Thursday, October 21, 2004
On the other hand...
I really, really love my literature class. We're reading texts by contemporary Scottish and Irish authors, and I find myself relieved that I do still love to learn and explore things even if they have nothing to do with how likely I am to find a job after graduating.
Also, in a bizarre twist of events, I've found that I look forward to seminar more than almost anything else during the week. (Wow, I just realized I've completely forgotten what seminar was called at UW.) I still don't own the discussion or anything, but I feel comfortable enough to speak without raising my hand, something scientists said would never be possible.
Of course, to counteract all the progress I've made with my social anxieties, I'm scheduled to give a presentation the day after tomorrow, and it's some act I've got to follow. On Tuesday, I walked into lecture to find all the lights out, candles all over the place, and an animated GIF of a beckoning skeleton projected onto the screen. The professor gave this bizarre lecture presented in the form of a story about how he stayed up all night trying to write the day's lecture, eventually resorting to getting wasted and being visited by a series of ghosts who provided him with several insights into the text. The "ghosts" were shown to us in video clips, and were in fact various members of the English department saying things like, "I am a ghost, and Birchwood is a gothic novel, not a romance. Can I go now?" Seriously. It was really, really cool. I mean, the format kept things entertaining, but it's always amazing to hear someone lecture so passionately about something. (Unless it's history.)
Unfortunately, the professor basically said it all when it comes to this novel. So I have to figure out a way to say something new so I don't just go up in front of the class tomorrow and try to convince people that I was visited by ghosts who told me I was excused from this assignment.
Also, in a bizarre twist of events, I've found that I look forward to seminar more than almost anything else during the week. (Wow, I just realized I've completely forgotten what seminar was called at UW.) I still don't own the discussion or anything, but I feel comfortable enough to speak without raising my hand, something scientists said would never be possible.
Of course, to counteract all the progress I've made with my social anxieties, I'm scheduled to give a presentation the day after tomorrow, and it's some act I've got to follow. On Tuesday, I walked into lecture to find all the lights out, candles all over the place, and an animated GIF of a beckoning skeleton projected onto the screen. The professor gave this bizarre lecture presented in the form of a story about how he stayed up all night trying to write the day's lecture, eventually resorting to getting wasted and being visited by a series of ghosts who provided him with several insights into the text. The "ghosts" were shown to us in video clips, and were in fact various members of the English department saying things like, "I am a ghost, and Birchwood is a gothic novel, not a romance. Can I go now?" Seriously. It was really, really cool. I mean, the format kept things entertaining, but it's always amazing to hear someone lecture so passionately about something. (Unless it's history.)
Unfortunately, the professor basically said it all when it comes to this novel. So I have to figure out a way to say something new so I don't just go up in front of the class tomorrow and try to convince people that I was visited by ghosts who told me I was excused from this assignment.
