Slowly Overwhelmed

I'm finished with Hegel. There is absolutely no way that any one person should be able to comprehend fully what this man talks about. Everyone I talked to today said their group felt sorry for the poor saps who had to present on him. Well, it's over. I read my thing. My group said it was fine. And, did I mention that it was over?

I haven't talked much about my slavery class. The truth is, there hasn't been much to talk about. That this guy is an expert on slavery, doesn't mean he should be teaching it. But he's a nice guy. I talked to him tonight. He finally told us that he wants 20-30 pages by the end of the semester on one of the topics we're discussing in class. This will be in addition to the 30 pages I have to write for my race class and the 18 I have to write for modernity. I think it's like running a marathon (no I've never run a marathon but I have it on good authority that this simile will hold up). Once you've made it to mile 13, the rest is easy. So I imagine about the 25th page, everything will be fine. I was thinking about possible topics for a slavery paper. Initially, I was thinking of looking at non-fiction writing in the 19th century. Then I considered female abolitionists. Then I had a bright idea that maybe I should take this opportunity to write about something that I don't know anything about. And even something that I haven't been that interested in. I've never considered slavery outside of the united states. So I considered looking at Haiti. Or maybe Brazil because I've already got some articles on that from my race class. Well Blackburn (the professor) asked if someone would do a presentation on Spanish slave revolts. I raised my hand. So I'm going to be reading The Decline and Abolition of  Negro Slavery in Venezuela 1820-1854. My presentation is in two weeks. I also found out yesterday that my modernity group is presenting two more times. The next time is on Nov. 5 and we will be looking at Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

There was a protest in Central Park the other day against the imminent invasion of Iraq. There's going to be a march on Washington on 10/26 to protest the war. A few people in my modernity group may be going. So I think I might go to that. I've never been to Washington, D.C. I think I may try to get to bed early tonight.