"The chapter titles are revealing here..."

 30 June 2022: Had one of those very cool "oh, I never thought of that before! that's so smart!" moments while reading criticism this morning. Here's John C. Havard in a piece about realism (and typology) in Uncle Tom's Cabin: 

“The chapter titles are revealing here: whereas early titles tend to be descriptive, such as ‘An Evening in Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ ‘Select Incident of a Lawful Trade,’ and ‘Tom’s Mistress and Her Opinions,’ the chapters after the book’s midpoint take on increasingly figurative, typological titles, such as ‘The Grass Withereth—The Flower Fadeth,’ ‘The Little Evangelist,’ and ‘The Martyr.’ Through this narrative structure, the novel forces the reader to consider the concluding typological passages in the context of the imagined national community that Stowe had evoked in the earlier, more realist sections” (258).

I really love some of Stowe's chapter titles (and get nerdy about chapter titles in general), so this hit my sweet spot. 

Work Cited

Havard, John C. “Fighting Slavery by ‘Presenting Facts in Detail’: Realism, Typology, and Temporality in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” American Literary Realism, vol. 44, no. 3, 2012, pp. 249–66. EBSCOhost.

"the twenty-first-century critic in a bind..."

29 June 2022:  Really struck by this passage about reading Uncle Tom's Cabin: "The novel puts the twenty-first-century critic in a bind: read it the way professional literary critics have been trained to read and make yourself unable to understand why it exerted the power it did, or read it as it wants to be read and lose your credibility as a critic" (Halpern 636). Halpern's whole piece is really smart and interesting. It's also relatively informal in its tone (with personal anecdotes and jokes!), which makes it refreshing and seems kind of meta--she's a person writing about responding to a text as a person, so it makes sense to appeal to readers this way. 

Work Cited

Halpern, Faye. “Beyond Contempt: Ways to Read Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” PMLA, vol. 133, no. 3, May 2018, pp. 633–39. EBSCOhost.

Pondering a big one...

28 June 2022: It's a heck of a thing to take Uncle Tom's Cabin and wrestle it into the entry I need for my book. We're talking maybe 2000 words (maybe a bit longer) about one of the most sprawling, controversial, messy, and important books (with a complicated critical legacy) in American literary history. There is some breathing room in knowing there will be a separate entry on Stowe, her life, and her other works, but now, in the early stages of deep dive into criticism that I do for every one of these, I am reminding myself that in an ocean this deep (to sustain a metaphor), that dive is going to be more limited. 

2000 words...

27 June 2022: Wrote just a bit over 2000 words today, from outline to a pretty-close-to-done draft of my The Country of the Pointed Firs entry. I didn't have any other appointments or meetings so I could just concentrate on this task and take my time with it. I know that's a luxury I won't have once the semester starts, so it feels especially good to have taken advantage of it. 

I am also doing a good job of sort of outlining an outline as I read and take notes so that when I start the actual outline, it isn't as much from scratch. Just an interesting (to me) development that seems to be working. 

And this project? Stressful and anxiety-inducing? Absolutely. But also still fun? Absolutely. 

The Third Rainbow Girl

26 June 2022: "If every woman is a nonconsensual researcher looking into the word 'misogyny,' then my most painful and powerful work was done in Pocahontas County. It could have been done in any other place, because misogyny is in the groundwater of every American city and every American town..." --Emma Copley Eisenberg, The Third Rainbow Girl

Just finished this book--our Common Reading at Shepherd this coming year. I am not entirely sure what to think of it, but that's not a bad thing. And the lines above--which come very early in the book (page 4)--stood out to me immediately. Just so very true.

Streetfest!

25 June 2022: Pushing back against the darkness a bit today. Volunteered at Streetfest and worked at the SU table for a couple of hours. We are now experts at helping vendors set up tents. Got home a bit before 3:00, took a cold shower (it was HOT out there), and have been crashing since then, watching TV: first the Yankees (they lost), then a movie (Fire Island, which was so cute), and now Dickinson, which I have been putting off forever to serve as a treat (but only when I was also able to really focus on it). 

