Thursday, March 22, 2007
Der Grair Bär and I met this afternoon in a meeting which I found most constructive. He had edited my paper and offered only a few minor alterations as to form and content. I tend to overpack sentences and wrote several disjointed paragraphs in which these sentences did not causally relate to one another. But overall Dr. Grair seemed impressed that I could write well; he stressed that I just need to focus.
I began with copious background, but did not begin any poetic analysis until the third page. Dr. Grair pointed out that I introduced plenty of viable ideas before analyzing the poems, but needed to save them for later or elaborate further. Mainly, I must elucidate the main "argument" or topic of how Goethe uses the Elegies to establish a distance from modernity. I made no mention of this little item until the second page.
For our next meeting I am to restrict myself to one poem of the cycle for analysis, which ought to be relatively straightforward. The pertinent secondary material I incorporated earlier could be moved, in certain cases, to this section.
However, before beginning revisions and writing the next section for Dr. Grair, I must compose a five-page expository on public and private in Roman satire for Dr. Larmour. He graciously moved the assignment from being due tomorrow to being due at his office sometime Monday, for which I am eternally grateful, as tonight I must work until two in the morning and would, therefore, have no time to write anything. This afternoon I am checking out books of the satirists to take to the Lauree Lair for close reading.
Was für ein Spaß.
[Lauree Frances Keith concluded this diatribe at 1:03 PM]
The Big City
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Rebekah and I leave for Amarillo tomorrow at ten. I expect the trip to be unexciting, but a welcome change from sitting at the coffee shop poring over articles about Goethe, as I have been doing the past several days. I enjoy the work, but it becomes monotonous after a while.
This evening I need to finish taking notes over certain of the Elegies, so that upon my return Saturday I can concentrate on Latin satire for an exam Wednesday. The Greek exam is Friday, for which I am thoroughly unprepared. Oh, well. I am exhausted.
[Lauree Frances Keith concluded this diatribe at 3:12 PM]
Alone In Your Room
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Yesterday Rebekah and I ate stuffed spuds for dinner and baked blackberry cobbler as we watched Clue. Ich liebe Tim Curry. We ate the entire pan (four servings) between the two of us, finishing the last toward the end of watching Batman (das Erste). The time to relax was good for me, ich glaube.
For Friday, Rebekah has invited me to accompany her to Amarillo for an afternoon trip to examine beer and wine displays for a company interested in hiring her. She received a phone call yesterday about attending a third interview session, in Dallas, flight and food paid. She genuinely wants to work for this company after she graduates, and I am thrilled they seem as interested in her.
[Lauree Frances Keith concluded this diatribe at 11:26 AM]
The English Is Heinous
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Is it worth the waiting for
if we live till eighty-four?
All we ever get is gruel.
Every day we say a prayer:
Will they change the bill of fare?
Still we get the same old gruel.
Dr. Lavigne caught me reading an article about the scripta puella in Propertian elegy, something about which he is apparently writing currently, so he chatted with me for a few minutes on the subject. I had begun reading the article in conjunction with my studies of Goethe's Römische Elegien, for the conclusion of one of his elegies resounds very closely with the third poem from Propertius' first book.
The article also helped me narrow down the broad fifth topic (the role of deities) I had originally set about to write into my paper to the more specific question of how Goethe characterizes Amor: as a cute little Cupid or a primordial force? Over the break, though, I must first write about Goethe's attitudes toward north vs. south/ German vs. Italian, in about five pages due the twenty-second. Every two weeks afterward I am to have written on the next three topics (vaguely, social reprobation, the female figure, and renewal) in addition to the aforementioned fifth theme. It seems like a workable plan.
[Lauree Frances Keith concluded this diatribe at 1:28 PM]
Gritty Lipstick
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Monday as we walked back to the foreign language building from the arena where University Day was held, Dr. Lavigne brought up the subject of my graduate study. He opines I ought to remain in the armpit of America for yet another two tortuous years for the M.A., as does Dr. Larmour, but I would almost rather take a year or two off, if no real graduate program accepts me, than stick around a place where I loathe everything.
Dr. Lavigne granted that the B.A. program counts for nothing, but I suspect, for me, the M.A. program would do little better. Dr. Lavigne and Dr. Larmour simply do not specialize in the areas I would like to study most over the next few years. Dr. Holland, as Adrian-Mikki once described him, has forgotten more than I could ever hope to learn, but he also plans to retire very soon. I would love to read Cicero, who is an author Dr. Holland originally had us read in my first senior-level Latin class, but the other students wanted to read easier things. A philosophy graduate student friend of mine recently asked me, "Why Cicero?"
Because he was a dick, both in personality and writing style. I find that hilarious and oddly endearing. His passages might be tedious, but the end result would be worth the time I would spend in utter confusion.
The great thing about studying in Lubbock, Texas, is that there are no distractions. This is concurrently the bad thing about studying in Lubbock, Texas. I spend hours at the coffee shop, but I do not care for coffee. I only go there because I get twitchy sitting alone at the Lair. Bars and low-class clubs consist of the only alternative entertainment. I cannot afford to go to the movies often and, as hardly anything of interest comes out, anyway, I have little desire to do so.
On especially horrid days, wind gusts reach thirty-five or forty miles an hour, blowing dirt into any exposed cranny of my body, knocking me off my bike, ripping the hat off my head, etc. I hate that.
[Lauree Frances Keith concluded this diatribe at 2:29 PM]
Fallen Off The Face Of The Earth
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Yesterday after working out I saw someone I worked with in high school. She mentioned offhandedly that I had fallen off the planet, which I suppose must be true, considering I never see anyone, even the people I know in Lubbock, unless I happen to have class with them. Plenty of people, however, seem to see me everywhere: at the Bibliothek, going to and from work or school on my Fahrrad, at the grocery store, at the Rec, at the coffee shop... I simply cannot stand to sit around the Lair for long, is all.
This semester I gained all my weight back from freshman year, since I haven't had time to work out on as regular a routine as I had developed starting last summer. So this afternoon, after I finish a Greek project, I am going to go swimming before work time. Viel Spaß.
Tomorrow morning I have to sit at a table with Dr. Lavigne and Adrian-Mikki for three hours to promote the Classics society, which should give me plenty of time to clear up matters regarding specifics of this Greek project. Then in the afternoon I will nap, do some Latin, and go in for another nightmarish evening at work.
[Lauree Frances Keith concluded this diatribe at 12:01 PM]