Prior to this very finals week, I have never before stayed through the entire period of alternating reading days and exam days. As an English major, generally papers substitute the traditional sit-down exams, so I have not had an exam that keeps me on-campus for finals time. However, this semester is different, not because I have exams that force me to be on campus. No, I still mainly have take-homes and papers. I will be here to the very last second of semester, after 12pm on the 21st when everyone else is meant to be gone, because I am a Resident Adviser.
Being an RA this semester has been probably one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life so far (admittedly, 19 years is not really a long period of time). From my daily interactions with residents to fire alarms and lock-outs, from loads of paper work to incidents that make you just want to bawl your eyes out, everyday brings something new. I have learned more about myself and other people than I ever thought I could in a job. It is admittedly sometimes a difficult job, but I feel so well-suited to it that it has become a part of me. Part of it means sacrificing somethings, like time with my family and the ability to leave before the very last second, but it also means infinite rewards. So in the season that is all about giving, I will leave you with this: I have seen the returns tenfold of giving a little bit of my time each day.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Finals? Can't wait!
After high school, I decided to take a year off before coming here to Clark University. During that time, I worked a full time job in a packaging company during the Graveyard Shift. I was on my feet all night for eight hours with only two ten-minute breaks, running back and forth while operating the printing machines. The company printed, cut, stuffed, and shipped announcements for non-profit organizations. You know the envelopes filled with labels that have your name and address on them with cute little pictures of endangered animals or religious iconography next to them?
I printed those every night for months.
The holiday season was particularly one of the worst times of the year.
The non-profit organizations (particularly the religious ones) always submitted glitter filled designs for labels that they wanted to be printed. The silver and gold glitter rubbed off quite easily. Virgin Mary labels repeatedly got stuck to the inside of the printing machines, causing the ink to smear on possibly hundreds of other labels before you got a chance to notice. Everything would have to be stopped and redone.
Machines in constant need of cleaning and fixing. Light switches to call mechanics over, always on. Paper cut fingers and toner-black hands. New people who needed training to increase production rates. The main collator broken, meaning every envelope needed to be hand stuffed, taking hours longer than it usually would.
And Christmas Eve approaching…while everyone knew that they had to work that day anyway. Parents were worried that they wouldn’t be able to find babysitters—or worse, that they wouldn’t have the money from the minimum wage job to get their child that new toy that was being advertised on TV.
My friends were all home from college having just finished their exams, looking forward to a month off.
More than ever, I envied the college lifestyle. Sitting down for an hour and a half every week, listening to someone talk to you about a subject you were collectively interested in? Having them also suggest further readings, giving you the chance to research even more about the topics you loved? Being given a chance to express your thoughts and ideas someone who had a degree in that area?
This year, more than ever, I’m excited for finals week. Bring it on University, do your worst. I know the alternative holiday season I could be having right now, and I gladly accept your challenge. I will always appreciate my time here at college and I’m very happy to have the opportunity to greet finals this week!
I printed those every night for months.
The holiday season was particularly one of the worst times of the year.
The non-profit organizations (particularly the religious ones) always submitted glitter filled designs for labels that they wanted to be printed. The silver and gold glitter rubbed off quite easily. Virgin Mary labels repeatedly got stuck to the inside of the printing machines, causing the ink to smear on possibly hundreds of other labels before you got a chance to notice. Everything would have to be stopped and redone.
Machines in constant need of cleaning and fixing. Light switches to call mechanics over, always on. Paper cut fingers and toner-black hands. New people who needed training to increase production rates. The main collator broken, meaning every envelope needed to be hand stuffed, taking hours longer than it usually would.
And Christmas Eve approaching…while everyone knew that they had to work that day anyway. Parents were worried that they wouldn’t be able to find babysitters—or worse, that they wouldn’t have the money from the minimum wage job to get their child that new toy that was being advertised on TV.
My friends were all home from college having just finished their exams, looking forward to a month off.
More than ever, I envied the college lifestyle. Sitting down for an hour and a half every week, listening to someone talk to you about a subject you were collectively interested in? Having them also suggest further readings, giving you the chance to research even more about the topics you loved? Being given a chance to express your thoughts and ideas someone who had a degree in that area?
This year, more than ever, I’m excited for finals week. Bring it on University, do your worst. I know the alternative holiday season I could be having right now, and I gladly accept your challenge. I will always appreciate my time here at college and I’m very happy to have the opportunity to greet finals this week!
What's getting you through finals week?
Finals are my least favorite time of the year. So much stress so much work. But Finals are almost over and my favorite time of the year is fast approaching. Christmas break! Thoughts of the sleep and food I will get during the upcoming month are the only things keeping me sane. Like I said before Thanksgiving is my holiday, but after the two hellish week of finals the month off to let my brain recuperate and my eyes stop twitching. And this year my break is even more exiting that normal, I am not spending my holiday cooped up inside looking out at the snowless, yet none the less freezing street. Oh no! I will be in sunny and warm Colombia. Ok so to most people Colombia is not the vacation destination to be desired. But to me it’s not only the home of my heart, but one of the most gorgeous places in the world. Don’t believe me? Here are some examples!
Amazing huh? Yes as a third world country not all of it looks like that, but still. I can’t get enough of looking at all the places I get to go when I’m there. Here’s another one for you all.
Enough pictures for now. When I come back I will post the pictures I take! Don’t tell me you’re not looking forward to it. Most of my time I will be spending in Bogota (Second collage picture on bottom left) or in my family’s ranch in the plains which looks pretty much like the greenery shown in the second collage. Its flat grass as far as the eye can see. You wouldn’t think that it’s quite as breathtaking as it is. I am so excited to go see my family and get away from the winter chill. I might even get tan! Or do this:
Colombia has had decades of conflict and downturns in its economy, but now finally I am glad to say Colombia is back. The government is doing everything they can to keep everyone safe, and various treaties and agreements have really made a difference. It is still a country in development so common sense is needed, but I hope a lot more people go and see how truly amazing this nation is! But now to get us all through the rest of finals week here is the cutest thing you will ever see! Also taken in Colombia!
Happy Holidays, Good Luck on surviving Finals and I hope all of your vacations are filled with rest, laughter, and lots of holiday cookies!
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
New Internship!
I have great news! Over Thanksgiving break, I was fortunate enough to become Ethioipian Global Initiative’s Social Media Intern! I am so excited to be a part of this amazing organization. Ethiopian Global Organization was founded by Samuel Gebru, a junior at Concordia College. He is originally from Ethiopia, but grew up in Cambridge, MA. EGI’s mission statement is:
“To combine and capture the social and intellectual capital of students and professionals to further engineer the transformation of Ethiopia by engaging a new generation of socially responsible leaders. In partnership with leading public and private sector organizations, the Ethiopian Global Initiative aims to undertake and support sustainable developmental endeavors in Ethiopia. The Initiative also aims to promote the interests of Ethiopians globally by serving as a catalyst for community-based projects that promote civic engagement and economic prosperity.”
I will be posting and blogging from several different social media outlets, so keep your eyes open for more information about Ethiopian Global Initiative!
“To combine and capture the social and intellectual capital of students and professionals to further engineer the transformation of Ethiopia by engaging a new generation of socially responsible leaders. In partnership with leading public and private sector organizations, the Ethiopian Global Initiative aims to undertake and support sustainable developmental endeavors in Ethiopia. The Initiative also aims to promote the interests of Ethiopians globally by serving as a catalyst for community-based projects that promote civic engagement and economic prosperity.”
I will be posting and blogging from several different social media outlets, so keep your eyes open for more information about Ethiopian Global Initiative!
Monday, November 21, 2011
Teaching in Worcester
At the end of the Spring Semester last year, I made the decision to stay local around here in Worcester for my summer vacation. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to spend my time volunteering during those months as a GED teacher at the Worcester Youth Center.
The Worcester Youth Center is a facility where youth between the ages of 14 to 24 can get together after school and during the day to socialize. The Youth Center has aptly been described as a “safe haven,” a place where at-risk-youth can safely spend their time, as an alternative to hanging out on the streets. The Center has an eclectic list of free programs that teens can get involved in; everything from hip hop dance classes, to a rap recording study, to a hair salon, to afterschool programs, all run under the heavy influence of youth participation. I was lucky enough to join the GED program.
The GED test is composed of five different subject areas: Math, Science, Social Studies, English Reading, and English Writing. In our classroom, the two subjects that seemed to give the students the most trouble were the reading and writing portions of the test. On the surface, it seems to be a puzzling question. What is it about English that gives the students the most trouble out of all the subjects? Especially since, for many of my students, English happened to be their native language!
My answer? The cultural gap.
Here’s my question to the English department faculty: Do you know why people are jokin’ Jay-Z?
How many of you can say that you know what the word “jockin” means, or for that matter, what the entire phrase is a reference to?
Right away, my GED students would be able to tell you that people are “jockin Jay-Z because he got a Mercedes and you know about his ladies!”
Translation: People are jealous of the rapper Jay-Z because he has come into a lot of money and fame during the last few years, which impels them to spread rumors about him in an attempt to discredit him. Jay-Z’s ensuing rap song is an attempt to address these dissenters by going over their specific claims in detail and refuting each point.
Any of my Worcester students could tell you this!
Rap music is something they can connect with and understand on a fundamental level. And isn’t rap just a form of poetry? So if rap lyrics are understandable to them, then shouldn’t we be able to go through any other poem together and pull out the key elements as well?
One afternoon, a student and I spent quite a significant amount of time on trying to understand Emily Dickinson’s, “’Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” and by the end of it he was not nearly as close to understanding it as he was Jay-Z’s, “On to the Next One.” Why?
It’s not as if Emily Dickinson isn’t relevant to their lives! Her poem speaks brilliantly about hope always being present, ever enduring, and even more beautifully: hope never asks anything of you! Of course the students can understand that. Hope is specifically something important that I’ve seen a lot of my students cling to.
But why aren’t they able to pull that out while reading the poem? Why does a poem seem so daunting to them, whereas rap lyrics are so accessible?
Perhaps we need to start teaching poetry with Jay-Z:
Who is the speaker of the song and who is his specific audience? What is his tone and what words give you these clues? What is the overall message of the song? Symbolically, why does Jay-Z trade in his gold watch for a platinum Rolex?
Maybe we need to start with something that the students are the most familiar with. Rap culture is in their face every day! Perhaps if we start with something as relevant as this, they will be able to build up the skills they need to read a Dickinson poem. They will learn to pull out key words in poetry, learn to ask questions of the poem that they are reading, just as they already do with rap music.
If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from teaching in Worcester, it’s that teaching isn’t just a matter of getting your students on board with you. Rather, it’s more about getting on board with your students; meeting them at a level of their understanding first, on their terms. Then afterwards, once you’ve built up their own skills with something so familiar, we can move on to the unfamiliar. Start teaching by closing the culture gap.
The Worcester Youth Center is a facility where youth between the ages of 14 to 24 can get together after school and during the day to socialize. The Youth Center has aptly been described as a “safe haven,” a place where at-risk-youth can safely spend their time, as an alternative to hanging out on the streets. The Center has an eclectic list of free programs that teens can get involved in; everything from hip hop dance classes, to a rap recording study, to a hair salon, to afterschool programs, all run under the heavy influence of youth participation. I was lucky enough to join the GED program.
