First Week Madness 4+5/5

Oh my. Thursday will be my happy day this semester. I start at 8am and won't leave until 6pm, but it doesn't really matter, because I have two adjacent classes with G. Adjacent. I think I might be hyperventilating... oh... oh...

Phew.

Anyways, the first is a lecture on 21^st century American culture - including sessions about racial issues, the terror attacks on the WTC, the wars in the Middle East, Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo prison, the presidental elections in 2008, the financial crisis, and finally the Twilight - wait for it... - Saga. I can provide our reading list if you're interested.

The second class is a seminar on the phenomenon of Barack Obama in which the first two books we will read are his autobiographies Dreams from of my Father and The Audacity of Hope. Apart from the person, what he stands for and my interest in him, I'm thrilled to have some more practice in reading autobiographies, because I need it badly. I don't know how other people do it, reading autobiographies that is, and don't get crazy. It made me mad, furious even last semester. In parts, I blame it on the autobiography in question (Brother and Keepers by John Wideman), in parts also on the genre. Without a proper balance of knowing what is fact and what is fiction, i.e. the author showing that he is aware of the problem, I get uncomfortable.

For me, that borders on "unintended" unreliable narration, the kind which makes one look up from a book of fiction and think, "Wait a second... Did the protagonist just try to convince me that it is okay to hurt animals/beat children/kill innocent people? Seriously? Dear author, WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!" In my opinion, that happens when the author's questionable psychological condition shows too much in his story and makes the reader uncomfortable because of its degree of, well, let's be euphemistic and call it 'weirdness' in the best cases. No, I'm not saying just because some characters in a book are 'weird', that the author is as well, but there's a line and I've seen it crossed a couple of times. One example would be parts of the Twilight Saga, during which I've actually wondered what Stephenie Meyer thought about the topic of sexual consent, and I got very, very mad at her.

So, while this uncomfortable feeling can be pushed further away in fiction if necessary, I find it more difficult to deal with when reading an autobiography - because there's not much of an illusion of a fictional character weakening the experience of such weirdness. However, Obama is doing a great job in Dreams from my Father so far and I'm glad for that.


Two classes down, two more to go.

I also have a lecture in linguistics which is called "Tranlation and Transfer Studies". It is taught by a new professor here who is a trained translator and translation professor. While it is clear that as students of English literature and culture, we're definitely not supposed to be trained in translation the way she is, but I think as a linguistic professor here, she offers a great perspective on language philosophy and cultural differences. I enjoyed the first session a lot!

Now, the seminar on Queer Studies. I'm confused, to say the least, but I think that was the intention. The nature of the subject itself seems to object to a clear definition and that's why I won't try to write anything about it until I've gotten my hands on the seminar reader this afternoon and read a couple of texts. I can say already that it's very intriguing though. Looooots of meta theory to read and I'm not sure about how much I can take of that, but we'll see.


I small voice in the back of my head insists that I got myself way too much workload for this semester, considering that I don't exactly need four of my eleven classes, but pleeeaaase? It's my last semester before the exams in fall and the final thesis afterwards and I... I.... I need it. I need the distraction, at least for now.

cooking adventures

Caramelizing is a messy business. Mmmmh. ♥