Happy Anniversary!

Today is the second anniversary of Pointed Meanderings. In keeping with a tradition begun last year, I'm re-running the inaugural post.

Just a glimpse

Last year, I took a class in Writing Creative Nonfiction at Ole Miss. One of our first assignments was to write a memoir; one limited in scope, of course, but covering an event of obvious significance in our lives.

When it comes to writing, I'm not usually a procrastinator. Maybe that comes from being a non-traditional undergrad student who was too afraid that if she put off writing a paper until the day before it was due, one or all of her children would wake up with projectile vomiting and uncontrollable diahhrea, or maybe I just realized that my brain works better if I allow myself time to let ideas take root and grow. Either way, I was always the student who started writing the day after the paper was assigned. (You can probably already tell I have control issues.)

I've written many critical analysis papers, even some fiction and poetry. But the thought of putting my life on paper for others to see left me reluctant even to turn on my laptop, much less to begin trying to find words and shape sentences that would lay myself bare to a classroom full of critics and a demanding professor. Then finally, after producing what I thought was a no-holds barred expose', the most often-repeated response to my memoir was, "You left out what we most want to know!"

This is not a new problem for me. I've started multiple diaries and journals only to either abandon them because the introspection required was too painful (you have to be honest with yourself when you are your only audience) or because I was afraid that someone would find my words and actually read them. Yet, all my life the words that others were brave enough to write have given me great joy. I have no illustions that my words here will illuminate anyone's life or bring joy to the multitudes. I simply want to gain the courage to speak, to reveal myself, but I must admit, at first it will probably be only in small glimpses. That's enough for me now.

Who Do You Write Like?

I Write Like...

Below are the results of analysis of my text. Analyze your text?

My Badge

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Deadline

I've spent a lot of my time this summer reading for pleasure, and it's been fun. However, all good things must come to an end. Last Fall, I sent off a proposal for the 2010 JASNA general meeting, and it was accepted. Now I've got to write the paper. By August 1. Sigh.

The conference isn't until October, but if I hope to have them publish it I have to submit it for consideration early, and why do the work and not attempt to have it published?

Here's my proposal:

Henry Tilney: Austen’s Feminized Hero?

In Northanger Abbey, Austen praises the novel form as she satirizes elements of the gothic novel, particularly the female gothic: the castle; the atmosphere of mystery and suspense; the inexplicable events; the powerful, tyrannical male; the woman in distress. Jane Spencer and other critics have noted an additional element: the weak hero. These critics claim that, in the eighteenth-century female gothic novel, the heroine triumphs over male authoritarianism by marriage to a “feminized hero,” achieving a union “where womanly virtue and patriarchal authority are no longer in conflict” (Rise of the Woman Novelist, 207).

This paper will explore the character of Henry Tilney as Austen’s clever acknowledgement and rebuttal of this feminization of the hero. Austen does “feminize” Henry. He is well aware of accepted female behaviors—“their delightful habit of journalizing,” for instance—and is eloquently able to describe the contents of the perfect feminine journal entry (NA 27). He “understands muslins . . . particularly well” and has often been entrusted with the choice of his sister’s gowns (28). He’s an avid reader of novels, although Catherine assumes that women read novels while “gentlemen read better books” (106). Yet Austen, in her other novels, discourages even hints of effeminacy and champions virtuous masculinity. So, how should readers view Henry’s “feminization”? Austen’s other heroines triumph, not by acquiring weak, feminized husbands, but by securing one who is both manly and virtuous. Is this true for Catherine also?

It's time to put up or shut up, I guess.

Booking It--Grammar

In honor of National Grammar Day … it was “March Fourth” after all … do you have any grammar books? Punctuation? Writing guidelines? Style books?

More importantly, have you read them?

How do you feel about grammar in general? Important? Vital? Unnecessary? Fussy?

Well, in my office I have several grammar handbooks, and I have one at home. The Little, Brown Handbook is my favorite, probably because it was my undergrad grammar textbook/handbook. Of course I have Strunk and White's Elements of Style--who doesn't? Other than that, I have Eats, Shoot, and Leaves, but I must confess that I haven't read it. Grammar, to me, is important and necessary--vital, even. However, it doesn't rate as entertainment. I'd rather spend my time reading correctly punctuated, grammatically correct, well-written literature than reading about grammar. But, hey, if that's your thing, don't let my negativity hinder you!