The GED test is composed of five different subject areas: Math, Science, Social Studies, English Reading, and English Writing. In our classroom, the two subjects that seemed to give the students the most trouble were the reading and writing portions of the test. On the surface, it seems to be a puzzling question. What is it about English that gives the students the most trouble out of all the subjects? Especially since, for many of my students, English happened to be their native language!
My answer? The cultural gap.
Here’s my question to the English department faculty: Do you know why people are jokin’ Jay-Z?
How many of you can say that you know what the word “jockin” means, or for that matter, what the entire phrase is a reference to?
Right away, my GED students would be able to tell you that people are “jockin Jay-Z because he got a Mercedes and you know about his ladies!”
Translation: People are jealous of the rapper Jay-Z because he has come into a lot of money and fame during the last few years, which impels them to spread rumors about him in an attempt to discredit him. Jay-Z’s ensuing rap song is an attempt to address these dissenters by going over their specific claims in detail and refuting each point.
Any of my Worcester students could tell you this!
Rap music is something they can connect with and understand on a fundamental level. And isn’t rap just a form of poetry? So if rap lyrics are understandable to them, then shouldn’t we be able to go through any other poem together and pull out the key elements as well?
One afternoon, a student and I spent quite a significant amount of time on trying to understand Emily Dickinson’s, “’Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” and by the end of it he was not nearly as close to understanding it as he was Jay-Z’s, “On to the Next One.” Why?
It’s not as if Emily Dickinson isn’t relevant to their lives! Her poem speaks brilliantly about hope always being present, ever enduring, and even more beautifully: hope never asks anything of you! Of course the students can understand that. Hope is specifically something important that I’ve seen a lot of my students cling to.
But why aren’t they able to pull that out while reading the poem? Why does a poem seem so daunting to them, whereas rap lyrics are so accessible?
Perhaps we need to start teaching poetry with Jay-Z:
Who is the speaker of the song and who is his specific audience? What is his tone and what words give you these clues? What is the overall message of the song? Symbolically, why does Jay-Z trade in his gold watch for a platinum Rolex?
Maybe we need to start with something that the students are the most familiar with. Rap culture is in their face every day! Perhaps if we start with something as relevant as this, they will be able to build up the skills they need to read a Dickinson poem. They will learn to pull out key words in poetry, learn to ask questions of the poem that they are reading, just as they already do with rap music.
If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from teaching in Worcester, it’s that teaching isn’t just a matter of getting your students on board with you. Rather, it’s more about getting on board with your students; meeting them at a level of their understanding first, on their terms. Then afterwards, once you’ve built up their own skills with something so familiar, we can move on to the unfamiliar. Start teaching by closing the culture gap.
Turkey and Family
As the below post suggests it’s that time of the year again. But my mind is not quite on finals yet. Maybe it should be. But it is far too preoccupied with the wonderful holiday that is barreling its way toward us. THANKSGIVING! My family loves Thanksgiving. We always say it’s the time you can concentrate of family and great food, without the stress of presentsof Christmas. While some of you might say 'I love buying gifts', in a family distributed over 5 continents it gets a bit much. We have lists of addresses that are always changing, lists of family that is always growing, lists of ages that are changing… all in all my family is just too big and far spread for presents to be an easy buy. But Thanksgiving, now that we do right!
With this wonderful week already here I am jumping from excitement about going home. And yes part of it is to get away from the cafeteria food. I mean come on! Not only do I get to eat home cooked meals, they are specialty dishes cultivated over generations that we only make at Thanksgiving. How much better does it get! And my family is at its best during this holiday. We are all ready to have fun, and are so in love with being together. As a Russian/Lithuanian/Colombian household we eat a lot, we drink a lot, and we party until dawn. This is the time when I hear stories about how all these amazing people came to America, how feuds were born and solved, and how miracles played a part in our family like no other. This is the time of year when I am so truly fully glad to come from the background I did!
This year Thanksgiving is special for a few more reasons. It’s our first without our beloved Grandma Mamute (Mamute means little mother in Lithuanian). She passed away last winter and it’s going to be a big loss at our table without her. She was the one who told my sister’s then fiancé, now husband, that we will know that he truly loves my sister when he has to change her diapers, she led the family song every year (oh yes we bust out the guitar and sing old soviet songs!), and was our own personal ray of sunshine. For me personally this Thanksgiving is also special because for the first time since I’ve moved to America in 2002 I will not be with my family for Christmas or New Years. So this holiday is my one shot at glory people!
Ok, ok enough about me. This post is supposed to be to remind you all how much we have to be Thankful for this year. Hurricane Irene didn’t destroy our College, the Snow storm of Halloween weekend didn’t dampen our spirits too much, our families are still around us, we’re almost done with another semester, and it’s late November but it’s not frigid cold outside yet! Find your own reasons to be thankful this time of year and cherish your time with the family. Finals are coming up, and as much as I don’t want to admit it we will need all the good vibes to survive those!
With this wonderful week already here I am jumping from excitement about going home. And yes part of it is to get away from the cafeteria food. I mean come on! Not only do I get to eat home cooked meals, they are specialty dishes cultivated over generations that we only make at Thanksgiving. How much better does it get! And my family is at its best during this holiday. We are all ready to have fun, and are so in love with being together. As a Russian/Lithuanian/Colombian household we eat a lot, we drink a lot, and we party until dawn. This is the time when I hear stories about how all these amazing people came to America, how feuds were born and solved, and how miracles played a part in our family like no other. This is the time of year when I am so truly fully glad to come from the background I did!
This year Thanksgiving is special for a few more reasons. It’s our first without our beloved Grandma Mamute (Mamute means little mother in Lithuanian). She passed away last winter and it’s going to be a big loss at our table without her. She was the one who told my sister’s then fiancé, now husband, that we will know that he truly loves my sister when he has to change her diapers, she led the family song every year (oh yes we bust out the guitar and sing old soviet songs!), and was our own personal ray of sunshine. For me personally this Thanksgiving is also special because for the first time since I’ve moved to America in 2002 I will not be with my family for Christmas or New Years. So this holiday is my one shot at glory people!
Ok, ok enough about me. This post is supposed to be to remind you all how much we have to be Thankful for this year. Hurricane Irene didn’t destroy our College, the Snow storm of Halloween weekend didn’t dampen our spirits too much, our families are still around us, we’re almost done with another semester, and it’s late November but it’s not frigid cold outside yet! Find your own reasons to be thankful this time of year and cherish your time with the family. Finals are coming up, and as much as I don’t want to admit it we will need all the good vibes to survive those!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The Final Countdown
Yeah, they’re back. And not like the awesome new Backstreet Boys-New Kids on the Block kind of back. Like the flu you get every year that keeps on getting worse than the last one kind of back. And even though I know they are just around the corner, what am I doing instead of preparing for the week of sleepless nights? Watching Glee.
Now obviously I don’t recommend procrastination. All it results in is rushed papers that don’t always make sense, lack of sleep which leads to delirium, and food cravings at random times during the day. So I think I’ve come up with a few ideas to try and avoid procrastination:
1. DEACTIVATE YOUR NETFLIX ACCOUNT.
Seriously. Not joking. Get rid of it. Even though the allure of watching random TV shows and movies when you’re bored sounds fabulous, its not. Next thing you know, your ten page paper is due tomorrow and you’re sitting in front of your laptop watching yet another episode of Glee and eating Chinese take-out leftovers. It’s a slippery slope of MSG and Darren Criss.
2. MAKE OUTLINES. OF EVERYTHING.
Whether your exam is something you can do in your sleep or your worst nightmare, outline your answers. Literally, its like taking a paper written in Wingdings and putting it into Times New Roman. You can actually read it. When it comes down to exam time, you’ll know exactly what to write. And it’s a good way to study without actually wanting to gauge your eyes out with rusty spoons.
3. BACK AWAY FROM YOUR PHONE.
Yes, your shiny new iPhone4 is adorable, but it is also a huge distraction. Before you know it, instead of studying for that really important exam, you’ll be beating your Angry Birds high score. Turn your phone off (all the way off, not just on silent) and leave it in your bag AWAY from your desk or wherever you are studying.
4. FACEBOOK.
This is time when I realized how Mark Zuckerberg is a gazilionaire and how Facebook rules the world. It’s the college kids who would rather play Farmville or creep on Facebook friends that they haven’t talked to in three years than pay attention to schoolwork. Believe me, I’ve been there. And hours later I am still staring at my best friend’s pictures of her sweet sixteen party and my paper is growing dust. So for those of you lucky Mac users, SelfControl is probably the best thing since Facebook. Don’t just use it for a few hours; put it on the whole week. You don’t need to update your status every three hours or post random articles onto your friends’ walls. For us PC users, deactivate your account for the week. Its so easy, it’s dangerous.
Overall, finals can actually go pretty well. You can stay on topic, get good grades, and still manage to squeeze in a somewhat normal sleeping pattern. Unless Netflix decides to add a new show to their Watch Instantly list.
Now obviously I don’t recommend procrastination. All it results in is rushed papers that don’t always make sense, lack of sleep which leads to delirium, and food cravings at random times during the day. So I think I’ve come up with a few ideas to try and avoid procrastination:
1. DEACTIVATE YOUR NETFLIX ACCOUNT.
Seriously. Not joking. Get rid of it. Even though the allure of watching random TV shows and movies when you’re bored sounds fabulous, its not. Next thing you know, your ten page paper is due tomorrow and you’re sitting in front of your laptop watching yet another episode of Glee and eating Chinese take-out leftovers. It’s a slippery slope of MSG and Darren Criss.
2. MAKE OUTLINES. OF EVERYTHING.
Whether your exam is something you can do in your sleep or your worst nightmare, outline your answers. Literally, its like taking a paper written in Wingdings and putting it into Times New Roman. You can actually read it. When it comes down to exam time, you’ll know exactly what to write. And it’s a good way to study without actually wanting to gauge your eyes out with rusty spoons.
3. BACK AWAY FROM YOUR PHONE.
Yes, your shiny new iPhone4 is adorable, but it is also a huge distraction. Before you know it, instead of studying for that really important exam, you’ll be beating your Angry Birds high score. Turn your phone off (all the way off, not just on silent) and leave it in your bag AWAY from your desk or wherever you are studying.
4. FACEBOOK.
This is time when I realized how Mark Zuckerberg is a gazilionaire and how Facebook rules the world. It’s the college kids who would rather play Farmville or creep on Facebook friends that they haven’t talked to in three years than pay attention to schoolwork. Believe me, I’ve been there. And hours later I am still staring at my best friend’s pictures of her sweet sixteen party and my paper is growing dust. So for those of you lucky Mac users, SelfControl is probably the best thing since Facebook. Don’t just use it for a few hours; put it on the whole week. You don’t need to update your status every three hours or post random articles onto your friends’ walls. For us PC users, deactivate your account for the week. Its so easy, it’s dangerous.
Overall, finals can actually go pretty well. You can stay on topic, get good grades, and still manage to squeeze in a somewhat normal sleeping pattern. Unless Netflix decides to add a new show to their Watch Instantly list.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Dispelling Myths
This past Friday, I had my sister Natasha and my cousin Meredith (a senior and a junior in high school respectively) out to spend the night with me at Clark. Both of them are considering Clark in their college search process, my sister more seriously than my cousin. I think my cousin is mainly enamoured with the idea of being in college, not necessarily Clark in particular.
