This is a completely fantastic idea and I love it. I've had several
ideas for different perfumes I would like to see made, but I've never
been able to string them into a line.
The most recent idea I had is also the dorkiest. I work on C18th
literary history and I was thinking of doing historical portraits, I
guess in an HdP way. I want small bottles - 30ml EDPs make for
affordable price-tags.
Alexander Pope - Antoine Lie
A key guy in my dissertation is Alexander Pope - a mean spiteful
disfigured guy who was nonetheless the most brilliant poet and one of
the most manipulative businessman of his day. He could eviscerate people
in a few lines of people better than others could do in a whole poem.
Pope obviously needs a masculine iris - an uglyish ISM style iris at the
heart and on top, but I also want a chilly violet (flower) and a hissy
galbanum on top, maybe even some spikenard to help show the acidity of
the man nicknamed 'the wasp of Twickenham'. For an ELDO twist we could
include a steamed broccoli note - Pope was one of the first people in
the UK to grow and eat broccoli. I'd like dry, papery base. Nothing wet
or in the least comforting: no musk, no sandalwood, no amber or benzoin,
none of that. At the very most, some cedar or rosewood. What I would
really like would be an aromachem that would do vellum. A tanned,
leathery base that swims up after a few hours. That's my chilly, nasty
portrait in scent of Pope. Perhaps someone a bit kooky like Antoine Lie
would be up for this.
Samuel Johnson - Christopher Sheldrake
A great counterpoint to Pope is Samuel Johnson. A big, fat man who
worked hard at being socially accepted by everyone. He became gouty, I
think, partly through drinking too much port, so a big port note in the
heart is a must. He was a garralous, sociable man who liked to be in the
company of other people - so a sweaty musk base is important, as is the
tobacco that comes with socialising in C18th london. He always walked
with a staff, so we could perhaps put in a sandalwood. To lighten things
up at the other end, we can have some meadowswwet and some myrtle to
give a little bit of astringency to an otherwise heavy composition.
These are Scottish herbs that Johnson encountered on his Tour of the
Hebrides in 1762-3.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu - Mark Buxton
This woman invented the smallpox vaccine, set london society alive with
her daring poetry and her scandalous love-affairs with bisexual lords
and Italian musicians. She also lived in Constantinope while her husband
was an ambassador there. She talks about the scent of aloeswood
(seriously!) as well as sandalwood and some other aromatics that I can't
figure out. I want this to be a floriental - I want a lightish,
resinous oud at the heart (nothing else would sell, after all...),
flanked by sandalwood below and orange blossom and jasmine above. I do
want those white flowers to be a little indolic to connote the fact that
she was a famous beauty before she was scarred by the pox, and the
other fact that all her life she new how to gut someone with a pen
almost as well as Pope. She loved roses too, so we can add a (small)
rose note. She was also noted for educating herself by reading her own
father's library unsupervised (and teaching herself greek and latin that
way). So a dryish papyrus note would be great. The overall thing could
work: Orange blossom, rose, jasmine, oud, papyrus, sandalwood. I want a
light touch to this, so perhaps Giacobetti? Maybe that's too light. Mark
Buxton, perhaps.
What do you think?
Showing posts with label pope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pope. Show all posts
9.4.08
stanford email
I'm sorry to write a mass email about something as important as this, but I thought that it would be dishonest of me to pretend that you were all getting an individual email, and you would all see through it pretty quickly anyway. (Although in saying that it is 'important' I effortlessly elide importance to me with importance to you, which might not be valid...) So there follows a rather disorganised set of impressions about my visit to Stanford last weekend.
With much love to all of you,
xxx
On Thursday and Friday I went to visit Stanford. From the visit, I liked what I saw a lot. The campus is very big indeed, and built in a sort of faux-antique hispanic style. The library is enormous and has around 8 million holdings, including a lot of early printed books in the eighteenth-century. On Thursday we were greeted with breakfast and talks from the Director if Grad Admissions, who congratulated us on making the 4% admission rate, and the Director of Grad Studies and the head of the department, both of whom evangelised about the programme. We were encouraged to mingle with other admitted candidates, many of whom are, or were still making decisions, largely between and Stanford and one of NYU, Columbia, Virginia and Yale. The other candidates are between 22 and 36, though mostly around 25/6, so I'm at the younger end of students. They are specialising across literary history, but clustered mainly in Medieval, C18th, and modern literatures. It reflects the strength of C18th lit at Stanford that though it is a more marginal area than most, 4 of the admitted students had chosen it as their focus.
