To Strive, To Seek, To Find

The 9th Annual Twin Cities Book Festival is scheduled for Saturday, October 10 http://www.raintaxi.com/bookfest In addition to an exhibit hall featuring local presses, there will be book arts activities, children’s activities, literary magazines, a used book fair, and more. The excellent author lineup includes: Nicholson Baker, Robert Olen Butler, Lorrie Moore, Diane Ackerman, Ruth Reichl, David Allen Sibley, Adam Zagajewski, Christian Bok, Gabrielle Bell, Ethan Gilsdorf, etc.

Professor Lawrence Moe wrote this review of the Beowulf movie in the Fall of 2007. In honor of my LIT 371 students who are enjoying the epic even now, I reprint his review. Readers, weigh in with your own opinions!

I took my son to see the Beowulf movie released this month. He’s a senior in high school and so a recent survivor of that time-honored, English-class encounter with a prosaic translation of the epic or parts of it, a shared cultural experience often enough acknowledged among American adults, who may add that they remember nothing about the story and didn’t like it either. Thus when Annie Hall of the eponymous 1977 film muses about going back to college, Woody Allen can get a laugh by warning, “Just don’t take any course where they make you read Beowulf.”     read more »

 In today’s post, students discuss whether book or film worked best for some popular stories.

Cristopher:  Although I usually love the book and like (or tolerate) the movie, there have been some notable exceptions, where I liked the movie even more.  read more »

 I’m such a geek: I LOVE the first day of school! New folders, new books, new pens — and that new-student smell hasn’t worn off my classes yet…

One of the very best things about academic life, whether professor or student, is the start of a new semester. This time, I’ll do X. Or this time, I’ll do Y. My accomplishments this semester will outshine anything I’ve done so far…

Every semester we get to reinvent ourselves, our goals, our approaches. The first day of school is like this gate standing in a Scottish garden. I happen to know that it leads out to the sea; but what about your “first day of school” gateway? Where do you hope it leads you this semester?

Colorado Pete with a knitting machine, at the Woodmen Sanatorium near Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1923.

Professor Lawrence Moe has published a book making available for the first time the life and work of a virtually unknown figure from Midwestern literary history. “Colorado Pete” is the pen name of a Minnesotan named Arthur Owen Peterson (1896-1932). He was raised in Bagley and attended Carleton College before joining the US Army to serve in France during World War I. And for that he paid a price, as Dr. Moe has written:

“He wasn’t wounded by enemy fire, but he was wounded. Amoebic dysentery was the most clear and immediate problem, but there was something else, perhaps in his present and certainly in his future. From this time forward Arthur’s life would be characterized by a cycle, a grim and terrible cycle: a period of health and energy, followed by a very different period of sickness and suffering. And that second period gradually took over.” read more »

Life at my house this morning:

Husband David: “What would you like for breakfast this morning?”

Four-year-old daughter: “Regurgitation.”

Most faculty are happy to write letters recommending you for admission to graduate programs or law school, for your potential employers, and for scholarships. Here are some suggestions for getting the best letter possible.

Ask your professors for their recommendations at least three weeks in advance and more, if possible. It takes a long time to write a thoughtful rec and profs always have papers to grade, classes to prepare, and two weeks of the month are complicated by committee work.  read more »

Scary Muse??

As with all good epics, this blog begins in medias res. Over time, I hope this site will become a repository for all kinds of Literature and Language Department  information.

I also hope that the site functions as our English Majors’ community home. Since Metro isn’t a residential university and most of us juggle work, school, children, and parents, it’s hard to build that sense of community in reading clubs or other extra-curricular activities with your fellow English Majors on campus.

So please stop by often. Envision ways you could use this site to connect with others and send me your suggestions, questions, and ideas.

And, if you think the blog’s title, “To Strive, To Seek, To Find,” from Tennyson’s “Ulysses” is a wee bit corny, just be thankful I didn’t go with any of these other shortlisted possibilities:

• “The Whole Bloodthirsty Race” from Keats’ “Eve of St. Agnes”
• “No Birds Sing” from Keats’ “La Belle Dame”
• “Clouds of Nameless Trouble” from Tennyson’s “In Memorium”
• “What Rough Beast?” from Yeat’s “Second Coming”
• “This Stony Rubbish” from Eliot’s “Waste Land”
• “You Must Learn to Suffer Better Than That” from Beckett’s Endgame