I showed them around my room. We then ate dinner in the caf. Meredith was so impressed with the food that she said she preferred it to her mother's cooking which I think earned her a couple of strange glances from some Clarkies. As we digested, I gave them the grand tour, showing them the gym, the Academic Commons, the Bistro, and red square. I also took them into Wright Hall, the biggest of the first-year residence halls. I wanted them to have an idea of what a first-year room/hall looked like in comparison to my rather spacious and atypical House Resident Adviser single. From there, the three of us walked down Park Ave. to YoWay, a self-serve frozen yogurt shop dangerously close to campus. They each filled their bowls to the brim and consumed more fro-yo than necessary. We wandered back to my house, and I decided to take them over to meet my friend Maisha who was on-duty in Blackstone. We did a few rounds with her, and they got to see me do a little bit of my RA job. Afterwards, we left Blackstone and spent the rest of the night chatting.
Being honest, they are a lot more proactive than I was in my college search process. I don't mean that I did not think about college and start looking into things as early as they did. What I am really referring to is visiting schools. I did not officially tour any of the schools to which I applied; I only visited one of them before receiving decision emails and letters. That is something that I do regret now, but I know I really could not have changed. (My family could not afford to take me to see schools.) Taking a tour or spending an over-night allows prospective students to get a little taste of what campus life is about and to sense the culture of a school; it additionally helps to dispel a few myths that prospectives have heard about college life. I will leave you with a few myths I hope that I helped to clear away for Natasha and Meredith.
I showed them around my room. We then ate dinner in the caf. Meredith was so impressed with the food that she said she preferred it to her mother's cooking which I think earned her a couple of strange glances from some Clarkies. As we digested, I gave them the grand tour, showing them the gym, the Academic Commons, the Bistro, and red square. I also took them into Wright Hall, the biggest of the first-year residence halls. I wanted them to have an idea of what a first-year room/hall looked like in comparison to my rather spacious and atypical House Resident Adviser single. From there, the three of us walked down Park Ave. to YoWay, a self-serve frozen yogurt shop dangerously close to campus. They each filled their bowls to the brim and consumed more fro-yo than necessary. We wandered back to my house, and I decided to take them over to meet my friend Maisha who was on-duty in Blackstone. We did a few rounds with her, and they got to see me do a little bit of my RA job. Afterwards, we left Blackstone and spent the rest of the night chatting.
Being honest, they are a lot more proactive than I was in my college search process. I don't mean that I did not think about college and start looking into things as early as they did. What I am really referring to is visiting schools. I did not officially tour any of the schools to which I applied; I only visited one of them before receiving decision emails and letters. That is something that I do regret now, but I know I really could not have changed. (My family could not afford to take me to see schools.) Taking a tour or spending an over-night allows prospective students to get a little taste of what campus life is about and to sense the culture of a school; it additionally helps to dispel a few myths that prospectives have heard about college life. I will leave you with a few myths I hope that I helped to clear away for Natasha and Meredith.
- College food is bad. It is normally pretty good, and it can be healthy if you make the right choices.
- The freshman fifteen... I will tell you right now that this is completely untrue. There are as many people who come to school and lose weight as who come to school and gain weight. I personally have lost 60 pounds since leaving high school and my habits at Clark are in part to thank for that. Again, it is all about making the right choices.
- My college roommate and I will be best friends. This seems to be a myth that comes from popular culture. Although some people do end up being best friends with their roommate, other people do not, and that is okay. I lucked out my first year, and I loved my first-year roommate. Not everyone does though, and that doesn't mean you are abnormal or strange if you don't end up being best buds with your roomie in college.
- Now that I am in college, I don't need to do anything except pass my classes. This one is worst of them all. Getting involved is an integral part of the college experience. Try a bit of everything, and stick with the activities you enjoy!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Ready...Set....Write
Yes, my fellow cohorts, that time of year is upon us once again. The time for staying up late whilst slamming your head against your keyboard, hoping that instantaneous yet rhythmic connection will help the words flow out of you and form themselves coherently upon the screen.
National Novel Writing Month has begun.
National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) is an internet based, non-profit organization, open internationally to anyone who’s willing to declare themselves an author for a month. From now until November 30 at 11:59:59 PM, you have the month to write a 50,000 word novel. To give you an idea of roughly how long that is, take a look at Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, or The Great Gatsby.
Nanowrimo is one of the most accessible writing contests. An author can choose any genre: from erotic fiction to psychological thriller to an eclectic series of short stories. The choice is entirely yours. Anyone who is able to attain a 50,000 word document by the end of the month is declared a winner.
The official project website is www.nanowrimo.org. The contest is entirely free, and there are no penalties if you don’t finish the 50,000 words by the end of the month. To sign up, just enter an email address and an account will be created for you. You can use the website to keep track of your writing progress by entering your official word count when you log in. At the end of the month, simply copy and paste your novel into their word-count machine to verify that you’ve completed the 50 thou and you will be declared a winner.
This will be my fourth year doing Nanowrimo and I’d love to offer you some advice that I’ve formulated over the years:
1. Find a coffee that truly speaks to you.
Nothing says, “Lauren, sit yourself down and get to typin,’” better than a large hazelnut coffee with no sugar and extra milk. Some days you will simply need that type of motivation. Find a caffeinated drink that will supply you with an encompassing, comforting taste while still maintaining an ever-uncompromising-get-stuff-done-attitude.
2. YOU ARE NOT JAMES JOYCE. Embrace it.
Chances are you will be writing a lot of crap within the next few weeks. And that is perfectly fine. You are not trying to write the hardest novel in the English language in a month. Do not delude yourself with images of grandeur.
3. YOU ARE NOT JAMES JOYCE. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use his style.
Stream of consciousness is one of the best writing techniques for upping your word count. Write down that interior monologue that plays like a record on the gramophone that is your mind. Even if your inner monologue is saying to you, “I hate writing. I rather do think it is time to give up this charade and get back to…,” write it down. I started my novel off this morning with just that.
And, if the mood should strike you, why not make up a word or two?
4. Don’t let your ego get in the way of your word count.
I frequently get the urge to delete everything I’ve written because I think of how embarrassing it would be if someone came across it. Don’t let your self-esteem get in the way of writing. This month is about creation, not nitpicking and editing. Create, don’t destroy….That’s next month.
5. Keep your eyes open for inspiration.
Nanowrimo is not just about writing. It’s about observing the world around you and choosing writing as a medium with which to express it. You are bound to run into hilarious characters and situations, especially on a college campus. Why not incorporate them into your story?
And finally, one last thing to keep in mind:
6. The Will to Power!
Nanowrimo is a choice you have made. No one is forcing you to give up a bunch of free time for a month to sit in front of a computer screen, slamming your fingers against a keyboard, and trying to string together some sort of narrative. In order to successfully win Nanowrimo, you’ve got to find a reason to write. And once you’ve found that reason, cling to it will all your might for that month. “Hmm, I’ve always wanted to try writing out that idea I’ve had,” is a perfect reason. Keep it at the forefront of your mind during this time.
Good luck fellow amateurs. May your month be both gregarious and bountiful!
National Novel Writing Month has begun.
National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) is an internet based, non-profit organization, open internationally to anyone who’s willing to declare themselves an author for a month. From now until November 30 at 11:59:59 PM, you have the month to write a 50,000 word novel. To give you an idea of roughly how long that is, take a look at Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, or The Great Gatsby.
Nanowrimo is one of the most accessible writing contests. An author can choose any genre: from erotic fiction to psychological thriller to an eclectic series of short stories. The choice is entirely yours. Anyone who is able to attain a 50,000 word document by the end of the month is declared a winner.
The official project website is www.nanowrimo.org. The contest is entirely free, and there are no penalties if you don’t finish the 50,000 words by the end of the month. To sign up, just enter an email address and an account will be created for you. You can use the website to keep track of your writing progress by entering your official word count when you log in. At the end of the month, simply copy and paste your novel into their word-count machine to verify that you’ve completed the 50 thou and you will be declared a winner.
This will be my fourth year doing Nanowrimo and I’d love to offer you some advice that I’ve formulated over the years:
1. Find a coffee that truly speaks to you.
Nothing says, “Lauren, sit yourself down and get to typin,’” better than a large hazelnut coffee with no sugar and extra milk. Some days you will simply need that type of motivation. Find a caffeinated drink that will supply you with an encompassing, comforting taste while still maintaining an ever-uncompromising-get-stuff-done-attitude.
2. YOU ARE NOT JAMES JOYCE. Embrace it.
Chances are you will be writing a lot of crap within the next few weeks. And that is perfectly fine. You are not trying to write the hardest novel in the English language in a month. Do not delude yourself with images of grandeur.
3. YOU ARE NOT JAMES JOYCE. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use his style.
Stream of consciousness is one of the best writing techniques for upping your word count. Write down that interior monologue that plays like a record on the gramophone that is your mind. Even if your inner monologue is saying to you, “I hate writing. I rather do think it is time to give up this charade and get back to…,” write it down. I started my novel off this morning with just that.
And, if the mood should strike you, why not make up a word or two?
4. Don’t let your ego get in the way of your word count.
I frequently get the urge to delete everything I’ve written because I think of how embarrassing it would be if someone came across it. Don’t let your self-esteem get in the way of writing. This month is about creation, not nitpicking and editing. Create, don’t destroy….That’s next month.
5. Keep your eyes open for inspiration.
Nanowrimo is not just about writing. It’s about observing the world around you and choosing writing as a medium with which to express it. You are bound to run into hilarious characters and situations, especially on a college campus. Why not incorporate them into your story?
And finally, one last thing to keep in mind:
6. The Will to Power!
Nanowrimo is a choice you have made. No one is forcing you to give up a bunch of free time for a month to sit in front of a computer screen, slamming your fingers against a keyboard, and trying to string together some sort of narrative. In order to successfully win Nanowrimo, you’ve got to find a reason to write. And once you’ve found that reason, cling to it will all your might for that month. “Hmm, I’ve always wanted to try writing out that idea I’ve had,” is a perfect reason. Keep it at the forefront of your mind during this time.
Good luck fellow amateurs. May your month be both gregarious and bountiful!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
The Naming of Storms: Halloween 2011
So I’ve been thinking a lot recently, why do we name hurricanes but not other storms? In my opinion Irene deserved a name a lot less than the Halloween storm we just survived. Well, at least at Clark. I know that Irene wrecked havoc in other places of New England, but our own corner of the world didn’t get that hurt. But everyone knows her name. Yet a storm that permanently mutilated our campus goes anonymous? I don’t think so.
That’s why I’ve decided I want to name our Halloween weekend storm. We all know that the worst hurricanes are always female while the lesser ones are male. I never understood that, but I guess us girls can be pretty destructive when we want to be. For some reason though, I’ve always thought of snow storms as male. I’ve been trying to reach deep inside my mind and find some Freudian reason, but as far as I can tell there is none. This storm in particular seemed to me like a little boy who in anger broke the arms and legs off all of his action figures. All the broken tree branches (and whole trees) scattered around campus paints a picture of a room that was messed up in anger.
