Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Registered
I'm on campus today. I just registered.
A registration period which runs just a bit past the start of classes is marvelous, especially if you need to add or drop a class after you receive your syllabi and realize what steamy pile you've stepped in. But it's not so good if you're pushing off your registration.
I'm not stepping into any steamy piles this semester, but it looks juicy all the same. An independent study on contemporary Irish novels. A class on Renaissance literature, and one on Victorian literature. All these different times and places means I'm NOT registered for the one American lit seminar that will be offered during my time here. I'm not sure how I'll feel about having a hole in my education the size of our literary tradition. As if one class could ever hope to fill such a hole.
Anyhow, I was on campus a few weeks ago and the place seemed dead. I usually like walking places which are deserted, when we usually know them as busy or packed with people. Window-shopping in an empty shopping mall after a late-night dessert at Ruby Tuesday's. The middle of the street in the middle of the night. A gigantic people-less church. Last I was on campus I should have felt the same. Today music blares on the mall, but then it was quiet. There was a conspicuous absence of students whose cell phones had fused to their ears. I was not peaceful. The doors were locked, and I needed to return some books and, well, register.
Peaceful is for the library, despite what I tell myself as I wistfully reflect on the schoolyear during the grind of a full-time summer job. And summer is partially for giving us the space to think of the schoolyear as peaceful.
Into the fire.
A registration period which runs just a bit past the start of classes is marvelous, especially if you need to add or drop a class after you receive your syllabi and realize what steamy pile you've stepped in. But it's not so good if you're pushing off your registration.
I'm not stepping into any steamy piles this semester, but it looks juicy all the same. An independent study on contemporary Irish novels. A class on Renaissance literature, and one on Victorian literature. All these different times and places means I'm NOT registered for the one American lit seminar that will be offered during my time here. I'm not sure how I'll feel about having a hole in my education the size of our literary tradition. As if one class could ever hope to fill such a hole.
Anyhow, I was on campus a few weeks ago and the place seemed dead. I usually like walking places which are deserted, when we usually know them as busy or packed with people. Window-shopping in an empty shopping mall after a late-night dessert at Ruby Tuesday's. The middle of the street in the middle of the night. A gigantic people-less church. Last I was on campus I should have felt the same. Today music blares on the mall, but then it was quiet. There was a conspicuous absence of students whose cell phones had fused to their ears. I was not peaceful. The doors were locked, and I needed to return some books and, well, register.
Peaceful is for the library, despite what I tell myself as I wistfully reflect on the schoolyear during the grind of a full-time summer job. And summer is partially for giving us the space to think of the schoolyear as peaceful.
Into the fire.
Comments:
You'll have time to catch up on your American lit later. I'm doing a Renaissance class for the first time now. Hold out for the good profs rather than for course descriptions. 'Tis my advice. You can always catch up on reading on your own for pleasure, but you can't get your time back.
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