Searching Buddha

I think that the trick for me in writing a poetry essay is to remember to have fun. I like literature essays because I'm a rather opinionated human being who likes to express herself. I have fun coming up with a point and arguing it with evidence; in fact, my relationship with Other Half is all about doing just that. It doesn't matter what the topic is - it's the intellectual exercise that's enjoyable.

The other trick will be to not get stressed out by the time and jump to a thesis too quickly. I have not historically done particularly well on writing without revision. Also, since I never write by hand, my hand cramps.

I am somewhat nervous, since I haven't had to do this kind of writing since high school. (One wonders why there isn't more of this in the undergrad program, if it's a regular feature of the honors program) I wish we had more time to practice it with some feedback.

I hope they pick a Plath poem. I can write a lot about Plath.

This weekend I was visiting friends and was talking about dreams.

One friend told me that in her dreams, she always dreams with commercial breaks. In the commercials, she always sees products that she wants to buy, but hasn't been able to. Aside from laughing at the blatant materialism that seems to be evidenced by this, I was really interested. Sometimes the dream mixes up products together, creating things that don't exist but would be really cool, like purses with patterns she's seen on clothing.

After taking the first exam, I'm not too worried. It seems like the emphasis on the identifications is more on creating a strong and well-informed answer than on actually identifying the passage. I also recognized most of the passages anyway, which was reassuring. I feel pretty confident that once I really put some effort into studying from the study guides that I'll be able to do very well on the identifications.

I'm much more nervous about the poetry essay, since it's been a long time since I've had to write an essay in that type of environment. It's definitely been since high school...which was longer ago for me than for many of my classmates!

Well, that was devastating.

I really do think that you do just have to identify the passages. I was completely off on the ones I tried to identify by period. Completely and utterly off.

Not great.

I also have a huge disadvantage for the identifications since my American lit teachers hated the canon and went off on their own syllabus...and I never took American from 1865. Next year's students will be much better prepared than I am, since it's now required. I guess this is the penalty for being more of a writing major than a literature major, but if I'd known what was required on the exam a year ago, I would have planned my coursework differently.

Now to hit the books and hope for the best.

I have a good friend that is transsexual and has been slowly going through the operations for transition for many years now, but has been held back for financial reasons, which is a huge frustration in her life.

My friend had a dream in which she dreamt about being transgender and going through all the problems of being transsexual. But then she woke up from the "nightmare" and she was no longer transgender -- she was just a normal woman who had been born female. Since it was Christmas day, she and her family made Christmas puddings and hung out and had a grand old time.

Because I believe in random acts of kindness, I'm posting my collated and highlighted study guides.

I presume it's probably too late for most of you, but for the folks about where I am, I hope it'll help. :)

American Guide

British Guide

How was it?

Not so bad.

I'm not saying it was easy, but I definitely felt well prepared for it. And believe me, it would have been hard to study less for this test on my own than I did. :)

I actually found the test difficult to study for - other than memorizing a few key things from different periods and the poetry terms, I found myself kind of groping at what else to learn.

So, not so bad.
I'm glad it's over.

I frequently dream about characters from novels that I've read instead of about myself.

Recently I read A Rose for the Crown, which is about Richard II and his mistress Kate. In the novel, they are each other's true love, but are parted due to his responsibilities of birth when he must make a marriage alliance.

In my dream, Kate and Richard and a bunch of the court were in Wisconsin across the street from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. It was a huge street, with these gigantic row house mansions (like in the Circle in Bath). Everyone went into the attic of one of these houses, when there was a huge flood. The water was getting higher and people were frantic to get out, so Kate and her courtiers swam around until they found a slide (which was under the water level, but you could see it because light was being let in). Her courtiers immediately plunged out, but Kate swam back to get Richard. They all escaped down the slide and he was so grateful that he took her back and held her while they dripped dry outside in the street.