Vid: "In Our Own Time, With Our Own Hands" [NX, Maggie and Joel]

[icepixie]

Title: In Our Own Time, With Our Own Hands
Song/Artist: "Red Rover," Rosie Thomas
Vidder: icepixie
Fandom: Northern Exposure
Length: 3:16
Summary: "Grow wild according to thy nature," writes Thoreau in Walden. Maggie and Joel make their own ways in Alaska.
Thanks to wintercreek, who gave this the best, most tireless beta any vid could ask for.

Download from MediaFire (36 MB).

I tried a number of new (for me) things in this vid, including longer clips, cross-dissolve transitions rather than simple cutting, and a narrative that requires fairly detailed knowledge of the show to make its full impact. Let me know what you think!

Comments

[icepixie]

if I learned one thing from having to transfer undergrad, it's to look for a program, not a place.

I wouldn't completely discount place, though; if you HATEHATEHATE winter, you're going to be miserable in Montana even with the greatest program ever, you know? A good program can make up for a host of sins, but if it's the only good thing about life for those years, that would suck.

Thank the baby Jesus. One of the big reasons I decided not to pursue English any further - despite my enormous love for it - was the concentration on British literature. Specifically, pre-modernism British literature. I literally cannot stand it. I had visceral reactions to those classes, and my college - I graduated from Smith, so you'd *think* they'd be a little progressive, right? wrong. - focused nearly exclusively on British lit in all the reqs for the English major. I'm a 20th-century American lit buff. Harlem Renaissance all the way, baby.

That is so strange! I went to Kenyon, and our requirements allows us to do practically anything we wanted, as long as we covered roughly two centuries somehow and didn't stay entirely in Brit or American lit. I didn't take any medieval lit or Victorian BritLit, for example. (I was a creative writing concentrator, but that only affected my electives, not the requirements.) That's too bad that they made you take a bunch of classes you weren't interested in.

Grad school, for what it's worth, is entirely different. There aren't any period requirements, or there weren't at UT, anyway; we had a certain number of classes we had to take, and that was it. You took the courses that were relevant to your interests. The five-page reading list for my oral exam covered a broad swath from Beowulf to Song of Solomon, but seemed relatively balanced between eras and nationalities.

Teaching: I could actually do lecturing okay. Teaching composition, though, requires discussion-leading skills (or at least I think it does if you want to make it worthwhile), and I sooo don't have them. Plus grading got to be a real drag.

Yeah, I wasn't totally sure at the end of undergrad if I could. But after having had so much free time since, I really can't wait to get back to it. I need to have my free time filled, otherwise I just bore the crap out of myself.

It will definitely fill up your free time. :)

I am, actually, quite curious. What I learn about people's opinions of grad school, I tend to find in dribs and drabs. It's rare I get so much at once!

Glad to be of service! I don't think I've written anything else quite that extensive, but you might find something helpful on my voluminous "grad school" and "thesis" tags. There's also a book that I've seen good reviews of, but haven't yet read myself, called Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School.

[forsweatervests.livejournal.com]

A good program can make up for a host of sins, but if it's the only good thing about life for those years, that would suck.

Well, I can't argue with that. I think, for me, the program matters more than the place. I can learn to get along anywhere (though the first two years are always kinda dicey). I can't learn the same information just anywhere, though. I transferred as an undergrad, and spent two years depressed and miserable because I was taking graduate classes as a college freshman/sophomore, and I was doing better than the grad students. It was ridiculous; I'm embarrassed to have to admit that.


That is so strange! I went to Kenyon, and our requirements allows us to do practically anything we wanted, as long as we covered roughly two centuries somehow and didn't stay entirely in Brit or American lit. I didn't take any medieval lit or Victorian BritLit, for example. (I was a creative writing concentrator, but that only affected my electives, not the requirements.) That's too bad that they made you take a bunch of classes you weren't interested in.

I am so, so jealous of you right now, I can't even describe it. I hated those classes with a passion, hated them. I kept petitioning the board to change the recs, but nooo, our culture as a colonized nation must be catered to!

Okay, whining aside, seriously. One year-long British lit to the 18th century class required. One on Milton, one on Shakespeare, one on Chaucer. One *modern* Brit lit course. One American lit course prior to the 1900s. (This was the only one I enjoyed.) And then, of course, your electives, all of which I did in either creative writing or Afro-Am lit, which were fabulous. I was thinking about grad school in Afro-Am lit, but so few courses were available to me that it would be a long shot getting in. As is, I'm probably going to do a thesis contrasting Afro-Am lit with Latin American lit. They've got a lot in common, most likely due to Europe's colonization efforts overseas.