Dark day

24 June 2022: Dark, dark day for the country today. It's just so much. Hit after hit after hit, all so cruel and unnecessary. 

"you always help me to get a good hold on the best of myself"

 23 June 2022: 

"Dearest Annie, I do so long to see you—. I believe it would do me more good than anything you always help me to get a good hold on the best of myself. but I stil feel too weak to plan any journeys. They shall have to carry me [soon] from one room to another and I ache dreadfully by night and by day. I don’t know what to do about me I did so hope now to be out of doors in the garden" --Sarah Orne Jewett, to Annie Fields (qtd. in Love 327).

This undated letter, written late in Jewett's life after she had been seriously injured in a carriage accident from which she never fully recovered (in 1902) and had suffered a stroke (in 1909), made me tear up right here in my office when I read it today. (That the article also included a picture of the manuscript that showed her clearly declining abilities to hand-write made it much more poignant.) What more can we ask for in a relationship than what Jewett expresses here: that Fields "always help[s] me to get a good hold on the best of myself"? 

But I was well on my way to have Big Feelings about Jewett today, set in motion by this picture of her and Fields sitting together in their library. I had seen it before, but it hit me anew today, with what it reveals (and conceals). 

I know it says something about me that I find this image--two people (important literary figures, no less!), at work on separate tasks, yet together, in the home they shared--so moving. It seems ideal and lovely. 

So yup: seeing that image in the morning and then reading that letter later in the afternoon? Cue some tears. 

Heather Love's article (where I came across the letter) is also really fascinating and even a bit haunting. Glad to have read it, even if it's a bit of a bummer. (How's that for an academic take?)

Work Cited

Love, Heather. “Gyn/Apology: Sarah Orne Jewett’s Spinster Aesthetics.” ESQ: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture, vol. 55, no. 3–4, 2009, pp. 305–34. EBSCOhost.

"that untouchable foglike center..."

 22 June 2022: “The spell of Jewett’s words tantalizes and draws us on to read, but it never directly names. There is always that kernel of mystery, that untouchable foglike center that pulls us onward into that world beyond the ice, the imagination” (Hobbs 33).

Diving deep into Jewett now, working on my entry on Country of the Pointed Firs. Really love this take by Michael Hobbs, who is arguing that Captain Littlepage's story replicates, "in ironic miniature, a unifying narrative structure for Jewett’s work" (27). Hobbs does some really lovely gesturing towards Jewett's larger achievement--much appreciated by me as I remember again and again how much I love this text.

Work Cited

Hobbs, Michael. “World beyond the Ice: Narrative Structure in The Country of the Pointed Firs.” Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 29, no. 1, 1992, pp. 27–34. EBSCOhost.

Summer Advising: DONE!

21 June 2022: Hard to believe it, but we finished first-year advising today. It went just fine and was kind of fun, especially working with my colleagues face-to-face and (of course!) meeting the new students. 

And for a metaphor that seems quite fitting, as I pulled onto my street today heading home, I stopped my car to help a turtle cross the street. (Also had a student say she was moving as fast as a "herd of turtles" today, so ha!)

Now it's onto just writing, writing, writing (and Assistant Dean stuff) (and course prep) from here until the semester starts. The writing was going well post-advising this afternoon...until the power went out on campus. Let's hope Word managed to save a decent portion of what I had drafted. If not, I have my chicken-scratched draft/additions. That's tomorrow's problem, though, as the power hadn't come back on (along with access to the network drive) by the time I left campus. This evening, I am focusing on reading for the next entry, on The Country of the Pointed Firs. 

