More ugliness

Once again, there's another blog post speculating about the importance of an author's appearance on the reception and success of their work.  (Jonathan Franzen still hasn't let it go, either.)  Jeffrey Meyers, however, doesn't limit himself to just one author, however--he composes an ugly list of 26 authors!  (As well as one of "handsomist" authors for comparison.)  And, unlike Franzen, he considers both men and women as ugly, instead of just singling out one author for his disdain.  (Also, I don't get what his methodology is for deciding whose last name is sufficient for identification, and who requires a first name--other than all of the women have first names (because it would be too confusing to figure out which writer with the last name "Schnackenberg" he was referencing?).)

Meyers explains his "admittedly subjective judgment" as including "the homeliest, obese, and sometimes even disfigured" authors.  Further, I'm pretty sure that no one on his "handsomist" list is non-white (and in my subjective opinion, I disagree with many of his assertions--I mean, Kingsley Amis?  Really?).  Meyers agrees with Franzen's basic premise--in Meyer's words, "Physically attractive authors make their work seem more appealing.  Their lovely faces provide tangible evidence--beyond their creative talent--that they are superior beings, have become sacred icons and are themselves a work of art."

Rubbish!  Do people actually believe this?  That meeting certain physical characteristics genuinely makes people superior beings (let along the "sacred icon/work of art" part)?  Why does phrenology keep such a strong hold on the imagination?

Meyers observes that "though unattractive women are taken more seriously than great beauties, neo-Platonic authors believed that beauty reveals inner goodness and ugliness suggests evil."  Evil!  Really!  I suppose that, if nothing else, Meyers is reinforcing what I expect the last chapter of my dissertation to be about: female characters in southern literature who, to whatever extent, choose to be ugly.  For many of them, this choice is a signal of allegiance to seriousness, to the intellectual life, the kind life led by those spinster, schoolmarmish women which W. J. Cash referred to as "horse-faced" and attributed to ugly Yankee spinsters.

Even though Meyers includes men in his hot/not lists, his commentary is primarily reserved for the women (excepting his odd aside about Hemingway claiming that F. Scott Fitzgerald wasn't all that).  I fail to see the purpose of the continuing production of such essays, other than to annoy me.  Their judgements are subjective and prejudiced, their assumptions are flawed, and their conclusions are insulting.  Dear Internet: KNOCK IT OFF.

Summertime

Last summer was intense--I presented at a conference in Italy. We drove across the country for a wedding. I taught an intensive Shakespeare course for gifted junior high students. In one week, I went through seven time zones. All this while reading for exams, which I started the week before school started in the fall. I swore this summer would be different. And yes, I'm staying in the country, and I'm teaching here. Today, however, I was trying to figure out when to schedule my trip to Duke to do research in the archives there, and realize that I don't have a lot of weeks free. My best bet is to go the week before I go to the Dickens Universe, because I know that that week will be exhausting, and when I get back, there's only two weeks until school starts.  Before that, I'm teaching for five weeks, I'm presenting at the Southern Writers/Southern Writing conference (finally!  I'll get to go to Oxford!), and this week I'm leaving for a week and a half to do a grand tour of friends and family, hitting Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Ohio.

Plus, you know, dissertation writing and job market preparation.  Is this just some perverse quirk of mine, that I can't stay still?  I would say that I can't say no, but I've said no quite a few times lately.  After having been president of the WGS grad student association this year, I switched positions with the VP for next year.  And I don't have any position in the English grad student association.  For my summer class--which is an intensive introduction to fiction which meets five days a week for five weeks--I just cut a whole novel and two short stories from my original plan.  Surely, this is progress?

It's not as though I'd want to say no to any of the things I'm doing this summer.  I'm hoping to think of them as rewards along the way to keep me writing and working on my bigger projects (ie, dissertation and job docs).  That, at least, is my plan for now.  Stay tuned to see how it actually pans out.

(However, I will observe that last summer, though I was tired, was quite a success.  I did accomplish all that I set out to do--so perhaps I should recognize that the more I do, the more I'm able to do, generally.  So perhaps I should focus less on how daunting the summer seems, and instead focus on how much fun it promises to be.)

