Miscellany
Jan. 13th, 2010 12:12 pm
I'm justifiably bunking uni today. I cite bandh, lethargy, horrible classes, and parental aiding and abetting. Also, IS and IC's school got cancelled for the day.
I'm going to be miserable once I graduate (lo, in July), though this last year anna half hasn't exactly been brilliant. I'll miss the place and the profs.
I'll also miss what![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fireshowers calls my clandestinely studying Greek texts. I've bought Fagles' translations of the Oresteia and Sophocles' Theban plays, not an expense I can at all justify, since we're devoting something like a week to each lot (part of a Tragedy course) and the only other text I've purchased is The Tempest, which is sort of the main text for a different course. I've also acquired from Xerxes Fagles' Iliad, and am tempted to buy it, since, really, it's at a reasonable price. But I already have two Iliads and not sure whether I can justify buying a third, when I don't really need it.
I won't, y'know, hard as that is to believe. I've a small set of Greek or related books, very few in physical form, few more as e-books. Mostly they aren't novels--only Greek-related novels I have are Renault and Manfredi's Alexandriads--they aren't volumes I read obsessively. I just like the comfort of owning them.
Which is all extremely wasteful. I'm not going to study the Greeks; I haven't the training. And if I just stop thinking of it in terms of loss, I'll be easier reconciled to the fact. It isn't, after all, as though what I plan on studying isn't also an obsession, and one started at an younger age, at that, and one I have as much knowledge of as it possible, at this point. I can read Middle English pretty well, and write it; I know my way through at least the stories of most of the Arthurian legends. I can even mostly decipher Old English, given enough time and possibly a glossary. And I love Arthur, I do, I'm the kid who took up courses most people take only when obliged to, and begged interesting papers, and did quite well, considering. It's more a love for Arthuriana than Middle English, actually, whatever Grendel might say.
It's just that so close to choosing, the path (that'll remain) not taken generates a new longing.
I'm going to be miserable once I graduate (lo, in July), though this last year anna half hasn't exactly been brilliant. I'll miss the place and the profs.
I'll also miss what
fireshowers calls my clandestinely studying Greek texts. I've bought Fagles' translations of the Oresteia and Sophocles' Theban plays, not an expense I can at all justify, since we're devoting something like a week to each lot (part of a Tragedy course) and the only other text I've purchased is The Tempest, which is sort of the main text for a different course. I've also acquired from Xerxes Fagles' Iliad, and am tempted to buy it, since, really, it's at a reasonable price. But I already have two Iliads and not sure whether I can justify buying a third, when I don't really need it.I won't, y'know, hard as that is to believe. I've a small set of Greek or related books, very few in physical form, few more as e-books. Mostly they aren't novels--only Greek-related novels I have are Renault and Manfredi's Alexandriads--they aren't volumes I read obsessively. I just like the comfort of owning them.
Which is all extremely wasteful. I'm not going to study the Greeks; I haven't the training. And if I just stop thinking of it in terms of loss, I'll be easier reconciled to the fact. It isn't, after all, as though what I plan on studying isn't also an obsession, and one started at an younger age, at that, and one I have as much knowledge of as it possible, at this point. I can read Middle English pretty well, and write it; I know my way through at least the stories of most of the Arthurian legends. I can even mostly decipher Old English, given enough time and possibly a glossary. And I love Arthur, I do, I'm the kid who took up courses most people take only when obliged to, and begged interesting papers, and did quite well, considering. It's more a love for Arthuriana than Middle English, actually, whatever Grendel might say.
It's just that so close to choosing, the path (that'll remain) not taken generates a new longing.
