Okay, okay, so, I'm not the one for whom we are cheering ... exclusively.
Pretty much this entire week I have spent my time chained to a desk, huddled over some ancient book or other, with stiff, cracking pages and a moth-eaten binding, in order to produce an amazing little piece of literary criticism, if I do say so myself. Thank you, thank you ... autographs after the photographs, if you don't mind. The atmosphere in which these decrepit volumes reside is not only condusive to such work, but also fascinating in and of itself.
Item one: The Bod. Where they have so many books, they don't know what to do with them, so they hoard them away in deep, dark cellars somewhere, only to emerge when requested by some geeky student who absolutely must have such-and-such a volume in order to complete his masterpiece of a thesis. Or term paper. Or tutorial paper. *ahem* Upstairs, in the airy but slightly dizzying halls of the Upper and Lower reading rooms, books line the shelves which line the walls, sandwiching in between an assortment of readers, busily pouring over [that is not the correct term. Is it "poring"?] this assorment of books.
Item two: the Eng Fac. Tucked away down a shady sort of longish roundabout crazily curved length of road, this library holds some thousand works on and by Jane Austen. Ok, maybe a bit of a hyperbole there .... and it's not a hyper-bowl, like the super bowl; but you can see for yourself in this very funny link I found on a friend's blog (Julie, I don't know if you're reading this, but if you are: I love your Corner!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIvrDsnKuQ8&feature=player_embedded
Item three: The Taylorian. Humbly hidden behind the imposing Ashmolean (which, is quite the experience itself ... but we'll save that one for a rainy day), the Taylorian houses a large collection of linguistic works and volumes in other languages. Like the Bod, Taylor also keeps its books tucked away in the recesses of its domain, yet unlike the Bod, these recesses are accessible to the common man. And if anyone wants a year-long game of hide-and-seek, this is the ultimate location.
But as for Catherine. With regards to me, I wrote and presented my very first paper of the term, and am now very excited. With regards to the paper, it was on Catherine Morland, heroine of the supposedly anti-gothic novel "Northanger Abbey." However, as I proved - or attempted to prove - in my essay, the novel is not really anti-gothic, or even satirically gothic, but rather satirically conventional. It's a long story. But it was fun. Do read the novel if you haven't! Catherine is a sensible sort, once you get to know her ;)
Hooray for you and Catherine Morland! Have you seen the newest rendition of the Northanger Abbey movie? It's actually really really good.
ReplyDeleteAnd- that youtube video was amazing- that't the kind of person you need to marry!
... Um, so maybe I should read "Northanger Abbey", huh? :) Lol
ReplyDeleteYES! That is, Brenna, READ IT! Good stuff :) and Rose, no, sorry, haven't seen the newest ... but I want to!
ReplyDeleteAnd no, Rose, that is not the sort of person I should marry. I mean, yes and no. Yes, a grammar gestapo. No, someone who posts youtube vids of himself. Yes, someone who can be funny and quirky. No, someone who takes it just a leetle bit too far. ;)
He was DEFINITELY just a "little bit" on the geeky side ;) WOW. But PLEASE don't marry someone like that, Catherine!!!! Lol :)
ReplyDeleteWhat does "satirically conventional" mean?
ReplyDeleteGood question. "It's my own invention." Sort of, like, satirizing convention? So, satirizing social formalities, social expectations, which really have no point except that that's how it's DONE! My main point was, more or less, that Austen is not mocking gothic novels - she read and appreciated them herself! - but rather those, like Catherine Morland, who read them and become so absorbed in them that you can't see the woods for the trees, so to speak; you can't tell fiction from reality anymore. Catherine keeps reading gothic themes and possibilities into her own life, when it's pretty much impossible or highly, highly, higly unlikely that this or that would actually happen. For example, she thinks the General has murdered his wife and locked her up in the huge linen chest by Catherine's bed. Well, firstly, if the General were so inclined, he would probably have had enough sense to dispose of the body in a more hidden and less smelly location (fan of mystery shows? check). Catherine later realizes that the linen chest is, well, a linen chest, containing nothing more morbid than a few neatly folded linens. Etc, etc, and so forth. It's very good; have you read Northanger?
ReplyDelete