Academic stuff

The second semester started in earnest today. I had Satire in the morning and Comedy, Comedians & Romance (a film class) in the afternoon. Were I a real British student, I'd only have classes on Tuesdays. (Well, okay, there are screenings for the film class on Thursdays and Fridays, but you can do those any time in the library, so they don't count.) But us Kenyonites are more special, so I continue to have the Kenyon seminar on Monday afternoons and Wednesday evenings. Which is a good thing, otherwise I'd go out of my mind without enough to do. I still don't understand how the English majors here at Exeter can consider themselves educated after having taken a total of twelve courses before graduation. Yes, some of these classes are ever-so-slightly more intense than ones at home, but we take thirty-two courses over four years at a minimum at Kenyon. Most of us take a few more than that. The mind still boggles.

Anyway. I think this semester will be better, class-wise, than the last one. There will never be a dull moment in Satire, at any rate. The professor is--well, opinionated, obnoxious, antagonistic, incendiary...take your pick of adjectives, really. He does rather fit the stereotype of the obnoxious New Yorker. We were told today that anyone insulting Judy Garland would be taken out back and shot. Indeed. And he insulted Kenyon and Ohio again; apparently we're all insane for wanting to go to school in Gambier. Still, I get the impression that he's all bark and no bite, to use a cliche, and really just puts on the act to keep us on our toes. Plus, y'know. Satire. Fabulous reading list. And it appears (so far) that there will not be any of the group presentations that the professors here seem so enamored with, to my great delight. Glorified busy work and an excuse for the rest of the class not to do the reading, those things are.

Unfortunately, the film class appears to be using presentations, although with any luck they won't be the half-the-class-every-week style from Shakespeare. Other than that, it looks like a fun class; the prof didn't make much of an impression on me, but any class where we're watching When Harry Met Sally, Bringing Up Baby, The Shop Around the Corner, and City Lights can't be all bad. Essay topics are already percolating in my brain, which is always a good thing.

Speaking of essays, if I ever go to graduate school, first knock me upside the head for even thinking of such a thing, and then if I still insist on doing it, remind me to do my thesis/dissertation on Yeats. Writing an essay on him and William Morris at the moment for Matz's class, and wow. So much more excited about this one than I have been about anything the entire past semester.

Speaking of which, I should probably go work on that...