Things I Learned This Week
Midterms are here! Plankton, Austerlitz, and the upcoming election.
Life is so distracting right now. Not that college is not part of real life, but for me, it is the part of the day when I get outside of the worries of real life. Too much is seeping in (PLUS MIDTERMS!), so here are the things that kept me from circling the drain this week.
Reading Austerlitz by W.G. Sebold in World Lit. And you guys know I LOVE men and writing by men, but this one is beginning to grind me down. I am not a literary critic, and people the world over are obsessed with this book. Perhaps it is the idea of literary fiction in the haughty sense that I am losing patience with, and that has historically been a masculine realm. It might also be the fact that we are reading and watching so many interviews with and things about these authors that it is becoming difficult to separate the man from the fiction. I have read/watched so many Ishiguro novels/interviews now that it is difficult to separate the writer from his protagonists. The cracks in their character begin to show, and the words seem less authentic. For instance, Sebold went by his initials because he felt his first name, Winfried, sounded too much like a girl’s name. Maybe he was bullied as a child, or perhaps he thought that women writers would not be taken as seriously. Either way, big side-eye.
Learning that biology is all about memorizing category names; I am delving further and further into the secret lives of plankton, the incredible, photosynthesizing creatures at the bottom of the oceanic food chain. If you don’t think mother nature is freaking amazing, have a look at these.
I am in the midst of writing my personal statement for MFA applications, and it has sent me on a quest to think about the writing that has influenced me. Though probably not going in my essay, Charlie Kaufman always comes to mind as someone I feel artistically sympatico with. He wrote and directed one of my all-time favorite movies, and definitely one of my favorite movies from the last five years, I’m Thinking of Ending Things. I’m gonna give that one a rewatch to see if it still holds up in my heart four years later.
Musically, I am feeling stilted by school, but I happened on a mention of the acting debut from Mick Jagger in the 1970 arthouse flick Performance. The soundtrack is pretty fire, and I'm giving a shoutout to the song “Memo From Turner” because I love a San Antonio mention. :) Has anyone seen the movie? Worth a watch?
A little more than two weeks away from election day, y’all. Do you have a plan to vote yet? If you are, for some reason, still on the fence, make sure you read this post by Heather Cox Richardson. I know she is preaching to the choir, but this is for all my Independent/Republican friends out there. ;)
Shoutout on Instagram to my academic uniform. :) Wearing the same thing over and over again is the ultimate time saver.
Also, if you or somebody you know is experiencing domestic violence, get them help. Don’t be hesitant or wait for fear you might upset someone. Life is fragile, and we have to look out for each other.
Quote of the week?
“For as long as I can remember, my father had been telling me that one day I would have to become a writer, that because of the nature of my experience I would have something necessary to say.” ― Natasha Trethewey, Memorial Drive
‘Til Tuesday kids.
Burgin
(I’m finishing college at 50+, follow along and read my story here.)