"The Other must first of all be considered a locus, the locus in which speech is constituted."

Somewhere in the wastes of a B5 tie-in novel (shut up shut up shut up it was ONE CENT I could not resist), there is a Narn named L'Kan. I have obviously been reading too much critical theory recently, because my first thought was something along the lines of, "Hmm. L'Kan. Lacan. I wonder if this Narn is interested in mirrors, /es, or Others."

...Anyway. I'll be over here in the GIANT NERD corner.

Finally getting around to this meme I've been meaning to do

Fifteen books (and/or plays) you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.

1. Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (also Ulysses)
2. Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio
3. Bujold, Barrayar (also perhaps Shards of Honor and A Civil Campaign)
4. Steinbeck, East of Eden
5. White, The Trumpet of the Swan
6. Dahl, The Witches
7. Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
8. Helprin, The Winter's Tale
9. Byatt, Possession
10. Sewell, Black Beauty
11. Russell, The Sparrow
12. Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
13. Tolkien, LOTR
14. Wilder, Our Town
15. Stoppard, Arcadia

Fifteen Twenty poems:

1. Yeats, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," "Song of Wandering Aengus," "The Wild Swans at Coole," and "Sailing to Byzantium"
5. Boland, "That the Science of Cartography is Limited" and "Mise Eire"
7. Parker, "Resume"
8. Millay, "Renascence," "Spring," "Recuerdo," and "Journey"
12. Heaney, "Digging" and "A Kite for Michael and Christopher"
13. Collins, "Fishing on the Susquehanna in July," "Nostalgia," and "Lying in Bed in the Dark, I Silently Address the Birds of Arizona"
17. Longfellow, "Woods in Winter"
18. Donne, "Song" (aka "Go and catch a falling star")
19. Coleridge, "The Nightingale"
20. Anonymous, "The Seafarer"

Midnight's Children

I've finally finished Midnight's Children. It was really good! I can see why so many people love it.

What I can't see is why there are only two articles in the MLA database discussing the relationship between this book and both Portrait of the Artist and Ulysses. I mean, is it not obvious that this is in part a response to both of those books? Where Joyce went wild and crazy with form, Rushdie goes wild and crazy with content (and occasionally with form). Saleem Sinai's life bears not a few similarities to Stephen Dedalus's--the importance of the nanny/ayah, the descent into whorehouses and consequent purification (either through confession or being knocked out by a spittoon), the overbearing sense of importance, the way women impact his life (pointed out, I would argue, near the end of MC, where Saleem is all, "the women in my life are images of Maya and India!" and I write furiously in the margin, "It's been SEVENTY YEARS since PoA was published! You haven't moved beyond this?" and then Padma goes, "Or they're just women and you're being arrogant," and I note, "THANK YOU."), and the way their respective nations lurk in the background, influencing/being influenced by them. Saleem even, at times, narrates almost self-consciously like Molly Bloom.

I'm tempted to write an article that says all this.

"And life goes on forever like the gnawing of a mouse"

Along with finishing Midnight's Children, I renewed my acquaintance with Edna St. Vincent Millay today. Although, yes, I'm writing my thesis on Boland, and I've always loved Yeats, Millay might actually be my favorite poet. Well, tied for first, anyway. I always think of the latter half of my teenage years when I think of her, because I discovered "Renascence" when I was perhaps sixteen and fell utterly in love with it. (Here, read it. Very melodramatic, yes? You can see why a teenager would love it.) Then my AP English teacher gave me a volume of her selected poetry as a graduation gift, and I discovered, oh, pretty much everything in A Few Figs from Thistles and Second April, and just...ah, I think it's wonderful. She wrote a lot about grief and mourning, which perhaps turns people off, but which I always thought was beautiful.

Now that I'm no longer a teenager, I find some of my old favorites even more nuanced. I think I've begun to better understand the aura of ephemerality that hangs around poems like "Recuerdo" and "First Fig" ("My candle burns at both ends;/It will not last the night;/But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--/It gives a lovely light!"). "The Un-explorer" also makes more sense to me now that I am older.

However, I am dismayed to discover that she's not as well-known as I thought she was. (The MLA database has been shattering illusions right and left tonight.) Hence, a poll:

[Poll #1423068]