Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Who's writing this post anyway?!

I've been waiting for a stroke of genius or at least inspiration, but no luck so far and it is 9:40 so I thought I'd better just get on with it.

First, I need to correct a mistake from two posts ago in my handout. For some silly reason I was thinking about Chinua Achebe and put his name in my handout when I actually meant Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, and his book Decolonizing the Mind: the politics of language in African literature. I wouldn't have noticed either except I was telling Chantelle about the book, and I said the author is Kikuyu, and she said no, Achebe is Nigerian. And indeed he is. :) Chalk it up to not enough sleep. Once in college, I read the wrong book for class and wrote a book review on it and everything and didn't notice that I was a century out of step with the lectures! Fortunately I had an understanding teacher who knew my schedule. Anyway, I stand corrected, and I hope you haven't asserted anything incorrect about Achebe to anyone because of the mix-up.

So--now that I'm on my weekend...what am I going to do with myself, you may ask. For starters, I'll be writing a presentation on the afore-mentioned book and working on translations and supplementary reading for my 2 german classes. Then I have a stack of homework you wouldn't believe. I will also be finalizing my travel plans for next month, which, after some waffling on our parts, are now relatively certainly almost for sure virtually without a doubt going to happen.

I am quite short on things to say, I'm afraid. I have plenty on my mind, but not much of it is sharable. Gregg is giving me ideas for topics. He says I could debate the merits of white vs. wheat bread, or take up the chicken or the egg mystery. Or I could just talk about the topic of the day, which is "How would your favorite fictional character write your post?" Hmmm...good question. How would Emma Woodhouse write my post? (I am perfectly aware that it's really girly to like Jane Austen, and I really shouldn't like her on principle, if nothing else. But it's the only girly thing I do, so just indulge me on this one point). First, as Gregg pointed out, she'd be rather surprised at all this technology, and she might be hard pressed to get a post in on time what with the learning curve and all. But she's a pretty sharp cookie, quite independent, and rather concerned with appearances, so I'm confident She'd figure out the technology (and she wouldn't ask for help in the process). If anyone asked if she was going to make her deadline, she'd say, very cooly, "I never pay any attention to the internet!" And then once the person was out of sight, she'd whip out her laptop and finish pounding out her post, which would undboubtedly be something about the charming local men (if there were any to talk about), the "elegant" other young women (won't mention any names, since elegant is Emma's Euphemism for "insufferable") and her current benevolent projects (which are sometimes interpreted as meddling in other people's lives).

Lucky for you, Emma isn't writing this post!

7 comments:

  1. Well Stephanie. Liking Jane Austen is NOT the only girly thing you do!I could list a few other things you enjoy doing that are on the "girly list". Perhaps you will remember them on your own, or at least fess up to them, and then use some of them as blog topics for the times you are short on ideas. If you really cannot remember any, and that is highly unlikely, I can refresh your memory. Your brothers could probably think of a few things to add to the list as well. :)
    I wish I could have been there to hear your presentation. I think I would have found it interesting.
    Mom

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  2. Thanks for the clarification. I did briefly wonder that Achebe would write about a country on the other side of the continent, but figured, hey, it's not that unlikely...

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  3. (psst, mom...you're blowing my cover! knock it off!).

    I wish you were here too, but if you were, I sure wouldn't want to spend our time gabbing about south africa. We'd go find some castles and eat chocolate and not talk a bit about school.

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  4. If I were there, we wouldn't go shoe shopping either! I would, however, suggest we look at cute houses and pretty flowers. By the way, Tinkerbell is looking very queenly as she sits on the front walk each day. I pet her and tell her it is from you. She always purrs and says to pass on her best regards to you.
    Mom

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  5. If I liked Pride and Prejudice, does that make me girly?

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  6. No Sir! That would make you a man who knows a good story when he sees one!

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  7. Thduggie did a good job of avoiding a direct admission of his opinion on Pride and Prejudice. Does he, or does he not like it? And is this the book or one of the movies?

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