We were taken to lunch at the faculty club, with current grad students and faculty members. I then had office hours meetings with professors in my area (Professor Blakey Vermeule, C18th Lit, Prof Ursula Heise, Theory and Urban Lit). There was then a class on Romantic poetics with other grad students, who were really impressive. We were taken out for dinner in the evening by the grad students at the faculty's expense. They seem genuinely happy with the programme - extremely well-funded, intellectually stimulated and fulfilled people who were content with the choice that they'd made. No-one pretended, of course, that the workload was anything other than very strenuous, but they did say that Stanford did absolutely everything in its power to make sure that nothing got in the way of students doing their work.
The next day we had breakfast and another class, this one on the history and theory of the novel with Professor Franco Moretti, who is one of stanford's biggest names and a truly inspirational theory. I haven't even really studied the novel and it found it very exciting; I'd love to take classes with him. Then there were more office hours, in which I met with two more professors in C18th Lit, Prof John Bender and Prof Terry Castle, both of whom had a lot of upbeat things to say about Stanford (as you would expect) and who were very positive about my admission. After lunch there was a tour of the library for a few hours and then tours of the enormous campus. After that we were driven into San Francisco by the grad students, which was a 35-40 minute drive, and taken out for dinner (so much eating!) at a Tapas restaurant. she came along and got to meet my fellow prospectives. At about 10.30 or so I was absolutely exhausted and we went home.
All of this is just to say that I really enjoyed my visit there, and found the graduate students at Stanford to be very, very smart and just as friendly. They have said, also, that they will look into seeing whether they can reimburse me for any of my air fares - so we'll see about that. The atmosphere there was so un-English-ly content as to be almost jarring; the faculty, staff and students all seem uncomplicatedly pleased to be in their huge red sandstone buildings, surrounded by their Rodin sculpture garden. The university's wealth is sort of staggering - I think that their endowment is in the region of $20bn. Which is, presumably, why they can afford to pay their english grad students so well.
I did ask some grad students, once the shine has come off your experience at Stanford, maybe after a few years, and the inevitable jading and cynicism has begun to set in as it does at any institution, what criticisms are typically levelled, and what complaints made? The response was that the dissatisfactions that people feel owe more to the actual process of writing a doctorate ("It's hard! And can be lonely!") rather than inhering in the institution itself, which, more than anything else, made me look forward to started classes there in September.
(Oh, and XXX, I met that girl that you didn't like at the NYU w/e. Stanford has just lost Seth Lerer, so it is more likely that she'll be in your cohort than mine. Ha!)
xxxx
With much love to all of you,
xxx
On Thursday and Friday I went to visit Stanford. From the visit, I liked what I saw a lot. The campus is very big indeed, and built in a sort of faux-antique hispanic style. The library is enormous and has around 8 million holdings, including a lot of early printed books in the eighteenth-century. On Thursday we were greeted with breakfast and talks from the Director if Grad Admissions, who congratulated us on making the 4% admission rate, and the Director of Grad Studies and the head of the department, both of whom evangelised about the programme. We were encouraged to mingle with other admitted candidates, many of whom are, or were still making decisions, largely between and Stanford and one of NYU, Columbia, Virginia and Yale. The other candidates are between 22 and 36, though mostly around 25/6, so I'm at the younger end of students. They are specialising across literary history, but clustered mainly in Medieval, C18th, and modern literatures. It reflects the strength of C18th lit at Stanford that though it is a more marginal area than most, 4 of the admitted students had chosen it as their focus.
We were taken to lunch at the faculty club, with current grad students and faculty members. I then had office hours meetings with professors in my area (Professor Blakey Vermeule, C18th Lit, Prof Ursula Heise, Theory and Urban Lit). There was then a class on Romantic poetics with other grad students, who were really impressive. We were taken out for dinner in the evening by the grad students at the faculty's expense. They seem genuinely happy with the programme - extremely well-funded, intellectually stimulated and fulfilled people who were content with the choice that they'd made. No-one pretended, of course, that the workload was anything other than very strenuous, but they did say that Stanford did absolutely everything in its power to make sure that nothing got in the way of students doing their work.