I decided that the name of this storm at least in my mind will have something to do with the holiday it disrupted. It will embody the fun, scary, energetic atmosphere that overtakes campus every year about this time. It will signify how the snow hushed campus and dampened our holiday spirit. My favorite traditions at Clark happen during Halloween. The first is Drag Ball. What can beat the whole campus getting exiting, going with the theme and supporting a great cause! I think this dance shows to be how open minded this campus can be, how fun so much more that all our political tabling and protests. It the college way to show your support, by coming out and having fun! OPEN has really created an event for the ages. My second favorite night is The Rocky Horror Picture show. I love dressing up and being part of the audience with my fellow students. Everyone has so much fun, and watching the Virgins get initiated into the traditions is priceless. Besides who doesn’t love doing the Time Warp?
I took myself on a bit of a favorite memory trail. Time to get back to the business of naming the storm and I think I found the perfect name. At least in my mind. Ok so you will all laugh. But anyways… meet Brutus Horrificus the Snow Storm of Halloween 2011. My reason is: He was brutal by taking away our holiday and he horrifically messed up our campus. I thought that the name sounded like a Halloween monster from one of those movies. So TADA! Brutus Horrificus you will not be forgotten, but don’t you worry you just gave us college students an excuse to dedicate a whole another weekend to Halloween to make up for your visit. As much as we love you please don’t come back!
Friday, October 28, 2011
Things Learned in the Summertime (aka don’t let go of the sunshine)
I guess now that we had our first snowfall of the season it’s time to admit that summer is really over. Although some of you might be confused at my delayed admission of the fact, I know that others are with me when I say time is going so fast it still feels like the beginning of September. Now that I am finally admitting to myself that I really do have to wait another 8 months until summer comes back, I thought I would reflect on what summer taught me this year.
Now I know that some of you will be expecting a story about epic adventures or meaningful internships, so I have to tell you to bring your hopes down now. I did not have a summer worth writing novels about. I worked at Dunkin Donuts and let me tell you there are no meaningful or insightful adventures there. But I did learn quite a few things this summer. I thought I would share with you my revelations and maybe inspire you to make your own list.
Daiva’s Incredible Summer Lesson List (in no particular order)
1. Never underestimate the value of a good pedicure. (even if no one sees it in your winter boots) Knowing how pretty your toes look puts a bounce in your step.
2. Smile at strangers. It makes both yours and their day better. Besides we all need some good JUJU.
3. You can never feel sad in a convertible with music blasting. So don’t men who going through a midlife crisis buy one. They just know where the happiness is.
4. Don’t ever tease a seagull. Those things are mean and smarter than you think.
5. Grudges are for people who don’t realize how short life is. Let go of the anger! If nothing else that’s another person to have fun with. Besides “Why waste life in friction when it could get turned into momentum”.
6. Take your mom or dad out to dinner. Now that you’re old enough not to be a brat the conversations are much more fun. For example you might learn such things like your mom was once romanced by the prime minister of Armenia.
7. Respond to rudeness by being excessively kind. Not only to you come out the better person, but you annoy the living beings out of the other person because they can’t get a reaction out of you. And is there a better payback than that?
8. Take every opportunity to cloud gaze. Not only is sitting in the sun just plain fun, but you can discover a lot of crazy thoughts lurking in your head that way. Guess what maybe you are deep!
9. The best way to get over a bad day is to dance it out. (yeah you grey’s anatomy fans I got it from there) You get the endorphins, you feel good cause you worked out, and it’s really hard to feel sad when you’re listening to great pump up music. I highly recommend Avril Lavigne!
And finally….
10. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Or others for that matter. We are all silly creatures. Laugh more! And Enjoy your moment in the sun!
If you stuck with me until the end I hope you enjoyed my wise and deep mutterings. Comment and tell me some of the things you learned this summer! And remember don’t let go of that summer fun mindset. Yes, get into your schoolwork, be responsible but don’t get lost in the snowy cold. Hold on to the sunshine!
Daiva Slotkus Miksyte
Now I know that some of you will be expecting a story about epic adventures or meaningful internships, so I have to tell you to bring your hopes down now. I did not have a summer worth writing novels about. I worked at Dunkin Donuts and let me tell you there are no meaningful or insightful adventures there. But I did learn quite a few things this summer. I thought I would share with you my revelations and maybe inspire you to make your own list.
Daiva’s Incredible Summer Lesson List (in no particular order)
1. Never underestimate the value of a good pedicure. (even if no one sees it in your winter boots) Knowing how pretty your toes look puts a bounce in your step.
2. Smile at strangers. It makes both yours and their day better. Besides we all need some good JUJU.
3. You can never feel sad in a convertible with music blasting. So don’t men who going through a midlife crisis buy one. They just know where the happiness is.
4. Don’t ever tease a seagull. Those things are mean and smarter than you think.
5. Grudges are for people who don’t realize how short life is. Let go of the anger! If nothing else that’s another person to have fun with. Besides “Why waste life in friction when it could get turned into momentum”.
6. Take your mom or dad out to dinner. Now that you’re old enough not to be a brat the conversations are much more fun. For example you might learn such things like your mom was once romanced by the prime minister of Armenia.
7. Respond to rudeness by being excessively kind. Not only to you come out the better person, but you annoy the living beings out of the other person because they can’t get a reaction out of you. And is there a better payback than that?
8. Take every opportunity to cloud gaze. Not only is sitting in the sun just plain fun, but you can discover a lot of crazy thoughts lurking in your head that way. Guess what maybe you are deep!
9. The best way to get over a bad day is to dance it out. (yeah you grey’s anatomy fans I got it from there) You get the endorphins, you feel good cause you worked out, and it’s really hard to feel sad when you’re listening to great pump up music. I highly recommend Avril Lavigne!
And finally….
10. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Or others for that matter. We are all silly creatures. Laugh more! And Enjoy your moment in the sun!
If you stuck with me until the end I hope you enjoyed my wise and deep mutterings. Comment and tell me some of the things you learned this summer! And remember don’t let go of that summer fun mindset. Yes, get into your schoolwork, be responsible but don’t get lost in the snowy cold. Hold on to the sunshine!
Daiva Slotkus Miksyte
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Coming Home
I found out about Clark in probably the one of most unorthodox ways possible. My dad's at-the-time girlfriend worked at Clark, specifically with the international students: their applications, their visas, their financial aid, and their adjustment to life at Clark. I even remember reading some of the the international students' applications when I was a ninth grader.
Fast forwarding to senior year, I added Clark into my list of schools really as an after-thought. I never actually thought I would go to Clark, but it was close to home which was important since my little brother was going to be just barely one year old when I left for school. When I got the opportunity to interview with an alumni, I took it for the experience of interviewing.
I would love to say that my interview went excellently, and it convinced me that Clark was the place for me, but I would be lying, and not just a white lie but a big, fat lie. My interview was terrible. The women returned my call to schedule an interview by saying she was free that very afternoon and I could come to her house to interview. We ended up sitting on a lumpy couch in her basement full of children's toys and plates of half-eaten snacks, where she told me flat out if I was accepted to two of my other schools, I should go there, not Clark. She made campus seem like a backdrop out of a nightmare, and described her peers as the kindo of people with which you did not make lasting relationships. As I climbed back into the car to leave, I talked to my mother about withdrawing my application. "I am never going to go there, Mom." She told me that we had paid the money to apply, and I may as well stick it out.
Through some mix-up or twist of fate, I was offered another interview with another alumni. The recent graduate met me in Starbucks and offered to get me a hot chocolate. She talked about how much she loved the campus, the chances for meeting people and doing things, and her continued involvement in the college (in fact, she was headed to Clark after our meeting to help the Big Brothers, Big Sisters group). The picture she painted was so different from the one my other interviewer had created. I left my second interview still wary but less determined that I would never go to Clark.
My decision to come to Clark is the result of visiting campus during a Scholars' Dinner and on an Accepted Students' Day. During the course of the weekend, I spilt ice all over the table, current undergraduate students protested Sodexo, first year boys in speedo swimsuits welcome our tour group to Clark and Wright Hall, and my mother and I struggled to move a stroller and a cranky almost one-year old up and down many flights of stairs. Despite all this (and maybe even a little bit because of all this), I knew while walking through campus that this was the place for me. I know it is cheesy and cliche, but I just felt it. I found what everyone looks for during the crazy college choice process, that undescribable sense of knowing beyond a doubt where you want to be.
When my little brother comes to visit me at school, he calls it "Yay-yay's school", (he calls me Yay-yay which sounds nothing like Shalyn, but it is still adorable.) and he's right. This is my school; Clark is my place, my home.
Fast forwarding to senior year, I added Clark into my list of schools really as an after-thought. I never actually thought I would go to Clark, but it was close to home which was important since my little brother was going to be just barely one year old when I left for school. When I got the opportunity to interview with an alumni, I took it for the experience of interviewing.
I would love to say that my interview went excellently, and it convinced me that Clark was the place for me, but I would be lying, and not just a white lie but a big, fat lie. My interview was terrible. The women returned my call to schedule an interview by saying she was free that very afternoon and I could come to her house to interview. We ended up sitting on a lumpy couch in her basement full of children's toys and plates of half-eaten snacks, where she told me flat out if I was accepted to two of my other schools, I should go there, not Clark. She made campus seem like a backdrop out of a nightmare, and described her peers as the kindo of people with which you did not make lasting relationships. As I climbed back into the car to leave, I talked to my mother about withdrawing my application. "I am never going to go there, Mom." She told me that we had paid the money to apply, and I may as well stick it out.
Through some mix-up or twist of fate, I was offered another interview with another alumni. The recent graduate met me in Starbucks and offered to get me a hot chocolate. She talked about how much she loved the campus, the chances for meeting people and doing things, and her continued involvement in the college (in fact, she was headed to Clark after our meeting to help the Big Brothers, Big Sisters group). The picture she painted was so different from the one my other interviewer had created. I left my second interview still wary but less determined that I would never go to Clark.
My decision to come to Clark is the result of visiting campus during a Scholars' Dinner and on an Accepted Students' Day. During the course of the weekend, I spilt ice all over the table, current undergraduate students protested Sodexo, first year boys in speedo swimsuits welcome our tour group to Clark and Wright Hall, and my mother and I struggled to move a stroller and a cranky almost one-year old up and down many flights of stairs. Despite all this (and maybe even a little bit because of all this), I knew while walking through campus that this was the place for me. I know it is cheesy and cliche, but I just felt it. I found what everyone looks for during the crazy college choice process, that undescribable sense of knowing beyond a doubt where you want to be.
When my little brother comes to visit me at school, he calls it "Yay-yay's school", (he calls me Yay-yay which sounds nothing like Shalyn, but it is still adorable.) and he's right. This is my school; Clark is my place, my home.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Oh yeah, that applying-to-college thing.
I remember going into my senior year of high school, realizing that this year would be the last time I would walk down those hallways. I would also have to decide where to spend the next four years of my life and what to study. After fifteen college visits, I had narrowed them down to my top eight schools and was prepared myself to start applying. On top of making one of the most important decisions of my life, it was my senior year! I was supposed to be having fun and finally celebrating ruling the school. So instead of writing and rewriting and rewriting college essays like all of my friends were doing, I was trying to enjoy my last year. It didn’t go so well when I decided to actually pay attention to all of the essays and short “personal memoirs” and “personal statements” that I had to write.
After all of my procrastination and staying up way too late make the deadlines, I was done. I thought the hard part was over. I was wrong. The hardest part of the college application experience was not the multitude of visits, creepily happy tour guides, miles and miles of applications, proofreading personal statements, or looking at exactly how much you would be paying for one year of school, but the next five months of waiting for all of your (hopeful) acceptances.
