Haven't posted in a while, not much new to say. The reading continues, though I am quickly coming to the realization that I will eventually run out of novels and plays to read, and will have to read some more poetry. This week, Ezra Pound and The Cantos, plus various other poems. Looking through them last night, Nittany Lion and I discovered sections in Chinese, and sections with Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Should be fun.
Today was a bit startling for me. I finished All the King's Men, beat Knights of the Old Republic again (I believe this is the sixth time, now. I have a problem.), and went to the library to get more books. I then proceeded to read Paula Vogel's The Baltimore Waltz, a delightful short play (50 pages, bless it) about fantasy and dying of AIDS.
The odd thing is, apparently I've seen this play before. As soon as I started it, I knew how it would end. I knew the things that were happening as they happened. And I could hear specific lines in my head, as if I'd heard them spoken before. Now, I have no memory of ever seeing this play or reading it, or listening to it on tape for that matter. But I did see quite a bit of pretentious student theatre in college. It's one of the downfalls of living in an arts dorm and hanging out with a bunch of theatre majors. And quite often, we'd go see these plays after having a few drinks, which might explain why I don't remember it. Or, conversely, I may have read parts of it aloud in a class that I can't remember. Or heard people using parts of it as audition pieces. Or for acting finals. I just don't know.
I've mentioned before the problems I have with my memory, and this particular occasion is slightly unsettling for me. It helped a lot with my retention and comprehension of the play this time around, so I'm not complaining, but I would like to know how I know this piece. So if any of my NU friends have any recollection of seeing this play with me, or taking a class with me where we discussed this play, or anything like that, feel free to chime in.
Recent Lessons of Prelim Summer:
-Black people didn't have the best places to live in urban areas in the 1900s.
-A play about lesbians is always amusing.
-Gertrude Stein is incomprehensible. And ugly.
-There's just something amusing about Freud and Jung riding together in the Coney Island Tunnel of Love.
-Starting a movie just to pass the time while you eat lunch is a bad idea, because you'll watch the entire movie rather than go back to work.
-Unlike many of my peers, reading for prelims has not affected my eyesight in the slightest. Because I have super eyes.
-When you're reading a book that you've already written on, and the professor you wrote the paper for is the head of the committee grading you, the fun part is remembering which parts of your paper he liked and which he didn't, so you can shamelessly reuse them later.
6 comments:
How seriously are you going to read the Cantos? I highly recommend reading the Cambridge Companion to Ezra Pound for prelims study. Great stuff, very useful.
Oh, and I mean I recommend it instead of spending much time on the Cantos [or any of his poetry].
Paula Vogel is pretty darn awesome. I was lucky enough to AD How I Learned to Drive, which is another great play, and one of personal significance to me.
Her brother died of AIDS, which is why she was inspired to write Baltimore Waltz.
Hoping to continue my theatre commentary since I didn't really get to post on O'Neill (seriously, read/see Ah Wilderness! so good!).
Yeah. I "reviewed" the Cambridge Companion to Pound in her course. It was useful. Read the first few cantos, some of the "rock drill" cantos, and maybe the last 3-4. Don't push it.
Dude, Ed directed that play his senior year, and it had Colleen Caul in it. There was "The Third Man" joke that only you and the Vanisher laughed at because you are big dorks
Dude, Ed directed that play his senior year, and it had Colleen Caul in it. There was "The Third Man" joke that only you and the Vanisher laughed at because you are big dorks
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