The next day we had breakfast and another class, this one on the history and theory of the novel with Professor Franco Moretti, who is one of stanford's biggest names and a truly inspirational theory. I haven't even really studied the novel and it found it very exciting; I'd love to take classes with him. Then there were more office hours, in which I met with two more professors in C18th Lit, Prof John Bender and Prof Terry Castle, both of whom had a lot of upbeat things to say about Stanford (as you would expect) and who were very positive about my admission. After lunch there was a tour of the library for a few hours and then tours of the enormous campus. After that we were driven into San Francisco by the grad students, which was a 35-40 minute drive, and taken out for dinner (so much eating!) at a Tapas restaurant. she came along and got to meet my fellow prospectives. At about 10.30 or so I was absolutely exhausted and we went home.
All of this is just to say that I really enjoyed my visit there, and found the graduate students at Stanford to be very, very smart and just as friendly. They have said, also, that they will look into seeing whether they can reimburse me for any of my air fares - so we'll see about that. The atmosphere there was so un-English-ly content as to be almost jarring; the faculty, staff and students all seem uncomplicatedly pleased to be in their huge red sandstone buildings, surrounded by their Rodin sculpture garden. The university's wealth is sort of staggering - I think that their endowment is in the region of $20bn. Which is, presumably, why they can afford to pay their english grad students so well.
I did ask some grad students, once the shine has come off your experience at Stanford, maybe after a few years, and the inevitable jading and cynicism has begun to set in as it does at any institution, what criticisms are typically levelled, and what complaints made? The response was that the dissatisfactions that people feel owe more to the actual process of writing a doctorate ("It's hard! And can be lonely!") rather than inhering in the institution itself, which, more than anything else, made me look forward to started classes there in September.
(Oh, and XXX, I met that girl that you didn't like at the NYU w/e. Stanford has just lost Seth Lerer, so it is more likely that she'll be in your cohort than mine. Ha!)
xxxx
4.3.08
conversation #4
XXX: morning
me: morning
XXX: (um, right?)
me: yup
how's XXX?
XXX: yea
XXX is pretty good
felt much better today
me: I'm glad
XXX: and there were no surprise visits from my somewhat bosses
me: phew
that's always a plus
XXX: also the magical flying pirate ship i'm working on in the modeling tutorial
me: !!!
XXX: is starting to look more like a pirate ship
and less like a bad modern art sculpture
me: hahaha
oh, dude
mad modern art is the best
was it all post-cubist?
XXX: heh
oh very
me: awesome
XXX: all kinds of geometric shapes popping out where they aren't wanted
me: hehe
if you were having an especially picasso evening there'd be the odd stray horse-head
XXX: mm
yes
me: which would be wholly undesirable
XXX: rather
though this program does have an amusing feature
whereby, if i wished, i could have random teapots
all over the ship
perhaps the ship is crewed by teapots
and sails on their steam
ha ha ha
me: (I just got an email that begins:
Those gloaming hours again in which I wonder what, given its virulence and ubiquity,the plague was doing around 1400 when it could have been cutting shorter John Lydgate's infinite flow.)
Wow -- is there a teapot button?
XXX: hah wow
me: that's amazing!
XXX: yes
quite literally
a teapot button
me: I
Love
Whimsy
XXX: or even a teapot paint brush, actually
and also that is a fantastic start to an email
wow
hah
me: haha - he is reading lydgate
and not liking him much
as you can probably guess
XXX: i imagined not
heh
me: How come your status is breaking?
XXX: oh
on break
break-ing
sorry
better?
heh
me: got you
sorry I just got paid
XXX: or wait did they do those commercials in the
me: and was taking a moment to be happy
yup
XXX: ooooooh
YEA for getting paid!!
me: man I love it
money is great
oh! have you read quicksilver?