Fast forward to early April, and I had all of my college letters back except for one: Clark University. When I first visited Clark, it was late August before my senior year. If anyone is from New England, you know that late August is the most humid time of year. It was hot, humid, and I was not in the mood to go trampling around some random campus. I had heard of Clark through a family friend, who had extremely high reviews. Needless to say, I was not impressed when I first came here. I thought the dorms smelled weird, it was in the middle of a ghetto, and the only students that went here were hippie freaks. The only thing I actually liked was the tour guide’s major; International Development and Social Change. Instead of the normal Biology, History, or Calculus majors, this one actually interested me. Against my better judgment, I applied. So the fact that Clark was going to be the last college to send me my acceptance notice didn’t earn it any extra brownie points. I was extremely happy when I found out I got in, since my last notice stated that I was on the waiting list (aka college purgatory).
There was a lot of argument over which school I would be attending and I finally decided to visit Clark one more time on Accepted Students Day to make up my mind. I was on campus for exactly two hours before I told my mom that this was the place for me. I can’t exactly say what happened, but I knew that I wanted to sign the papers that day. So my mom and I rushed over to Financial Aid where we signed all the official documents. As we were leaving, the secretary (with a genuine smile on her face) said to me, “Welcome to Clark University!”, and I knew that I had made the right decision.
When looking for your perfect college, you need to remember one thing: there is no Utopia University. Every school is going to have its pros and cons, and Clark is no exception. Yes, Main South is not the best neighborhood, but the cultural diversity is amazing. There are awesome restaurants from every single corner of the world. The people here have the most diverse backgrounds and amazing stories. Not all of the dorms are brand new, but the students living in them will be my friends for the rest of my life. Sometimes I think about the person I would be today if I went somewhere else. I can honestly say that today, I’m proud to become the person I am, and I wouldn’t feel that way if I hadn’t come to Clark.
- Rosie Goldich, Class of 2014, Majoring in Political Science with a Minor in Economics
After all of my procrastination and staying up way too late make the deadlines, I was done. I thought the hard part was over. I was wrong. The hardest part of the college application experience was not the multitude of visits, creepily happy tour guides, miles and miles of applications, proofreading personal statements, or looking at exactly how much you would be paying for one year of school, but the next five months of waiting for all of your (hopeful) acceptances.
Fast forward to early April, and I had all of my college letters back except for one: Clark University. When I first visited Clark, it was late August before my senior year. If anyone is from New England, you know that late August is the most humid time of year. It was hot, humid, and I was not in the mood to go trampling around some random campus. I had heard of Clark through a family friend, who had extremely high reviews. Needless to say, I was not impressed when I first came here. I thought the dorms smelled weird, it was in the middle of a ghetto, and the only students that went here were hippie freaks. The only thing I actually liked was the tour guide’s major; International Development and Social Change. Instead of the normal Biology, History, or Calculus majors, this one actually interested me. Against my better judgment, I applied. So the fact that Clark was going to be the last college to send me my acceptance notice didn’t earn it any extra brownie points. I was extremely happy when I found out I got in, since my last notice stated that I was on the waiting list (aka college purgatory).
There was a lot of argument over which school I would be attending and I finally decided to visit Clark one more time on Accepted Students Day to make up my mind. I was on campus for exactly two hours before I told my mom that this was the place for me. I can’t exactly say what happened, but I knew that I wanted to sign the papers that day. So my mom and I rushed over to Financial Aid where we signed all the official documents. As we were leaving, the secretary (with a genuine smile on her face) said to me, “Welcome to Clark University!”, and I knew that I had made the right decision.
When looking for your perfect college, you need to remember one thing: there is no Utopia University. Every school is going to have its pros and cons, and Clark is no exception. Yes, Main South is not the best neighborhood, but the cultural diversity is amazing. There are awesome restaurants from every single corner of the world. The people here have the most diverse backgrounds and amazing stories. Not all of the dorms are brand new, but the students living in them will be my friends for the rest of my life. Sometimes I think about the person I would be today if I went somewhere else. I can honestly say that today, I’m proud to become the person I am, and I wouldn’t feel that way if I hadn’t come to Clark.
- Rosie Goldich, Class of 2014, Majoring in Political Science with a Minor in Economics
An Introduction
Hello all! This is actually my first post, because I can usually keep myself busy enough in the office that I've so far been able to avoid writing a blog post. However, the day has come that I can no longer put off my introduction to the world of blogging. So here goes nothing.
I am a fourth-year, Sociology Major-Peace Studies double major Clarkie from Long Island, New York. With the hope that some prospective students (instead of current attendees who already know how awesome Clark is), I am going to describe why I chose Clark.
1) The faculty. When I visited, one of the things I made sure to do was to speak with a few faculty members in a variety of departments. Each one I encountered emphasized how grateful they were to be at a university that allowed them to put so much effort into their teaching and took pride in the relationships they were able to form with students. My experience has exceeded even the high expectations these conversations gave me, and I've found that the professors here not only know their fields "in both breadth and depth" (as the administration is fond of saying), but also truly care about their students.
2) The administration. While not quite to the point of allowing us to dictate the rules of the school (Why don't we eliminate finals altogether? :-P), Clark's administration is the most flexible and supportive I've heard of. There is an option to self-design your own major, processes to petition to take five classes, to take a class pass/fail, to audit one extra course a semester, to have an internship count for credit or as a work-study position, and the President holds open office hours a few times each month.
3) The students. Here I must make an admission - I am a huge nerd. Most days, there is literally no place I would rather be during the day than in class. I know that sounds like an exaggeration, and maybe it is only because, as a senior, I am in classes I find incredibly interesting, but I love being in class. That said, I recently visited a friend's college and sat in on one of his classes, and left emphatically muttering about how grateful I was to go to Clark. I have never been so proud to identify with other people my age as being part of the Clark student body has made me. There is such a range of personalities to be found here, and what we may lack in political diversity - we are, after all, a fairly liberal liberal arts school - we certainly make up for in enthusasim! Clark students are quirky, friendly and the most supportive and eager to learn that I have ever seen. And that, I must say, has made all the difference.
I am a fourth-year, Sociology Major-Peace Studies double major Clarkie from Long Island, New York. With the hope that some prospective students (instead of current attendees who already know how awesome Clark is), I am going to describe why I chose Clark.
1) The faculty. When I visited, one of the things I made sure to do was to speak with a few faculty members in a variety of departments. Each one I encountered emphasized how grateful they were to be at a university that allowed them to put so much effort into their teaching and took pride in the relationships they were able to form with students. My experience has exceeded even the high expectations these conversations gave me, and I've found that the professors here not only know their fields "in both breadth and depth" (as the administration is fond of saying), but also truly care about their students.
2) The administration. While not quite to the point of allowing us to dictate the rules of the school (Why don't we eliminate finals altogether? :-P), Clark's administration is the most flexible and supportive I've heard of. There is an option to self-design your own major, processes to petition to take five classes, to take a class pass/fail, to audit one extra course a semester, to have an internship count for credit or as a work-study position, and the President holds open office hours a few times each month.
3) The students. Here I must make an admission - I am a huge nerd. Most days, there is literally no place I would rather be during the day than in class. I know that sounds like an exaggeration, and maybe it is only because, as a senior, I am in classes I find incredibly interesting, but I love being in class. That said, I recently visited a friend's college and sat in on one of his classes, and left emphatically muttering about how grateful I was to go to Clark. I have never been so proud to identify with other people my age as being part of the Clark student body has made me. There is such a range of personalities to be found here, and what we may lack in political diversity - we are, after all, a fairly liberal liberal arts school - we certainly make up for in enthusasim! Clark students are quirky, friendly and the most supportive and eager to learn that I have ever seen. And that, I must say, has made all the difference.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Ladies & Gentlemen: The End.
People of the English Department,
It's been an excellent few years, and in celebration of my departure I have composed a brief poem I hope a few of you will take a moment to read.
Joyous, we abandon lyricism
Or its trilling cousins
Hour by hour colliding sounds
And breaking them like photons
Never isolated
Never found.
Alas.
Relinquish your pretenses,
Orison, eye-drawer,
To your natural heir:
Hephaestus, word-forger,
Ensign of smoldering iron.
Noble and crib-spited, lamed
By motherly love.
Ennui smelted pure beneath a hammer,
Raising questions in clouds of sparks
Green-gold and white.
In temples oxidized, unworshiped
Sat lame Vulcan's idols
And the making of them
Not preserved
In Clay,
Dull stone,
In writing
Or in memory.
Too short it lived.
It's been an excellent few years, and in celebration of my departure I have composed a brief poem I hope a few of you will take a moment to read.
Joyous, we abandon lyricism
Or its trilling cousins
Hour by hour colliding sounds
And breaking them like photons
Never isolated
Never found.
Alas.
Relinquish your pretenses,
Orison, eye-drawer,
To your natural heir:
Hephaestus, word-forger,
Ensign of smoldering iron.
Noble and crib-spited, lamed
By motherly love.
Ennui smelted pure beneath a hammer,
Raising questions in clouds of sparks
Green-gold and white.
In temples oxidized, unworshiped
Sat lame Vulcan's idols
And the making of them
Not preserved
In Clay,
Dull stone,
In writing
Or in memory.
Too short it lived.
Friday, April 1, 2011
The Marriage of Dark Sorcery & Gnosticism In Fantasy
The trope of the dark sorcerer, steeped in forbidden knowledge and mad with power, permeates fantasy to its roots. Sauron, Voldemort, Emperor Palpatine, the Horned King, Saruman and hosts of others flesh out an archetypal tradition begun with the biblical magicians in the court of the Pharaoh. The sorcerer hoards secrets, pursues avenues of knowledge shunned by the world at large and always seeks to use that knowledge for the acquisition and consolidation of material power. They embody, then, two halves of Gnosticism's diverse mythos. On the one hand they transgress against the controlling forces of their respective worlds, mirroring the Fall of Man in their sacrifice of innocence for knowledge. On the other they are, in spite of their mystical powers, strict materialists. They seek dominion, adulation and the Demiurge-like subjugation of all life. The sorcerer, then, presents a contradiction within the Gnostic framework.
Some Gnostic interpretations of the Old Testament hold that Christ is the serpent that tempts Eve, redeeming Man with the gift of Knowledge. Serpentine imagery is closely-bound to the tradition of dark sorcerers, stemming mainly from the traditional Christian interpretation of the Fall. In parsing the body of the trope, though, we can apply a Gnostic interpretation. Voldemort's snakelike appearance and the serpent motif of Orochimaru (son of snakes in Japanese mythology)represent, then, not just their loss of humanity but their acquisition of knowledge outside the reach of blinkered man. The association of the serpent with wisdom, cunning and amorality holds true in fantasy.
There are instances in which the dark sorcerer adopts a more traditional Gnostic role through madness (Gnosis), denial of reality and existential dread. The trope of Omnicide, the expurgation of all life and existence, reflects a distortion of the ultimate Gnostic goal of freedom from the material world of the Demiurge. When the sorcerer seeks not dominion but destruction he can be seen as an emanation of the Sophic tradition, pursuing release from flesh through revelatory knowledge or Gnosis. In Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow & Thorn the villainous Storm King was thrown down for learning forbidden magic and, upon his escape, sought at once the undoing of the physical world. Sorcerers make natural candidates for the experience of Gnosis. Both their materialistic bent and the immense power they wield which, in its transcendence of physicality, shows them the futility of their ambitions, prepare them perfectly for a plunge into apparent nihilism.
