"Fun Home"

I just read one of the best books for class. It's called "Fun Home" by Alison Bechdell.

It's actually not really a book. In fact, it is the best graphic novel I've ever read. I normally associate graphic novels with my brief but expensive anime phase, and give little shudder every time I think of them. But this one has reversed my opinion of graphic novels! Absolutely beautiful, and tragic, and comedic all at once, it's now one of my favorite books.

The plot follows Alison's childhood, and her relationship with her father. She's a lesbian, and he was a very closeted gay man. Or ... not quite straight man. Something like that. At any rate, it was fantastic. There are a lot of perfection issues in the family, and a lot of interesting crossings between art and life. What really struck me and kept me entirely enraptured was her constant literary allusion. Somehow, she made it seem absolutely natural, and not at all construed or pretentious.

Perhaps that's because I really like to think in literary allusion. Unfortunately, I'm not well-read enough to pull that off in my real life.

One can dream.

Anyway, I would suggest reading it. It's absolutely wonderful, and not as depressing as it really could have been. Thank you, Professor Reynolds for restoring my faith in the graphic novel as a medium.

I must be crazy.

I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year, but I'm in college and incredibly busy. And November will be me preparing for finals. I don't know if I can put aside time every day to write, and I definitely can't have a crash-writing frenzy at the end - I'll be even more busy; that's the nature of the semester.

I might pull myself out of it. Or I might do it to just try, and not expect to win. That might be the game plan.

I'll try to write a little every day before November, just to see if I can make it work. I might not be able to - October will probably be my busiest month.

We'll see what happens. I'm worried, though. I'll post more later on my deliberations.

My life is entirely theoretical.

My life is RIDICULOUS.

I will be taking three senior seminars, all three of which require a final research project (i.e. senior thesis). To finish in four years, I have to take nine classes a year (four per semester [aside from study abroad] + J-Term every year). I also really want to do a big research project over the summer having something to do with Arthur. I could make that into my senior seminar. Possibly.

Should really get that together, but first I need to come up with a good field study proposal for when I'm in India. I have the topic, but I need to refine it. Slash learn a lot more about India.

Yes, count it. That's FIVE independent research projects for my undergraduate career. FIVE. Unless the Arthur project becomes my senior seminar.

I also need to complete two internships, but if I do one at the White Earth Land Recovery Project, it counts for both Social Justice and Environmental Studies. Or I could also do an internship at the Twin Cities Center for Victims of Torture.

I am ridiculous.

Will definitely take quite a bit of time off between undergrad and grad school. Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. Don't know what the hell I'll do, but I don't need to yet.

I'm not all that stressed about all of this, but it's not entirely pending at the moment.

I figure I need to figure out my India project first. Then I can think about where I'll be next summer.

Academic Elitism

I'm really sick of academic elitism. I feel like it happens far more often in English than it does in my other major - Social Justice. Perhaps that's because of the nature of social justice, or perhaps that's because English is fighting to be considered a legitimate profession, but I'm really quite sick of this.

Last week, I was asked to be a tutor for the English 3010 Literary Criticism class. Actually, I was suggested specifically by one of the most notoriously difficult professors on campus. I felt kind of good about my performance in the academic sphere.

Today I got back my first paper for Literary Theory, and the grade was a c/c+. What? Am I just sucking it up this year? I feel really horrible about that grade. I've never got a c on anything before. In my entire academic career. I will be able to redo the paper, thankfully, but still. Gah. That's a horrible place to start.

I'm also wondering if I'm really as academically minded as I had initially thought myself to be. Am really not sure about that. I'm feeling the need to go out and live life for a while - so much of what I'm doing right now is entirely theoretical. I don't know how to handle that.

I'll go work on my novel and shut up about this. I both love and hate academic elitism. I know that if I were a professor, I would be an absolute bitch about grading. Exceedingly high expectations. So I guess I have those expectations of myself.

I'll get over it, I promise. Or maybe I won't, considering this is only my sophomore year of school. Maybe this will be a recurring theme as long as I'm working in the English field.

*sigh*

Writing will make me feel better.

Awkward first blog

Hey there.

I'm a college student, majoring in English and Social Justice with a minor in Environmental Studies. I'm really super busy with the election at the moment, and do a ton of activist work.

This is my blogging escape. I'll talk all about my voyage through the literary world, both reading and writing. I'm working on a novel right now, and I'm going to do National Novel Writing Month in November. I've been wanting to do it for years, and it finally makes perfect sense.

In fact, everything about me makes more sense now that I'm doing NaNoWriMo. Seriously.

I'll also be doing book reviews. I have an enormous library of books that I haven't read, so I'm going to try to get through them.

For the record, I haven't finished "The Once and Future King" yet. Will get on that - but I already know it's a favorite.