Ten Steps to Nanette

20 June 2022: "So, I will just share it here, because I truly believe that the only universal 'body' is our breath, because breath is the only thing that all human bodies experience and as such, it is something we all must share, not just with each other, but, in one way or another, with all living things on earth." --Hannah Gadsby, Ten Steps to Nanette

I finished listening to Gadsby's memoir today and found it quite fascinating. I appreciate the way she invites us to extend openness and compassion to those who experience the world differently. And I was surprised to see some similarities between us, albeit with different roots. 

Father's Day

19 June 2022: Happy Father's Day to this guy, who insisted on buying dinner today but at least let me buy him some coffee ice cream. (Black raspberry for me. My mom declined the offer.)

Trying to stay above it...

18 June 2022: Some moments of such serenity and beauty today. And then frustration over intrusions into those moments. Trying to appreciate the former and not get bogged down in the latter. 

Wild Friday night...

17 June 2022: If you want a good picture of my life, here's a thing that just happened:

Me, to Wesley, at 8:30 (when it's not even dark yet): "Let's what that vampire show and then go to bed." 

A bit of this, a bit of that...

16 June 2022: Another day with a whole lot of separate tasks going on, but I managed to get through them all, including finishing that Sedgwick entry. Ended the day by having dinner with Betty and Tim, a lovely way to cap it off. 

Pottery class...

15 June 2022: Started a four-part (once a week) pottery class this evening. So far, I am not good at it--and I don't expect to be--but it's fun to try something new.

Tuesday check-in

14 June 2022: Tiny bit of writing this morning, advising mid-morning through mid-afternoon, a bit more writing mid-afternoon until the early evening, and then a bit of reading. Called it quits (work-wise) by 6:30 because my brain said "done." 

Not bad--just enough writing/reading to keep the worst of the stress vibes away. If I am done with the entry I am working on now by the end of tomorrow, I'll feel even better. 

901...

13 June 2022: Today marks 901 days in a row of at least 10,000 steps. Still incredibly lucky--for health and the ability to plan my days--to have kept this up.

It's also my dear brother's birthday, so I am thinking about him. Lately when I do, this song is the soundtrack, bringing back thoughts of summer night dips in the pool. 

The Bob's Burgers Movie

12 June 2022: Woke up feeling anxious and stressed, so that was fun. But something that really helped--at least for a few hours--was seeing The Bob's Burgers Movie with Amy and getting lunch afterward. It really was a delight, giving me everything I love about the show with the size and visuals of the big screen. (I realize that all sounds cliched, but it just works!)  

"Fireworks"

11 June 2022: Playing on a loop in my head lately...

Summer 2022 Advising: In person!

10 June 2022: After Tuesday's session was shifted to virtual, to was the first in-person summer advising session since June 2019. It was a long and kind of tough session, but it was nice to be back. 

"if there is no fatal mistake..."

9 June 2022: "But I am very well, and if there is no fatal mistake, omissions, or transpositions of pages or chapters from my weak memory, I shall be content. The book can’t hurt anybody, and it may be to some like a sprinkle in a dry time—lay the dust for a little while" (qtd. in Gussman xi).

Catharine Maria Sedgwick wrote these words in an 1857 letter, discussing the upcoming publication of her final novel, Married or Single? So, yes, I am in the midst of working on an entry on Sedgwick in general and learning quite a bit. These words made me laugh a bit and feel seen (like has happened many times in this writing process). I mean, they are kind of my wish for my own book. 

Work Cited

Gussman, Deborah. “Editor’s Introduction.” Married or Single? 1857. By Catharine Maria Sedgwick, edited by Deborah Gussman, U of Nebraska P, 2015, pp. ix-xli.

Seven!

8 June 2022: This shady queen might act like she doesn't care, but I think she is pleased that we are celebrating her 7th birthday today. Friskies' Lil Soups for her and Wes; the gift of getting to look at her sit places where she ought not to sit for me.

Today's math...

7 June 2022:

• 10: Hours on campus
• 4: Students advised; 3 virtually and 1 in person
• 500: The amount of money we need to find to cover the furniture Rachael and I want to put on the Knutti porch
• 908: Number of words I've managed to write (so far?) on my "Life in the Iron Mills" entry today. I am still behind where I want to be this week, but given the chaos since Sunday, I will happily take this.