A sympathetic reader of fantasy might, given a grounding in Gnostic thought, appreciate more fully the spirit, if not the method, of sorcerous monomania. Forbidden knowledge, like the apple of the fall, makes hash of physical ambition. Dark wizards reflect, unconsciously, fantasy's Gnostic roots and influences.
Some Gnostic interpretations of the Old Testament hold that Christ is the serpent that tempts Eve, redeeming Man with the gift of Knowledge. Serpentine imagery is closely-bound to the tradition of dark sorcerers, stemming mainly from the traditional Christian interpretation of the Fall. In parsing the body of the trope, though, we can apply a Gnostic interpretation. Voldemort's snakelike appearance and the serpent motif of Orochimaru (son of snakes in Japanese mythology)represent, then, not just their loss of humanity but their acquisition of knowledge outside the reach of blinkered man. The association of the serpent with wisdom, cunning and amorality holds true in fantasy.
There are instances in which the dark sorcerer adopts a more traditional Gnostic role through madness (Gnosis), denial of reality and existential dread. The trope of Omnicide, the expurgation of all life and existence, reflects a distortion of the ultimate Gnostic goal of freedom from the material world of the Demiurge. When the sorcerer seeks not dominion but destruction he can be seen as an emanation of the Sophic tradition, pursuing release from flesh through revelatory knowledge or Gnosis. In Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow & Thorn the villainous Storm King was thrown down for learning forbidden magic and, upon his escape, sought at once the undoing of the physical world. Sorcerers make natural candidates for the experience of Gnosis. Both their materialistic bent and the immense power they wield which, in its transcendence of physicality, shows them the futility of their ambitions, prepare them perfectly for a plunge into apparent nihilism.
A sympathetic reader of fantasy might, given a grounding in Gnostic thought, appreciate more fully the spirit, if not the method, of sorcerous monomania. Forbidden knowledge, like the apple of the fall, makes hash of physical ambition. Dark wizards reflect, unconsciously, fantasy's Gnostic roots and influences.
Monday, March 28, 2011
The Benthic in Fiction: The Terror of the Whale
Herman Melville's seminal 1851 novel Moby Dick or The Whale stands as part of a rich tradition of the uncertainty felt by man when confronted with the sea and its inhabitants. Life on land is static where the sea is mutability incarnate. The sun, aid to man's dominant sense, cannot penetrate to the bottom of the oceans. Uncertainty, then, is our natural reaction to the depths of the sea. Melville, Jules Verne, Lovecraft and others use this primal trepidation to their advantage. The whale, Moby Dick, takes the natural enmity between open air and the sea even further: as an albino, the sun is inimical to him. Ahab's quest is to dredge up, make sense of and murder a force that seeks concealment and secrecy.
Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, linked thematically and via numerous allusions to Melville's magnum opus, draws on the idea of the whale to create its eloquent and monstrous antagonist, judge Holden. While not a true albino, Holden's skin is "nearly devoid of pigment" and his size, well over seven feet in height and massive in frame, is a clear bridge between himself and the overwhelming horror of Moby Dick. Holden, like the whale, is also a murderer of children (Moby Dick kills the the son of the Captain of the Rachel)) and a killer of men. Holden's great size and strength (among other things, he uses a howitzer ripped free of its carriage to fight his way out of an Indian raid) impact the characters of McCarthy's novel in a fashion similar to the whale's slaughter of the sailors. Holden, after the Glanton Gang is butchered at the fords they've co-opted, hunts down survivors in a strange, meandering fashion. Where Moby Dick destroys the Pequod in a red rage, Holden kills methodically and for arcane reasons. That both novels explore in detail the nature and consequences of violence can be no coincidence.
Holden's demonic nature, heavily alluded to during a story regarding his introduction to the gang and, among other scenes, during a loosely-described scene in which the sound of his speech threatens the sanity of Tobin the expriest and the novel's "protagonist," the kid, adds another layer to the conflict between deep-dweller and sun. Not only does it scorch Holden when he loses his hat, symbolizing his exposure to the world of man, it burns his skin as the Eye of God suddenly aware of an infernal presence in its realm. Holden even says to Toadvine, following the escape from the fords, that he "must have [his] hat" and will "pay any price for it." Holden's tongue and mouth become chapped and bloody during his brief hatless sojourn, and while he sometimes removes it as a matter of course during interactions with other characters it is never for long and almost always inside.
The deep gnostic imagery in McCarthy's novel (blindness, crippling injuries, weakness and blood) corresponds to the unnatural, godlike presence of the albino whale. Unknowable, Moby Dick terrorizes those who pursue it. Similarly, Holden is beyond the understanding of his fellow marauders by virtue of his prodigious intellect, loquaciousness and physical otherness. In relating Moby Dick's benthic nature to the judge, one must look to Holden's mysterious origins. While out of powder and fleeing pursuit, the Glanton Gang comes across Holden in the wilderness and accept his guidance on a hellish journey down into a twisted, mazelike hellscape of broken rock and volcanic glass. There Holden, with preternatural speed and ability, makes gunpowder for the company which then slaughters wholesale its enemies. This place, never visited, explained or reference again, could be Holden's place of origin or natural habitat. Where Moby Dick and the judge share physical characteristics, Holden takes mystery from the belly of the earth while Moby Dick takes it from the fathomless deep.
Word of the Day: Languorous.
Book of the Day: Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself, a light-hearted deconstruction and subversion of the fantasy genre. Drags high fantasy joyfully through a blood-choked gutter.
Author of the Day: Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus and other works.
Author vs Author of the Day: Bram Stoker vs Cormac McCarthy.
Result: Too violent for print. McCarthy wins.
Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, linked thematically and via numerous allusions to Melville's magnum opus, draws on the idea of the whale to create its eloquent and monstrous antagonist, judge Holden. While not a true albino, Holden's skin is "nearly devoid of pigment" and his size, well over seven feet in height and massive in frame, is a clear bridge between himself and the overwhelming horror of Moby Dick. Holden, like the whale, is also a murderer of children (Moby Dick kills the the son of the Captain of the Rachel)) and a killer of men. Holden's great size and strength (among other things, he uses a howitzer ripped free of its carriage to fight his way out of an Indian raid) impact the characters of McCarthy's novel in a fashion similar to the whale's slaughter of the sailors. Holden, after the Glanton Gang is butchered at the fords they've co-opted, hunts down survivors in a strange, meandering fashion. Where Moby Dick destroys the Pequod in a red rage, Holden kills methodically and for arcane reasons. That both novels explore in detail the nature and consequences of violence can be no coincidence.
Holden's demonic nature, heavily alluded to during a story regarding his introduction to the gang and, among other scenes, during a loosely-described scene in which the sound of his speech threatens the sanity of Tobin the expriest and the novel's "protagonist," the kid, adds another layer to the conflict between deep-dweller and sun. Not only does it scorch Holden when he loses his hat, symbolizing his exposure to the world of man, it burns his skin as the Eye of God suddenly aware of an infernal presence in its realm. Holden even says to Toadvine, following the escape from the fords, that he "must have [his] hat" and will "pay any price for it." Holden's tongue and mouth become chapped and bloody during his brief hatless sojourn, and while he sometimes removes it as a matter of course during interactions with other characters it is never for long and almost always inside.
The deep gnostic imagery in McCarthy's novel (blindness, crippling injuries, weakness and blood) corresponds to the unnatural, godlike presence of the albino whale. Unknowable, Moby Dick terrorizes those who pursue it. Similarly, Holden is beyond the understanding of his fellow marauders by virtue of his prodigious intellect, loquaciousness and physical otherness. In relating Moby Dick's benthic nature to the judge, one must look to Holden's mysterious origins. While out of powder and fleeing pursuit, the Glanton Gang comes across Holden in the wilderness and accept his guidance on a hellish journey down into a twisted, mazelike hellscape of broken rock and volcanic glass. There Holden, with preternatural speed and ability, makes gunpowder for the company which then slaughters wholesale its enemies. This place, never visited, explained or reference again, could be Holden's place of origin or natural habitat. Where Moby Dick and the judge share physical characteristics, Holden takes mystery from the belly of the earth while Moby Dick takes it from the fathomless deep.
Word of the Day: Languorous.
Book of the Day: Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself, a light-hearted deconstruction and subversion of the fantasy genre. Drags high fantasy joyfully through a blood-choked gutter.
Author of the Day: Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus and other works.
Author vs Author of the Day: Bram Stoker vs Cormac McCarthy.
Result: Too violent for print. McCarthy wins.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Koschei the Deathless: Nested Reality in Myth
"The soul of Koschei the Deathless lies across the ocean on the Isle of Buyan where it is bound within a needle that is within an egg that is within a duck that is within a hare that is locked away in a chest of iron buried beneath the roots of a great green oak where no one will ever find it."
-The Tale of Koschei the Deathless, 1819 collected edition.
Recursion, nesting and layered realities are common themes underpinning the structure of myth, folklore and now speculative fiction. Koschei, famed sorcerer-villain of Russian lore immortalized by Stravinsky in his opera The Firebird is a prime example of nesting in fiction. Koschei's soul, by obscure means, was separated from his body long ago and hidden like a Matryoshka doll within a great many other things (which vary between tellings of the myth). He remains vulnerable, though, to any human who can lay hands upon the egg. Consider Koschei as nested within the reality of his own existence. Koschei, then, will be referred to as K, while the egg containing/embodying his soul will be referred to as K-1. What occurs in/to/around K cannot effect K-1, for through the principles of nesting theory K-1 has come to exist as a super-reality for K. The reverse, then, is untrue; if the egg is smashed (sometimes against Koschei's forehead, sometimes simply against a rock) then Koschei will die.
The idea presented by the necessity of breaking the egg against Koschei's body is an interesting one. It affirms the idea that K and K-1 are not separate ideals but a disjointed whole capable of reintegration. When K and K-1 are reunited, their distinct realities collapse into one and correlation is replaced by singularity. Koschei becomes whole and, his interstitial existence collapsed, he dies. Or, rather, his body is allowed to experience the Death that has befallen it.
Death via reunion with one's soul, or freeing of one's soul from mortal bonds, is a popular trope in today's speculative fiction. Voldemort, villain of J. K. Rowling's acclaimed Harry Potter septad, possesses magical phylacteries which each contain a piece of his soul. The books state that Voldemort could, were he to experience true remorse, rebuild his mangled animus, but that the existential pain would more than likely prove lethal. The archetype of the lich, his body soulless and unstuck from time, is a powerful one. As (un)living expressions of Cartesian dualism, they resonate powerfully with the mythic conscience of humanity. No violation could be more profound, or more intriguing, than the subversion of death. The subtext of inward-outward definition through Nesting act as an effective anchor for a theoretical dissection of the mechanics of Lichism, parsing mysticism, metaphysics and psychology from a dense and resonant subject.
In Koschei's story we are shown, ultimately, the folly of Practical Dualism when the sorcerer's soul ends up in the hands of an enemy, a state of affairs that would never have been possible had Koschei not committed his existential crime. A fanciful lesson, but an interesting one.
