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Interests Meme
This is a meme where you ask about people's Interests (from their el jay profile). Comment on this post, and I'll pick six of yours, and you explain them on a post you make. Then you post this on your journal and it becomes a never ending spiral... and good fun.
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tree_and_leaf asked me about these:
battlestar galactica, bitching about harold bloom, chickadees, fantasy of manners, narrative theory, tintin.
Battlestar Galactica: I am probably not the only person around to have been a fan of the original series, but one of the few who will admit to it. I used to watch it faithfully, and have a copy of the "movie" on VHS. However, I also adore the new series, which really only shares the name. I admire the production values - everything from set design to music - and the terrific writing.
Bitching about Harold Bloom: I nicked this one frommajrgenrl8, and I think we're still the only two users on LJ to have it. We should start a trend. Bloom's own theory, in Anxiety of Influence - that young authors have a kind of Oedipal relationship with their predecessors and have to "kill" them before they can do anything good themselves - comes into play with all present day English scholars, too, I should think. We all want to kill Harold Bloom :) He's one of those old school scholars who knows EVERYTHING and will talk at length about it. I run up against him because he's written some good stuff about Romanticism, which is one of my areas, and narrative theory (another). I also think he's a boring old fart about Harry Potter. Get a life, Harold.
Chickadees:
We don't go in much for really "cute" birds here in Canada, not having many like blue-tits or your British robin, but we do have chickadees. My favourite bird. They are cheeky and friendly, and I have a gang of them in my garden, and I love them.
Fantasy of Manners: Fantasy that may rely more on interaction between characters in society rather than grand quests to save the world and may have little or no magic. A subgroup of the new vogue for fantasy set in vaguely Napoleonic worlds. Typified by Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint and its sequels, and I thinksartorias's Crown Duel duology fits the criteria as well.
Narrative Theory: underpins a lot of my own scholarly "work" - not that I do much these days beyond teaching, let's say what I would do if I had to to earn a living. I'm particularly interested in intertextuality (what a surprise!) - the use of previous texts in an existing text - and am drawn to writers, like Jeanette Winterson, Michael Ondaatje, Timothy Findley, et al, who use it in interesting ways. This has lately made me interested in fan fiction from a theoretical point of view... I also tend to respond well to non-linear narratives, and like to think about why and how they work.
Tintin: I read my first - The Crab With the Golden Claws - while staying with my boy cousins when I was nine. I think they were considered "boys" things, and nobody had thought to give them to me. I've been a fan ever since. I love the detailed drawing and the amusing social satire interwoven with "ripping yarns."
tree_and_leaf asked me about these:battlestar galactica, bitching about harold bloom, chickadees, fantasy of manners, narrative theory, tintin.
Battlestar Galactica: I am probably not the only person around to have been a fan of the original series, but one of the few who will admit to it. I used to watch it faithfully, and have a copy of the "movie" on VHS. However, I also adore the new series, which really only shares the name. I admire the production values - everything from set design to music - and the terrific writing.
Bitching about Harold Bloom: I nicked this one from
majrgenrl8, and I think we're still the only two users on LJ to have it. We should start a trend. Bloom's own theory, in Anxiety of Influence - that young authors have a kind of Oedipal relationship with their predecessors and have to "kill" them before they can do anything good themselves - comes into play with all present day English scholars, too, I should think. We all want to kill Harold Bloom :) He's one of those old school scholars who knows EVERYTHING and will talk at length about it. I run up against him because he's written some good stuff about Romanticism, which is one of my areas, and narrative theory (another). I also think he's a boring old fart about Harry Potter. Get a life, Harold.Chickadees:
We don't go in much for really "cute" birds here in Canada, not having many like blue-tits or your British robin, but we do have chickadees. My favourite bird. They are cheeky and friendly, and I have a gang of them in my garden, and I love them.Fantasy of Manners: Fantasy that may rely more on interaction between characters in society rather than grand quests to save the world and may have little or no magic. A subgroup of the new vogue for fantasy set in vaguely Napoleonic worlds. Typified by Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint and its sequels, and I think
sartorias's Crown Duel duology fits the criteria as well. Narrative Theory: underpins a lot of my own scholarly "work" - not that I do much these days beyond teaching, let's say what I would do if I had to to earn a living. I'm particularly interested in intertextuality (what a surprise!) - the use of previous texts in an existing text - and am drawn to writers, like Jeanette Winterson, Michael Ondaatje, Timothy Findley, et al, who use it in interesting ways. This has lately made me interested in fan fiction from a theoretical point of view... I also tend to respond well to non-linear narratives, and like to think about why and how they work.
Tintin: I read my first - The Crab With the Golden Claws - while staying with my boy cousins when I was nine. I think they were considered "boys" things, and nobody had thought to give them to me. I've been a fan ever since. I love the detailed drawing and the amusing social satire interwoven with "ripping yarns."
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Chickadees are delightful. They're friendly! I love friendly animals, especially friendly birds.
Harold Bloom hovers only on the outskirts of my awareness, I'm happy to say, but he was more present when I was in academia...
I learned the term "fantasy of manners" from
Narrative theory--I have not really read anything about it, but I love to hear people talk about it, and it's fun to think about.
Tin Tin--never read it as a kid, but have seen it since (my kids read some) and really like the art. I like that he tries for accuracy.
I'm pretty shy about doing memes, so you needn't bother picking interests of mine--or, to put it more directly... I don't really want to post about mine--but I'm very happy to share on *your* page if there are any you're particularly interested in (but they're all pretty self evident, I think. Well, most.)
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Anyway, ask away.
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By the way, was that a capital C comment??
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And thanks for the recommendations - if your conference paper is accepted (or even if it's not!) I'd be interested to read it someday.
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Thank you for giving me a coherent term for the stuff I want to write ;p
You have some great interests/elaborations here. Mine are all so...general. XD
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Harold Bloom annoys me, though I must admit I've read very little of him; but apart from his misrable attitude to Potter (and Tolkien), as a mediaevalist, I'm somewhat irritated by his renaissance superiority complex (Invention of the human, forsooth!)
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But now I'm enraptured by all the stimulating things on Sartorias' LJ, and definitely not doing my essay outline. :S
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I might disagree slightly with the birds comment, though--what about all those adorable finches?
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Yes, I like finches, too, but they're pretty, rather than really "cute" like chickadees. At least IMO.