End of spring break

Spring break is often late here, because we get a long Mardi Gras weekend. Spring break doesn't occur until after Good Friday. I was so ready this year! My intention this past week was to balance work with rest. It wasn't until yesterday that the ton of bricks hit me, probably after spending Friday working straight from 10 in the morning (on a writing date with a friend) to six at night (preparing for our big presentation to the Governor's Commission on anti-bullying initiatives). Yesterday, I collapsed--some sort of combination sinus/migraine headache, terribly sore neck, and nausea. I was so terribly whiny. I stayed in bed until midnight, when I had a miraculous calm in the storm--Mark made me some scrambled eggs which I devoured. Today I was down for the count again. I'm eating, though, and feeling less nauseous. The pain is less, though it's still there. I'm dreading tomorrow--though I'd already planned to spend most of class this week showing a documentary (POV's Stonewall documentary--so good!), but tomorrow I'm on a panel for grad students about communication. Ugh. That's going to take an extra big coffee. And then Tuesday's the presentation. I got the minimum done this week--student paper proposals responded to. Writing done. Started thinking about summer and fall syllabi, and requested a couple of desk copies. The couple of small assignments the professor whose RA I am this semester are done. I've still got bits and pieces to grade, but I'm okay with that. As usual, it shall be a sprint to the finish. I'm thinking I may last until the end of Masterpiece Theater, and then back to sleep.

MLA 2014 CFP--Deadlines extended!

Deadlines have been extended to *March 19* for proposals for MLA 2014!! Alt‑Academic Feminism I: “Teaching Outside the Classroom through Digital Humanities, Women’s Caucus for Modern Languages at the MLA, Chicago, 1/9‑12/2014. Amid Fembot Collective, Black Girls Code, MOOCs, Abrogrammers, new collaborations, how are women teaching, learning, connecting (or not) via DH? 250‑word proposals to Teresa Mangum (tmangum@uiowa.edu). We invite you to propose a topic for this 2014 guaranteed session, a roundtable in which 4‑5 participants offer provocative comments to inspire lively discussion. Alt‑Academic Feminism II: “Theorizing Collaborative Action Beyond Classrooms”: Community‑based, integrative, and service‑learning as recognized high‑impact practices but also vulnerable programs; what are models/risks of framing activist work as teaching/research/service responsibilities? 250‑word proposals to Jessica Ketcham Weber (jweber@cascadia.edu). Alt‑Academic Feminism III: “Feminist Vulnerability on Post‑Feminist Campuses.” Success, support, problems, or backlash in developing programs/curriculum, equity in policy (e.g., FMLA, harassment), personnel (e.g., representation/workload), and hiring (e.g., contingent labor). What does it mean to live on a post-feminist campus with a pre-feminist workload? To have colleagues or administrators behave as though activism on policy, guidelines, or hiring is passé when women have “taken over”? What are the best practices to assure that workplaces support gendered issues? 250-word proposals to Michelle Massé (mmasse@lsu.edu)

MLA CFPs--Women's Caucus of the Modern Languages

The Women's Caucus of the Modern Languages is issuing its calls for proposed panels at the 2014 Modern Language Association convention.  Please share these CFPs widely.   And, as we say here in Louisiana, throw us something--preferably before March 15!  And, whether or not you send us something, come to the party at next year's cash bar! 

Alt‑Academic Feminism I: "Teaching Outside the Classroom through Digital Humanities, Women=s Caucus for Modern Languages at the MLA, Chicago, 1/9‑12/2014. Amid Fembot Collective, Black Girls Code, MOOCs, Abrogrammers,@ new collaborations, how are women teaching, learning, connecting (or not) via DH? 250‑word proposals to Teresa Mangum (tmangum@uiowa.edu) by March 15, 2013. We invite you to propose a topic for this 2014 Aguaranteed session,@ a roundtable in which 4‑5 participants offer provocative comments to inspire lively discussion.