Word of the Day: Milieu.
Book of the Day: The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway.
Author of the Day: Oscar Wilde, English playwright and novelist/philosopher.
-The Tale of Koschei the Deathless, 1819 collected edition.
Recursion, nesting and layered realities are common themes underpinning the structure of myth, folklore and now speculative fiction. Koschei, famed sorcerer-villain of Russian lore immortalized by Stravinsky in his opera The Firebird is a prime example of nesting in fiction. Koschei's soul, by obscure means, was separated from his body long ago and hidden like a Matryoshka doll within a great many other things (which vary between tellings of the myth). He remains vulnerable, though, to any human who can lay hands upon the egg. Consider Koschei as nested within the reality of his own existence. Koschei, then, will be referred to as K, while the egg containing/embodying his soul will be referred to as K-1. What occurs in/to/around K cannot effect K-1, for through the principles of nesting theory K-1 has come to exist as a super-reality for K. The reverse, then, is untrue; if the egg is smashed (sometimes against Koschei's forehead, sometimes simply against a rock) then Koschei will die.
The idea presented by the necessity of breaking the egg against Koschei's body is an interesting one. It affirms the idea that K and K-1 are not separate ideals but a disjointed whole capable of reintegration. When K and K-1 are reunited, their distinct realities collapse into one and correlation is replaced by singularity. Koschei becomes whole and, his interstitial existence collapsed, he dies. Or, rather, his body is allowed to experience the Death that has befallen it.
Death via reunion with one's soul, or freeing of one's soul from mortal bonds, is a popular trope in today's speculative fiction. Voldemort, villain of J. K. Rowling's acclaimed Harry Potter septad, possesses magical phylacteries which each contain a piece of his soul. The books state that Voldemort could, were he to experience true remorse, rebuild his mangled animus, but that the existential pain would more than likely prove lethal. The archetype of the lich, his body soulless and unstuck from time, is a powerful one. As (un)living expressions of Cartesian dualism, they resonate powerfully with the mythic conscience of humanity. No violation could be more profound, or more intriguing, than the subversion of death. The subtext of inward-outward definition through Nesting act as an effective anchor for a theoretical dissection of the mechanics of Lichism, parsing mysticism, metaphysics and psychology from a dense and resonant subject.
In Koschei's story we are shown, ultimately, the folly of Practical Dualism when the sorcerer's soul ends up in the hands of an enemy, a state of affairs that would never have been possible had Koschei not committed his existential crime. A fanciful lesson, but an interesting one.
Word of the Day: Milieu.
Book of the Day: The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway.
Author of the Day: Oscar Wilde, English playwright and novelist/philosopher.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
some superficial differences: myths and truths.
I first came to College on the east coast with certain expectations and lack there of, here's what i found.
Dispelled:
-Everyone smokes
Not so. I'd say the two coasts have about the same number of smokers, the difference is that the east doesn't villainize smoking like the west coast.
-the drivers are crazy
They’re no worse than Californians (and they don't get as angry when you mess up).
-they don’t smile as much
This might be true
What I’ve noticed:
-there's a whole lot more baseball cap wearing on the east coast
-people don’t care that much about basketball
-people care about baseball A LOT
-there is a lot more notice of and significance put on cultural ethnicity and religion. While on the west coast we tend to blend, on the east people adhere to types and shades more.
Dispelled:
-Everyone smokes
Not so. I'd say the two coasts have about the same number of smokers, the difference is that the east doesn't villainize smoking like the west coast.
-the drivers are crazy
They’re no worse than Californians (and they don't get as angry when you mess up).
-they don’t smile as much
This might be true
What I’ve noticed:
-there's a whole lot more baseball cap wearing on the east coast
-people don’t care that much about basketball
-people care about baseball A LOT
-there is a lot more notice of and significance put on cultural ethnicity and religion. While on the west coast we tend to blend, on the east people adhere to types and shades more.
Why clark, why so far away from home?
I was born in Seattle Washington, Have lived in Portland Oregon since i was two, and most of my family is from or still lives in california (when i say i'm from the west coast, i mean it). I decided i wanted to go to clark my sophomore year of highschool (i'm quite a planner). I knew i wanted to either stay really close to home or go really far away. I loved Portland (still do) and knew that if i wasn't going to be able to see it on a regular basis i wanted it to be for a good, far-away, new experiences reason. So i had no interest in California or Washington or any other states nearby. If i was going to go away from home i wanted something new. New England seemed like the right place to look. I reseached and found some promising almosts, but wasn't wold until i found clark. All the other school seemed concerned with finding the best students possible and being the best possible because of it. Clark semmed concerned with making the best student possible. I felt they were looking for students with promise. The more i looked in to clark the more i liked what i saw. It was small, had a great student to faculty ratio, had a lot of programs and opportunities for students and great financial aid. So i applied, got in and went.
Monday, March 14, 2011
The Abaia: Dreams & Subtextuality in Science Fiction & Fantasy
In Melanesian mythology, the Abaia is a great eel that dwells at the bottom of freshwater lakes and drowns those foolish enough to fish in its domain. Author Gene Wolfe co-opts the myth in his Book of the New Sun, transforming Abaia into a monstrous aquatic demigod who rules vast swathes of humanity through their dreams. The motif of the Abaia as a benthic entity associated with transitive states like drowning, dreaming and unconsciousness in general (states symbolized by the being's aquatic nature) is one found often in perusal of mythology. Nymphs, merfolk, leviathans and a whole host of mythic creatures dwell in the Abaia's interstitial realm. Nothing conflates so well with the idea of the mind divided by sleep and waking as the barrier between air and water.
Science fiction and fantasy, genres long dependent on such tropes as prophetic dreams, visions and oracular foretellings, draw heavily on the concepts of meta-reality and subconscious veracity. In the tradition of Hunter S. Thompson's and William S. Burroughs' psychedelic dream sequences, speculative fiction dives in and out of an unconscious world where semiotics runs rampant. Free-floating symbols anchor themselves loosely to the skins of stories, describing (to the astute reader) what has been or will be within the framework of the mytharc. In Orson Scott Card's renowned Ender's Game, Ender comes to understand the true rules of the battle school (a training ground for genius-level tactical intellects) through a fantastical computer simulation in which a vindictive giant proctors an impossible test. The simulation is later revealed to draw heavily on the subconscious of the user, playing neatly into the idea that Truth is held within the vault of the sleeping mind.
The dreaming world is, in speculative fiction as in modern thought, a place of potent symbolic importance. It functions as a kind of Plane of Truth, a meta-world where the sometimes overwhelming jargon and convolutions of fiction can be dissected and resolved unconsciously. Meaning escapes the obfuscation of plot and becomes apparent in the constructs of dreaming, expressed in bold colors and broad strokes. Through dreams speculative fiction escapes its most persistent parasite: information overload. The reader is drawn down not into the world of the characters but into the characters themselves where comprehension and its absence play equally to reader and __tagonist both.
Dreams are the atlas for speculative fiction's liminal landscape. Like the Abaia, they wait beneath the membrane of textual reality, strange and monstrous in character.
Word of the Day: Nostrum.
Book of the Day: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
Author of the Day: Jack Vance, author of The Dying Earth and other seminal works of fantasy and science fiction.
Author vs Author of the Day: Herman Melville vs Thomas Aquinas.
Result: Melville harpoons Aquinas, writes symbolically dense novel about experience.
Science fiction and fantasy, genres long dependent on such tropes as prophetic dreams, visions and oracular foretellings, draw heavily on the concepts of meta-reality and subconscious veracity. In the tradition of Hunter S. Thompson's and William S. Burroughs' psychedelic dream sequences, speculative fiction dives in and out of an unconscious world where semiotics runs rampant. Free-floating symbols anchor themselves loosely to the skins of stories, describing (to the astute reader) what has been or will be within the framework of the mytharc. In Orson Scott Card's renowned Ender's Game, Ender comes to understand the true rules of the battle school (a training ground for genius-level tactical intellects) through a fantastical computer simulation in which a vindictive giant proctors an impossible test. The simulation is later revealed to draw heavily on the subconscious of the user, playing neatly into the idea that Truth is held within the vault of the sleeping mind.
The dreaming world is, in speculative fiction as in modern thought, a place of potent symbolic importance. It functions as a kind of Plane of Truth, a meta-world where the sometimes overwhelming jargon and convolutions of fiction can be dissected and resolved unconsciously. Meaning escapes the obfuscation of plot and becomes apparent in the constructs of dreaming, expressed in bold colors and broad strokes. Through dreams speculative fiction escapes its most persistent parasite: information overload. The reader is drawn down not into the world of the characters but into the characters themselves where comprehension and its absence play equally to reader and __tagonist both.
Dreams are the atlas for speculative fiction's liminal landscape. Like the Abaia, they wait beneath the membrane of textual reality, strange and monstrous in character.
Word of the Day: Nostrum.
Book of the Day: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
Author of the Day: Jack Vance, author of The Dying Earth and other seminal works of fantasy and science fiction.
Author vs Author of the Day: Herman Melville vs Thomas Aquinas.
Result: Melville harpoons Aquinas, writes symbolically dense novel about experience.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Hello,
My name is Milla. I'm a senior English/Theater double major who works in the English office. I've taken longer to post because i've been stuck on what to write about. I thought about all the things I do that have something to do with the English department; working in the office, writing an honors thesis, studying for the dreaded English subject MTELs, double majoring. I finally gave up deciding and just asked the chair--Jay Elliott. I wrote him an e-mail with a list and asked him to pick and right before hitting that send button threw in one after thought idea: going to school in New England as a West Coaster. I didn't add it in because i thought it would make a good blog. infact, i saw no chance of professor Elliott picking the topic at all. I just threw it in because i felt i was making a list of what made me unique, and looking at the list it looked a little short. So i let myself add something that had nothing to do with the English department but everything to do wiht my uniqueness. As you have probably guessed he picked it. At first i was surprised, but then i thought about it. Anyone who asks me why clark? almost always means why so far away from home? It's a question i get from west and east coasters whenever they first find out my university and homtown are on opposite sides of the country, so there must be something interesting about it; people must be curious what it's like. so in this blog i will tell you.
My name is Milla. I'm a senior English/Theater double major who works in the English office. I've taken longer to post because i've been stuck on what to write about. I thought about all the things I do that have something to do with the English department; working in the office, writing an honors thesis, studying for the dreaded English subject MTELs, double majoring. I finally gave up deciding and just asked the chair--Jay Elliott. I wrote him an e-mail with a list and asked him to pick and right before hitting that send button threw in one after thought idea: going to school in New England as a West Coaster. I didn't add it in because i thought it would make a good blog. infact, i saw no chance of professor Elliott picking the topic at all. I just threw it in because i felt i was making a list of what made me unique, and looking at the list it looked a little short. So i let myself add something that had nothing to do with the English department but everything to do wiht my uniqueness. As you have probably guessed he picked it. At first i was surprised, but then i thought about it. Anyone who asks me why clark? almost always means why so far away from home? It's a question i get from west and east coasters whenever they first find out my university and homtown are on opposite sides of the country, so there must be something interesting about it; people must be curious what it's like. so in this blog i will tell you.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Learn to Intern
Hi Everyone,
I’m Jen, a senior and English major as well as a (hard) Work(ing) Study Student in the department. I am one of the three graduating seniors who have chosen the journalism specialization within the English major. What a small, immensely talented group we are! As you may or may not know, considering our number is so small, the journalism specialization within the English major requires an internship for academic credit. I’m going to talk a little bit about that in case you too are in the journalism biz or maybe you just want to do an internship instead of a class for fun.