XXX: nope
that's neal stephenson, right?
me: yeah
XXX: i've just started the, um, cryptonomicron
it's my first of his stuff
me: or did I already tell you about it?
ah
XXX: nope
go right ahead!
me: cryptonomicon is amazing
XXX: greatly enjoying it so far
though i wish i had bought an edition with bigger pages and font
me: quicksilver is the prequel to Cypto. It take place between 1660 and 1715
XXX: but that is neither here nor there
ooh hmm
me: or rather the trilogy of books does
XXX: (nods)
24 me: um... it's a cast, operatic, brainy, sexy, swashbuckling, incredibly researched monster ofa piece of work
*vast
XXX: wow
that sounds, um, incredibly cool
me: It includes lots of liebniz and newton
and pirates
XXX: !
so cool!!
me: and about 5 seperate heists
and Louis XIV
XXX: ...hah though i admit i had some unkind thoughts about mr. isaac newton when i started calculus
similar to your friend's in that email
whoa
....i must read this book
me: monarchs coercively having sex with other monarchs' subjects
XXX: !
as proxy or by design?
or wait
don't want to know
me: haha, calculus, oh my
No, it's not graphically unplesant
XXX: oh oh not that
me: also... pepys, and the foundation of the royal society, and of MIT
XXX: was just interested in motivation
oh!
wait
mit?1
geeesh
this guy is rapidly becoming my idol
and i haven't even finished one of his books
me: haha
I will put quicksilver in the package.
XXX: yea!!!!! (does little happy dance)
me: woop woop
I will try to include short stories and maybe poetry too if there's room in the box
XXX: hah no poetry ;-) :-p
me: do you not like poetry?
XXX: though i, um, appreciate the thought
mm
me: you lose, dude
XXX: (bows deeply)
mah
other than (weirdly) a few authors/poems who stick with me
i am not a fan of poems
me: wow - that's a sentence I could never type
XXX: hah i know
me: mind you, that's cause poems are my thing
XXX: you like the dunciad :-p
heh yes
me: and how!
XXX: i have great respect for poems and people who like them
just not my thing
me: :-)
XXX: that's actually how i encountered claude rawson
me: fair enough
XXX: trying to dodge my poetry requirement
me: oh?
ha
XXX: i had to take something with poetry more modern than
me: oh noes!
XXX: and ended up winning an arguement to the effect that his seminar on satire counted
as it included pope and etc.
me: that seems reasonable
XXX: it was
...i'm glad they didn't check what i wrote my papers on ;-)
me: but .... but, what about all the great 20thC american poets?
XXX: .... (sigh)
me:
XXX: i like some frost
out of that list
me: (author's note: I am smiling)
XXX: i also like some atwood
hah hah i thought that might be the case
also i like eliott
for whatever sadistic reason
but i think this is because he writes long poems
me: yeah, whoops that was a fairly substantial oversight on my part
XXX: i need my narrative
(laughs)
and ironically enough
my first real literary paper (pre-college, but it was the first one i everwent to crit for) was on zukofsky
me: I know zukovsky not
XXX: mmm
likely better off
very modernist
me: ha
XXX: very "ooooh eliot makes cool allusions that are impossible to understand I must do this to but make it EVEN HARDER"
but i seized on the bits that i liked
like the idea of having an image that is tied to an idea
but is not a metaphor for the idea
my poem was about a grasshopper
me: Ok, this is interesting
XXX: zukovsky?
he is interesting
me: mhm
what you are saying is interesting
XXX: oh
hah
me: bozo, what else am I going to be talking about?
XXX: (laughs)
me: (except myself, of course to which I don't usually refer as 'this')
XXX: hah ha ha ha
well you could have gotten a bonus or something...
kidding
me: It's my first month on my new pay
for that is nice
XXX: yea!
but yeah
i've tried to explain my feelings about poems to people before
i can read them
but they don't really mean much to me
me: it ok if you need narrative
XXX: the way that stories do
me: it happens
it's sad
XXX: hah
me: but for some people
you know... that's all they have
XXX: (is laughing)
me: in seriousness, I get it
because I struggle with narratives
I'm like, you want to me to do what? Analyse it? What?
XXX: yes!
exactly!
me: but how!
it's so wishy-washy!
