20090702

Milestone Achieved

I turned in the House of Fame chapter on Tuesday, right on time. Let's hope it's right on argument, as well. After that, I'm going to take a little breathing room before I start in on Pearl, and I'm thinking I'll spend it on . . . well, I don't know about you, but when I'm doing research, I tend to pick up books—stuff people reference, books that sound good, even ones that were on the same shelf as the one I actually wanted. I tend to hang on to them on the off chance that they'll be useful. I tend to put sticky notes in the front that say "Introduction; Ch 2; Ch 7?; also maybe pp 221-245?" and so on, and then forget about them until I start the next batch of research. I'm thinking of looking through them to see if they're as useful as I'd thought.

I'm also teaching WLIT right now, which makes trying to write kind of "amusing," since the class, as they so often do, comes right in the middle of my peak alertness, i.e. the moment when the early morning metabolism is still up, and the coffee is kicking in. Still, it will be fun: I'm doing six epics in six weeks. Not only will I get to teach the Lombardo Aeneid for the first time, but I'm also teaching Beowulf again after a year's hiatus, and the "Sorhab and Rostam" section of the Shahname for the first time ever. Here's hoping it goes well.