"She's so unhip, when you say Dylan...

[mrissa]

...she thinks you're talkin' 'bout Dylan Thomas. Whoevah he was."*

Sampo now has sections. With Dylan Thomas titles. This is totally inappropriate for any audience but myself, and I will call them "Part One," "Part Two," and "Part Three" on the manuscript itself. (Or else I will actually put in material to support their use. Probably not, though: Part Two's title is secretly a plot point spoiler for anyone who can complete the line that starts with "Rage, rage," which is most people, yah? porphyrin for sure has made the connection that would make this possibly spoilery, and some of the rest of you critiquers may have as well.)

I'm secretly all proud and squirmy: I've never had sections before! I thought I had sections before, but what I had was a trilogy masquerading as a single book. Well, sort of a trilogy. A duology with a related stand-alone work. I am neither allergic nor married to the t-word.

But sections! I've got 'em. And they are not a trilogy in disguise. They are sections. Structure. Whee.

Also I got to the chapter with the rain of toads today. Some idiot appears not to have written a couple of chapters that go before it, but never mind that: I love the rain of toads. It makes me so happy. It has lines like, "Edward would not have thought it would hurt so much to be pelted with toads." Also it is the precursor of the rain of frogs, which makes me even happier. And the mouse tornado. Bitey bitey squee squee. Yay.

Books ought to make someone happy sometime, and I don't see why it shouldn't be me and today.

*My friend Christopher made me so happy. I was sitting in my college cafeteria by myself, reading, when Christopher and some other friends came in. "What are you reading?" Chris asked. I said, "Dylan Thomas. You know, 'he's so unhip, when you say Dylan, he thinks you're talkin' 'bout Dylan Thomas.'" And Christopher nodded wisely and said, "'Whoevah he was.'" I said, "'The man ain't got no culchah.'" And then squealed. Because of all the Simon and Garfunkel songs people my age can be expected to know, that one was not on the list.

I stuck Dylan Thomas poems up on the bathroom walls at college, along with Japanese characters I was learning. The CF (what most colleges call an RA) seemed quietly alarmed by the prospect of people reading lines like this on the john; she put up perky quotes about the value of education, backed on brightly colored construction paper. Sometimes a liberal arts education is a beautiful thing, and sometimes it is a royal pain in the ass. If you are going to quote Plato on education, for heaven's sake make sure you know what else he said about it, or some snarky child who is more liberal arts than thou will delight in telling you in some detail.

It amazed me how many people picked a liberal arts college and didn't really mean it. But that, oh, that is a digression for another day.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

From the toads' perspective, not so great, but I had fun with it.

[gwynnega]

"But it's all right Ma, everybody must get stoned-uh..."

Now I'm going to have that Simon & Garfunkel song in my head all afternoon! :-)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Look at my icon and see how repentant and sorry I am.

[gwynnega]

Heeeeee. "Andy Warhol won't you please come home..."

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"That's the hand they use--well, never mind."

[zellandyne.livejournal.com]

I love that song. In fact, I think I've quoted it in lj before... made me smile to see it

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

It amazed me how many people picked a liberal arts college and didn't really mean it.

Reminds me of when I first visited Knox. I ended up sitting at lunch with a bunch of nifty current-Knox biology students, and also with another potential-student girl who kept saying how she didn't want distribution requirements, oh, no, she wanted to dive right into her field and stay there. I imagine my thought bubble was something like this: ...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I ran into this in the physics department somewhat. Not a lot, though; a classic Gustie moment was when I was sitting in the physics student office writing a story, Jen was reading a comparative religions text, Heathah was laughing at her sociology professor's book, Pat was doing a sketch for an art class, Chad was looking through his photography portfolio, and Gus was practicing trumpet next door.

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

Heh. Never ran into that problem at Reed, but that was likely because we were so liberal arts it hurt.

I occasionally heard humanities people bitching about the science requirements, but my response to that was always "Suck it up or take nat-sci, punks." The intro-level courses really weren't even that hard.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Humanities people are Like That.

(Sigh. I don't even know if gaaldine is reading the comments to know she's being baited.)

[greatestofnates.livejournal.com]

You know it's a private college when people vandalize the bathroom with construction paper.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

..or some snarky child who is more liberal arts than thou will delight in telling you in some detail.

Not snarky. I got in trouble for the naughty "W" word.

"Why?"

I still do.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That wasn't actually as much trouble as facts and references in my liberal arts experience. The default empty why was around a lot, which made the purposeful one a bit more commonly tolerated, I think.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

I wonder how much difference there may be in time and place. Probably quite a bit. Being a geek plus artsy typed helped at times. I mean in terms of expectations.

The other thing I was thinking after wondering about empty whys was that the party being questioned was as often peer and teacher for me.

Our RAs were extremely cool. I was only ever in a residence hall one year tho. After that suites, and then apartments. They could get crazy too but no one pulled the fire alarm at 4am before finals hoping to lower the curve.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Context matters a good deal for this sort of thing, yes.

I'm not sure what you mean about peer and teacher, though.

I had at least one cool CF (RA) a year, which was something, at least.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

As long as Edward wasn't skiing naked in the rain of toads.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

No, thankfully not an issue.