Feel it in my jaw...

6 June 2022: I know I have had/am having a tense, stressed, and anxious day when my jaw is aching. Today has been one of those days. Lots of Zoom meetings, work to get done before tomorrow's virtual advising sessions, and waiting to see if the other (COVID-filled) shoe drops. (Another negative test this afternoon, but still too soon to breathe easily.) 

On the flip side, crises have been managed, difficult problems solved, and creative solutions have been found. I am using the passive voice here, I know, because it's appropriate. I didn't do all of it--most, in fact, happened with me just listening, watching, or at the very most facilitating. So we'll call today a win. 

It's not done with us...

5 June 2022: I mean, to quote the cliché, we might be ready to be done with COVID, but it's not done with us. We are going to shift our first orientation/advising session to online because of some positive cases among the folks involved--and a big list of "close contacts" (including me). I still feel fine and tested negative this morning, but it will be a while before I know for sure. 

I am proud of the alternate plan we've come up with and that leadership is choosing to take this seriously. Just another reason to be glad to work at Shepherd. 

"Whose Sources are interior —"

4 June 2022:

"Reverse cannot befall
That fine Prosperity
Whose Sources are interior —
As soon — Adversity

A Diamond — overtake
In far — Bolivian Ground —
Misfortune hath no implement
Could mar it — if it found —" --Emily Dickinson, Fr565

Came across this one on the Dickinson Museum's twitter page. Would be lovely to be like that diamond, at least when I need to be. Working on it. Spent most of today alone, but got a lot done, had a great phone call with Vogel, and, especially considering a close-contact COVID exposure, feeling pretty okay.

New chair...

3 June 2022: My new living room chair arrived today. Hannah--always an angel--helped me put it together, which was harder than we thought it would be...until it wasn't. Anyway, I am not good at change because while it looks really good, I am not a fan of the feel (so far). And Wesley isn't a fan yet and he loved the old one and could sit on the back. Fingers crossed that we both warm up to it. And that I stop being so anxious about new things and adjustments. 

"She wanted no part of Christian passivity..."

2 June 2022: In my research for my entry on "Life in the Iron Mills," by Rebecca Harding Davis, I came across an article by Janice Milner Lasseter that shows the original text (and an 1865 version) included an extra paragraph that she speculates James Fields removed. Lasseter compellingly argues that if that paragraph is considered, it would more fully explain Davis's view of "social justice" (175). 

The whole article is well worth a read, but I find myself drawn to this section, about Davis's view of herself as a Christian writer: “She would articulate their [the people she wrote about] suffering, their pain. She wanted no part of Christian passivity as a way to endure social injustice; rather she strove, as the holograph and 1865 texts illustrate, to create an artistic and rhetorical strategy that would effect structural changes within the capitalist economic system” (Lasseter 184).

So many of the pieces I've read make a similar sort of point--that Davis points outside the text for solutions, that readers need to do more than just read. And here we can see how she truly bridges sentimentalism and realism (though that simplifies both concepts). But it also strikes me as startlingly relevant for Christians today. We have to do more than just talk. We have to do the work of social justice. 

I am reminded of this post from last week, about another article that made me draw connections between the nineteenth century and our world today, specifically about how these texts called their contemporaries to actions but also still call us to action today. 

Work Cited

Lasseter, Janice Milner. “The Censored and Uncensored Literary Lives of ‘Life in the Iron Mills.’” Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, vol. 20, no. 1–2, 2003, pp. 175–90. EBSCOhost.

Five in May...

1 June 2022: This May, I completed five entries--from start to finish--for my book. About thirty very polished pages. (Well, May plus half of June 1st.) Feels pretty good. Hoping to keep this pace up for June, July, and August. June might be a stretch with Advising and Registration starting, but we'll see.