I completed my stint in the real world of reporting last semester with Worcester Magazine, an alternative weekly magazine that you’ve probably seen around in the UC or various small businesses around the city. It was a very enjoyable experience, particularly because I got to know a bit more about Worcester, which is something that I feel many Clarkies could stand to do once in awhile. I also got to do some cool things (for free!), which is one of the very fun parts of journalism. For example, I took a cooking class and got a psychic reading! I was published in every single issue and have something substantial to write on my resume. Overall, good deal.
Please note that the expectation of monetary compensation from your work is allowed by Clark but fairly uncommon, and especially unrealistic in the print-journalism industry, which I’ve heard is terminally ill. The skills you learn, however, will translate well to online-publication employment.
You can apply to or find out more about internships for credit here. Each semester-long internship requires 140 hours total, which is about 10 hours a week. You’ll need to write up a proposal and grab a faculty advisor (mine was Professor Elliott) who will check in with you periodically and assess your final project, which is required and can really be anything. Mine was a portfolio and a reflective essay. Credit is given on a pass/fail basis, so if you can hold it together to some extent, you’re in! I think this system is good because there is less academic pressure to do well in a non-academic setting. Just focus on your work and you will be fine. To apply for a single-semester internship, your GPA must be 2.75, and 3.0 for a year-long internship.
One kind of inconvenient thing about the system is that you must pay “tuition” for one class if you want to complete your internship during the summer, so that option takes some consideration on your part.
Again, you can see the link above for all the information or contact the kind and helpful Career Services staff at careers@clarku.edu or 508-793-7258. I know other Clarkies who have interned at the Telegram and Gazette, and a Communication and Culture major who has interned with a music website and has had the opportunity to interview several esteemed musicians in the metal community. Additionally, I was glad to leave the position of WoMag intern in the capable hands of fellow-Clark English major, Vanessa Formato, as seen here. Best of luck. Hope to see your name in print soon!
Jen
I’m Jen, a senior and English major as well as a (hard) Work(ing) Study Student in the department. I am one of the three graduating seniors who have chosen the journalism specialization within the English major. What a small, immensely talented group we are! As you may or may not know, considering our number is so small, the journalism specialization within the English major requires an internship for academic credit. I’m going to talk a little bit about that in case you too are in the journalism biz or maybe you just want to do an internship instead of a class for fun.
I completed my stint in the real world of reporting last semester with Worcester Magazine, an alternative weekly magazine that you’ve probably seen around in the UC or various small businesses around the city. It was a very enjoyable experience, particularly because I got to know a bit more about Worcester, which is something that I feel many Clarkies could stand to do once in awhile. I also got to do some cool things (for free!), which is one of the very fun parts of journalism. For example, I took a cooking class and got a psychic reading! I was published in every single issue and have something substantial to write on my resume. Overall, good deal.
Please note that the expectation of monetary compensation from your work is allowed by Clark but fairly uncommon, and especially unrealistic in the print-journalism industry, which I’ve heard is terminally ill. The skills you learn, however, will translate well to online-publication employment.
You can apply to or find out more about internships for credit here. Each semester-long internship requires 140 hours total, which is about 10 hours a week. You’ll need to write up a proposal and grab a faculty advisor (mine was Professor Elliott) who will check in with you periodically and assess your final project, which is required and can really be anything. Mine was a portfolio and a reflective essay. Credit is given on a pass/fail basis, so if you can hold it together to some extent, you’re in! I think this system is good because there is less academic pressure to do well in a non-academic setting. Just focus on your work and you will be fine. To apply for a single-semester internship, your GPA must be 2.75, and 3.0 for a year-long internship.
One kind of inconvenient thing about the system is that you must pay “tuition” for one class if you want to complete your internship during the summer, so that option takes some consideration on your part.
Again, you can see the link above for all the information or contact the kind and helpful Career Services staff at careers@clarku.edu or 508-793-7258. I know other Clarkies who have interned at the Telegram and Gazette, and a Communication and Culture major who has interned with a music website and has had the opportunity to interview several esteemed musicians in the metal community. Additionally, I was glad to leave the position of WoMag intern in the capable hands of fellow-Clark English major, Vanessa Formato, as seen here. Best of luck. Hope to see your name in print soon!
Jen
Genre and the Myth of the Vulgar Cage
Hey sports fans.
Genre fiction. Westerns. Fantasy. Swashbuckling tales of high adventure on the Spanish Main. Genre has always been a medium of set pieces, of stages and moods. A Western has six-shooters, fedoras, silent types and rotten-toothed gunslingers with hearts as black as coal. Westerns aren't about analytical functionalism.
The literary community has, traditionally, treated genre fiction as a kind of bastard cousin, a discipline the content of which is dictated by trappings. A few novels manage to escape this stigma(1984, Borges's ventures into Magical Realism, Ender's Game), but most genre pieces remain outside the world of modern literary criticism. Pointedly shunned by literature's "highest" circles and scholarly environments (with the partial and debatable example of Science Fiction, which has infiltrated modern literature to some extent thanks, in part, to its pedigree), genre fiction exists in a realm almost strictly cultic/commercial.
That genre fiction is nothing but its set pieces is what R. Scott Bakker, writer and philosopher, calls the Myth of the Vulgar Cage. Good genre transcends place and time to address themes of ontological and human importance. Great genre seizes on its component parts to create an even richer philosophical experience. The gnostic complexity of magic and sorcery, if utilized with skill and thought, provide a vehicle for complex questions of functionalism, realism and Nietzschian Will. The moral and eschatological underpinnings implied by pantheons of gods, the heavy yoke of feudal responsibility and its attendant injustices. The grim despair of the expansion-era West weighing down on the shoulders of penniless unfortunates (please, read Cormac McCarthy). Genre is at its best not when it leaves behind its attendant tropes, but when it novelizes and explores them.
Word of the Day: Calumny.
Book of the Day: Slaughterhouse Five by the late and much-lamented Kurt Vonnegut.
Author of the Day: Ernest Hemingway, writer of novels, screenplays and short stories in profusion. Lover of bullfighting and alcohol.
Author vs Author of the Day: Wallace Stevens vs Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Result: Stevens accidentally imbibes Hawthorne along with a pitcher of martinis. There is much rejoicing.
Genre fiction. Westerns. Fantasy. Swashbuckling tales of high adventure on the Spanish Main. Genre has always been a medium of set pieces, of stages and moods. A Western has six-shooters, fedoras, silent types and rotten-toothed gunslingers with hearts as black as coal. Westerns aren't about analytical functionalism.
The literary community has, traditionally, treated genre fiction as a kind of bastard cousin, a discipline the content of which is dictated by trappings. A few novels manage to escape this stigma(1984, Borges's ventures into Magical Realism, Ender's Game), but most genre pieces remain outside the world of modern literary criticism. Pointedly shunned by literature's "highest" circles and scholarly environments (with the partial and debatable example of Science Fiction, which has infiltrated modern literature to some extent thanks, in part, to its pedigree), genre fiction exists in a realm almost strictly cultic/commercial.
That genre fiction is nothing but its set pieces is what R. Scott Bakker, writer and philosopher, calls the Myth of the Vulgar Cage. Good genre transcends place and time to address themes of ontological and human importance. Great genre seizes on its component parts to create an even richer philosophical experience. The gnostic complexity of magic and sorcery, if utilized with skill and thought, provide a vehicle for complex questions of functionalism, realism and Nietzschian Will. The moral and eschatological underpinnings implied by pantheons of gods, the heavy yoke of feudal responsibility and its attendant injustices. The grim despair of the expansion-era West weighing down on the shoulders of penniless unfortunates (please, read Cormac McCarthy). Genre is at its best not when it leaves behind its attendant tropes, but when it novelizes and explores them.
Word of the Day: Calumny.
Book of the Day: Slaughterhouse Five by the late and much-lamented Kurt Vonnegut.
Author of the Day: Ernest Hemingway, writer of novels, screenplays and short stories in profusion. Lover of bullfighting and alcohol.
Author vs Author of the Day: Wallace Stevens vs Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Result: Stevens accidentally imbibes Hawthorne along with a pitcher of martinis. There is much rejoicing.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Early Science Fiction in the Arab World
Written sometime between 1268 and 1277 CE, Ibn al-Nafis' Theologus Autodidactus is an often-overlooked treasure in the literary canon of the Middle Ages. It features the first instance of a coming-of-age story, the earliest recorded desert island (or isolation log) story and, perhaps most remarkably, is considered by many the first example of a science fiction story. Copies are fairly easy to find online (try Amazon) and the book is definitely worth a read. As a harrowing theological/philosophical journey, al-Nafis' book is a well-crafted work of art.
Word of the Day: Carious.
Book of the Day: A Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Author of the Day: Jorge Luis Borges, surrealist/magical realist/modernist and possibly the most widely-read man in recorded history.
Word of the Day: Carious.
Book of the Day: A Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Author of the Day: Jorge Luis Borges, surrealist/magical realist/modernist and possibly the most widely-read man in recorded history.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Enter The Martin
Greetings, sports fans.
I'm Micah Martin, a History Major, English Minor, and one of the department's indentured laborers. I handle mail, archival and secretarial duties and any miscellaneous tasks that spring up. In the coming months, preceding my graduation in May, I'll be posting here about life at Anderson House and goings-on in the department. I'll also discuss theory, writing, conventions of genre and style and the science of tropes in modern fiction mediums. To those of you with questions about the department, literature or anything related to English in general, please post! I'd like to get a few good discussions going here on the blog.
Micah out.
Word of the Day: Vociferous.
Book of the Day: Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
Author of the Day: Canadian Sci-Fi and Fantasy author R. Scott Bakker, a strong advocate for the inclusion of philosophical themes in genre fiction.
I'm Micah Martin, a History Major, English Minor, and one of the department's indentured laborers. I handle mail, archival and secretarial duties and any miscellaneous tasks that spring up. In the coming months, preceding my graduation in May, I'll be posting here about life at Anderson House and goings-on in the department. I'll also discuss theory, writing, conventions of genre and style and the science of tropes in modern fiction mediums. To those of you with questions about the department, literature or anything related to English in general, please post! I'd like to get a few good discussions going here on the blog.
Micah out.
Word of the Day: Vociferous.
Book of the Day: Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
Author of the Day: Canadian Sci-Fi and Fantasy author R. Scott Bakker, a strong advocate for the inclusion of philosophical themes in genre fiction.
Monday, February 7, 2011
After Long Silence. . . .
Due to the fact that I have been chairing for the last year and a half, I have not had time to keep up with the blog. However: I have also finally hit on the idea to have the Work Study students in the English office begin to be the main contributors. I wonder if the blog could be a kind of English Times in real time--we'll have news, photos, announcements take place here as well as the usual places. Towards that end, I have invited five new authors; please welcome them effusively:
Micah Martin
Milla Smith
Jen Cantin
Devon Grayson-Wallace
Daiva Slotkus Miksyte
I also have the assurance that they will not shirk their appointed tasks to dabble in posting!
Thanks!
Jay
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