On another note, that book looks hilarious, and probably life-saving.

[icepixie]

I transferred as an undergrad, and spent two years depressed and miserable because I was taking graduate classes as a college freshman/sophomore, and I was doing better than the grad students.

OUCH.

Now that I think of it, I remember other students in my MA cohort talking about having to take survey courses in undergrad. We...didn't do that. We had courses like "20th Century Irish Lit" and "The Con Man in American Fiction 1850-1900" and "British Nationalism in the 18th Century." (Uhhhh, basically if you'd just completed your diss this was a dream school to teach at.) And I remember that our requirements were broken up into nine areas (Old English, Medieval, Renaissance/17th Century, 18th Century Brit, 19th Century Brit, 20th Century Brit or non-American, Pre-1900 American, Post-1900 American, Theory), and you had to take a class in at least six areas, then some number of electives, I think four or six or something.

I always used to wonder what the hell the Norton anthologies and the like were used for, because we never had them--it was always novels or books of poetry related to the theme an time period of the course, which was, you know, fairly narrow. And then I started studying for my orals in a group with my classmates, and they were all, "Oh, we did this in my survey course. Let me just pull out my Norton..." And then the light dawned.

As is, I'm probably going to do a thesis contrasting Afro-Am lit with Latin American lit.

That sounds very nifty indeed.

[forsweatervests.livejournal.com]

Now that I think of it, I remember other students in my MA cohort talking about having to take survey courses in undergrad. We...didn't do that. We had courses like "20th Century Irish Lit" and "The Con Man in American Fiction 1850-1900" and "British Nationalism in the 18th Century." (Uhhhh, basically if you'd just completed your diss this was a dream school to teach at.) And I remember that our requirements were broken up into nine areas (Old English, Medieval, Renaissance/17th Century, 18th Century Brit, 19th Century Brit, 20th Century Brit or non-American, Pre-1900 American, Post-1900 American, Theory), and you had to take a class in at least six areas, then some number of electives, I think four or six or something.

Ohhhh, you braggart. Why didn't I go to Kenyon? I looked at them, and everything...

Yeah, survey courses are the mainstay of the English department at Smith. The Spanish department, on the other hand, was exactly as you're describing Kenyon's English dept. Fantastic small-scope courses that really went someplace. A Spanish degree is exactly the same as an English degree, except that it takes place in a different language. Very, very fun for me.

That sounds very nifty indeed.

I really hope so!

[icepixie]

Why didn't I go to Kenyon? I looked at them, and everything...

The Kenyon English department would've loved you.

A Spanish degree is exactly the same as an English degree, except that it takes place in a different language.

That is awesome. I took through AP in high school, and then left it behind. (Well, okay, not entirely, because last year I had to take a foreign language exam in order to get my MA. [Don't ask. Everyone requires them, for no actual reason I can discern.] I had to translate a passage in Spanish into English. I'm proud to say that despite not having taken it for eight years, I passed on the first try. This is not necessarily a show of my Spanish prowess; the test was terribly easy. They let you use a dictionary and everything.)

[forsweatervests.livejournal.com]

The Kenyon English department would've loved you.

::grin:: Aww, too nice.

last year I had to take a foreign language exam in order to get my MA. [Don't ask. Everyone requires them, for no actual reason I can discern.]

Weird. Like, very weird. Maybe to prove that you're a student of the world? That you can understand multiple cultures?

I passed on the first try. This is not necessarily a show of my Spanish prowess; the test was terribly easy. They let you use a dictionary and everything.)

Despite the dictionary, I'm sure there were still people who failed. You've still got to remember tenses, implied meanings, phrases, etc. I haven't taken Latin since freshman year of high school (roughly the same amount of time for me as there was for you and Spanish), and there's no way I'd be able to translate an entire paragraph, dictionary or not.

[icepixie]

Weird. Like, very weird. Maybe to prove that you're a student of the world? That you can understand multiple cultures?

I think the idea is that once, long ago, people used to write about English literature in other languages, and you should be able to read them. Or possibly that it would be nice not have to rely on translations for, like, random French phrases thrown into British Modernist texts. But even the faculty was sort of like, "Yeah, we don't know why that's there, or why PhD candidates have to know two foreign languages." But everywhere I applied had a language requirement.

[forsweatervests.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Since I never looked at any English programs, I was totally unaware of this. Everywhere I'm applying has a language program, but. Well. :-D I can see where French or German might be useful, at least to help with Old English translations, but if that's not your area of expertise, it seems a little useless. Or, at least, as useless as another language can be.