XXX: ha ha ha
you read it and are like "okay, that was nice. ....what? I have to write a whole paper on this?!"
i love how we are having the same conversation
me: see for me poetry is just the crunchiest, most economical, most beautiful words with none o the extraneous crap about people and stuff happening to other stuff and yadda yadda
XXX: or the same feelings at least
about the opposite things
me: yes!
XXX: mm and for me narratives allow you to meet real characters, people you can learn from and encounter like actual people, and provide a looking glass and a suggested pattern for what to do with your life
...i don't have the gift of being able to describe this well
you can carry ideas to their conclusions
without unneccessarily veiling them in allusions and cryptic language
gah
(gives up)
me: no, I think I see what you mean
I just think that there's more to life than narrative would have you believe
XXX: heh
me: take closure, for example
XXX: mm
me: and I'm sorry that I haven't finished your paper yet
the weekend got in the way
XXX: ha ha aww
's okay
i hear your thesis is quite brilliant
you have to send it to me sometime :-)
me: but what happens in closure is intensely interesting and reveals the fundementally problematic nature of narrative, which is that we actually have no idea how one thing causes another, only that one thing follows another
follows, even
I think poetry is interested in those gaps
XXX: oh ho ho.... that's not a problem of narrative
that's the point!
me: where the narrative isn't
XXX: to figure out how these things happen!
me: not where the narrative isn't interested - i was unclear - I mean, where it is absent
ok, that's a fair point
XXX: exactly! that's where we come in! that's where the engagement happens!
and not just in comics
more generally
me: and whoever has been talking to you about my thesis is telling porkies!
XXX: hah
now now i thought XXX was a nice person
me: she's lovely
XXX: who certainly knows what she's talking about
me: and ((((hugs)))) on your letter
XXX: thanks (sigh)
i kinda knew it was coming
and it spurred me into action in a sense
i actually emailed u
me: I still kinda hoped it wasn't
oh, good on you
XXX: to be like "yo. what's going on?"
(um, in that, "thank you so much for taking the time to read my email during this busy season" kind of way)
me: yeah, of course
XXX: yeah
i dunno
i'm almost relieved in a sense
because it would have torn me to shreds to be accepted without funding
and have to deal with that
me: yes
XXX: i also agree with what many people are saying about how funding difference poisons the atmosphere of a program
because i saw that happen when i was interning
about a quarter of us were paid
the rest of us were not
me: mmmm that's interesting, but not at all the atmosphere in
XXX: and it created a lot of bad feelings and divisions
hmm
that's good!
wow
me: XXX is sufficiently sensitive to have picked up on that, as an unfunded person
XXX: ...maybe everyone there is supernaturally nice
(nods)
oh i certainly imagine so
me: actually, because she's unfunded she gets TAships and RAships
XXX: ooooh
me: and the funded people are anxious
!
XXX: i thought that the funding, um, was entailed upon taships
me: (anxious that they're not good enough)
XXX: and that if you weren't funded then you had no shot at such things
interesting
me: some people (eg XXX) get fellowships
XXX: (nods)
me: that is what being funded is
everyone has recourse to some funding
just unfunded folks have to work for it and don't get much
XXX: ahh
huh
interesting
me: ... and have to pay tuition in the first year
XXX: ....don't really want to think about it at the moment
ah
yes
me: no no I know
sorry
XXX: there is always that
me: sorry
XXX: 's okay (sigh)
my friend lectured me today
about how i appear to be "grasping for a scattershot of programs"
me: what about?
ouch
XXX: (sigh) that is not true
this all makes sense in my head
me: ouch
XXX: i am still angry
as you can tell
me: of course it does!
well, yeah
XXX: partly because i think he's just bitter as he did an english masters
and hated it
and is still not done with said thesis
me: they clearly have no idea of you, your interests, or your applications
XXX: (firm nod)
me: ((((hugs))))
XXX: (hugs) thanks :-(
i have to remind myself
me: people are occasionally rubbisyh; there appears not to be any way around this
XXX: that things other people say are not always true
just because other people are saying them
they are
me: no! absolutely not
of course not
brb
XXX: ok
me: I have fucked up at work
will be back
sorry
XXX: oh no!
you go!
good luck!!!
(hugs)
13.2.08
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!
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!
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