Readings
I am a bit hazy right now. This is most likely the result of the combination of the time and my cold. Advil Cold and Sinus has helped a bit, so I haven't been totally out, which is a good thing. This week has been a little strange because it feels as though my brain has taken leave of its spot in my head. I haven't been in much of a study groove, but I can't put my finger on it. It could be because I'm a little overwhelmed with the amount of work I'm looking at and have decided that it's better to procrastinate than to get to it.
Whatever the reason, I feel as though that span of time is over and I'm going into the weekend with a big wind-up. Let's hope it yields a productive weekend. If only I wasn't presenting on Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad on Tuesday. It's almost worse than Hegel because I didn't like it. It didn't move me. Maybe I can blame it on the off week but I'm not too happy about having to read it a second time. Should I discuss racism in the novella (yeah, because that hasn't been done before). Or maybe Marlowe's own self has been colonized just as Africa has been. Whatever. I've got till Tuesday. Then it's on to Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents. It just keeps getting better and better.
My paper topic has changed for my slavery class a little. Well, a lot. I went and discussed it with world-renowned slavery historian Robin Blackburn. It was actually a pleasant conversation and he showed a little personal interest in asking me if I was a student at the New School. I thought that was special. This is, of course, a few weeks after I mentioned to him that I was in the Modernity class, which is taught by an apparently good friend of his (they eat dinner together -- if that's not friendship, what is?) At any rate, it wasn't too excruciating and together we discussed my doing a paper on the historical validity of the slave narrative. I think I might be able to sink my teeth into that one.
I'd love to have it done in two weeks, but I'm not sure how possible that will be. I went out a few times this week. Wednesday night I went to a place called Molly's with Jessie. Thursday, of course, was Halloween and did I ever dress up. I took very few not-so-interesting pictures so feel free to peruse them at your leisure. I went out with two friends. We spent more time at a pub called the Telephone something or other. It's right next door to "The Thirsty Scholar," which I've got to try just because of the name. Anyway, our "costumes" were lame, so we ended up doing that whole conversation thing again. I can talk for days. Just not in class apparently. In a couple of weeks, I'm going to see a movie called Two Towns of Jasper at the Lincoln Center. Two separate film crews: one white, one black.
They land in Jasper, Texas, to interview 30 of its citizens -- 15 black, 15 white -- about the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in July 1998. They put the interviews together into one documentary. I'm anxious to see how it turns out. I broke down and bought a scarf yesterday. Good thing, too, because although it was 36 degrees today, it felt like 27. Love the "feels like" temperature. I can think of nothing more to mention now. Oh, but let me leave you with a little something I read today.
It's from an essay called "The Theoretical Status of the Concept of Race" by Howard Winant that's included in the book Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader: "U.S. society is so thoroughly racialized that to be without racial identity is to be in danger of having no identity. To be raceless is akin to being genderless. Indeed, when one cannot identify another's race, a microsociological crisis of interpretation results...." I don't agree with some of his assertions in the essay but this bit is certainly a gem.
