Monday, November 23, 2009

Harrowing adventures and A papers

After almost being plowed over by a renegade tow truck on Broad Street last night, leaping Crouching Tiger/Hidden dragon style to save my life, landing on my side on the concrete and rolling out of it without a scratch, with a burst of adrenaline powerful enough to get me back on my feet and try to to chase the tow truck (got the company name and license number)...I am so happy to be alive today and to right now officially begin Thanksgiving Break!

Sore and cranky all day, I kicked ass on some of the more daunting moving to Pittsburgh logistics, I got some packing done for my trip to Detroit and even finished all my homework before class tonight! Class was odd -- we were discussing humor and no one seemed very enthused except for myself, my classmate Tim and my incredible professor, Dr. Hodges. I don't like always being the one of only two people who engages in any kind of discussion. Halfway through class I'm burned out and I don't want to talk anymore even though I still have more to say. I'd love it if it were just a handful of us at a coffee shop.

Got my Son of Mr. Green Jeans paper back tonight...another A! Another fabulous, stressfully earned but wonderfully rewarding A! Comments this time included not only "brilliant analysis and structure" but "I'd like to send this to Moore." Holy shit! That scares me! Having my work on Moore's short story sent to him for rebuttal, refute, denial, condemnation? But what about praise, you say? There's that possibility too.

I do think I am decent academic writer because I like to play with my material. I try to have fun with even the most serious theories and opaque rhetorical demands. I write like I speak, I keep my tone upbeat, I joke, I kid, I get snarky. Sometimes I even understand what I'm writing about! Sometimes, I'm in love with my writing. Sometimes, my writing kills me.

For class tonight, we had to read a few excerpts from Robin Hemley's new book Do Over and a couple pieces from his fantastic series called Dispatches from Manila. Dr. Hodges even shared a piece of hers on roaches, and it was a really fun, thoughtful, deep and visceral read. They've inspired me. These A's inspire me. They remind me to push through the block, the worry, the stress, the anguish of a really sucky 2009 and click away on the keyboard or scribble my thoughts on any piece of paper I can find. They remind to write, just write. That's right.

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