Windsor Forest

XXX: ooh, has XXX told you yet? All the first-year students met with the DGS yesterday
to talk about our first-year oral exams
16:13 and we asked when the acceptances would be going out... to get an answer to all the rumors that had been flying around
and I GUESS they are making their final decisions this week, will have a list by friday, and notify monday/tuesday of next week
me: ooh
one sec
16:15 oh oh oh how exciting
I am just going crazy with anxiety
XXX: but WHY? You got in to Duke... so...
me
: my productivity is at an all-time low
I know, I know
XXX: ha! I understand, but you should be HAPPY happy
me: I shouldn't be so anxious. And I really am happy
16:16 There's a couple places ahead of Duke on my list (Penn one of them) that I want to hear from
is all
but thank you for letting me knopw
it is much appreciated
XXX: right. I felt bad last week, when the info I gave you wasn't accurate
I wanted to clear things up :(
16:17 me: nono - it is just much appreciated
so don't worry on that score
how's things, anyway/
?
XXX: oh, pretty good. despite the midwinter BLAHS and all that. I have three weeks until Spring Break, so... PHEW
16:18 But I had to read some Pope for class tomorrow!
me: midwinter BLAHs .... great term!
Pope!
which one?
XXX: which I thought might excite you
Windsor Forest
me: totally!
ooh
I found that realyl exciting
and I like how he writes a history of the thames onto the geography
XXX: oh, he mentions the Isis, yes?
16:19 me: and the ironic comparisons to Rome are good
XXX: ok, this is what I was wondering
me: yes - he mentions the tributaries
XXX: So, the critlit I've been reading of Pope et al has been... extremely excited to point out the poetic relations to Virgil and even Homer.
But... I see so much more... Ovid in it
16:20
lots of great metamorphoses
and these sort of covered figures of longing for a homeland from which you're kind of... exiled, I guess
me: No, absolutely! I don' tfeel that WF is especially Hopmeric
XXX: it's like an Ars Amatoria addressed to the nation
16:21 me: I think that there is a peculiar restlessness and alienation in it too - the post-Utrecht Tory victory is (we know) undercut by the fact that Anne is dying
and that the Whigs are about to take power
so it's written at an interesting time politically
and Pope is claiming a status quo that doesn't really exist, or isabout to change
16:22 XXX: RIGHT. and that's another problem I have--Not having studied Restoration/etc to any extent, I feel like I'm missing out on SO many subtle references
it's almost pathetic
me: This is the problem a lot of people feel with C18th literature - that they're missing hundreds of cliquey little references
which I think is a shame - I only got the political dimensions of WF last year
16:23 XXX: Isn't that kind of ironic, though?
me: but there's plenty of interesting things going on in the Augustan vision that Pope is building
XXX: That just at the moment that English is becoming a universal literary language, supposedly "timeless" in a sense (I don't know how strongly you could make that claim, but I will anyway)
16:24 me: no, go on
XXX: English writers are more rooted to the Nation than, for instance, Renaissance playwrigths?
it's like the moment of British ingenuity had to be intrinsically British before it could be universal
16:26 me: I think that this is right - the thing is that this is still pre- Thompson's Britannia and before, really, the (literary and political) conservativism of the scriblerians really got off the ground, I think, in terms of influence. I have this feeling like up till the 1720s they're still honing exactly what it is that they're going to be in furious defence of.
16:27 XXX: oooh
ok
me: Nonetheless, after Blenheim in 1704 and the death of Louis XIV in 1715, there's a see change, I think
(sorry, scratch the nonetheless)
and *sea
16:28
XXX: hm... I wish I could ask you a question following htat, but I don't know enough even to ask
except to go "ooh, Blenheim! The battle and all of the amazing tapestries depicting it, and oooh, they charge too much to see the grounds"
me: :-)
I think that there isn't so much an idea of British ascendancy
16:29 because of the jacobit ethreat
however real it might be
but there is, definitely, an idea of resurgent london
XXX: is this after the plague/fire?
me: which is where I think WF fits into this kind of lit/pol narrative
yeah, totally
XXX: right, I mean
me: we're straying inexorably toward my dissertation here
XXX: in terms of "resurgent"
hahaha
me: Possibly just 'surgent'
16:30 XXX: or was London resurrecting itself from something else I'm not aware of?
there was a battle against the dutch in the Thames, right?
or something?
16:31 me: I think really it's Pope trying a bit of myth-making about London, a tory london, a London which will in the future unite Westminster and the City and in which London will bear comp. with Rome as a metropolis
there is also the Medway context
but I don't remember when that was
there's definitely an anti-Dutch thing
16:32 XXX: ok
me: pope hated William of Orange
XXX: hahaha
me: As he was a protestant
16:33 See, I don't even like situating poetry politically, usually, but it's such a febrile period
It's fun
more so than finding classical analogues
though I'm sure they're there
XXX: right, I guess I have to start with the literary connections purely because I don't know the history well enough to negotiate the politics
but... this is awesome.
I think you would really like Suvir Kaul
16:34 me: I did!
I loved him!
We met at the british library!
XXX: no way!
me: I haven't used that many exclamation marks since I was 1`2
XXX: haha
me: hah - twelve, not one foot two inches
16:35 XXX: I thought you were saying 1 to the second power
me: Ha!
XXX: because I have my font small and can't tell the difference in certain types of punctuation
me: no, he was great. I didn't meet a single person in my grand tour of grad schools, withthe possible exception of Blakey Vermuele at Stanford, who excited me as much
XXX: wow!
not even Srinivasan
Aravamudran...?
16:36 we read some of his stuff for last week
me: I didn't meet him, unfortunately. But I applied to Duke for him
XXX: ahhh
me: I read tropicopolitans in November
XXX: right!
me: It is GOOD
XXX: I agree... didn't read the whole thing
but what I read, I liked
16:37 me: right. I didn't finish it - I cherrypicked, inevitably
XXX: "Petting Oroonoko" was the selection we read
but, anyway
me: Mhm
mhm
XXX: back to Suvir... I will mention in class
16:38 me: is your class with him?
XXX: how my "good friend XXX, the genius, pointed out a few interesting connections to me regarding Windsor Forest and the political climate of Pope's London..."
yes
me: oh, you awesome dude
you will embarrass me
XXX: well, at least I will try
maybe I won't.
but if I can, I will
me: but you have made me smile at a distance of thousands of miles
which is pretty good going
16:39 XXX: hurray!
ok, well. Thanks so much for the interesting insight
me: I'm going to try to get back to local government, if I can
you take care
XXX: but now I nead to read about Chaucer and Death
me: and enjoy Pope
XXX: I will!
me: and Death, obviously
XXX: it is my favorite of the medieval topoi
ttys!