Furthermore, I don't enjoy reading "how-to" books about writing, either. They are so technical, and they seem to rob the craft of its mystique and authors of their personality. However, I do love it when good writers write about how they write (writing that sentence made me smile)--especially when they get away from the technicalities of writing to the realities of being a writer. What really intrigues me is how the ways they choose to live and experience life impacts their writing and their analysis of this connection. I really enjoyed Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings, and Anne Lamott is a favorite. I've got Stephen King's On Writing, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. I've read plenty more "writing memoirs," but I can't recall them right now. Mostly, what these books do for me is remind me that each life has moments worthy of preserving through the written word, if one is only observant enough, thoughtful enough, and willing to do the hard work of expressing life and meaning through the written word.

Alumni Benefits

This year, I was asked to be the judge of Delta State University's Confidante Literary Competition, formal essay division. It's a full-circle kind of thing for me because I won first place in that division when I was an undergraduate there.

Judging's a lot different than grading. It doesn't take nearly as much time. Basically, it is a process of elimination. I don't have to read very far into an essay to know whether or not it's top quality. If I'm not impressed, I set it aside. The more difficult part comes when I've narrowed down the competition to a couple of really good essays. Then, the hard work begins. I'm supposed to name a first place and a second place, and Honorable Mentions are allowed if I feel they are merited.

I've judged this competition once before, and the first time was much harder. I had two essays that were just excellent. I literally agonized over which one to give first place and which to give second, only to find out later that both essays had been written by the same student. Wasted angst.

This time, the essays didn't quite reach that same level of excellence, but there were some really good essays. I thought you might like to see what's being written about at good ol' DSU this year. Here are the titles:

1. Julius Caesar: Blocks and Stones, Inflamed
2. The Women of James Joyce's "Counterparts"
3. "Nothing is right here!" A Feminist Approach to Esperanza Rising
4. "A True Account of How Things Were": Natasha Trethewey's Poetry
5. Understanding Jane Austen
6. Love Relationships in Dubliners
7. Hrothgar and Beowulf: Now those are Good Kings
8. Stephenie Meyer: An Author with Bite!
9. Women in Chopin's Fiction
10. The English Novel: A Continuance of English Literature from the Beginnings through the Eighteenth Century
11. A Powerful Seduction (an analysis of seduction by power in Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale," Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, and Shakespeare's Macbeth")
12. Holy Perversion (an analysis of Joyce's use of Christianity to highlight corruption in "The Boarding House")
13. Green-Eyed Innocence (an analysis of three of Joyce's stories about a young male narrator's journey towards adolescence)
14. "O, These Men, These Men": Male Insecurity and Weakness in Othello
15. Government Involvement in Student Loans
16. Digging Deep for the Brain Pickers: Analyzing the Zombie Metaphors and Violent Mayhem in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Interesting list, no? And if you've wondering about all the James Joyce, Dubliners is the text for DSU's Advanced Comp class, so he always gets a good showing.

New Year's Resolution

Sunday Funnies

Sunday Funnies

What I'm Reading Now

Heilbrun, author, humanities professor, and one of our most astute feminist thinkers, shows how throughout the centuries, those who write about women's lives have suppressed the truth of the female experience in order to make the 'written life' conform to society's expectations of what life should be. Drawing on the experiences of celebrated women, from George Sand and Virginia Woolf to Dorothy Sayers and Adrienne Rich, Heilbrun examines the struggle these writers undertook when their drives made it impossible for them to follow the traditional "male" script of a woman's life. Heilbrun also examines literature's silence on such vital subjects as friendship between women, the female physical experience, and the richness that often imbues a woman's later years.

"Accessible, engaging and compelling."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Writing A Woman's Life, a wide-ranging study both personal and feminist, asserts that patriarchal culture has not only defined the limits of women's lives, it has determined what stories about women will be told...If it moves readers to write the full truth about female lives or live lives that are not scripted by others (male or female), its effect will be indisputably emendatory."
--San Francisco Chronicle

Sunday Funnies

Revision Rage

In October, I'll be presenting at the annual general meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America. The JASNA AGMs are always wonderful--interesting presentations and prestigious plenary speakers in great locations. I've attended AGMs in Seattle, Toronto, and Tucson. This year it's in Philadelphia, and I'm really looking forward to it. I can't wait to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, all the historic sights.

This year's theme is "Jane Austen's Brothers and Sisters." JASNA requires proposals to be sent in a year in advance, and, as luck would have it, I'd already planned for one of my dissertation chapters to be about the role of physical beauty within families, so I sent in my proposal hoping I'd get some mileage out of something I had to write anyway.

