this is dangerous territory. i create this space in my classroom and on some level i'm expecting my students to adopt a very open-minded stance. but this does not happen in many instances. they choose ideological conclusions that i simply do not agree with. i find it extremely hard to hold back. this is why i admire compositionist and pedagogue peter elbow so much. his writing stresses the importance to let students come to their own conclusions even if those conclusions are not necessarily what we want them to settle upon. recently i have been reading some student writing assignments that i'm just absolutely floored by. i guess this is the importance of instructor commenting. i don't consciously try to change their mind on certain issues but i do question them on their assumptions and encourage them to think outside of the box...but this is difficult and dangerous...especially when it involves the privileged demographic of the typical isu undergraduate. some of them don't even know why they believe in something...they just do. many of them have never really read a newspaper or watch the news. i found myself explaining the recent firings of the us assistant attorney generals last week....many of them had no idea of the firings, most did not really care and felt that it did not pertain to them as citizens in this culture of the united states while the ones who did seem somewhat informed were extremely apathetic. hence the importance of my job...at least for an hour and fifteen minutes of their day two times a week for about 15 weeks they will at least think about these issues.