I swear that once I locate a camera and time, I will post documentary evidence
of THE CAT.
In the meantime, be assured: THE CAT is doing just fine. It has managed one apartment-escape and several food cupboard break-ins, and has (mostly) learned to accept that I am not going to be feeding it every 5 minutes. It barfed on my carpet twice to express its displeasure with this (or its generalized sense of ennui, I wasn't sure). Since then it has discovered my lap. Now it is mastering the art of parking itself between me and my laptop keyboard to signal that I MUST PET THE CAT.
I give in. I pet THE CAT, and I learn to type with my arm in an awkward position.
In other news: I'm teaching 2 SF classes this semester: a Dystopian Fiction class and a Fantasy class, both at the undergraduate level. These are the courses I've been soliciting reading suggestions for on Facebook, so thanks for all the f-list suggestions. So far, so good, although The Hobbit is proving a bit of a harder text to teach than I thought it would be. I found Return of the King hard to teach too, when I had that on the syllabus. Maybe I'm just not enough of a Tolkien buff to teach Tolkien; I'm not sure. I love his fiction in the abstract, but the majority of analytical work that people do with his books involves tracing his mythological sources and trying to describe his project en toto. Neither interest me, particularly. But I'm trying.
In the meantime, Orwell's 1984, which I haven't read since high school, teaches beautifully. There's much more in the novel than I remembered, and my students have been making some very clever observations about everything from patriarchy to typography. I can't wait to unleash them on The Handmaid's Tale.
In yet other news: Just finished watching the Downton Abbey Xmas special. As a writer, I am underwhelmed by the ending they chose for that character.
In the meantime, be assured: THE CAT is doing just fine. It has managed one apartment-escape and several food cupboard break-ins, and has (mostly) learned to accept that I am not going to be feeding it every 5 minutes. It barfed on my carpet twice to express its displeasure with this (or its generalized sense of ennui, I wasn't sure). Since then it has discovered my lap. Now it is mastering the art of parking itself between me and my laptop keyboard to signal that I MUST PET THE CAT.
I give in. I pet THE CAT, and I learn to type with my arm in an awkward position.
In other news: I'm teaching 2 SF classes this semester: a Dystopian Fiction class and a Fantasy class, both at the undergraduate level. These are the courses I've been soliciting reading suggestions for on Facebook, so thanks for all the f-list suggestions. So far, so good, although The Hobbit is proving a bit of a harder text to teach than I thought it would be. I found Return of the King hard to teach too, when I had that on the syllabus. Maybe I'm just not enough of a Tolkien buff to teach Tolkien; I'm not sure. I love his fiction in the abstract, but the majority of analytical work that people do with his books involves tracing his mythological sources and trying to describe his project en toto. Neither interest me, particularly. But I'm trying.
In the meantime, Orwell's 1984, which I haven't read since high school, teaches beautifully. There's much more in the novel than I remembered, and my students have been making some very clever observations about everything from patriarchy to typography. I can't wait to unleash them on The Handmaid's Tale.
In yet other news: Just finished watching the Downton Abbey Xmas special. As a writer, I am underwhelmed by the ending they chose for that character.
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