My proposal, "'Not half so handsome as Jane'; Sisters, Brothers, and Beauty in Austen's Novels," was accepted, and unlike many conferences, I'm actually alloted about forty minutes speaking time (with ten or fifteen left for questions and discussion), so I'll have time to present almost the whole essay and then be able to discuss it with other Austen scholars. Believe me, this can spoil you.

But right now I'm just plain aggravated. Why? Although I have plenty of time to present, if I want to submit my essay for possible publication in Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal (which, of course, I do), I have to shorten my essay to 4000 words. Aaaarrrrgggghhh. I struggle to carefully construct an argument, and then I have to butcher it. I've done this before, and it hasn't gotten any easier. I think it's harder to cut huge chunks out of a finished essay than it is to write it in the first place. Aggravation is giving way to frustration.

What's the antidote for Revision Rage?

Happy Anniversary!

Today is the first anniversary of Pointed Meanderings. I can't believe I've been blogging for one whole year now. I began PM on July 14, 2008, and I remember worrying that I wouldn't have enough to say to keep it going, and here I am, beginning year #2.

I thought that, in honor of my completing one year of blogging, I'd re-run the first post. I've come a long way, baby. (OK. I know that allusion reveals my age.)

Here goes:

Just a glimpse

Last year, I took a class in Writing Creative Nonfiction at Ole Miss. One of our first assignments was to write a memoir; one limited in scope, of course, but covering an event of obvious significance in our lives.

When it comes to writing, I'm not usually a procrastinator. Maybe that comes from being a non-traditional undergrad student who was too afraid that if she put off writing a paper until the day before it was due, one or all of her children would wake up with projectile vomiting and uncontrollable diahhrea, or maybe I just realized that my brain works better if I allow myself time to let ideas take root and grow. Either way, I was always the student who started writing the day after the paper was assigned. (You can probably already tell I have control issues.)

I've written many critical analysis papers, even some fiction and poetry. But the thought of putting my life on paper for others to see left me reluctant even to turn on my laptop, much less to begin trying to find words and shape sentences that would lay myself bare to a classroom full of critics and a demanding professor. Then finally, after producing what I thought was a no-holds barred expose', the most often-repeated response to my memoir was, "You left out what we most want to know!"

This is not a new problem for me. I've started multiple diaries and journals only to either abandon them because the introspection required was too painful (you have to be honest with yourself when you are your only audience) or because I was afraid that someone would find my words and actually read them. Yet, all my life the words that others were brave enough to write have given me great joy. I have no illustions that my words here will illuminate anyone's life or bring joy to the multitudes. I simply want to gain the courage to speak, to reveal myself, but I must admit, at first it will probably be only in small glimpses. That's enough for me now.

Oh, yes--tomorrow's the day!

Bottom of the Ninth . . .

No rest for the weary.

I will be spending the weekend preparing for my dissertation defense. (Four days and counting . . .) I'll be teaching most of the day Monday, so I can't do it then. I teach again Tuesday morning, so that's out. It's now or never. I'm not really worried, but I want to be prepared. It's important to me to do a good job.

I've decided to go down to Oxford on Tuesday afternoon. My defense is scheduled for Wednesday at 1:30, and I really did not want to have the added stress of worrying about getting caught up in traffic or having a flat tire and ending up late. And I thought a nice calm morning to relax (and pray, and pray, and pray . . .) would be better preparation than a three-and-a-half-hour drive.

A funny thing happened yesterday. I had not even looked at my dissertation in probably at least three weeks, so I sat down to read it through. This is the longest time I've had away from it since I began writing the dissertation, and I had the strangest reaction. It was almost as if I were reading it for the first time. It was something strangely distinct and separate from myself. It was hard to believe that I actually wrote it, that those were my ideas and my thought processes, my arguments.

I hope that muse comes back for a visit on Wednesday.

Sunday Funnies

GH Short Story Contest

To celebrate it's 125th anniversary, Good Housekeeping is having its first ever short story contest.

You must be 21 or older to enter. Submissions should be original, 3,500 words or less, and focus on the lives of women today. The deadline for submissions is Sept. 15.

The winner will receive $3,000.00 and publication of her story in GH (no small thing as the magazine has featured work by Ray Bradbury, John Cheever, Rona Jaffe, Nicholas Sparks, Maeve Binchy, Jennifer Weiner, Elinor Lipman and Picoult).

Stories will be judged by Jodi Picoult, author of such books as My Sister's Keeper and Handle With Care.

For more information, go to Good Housekeeping's website.

I Wish

I know I've got a paper to finish. But why can't I work here?