Alt‑Academic Feminism II: "Theorizing Collaborative Action Beyond Classrooms": Community‑based, integrative, and service‑learning as recognized high‑impact practices but also vulnerable programs; what are models/risks of framing activist work as teaching/research/service responsibilities? 250‑word proposals by March 15, 2013 to Jessica Ketcham Weber (jweber@cascadia.edu).

Alt‑Academic Feminism III:  "Feminist Vulnerability on Post‑Feminist Campuses."  Success, support, problems, or backlash in developing programs/curriculum, equity in policy (e.g., FMLA, harassment), personnel (e.g., representation/workload), and hiring (e.g., contingent labor).  What does it mean to live on a post-feminist campus with a pre-feminist workload?  To have colleagues or administrators behave as though activism on policy, guidelines, or hiring is passé when women have "taken over"?  What are the best practices to assure that workplaces support gendered issues?  250-word proposals by March 15, 2013 to Michelle Massé (mmasse@lsu.edu)

Grading Pipedream

I don't know that I can fully express my gratitude for the four day Mardi Gras weekend I'm current enjoying.  Given how completely jammed full my schedule has been lately, it's been wonderful to get this small break.

It also allowed me to finally catch up on my grading, with which I had fallen woefully behind.  I'm not quite sure what my problem has been, other than fatigue--and then I would think about how much I had to grade, and not do it.  As with much procrastination, it had grown quite monumental in my mind--thank goodness I had this long weekend to catch up.

But you know, once I started, it wasn't terrible.  It took two sittings--one in which I tallied up participation and graded the short response papers, quizzes, and in-class writing from, oh, the last couple of weeks (it wasn't actually as bad as I thought).  The second sitting, I graded individual presentations--I had already made up a rubric, and had made notes during the presentations, so I pretty much just had to fill out the rubric.  Again, not so terrible.

Why am I so resistant to grading?  Sure, it's not as much fun as watching Downton Abbey, but then, what is?  Part of my hesitation, I think, was worrying what I'd actually find--for example, seeing just how many/how few students are keeping up with the reading.  In a class of 40, I have my usual suspects who speak in class, but it takes breaking them up into groups to get anyone else to contribute.  And truly, when I did go through the quizzes, there were a number of them that, rather than answer the questions, instead were confessions of not doing the reading, with a variety of reasons and excuses given.  Anymore, I don't have very much patience with most excuses--while I think that students write these long epistles in an attempt to garner sympathy or gain credibility, long stories involving family weddings/traffic/travel/whatever simply make me impatient.

(And what is it with the number of students involved in family events that conflict with class?  My parents would have never allowed me to skip class for anything!  I never know what to make of such excuses.)

I realized, though, that once I was done, I felt a bit chagrined by how painless grading had been.  I was reminded of how capable I am of trying to talk myself out of going to work out, and how glad I am when I'm unsuccessful at doing so.  In my grading fantasy, I find some sort of way to remind myself of how actually painless grading usually is, and how glad I am when I'm done with it, the same way that I've tried to condition myself to not let myself get out of going to work out.  The thing is, I actually enjoy the process of working out--when I'm at jazzercise, I actually have a good time, and feel fantastic afterward.  With grading, while it's never as painful as I dread, it isn't nearly as fun as jazzercise is. 

Tonight, my reward for finishing all of the grading was making cinnamon cookies.  That certainly amplified and reinforced positive feelings about grading.  But is that the only trick, to just come up with better rewards for grading?  Or other there others, that might make me dread it less?

CFP: Edith Wharton Society at South Atlantic Modern Language Association (Atlanta, Georgia, November 8-10, 2013)

The Edith Wharton Society invites papers that engage with this year's SAMLA conference theme: "Cultures, Contexts, Images, and Texts: Making Meaning in Print, Digital, and Networked Worlds."  We are open to a variety of interpretations. For example, what meanings emerge when we consider Wharton's work alongside the "networked worlds" of her various homes and travels?  How has the rise of digital humanities and new forms of communication fostered new scholarship and approaches to Wharton's writing?  A range of responses to this topic is welcome, including examinations of her travel writings, other non-fiction, fiction, and poetry.  By May 17, 2013, please send a 300-500 word abstract and one page CV to Monica Miller, Louisiana State University, at mmil132@lsu.edu.