Super Busy During the First Two Weeks of Class at Vandy
katherinemiller September 2nd, 2008
Apologies for the appalling lack of updates there last week — my conservative soul has been busting with unyielding enthusiasm over Gov. Sarah Palin since 10:15 Friday morning. Nothing can really diminish it, I’m afraid, especially not the Ballad of Bristol Palin. Tonight, actually, we had the first staff meeting for the Torch and the Palin enthusiasts came out in droves.
So, classes started, and I won’t bore you to death with that except to detail some cool stuff we’re doing in one English class. But, full disclosure: financial accounting, history of U.S. economics, “Revolutionary Europe: 1789-1820″ (history class), the “Culture of Modernism” (an English seminar), and 19th Cent. American Lit.
Now, I know English classes typically put people straight to sleep with all the intellectual myopia of what that damned Virginia Woolf meant when she used, like, the past participle instead of the present, but my 19th Cent. class is worth a hat tip. Prof. Kreyling has paired up an old seminal work of “American-ness” with a more recent cultural element to explore the nature of being American. Except he paired everything with awesome. A few examples:
- Moby-Dick with Ocean’s 11 (both the Rat Pack 1960 version and the George Clooney version)
- Little Women with Alien Resurrection (Aside: a fun game to play for the ladies, Which Little Woman Are You? Everybody identifies with one of them. Mine’s obviously Jo.)
- Narrative and Life of Frederick Douglass with [insert tiny conservative soul groaning, nodding in understanding] Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
- Huck Finn with Lethal Weapon
Quality, gentle readers, quality. Of course, right now, we’re forging through Last of the Mohicans, which has offered up an entire world of dialogue that in no way resembles conversational English. Seriously, nobody has ever spoken so stiltedly.
In terms of the hot, hot nightlife that consumes my lifestyle, this weekend I saw Vicky Christina Barcelona with a buddy on Saturday, went to the grocery story (the Green Hills Kroger of Epic Greatness), ran in Centennial Park (it’s basically directly across from the southern most part of campus on West End and features a one-mile loop that I’ll run two or three times), and had a fun dinner at Ted’s Montana Grill (also on West End). Sunday involved a lot of Hustler production time — my fledgling career as the Hustler’s crack political reporter continued with a news story on reactions to Palin’s selection. Back in ye olde day, er, last semester, I was opinion editor so this objectivity thing’s a little different kind of game.