Mixed Metaphor Bingo

Fragmenting the Narrative World: Losing the Effectiveness of Story

Here's my paper proposal for the CSC:

Before the Enlightenment, the worldview of western civilization was fairly consistent, yet after the Age of Reason, it split into a Christian worldview and a naturalistic one, which further fragmented into existentialism, postmodernism, multiculturalism, and so on. This fracturing is amply evident in the literature produced from the 18^th century onward. Most narratives are an attempt to tell the truth, or at least to explore some facet of it, but if western culture has removed God and ultimate truth as a unifying force, how else can one approach “story” but from fragmented identities—race, gender, ethnicity, or some other type of self-defined category? There must be some kind of drive, unifying force, or “truth” behind the narrative: Women are oppressed; African-Americans are oppressed; British imperialists commandeered our culture; God is dead.

Of course, not everyone abandoned a Christian worldview, and some only compromised. Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer calls this compromise the top story/bottom story dichotomy. Compromisers buy into a naturalistic worldview based on logic and reason for everyday life (the bottom story), and take a “leap” into the upper story when they want to practice their “faith.” Many believers are so conditioned by society that they are not even aware of the fragmentation, and non-believers are not threatened as long as believers leave faith in the upper story and don’t try to incorporate it into “real life.”

This paper will explore the effects of a dichotomized worldview on narrative—both how it shapes the narrative we choose to tell and how effectively we are able to tell it. Does a fragmented worldview cause us to move from a comprehensive approach to narrative to a fragmentary one? Does the existence of “Christian Fiction” as a genre mean that some have bought into this dichotomy as it applies to literature? Is there a bottom story—Fiction, and a top story—Christian Fiction? Does a synthesized worldview, whether consciously or unconsciously held, lead to writing Christian Fiction to compete in the multicultural marketplace of Chick Lit, African American Lit, Post-colonial Lit, Gay and Lesbian Lit, ad infinitum? Instead of “all truth being God’s truth,” a belief resulting in stories of real people grappling with real issues in a real world, do some Christians today feel they have to tell “Christian stories,” which are often sanitized and unrealistic? If we truly have a Christian worldview, will we choose to tell stories that incorporate all of life—spiritual and physical, good and evil, victory and defeat—in realistic ways?

And how does this fragmenting of narrative affect the role of literature as an exploration of truth, a pathway to God? Many authors of “Christian Fiction” look at their work as a form of personal evangelism, but is choosing to tell stories from this platform really effective? Is it not just preaching to the choir and reinforcing the idea of faith as separate from real life?

Now, all I have to do is write the thing! Any ideas to contribute? Suggestions will be duly considered, and if used, full credit will be given. :-D

What Was I Thinking?

Way back in December, my good friend Julie told me about a conference she was helping with that I absolutely must submit a proposal for. I checked out the Call for Papers, and was intrigued:

CHOOSING A NARRATIVE

Choosing a story to tell often shapes the messages we send about faith, history, literature and our world view. How should a scholar balance a comprehensive perspective with the voices of race, class, and gender? To be considered for this peer reviewed session, please submit proposals on topics relating either to how we effectively communicate a narrative – whether in the classroom, pulpit, through media, or in the public sector– or how and why we choose a narrative to communicate.

Then, I found out that Billy Collins (former poet laureate) and Marilynn Robinson (author of Gilead and Home) were the keynote speakers. I was hooked. In the euphoria engendered by the exciting topic and the wonderful speakers, I thought, sure, I can work on my dissertation and write a paper for a conference, too. I'll have plenty of time.

What in the world was I thinking?

The conference begins on the 26th, and I don't have my paper written yet. Just what I needed. More stress.

I'll tell you what my paper's supposed to be about tomorrow.

Coveting the Metaphor

I just finished reading Sue Monk Kidd's The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, and one of the many things that impressed me about this author is the way she sees symbol and metaphor so readily in her life. In everyday occurrences, chance encounters, and commonplace objects she sees a deeper level of meaning, and this way of seeing translates into more beautiful and profound life experiences. It certainly enriches her writing.

I want this connection to symbol and metaphor in my own life.

Additionally, she says that "we need forms and images" to relate to the Divine. "Symbol and image," she explains, "create a universal spiritual language. It's the language that the soul understands." However, she warns that we should be careful about the type of images we use to represent the Divine. Why? Because the images we use to relate to God influence not only how we see God but also how we perceive ourselves and how we choose to live our lives: "These symbols or images shape our worldview, our ethical system, and our social practice--how we live and how we relate to each other."