Letters

I just had to post this (and well, revive this blog). My lit prof writes the BEST emails in the world (and Kel comes a close second). Also, she writes emails to us just about every other day. You could prob make a great book out of all her emails. Makes for great reading. Here are some of the best ones:

1 May: "Ars poetica, etc"
It is mildly annoying me that so many of you writing on Macleish, say, (blithely), 'Macleish says that poems are wordless/mute', etc.  He doesn't.  He says 'A poem should be palpable and mute/as a globed fruit.  The point it not that it is mute, but that it is as palpable and mute as a globed fruit.  The simile is there to be thought about, not ignored.  The enjambment is there for a purposes.  Similarly, it does not say 'A poem should be wordless', but wordless/as a flight of birds.'  So unless you think through the logic of the simile and what he's saying by offering you these images, the poem WILL be mute (to you), because you are failing to register what it is 'saying'.  The point was close reading, not a failure to read.

Re: 'Apple of Trouble'

"The man is 'smallish' indicating that the man is kind of small where he is both small but not small at the same time.'

Re: Uncle Gavin's 'Southern drawls' - this is Sussex, not Texas.  If the reference to Brighton didn't tell you that then the Geog department has something to answer for.

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1 May
...
Some of you will see things like 'Sheep', 'Goat', 'Pygmy', etc on top of your script.  The caprine and ovine descriptors should be clear from last night's email.  If your script labels you a caprine, do something about the ink in future (should I have the pleasure of your company of your pleasure again, on another module).  If ovine, you may bask in your own virtue.  If you get 'pygmy', this marks 'writing more suitable for Lilliput than NUS'.  I have already had to buy a magnifiying sheet to hold up in front of some of the worst offenders.  It isn't fun.  When you teach in future, it will rebound on you, karmic-ally.  Then you will regret torturing me. 

A note: giraffes are not phallic symbols.  Not everything in a text reduces to sex. 

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30 Apr: "Ink"
There are times where I think of Darwin's survival of the fittest and realise that intelligence is not the thing that best equips the inividual to survive.  It's something a lot more basic like a puppy- like obedience.  The kind that hears His Master's Voice and goes 'woof'.  Or, in this case hears Dr Ang's voice say "dark black or dark blue ink Pilot Supergel 3g. ' and  woofs off enthusiastically to buy out the COOP's supply of pens of the right colour.

on the day of judgement, God will separate out sheep from goats.  I don't need to wait till that day.  Looking at the test scripts, I know that ithe goat population far outstrips the sheep.  Or sheepdog  puppies.  Well don't say i didn't warn people.  On the day of returning there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.....

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19 Apr
...
You are allowed to bring in drinks, etc. but you must take the debris out with you and dispose of it afterwards because the LT will be used on Monday for a Faculty meeting and I would prefer FASS didn't think that EN students were a crowd of litterbugs and slobby types.  So you will please be good about clearing up after yourselves - I will put a black bin liner at the back of the LT near the doors.  You may bring in notes on poetic forms, scribbled sheets to yourself to remind yourself of this or that.  You may bring in things to keep you comfortable (blankets to keep warm, small snacks (no stinky tofu or parmesan cheese), teddy bears to comfort you in your affliction, whatever.

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Also, i might have mentioned this to some of you. She dresses like Trelawny, her office is like a time warp back to the Victorian era, and she's just generally queer and awesome. And she speaks at 250 wpm.