I am not in panic mode, but I think that maybe I should be.

Within the next eight days I have four apartment showings, a 12-page rough draft of a paper I haven’t started to write—that’s due Monday—two discussions to lead on books and essays I haven’t yet read—one on Tuesday, one on next Thursday—and a paper topic to devise. Shouldn’t I be worried about these things? Aren’t you worried for me?

The rough draft: it’s for my Sentimentalism class. My topic, very broadly described, is a call to Modernists to reconsider the relevance of affect studies to their discipline, which I will frame by discussing the use of affect in Mrs. Dalloway and its ethical implications. It will probably involve somehow a discussion of the way that the senses are manipulated and portrayed in the novel. I’m hoping that I can tackle some close-readings ASAP to get a better idea of what I mean by, well, any of this.

Discussion one: Tuesday, with Zach, for the Art, Ethics, Justice seminar on the subject of a book on one woman’s life-work of performance art. It is a Big, 300+ page book. I have read 15 pages. We meet with our professor on Friday morning to discuss our plan of attack.

Discussion Two: Thursday next, with Jess, for Sentimentalism, on feminism and sentiment; I don’t know what I’m supposed to read yet, haven’t even checked. We must meet with Naomi on Tuesday or so.

Paper topic: Good God, my American lit class! I can’t think of a topic to save my life. The plotlessness of everyday life and how it does or does not translate successfully into literature? Someone narrow that for me, okay?




Coming Soon: The Decemberists concert, some outfits, and term paper topics