comp lit and mediaphilia
Hey, look! I rode in a hot air balloon with the most ridiculous American Girl yet (Girl of the Year, so not a real AG, but still, she comes with a hot air balloon).
So I haven’t been blogging much lately. I doubt you miss me, but I thought I would let you know where I have been that is not here, in case you in fact can’t get enough of me.
I went on vacation and got the soundtrack to Pocahontas stuck in my head, because I was here . And now I am in Chicago going here when I should be doing this .
But also, I am elsewhere on the Internet and in print, like a peer-reviewed journal , this magazine , and this blog . Apparently when I yell repeatedly about how there are still major problems with diversity and race and ethnicity, people respond or tweet or tumble, and that is awesome, because I would really like to make more friends/colleagues/mentors and have more conversations, because that’s how shit gets started, man. And also, thank you for tweeting or tumbling me or publishing a blurb about me as an alumna of your school, because that makes my day and makes me feel famous.
I’ll be back when I have a handle on things. And next month I will also be blogging at Forever YA and Reading Jessica Darling , so if you’re not already reading those, get on it.
Posted in rambling
Tagged blogging , news , nothing , writing
Jun · 28
This year I made myself some non-specific, qualitative-rather-than-quantitative resolutions that will probably become clear as I continue blogging. But as far as this blog is concerned, I plan to focus it more and have more consistent “columns” and themes. I’ll continue doing my informal research updates on biracial literature, but I’ll also be using that reading for actual academic research that I hope to present at a conference or two and then turn into a paper. I’ll write here more consistently, but not at the expense of the stuff I should be writing–namely school stuff and the novel(s). Finally, I’ll keep better track of my reading not just numerically but qualitatively, writing more, privately and publicly, about what I’m reading, why I chose to read it, what it’s meaning to me, and how it relates to my schooling, my creative projects, my intellectual pursuits, or just my general enjoyment/interest. Like Nick Hornby did in The Believer , I also want to keep track monthly of books I buy, books I borrow/check out from the library, and books I read, as well as magazines and journal articles that I read, and do a beginning and end of month roundup of those things.
Also, more extra media stuff. I’m trying to remember how to have a vocabulary for discussing music, another important part of my life, in the same way I discuss literature. Should be interesting, not to mention relevant to one of my novel(s).
BUT, since it’s always fun to be a little quantitative when you can rub your awesomeness in other people’s faces, I did decide to make an infographic of what I read this year. Continue reading →
Posted in books
Tagged blogging , books , news , reading , research , the future
Jan · 01
This has definitely been the year of the most change, transition, growing up, getting my ass kicked, learning what’s important to me, freaking out for the first time about my future, etc etc. It’s been a year. Whatever. So are all other years. I don’t really do New Year’s Eve stuff if I can help it–last year I went to dinner with friends and then refused to go to a party, went home, and got a really good night’s sleep, starting at about 10:30pm. It was awesome. This year I’ve conceded to at least partially celebrating, but I never really cared for celebrating holidays much (by never, I mean for the last six or so years), which is why I try not to do stuff for my birthday, Halloween, etc. It’s never as fun or meaningful or what I want it to be anyway, and I don’t like forced sentimentality when random moments that are good or bad or whatever are so much more meaningful anyway.
That said, I do like to keep track of how many books I read in a calendar year; I do my taxes, so I keep track of how much money I make in a calendar year; and between semesters is as good a time as any to reflect on how my life has changed most recently.
So behold: my list of stuff that 2011 was made of. Tomorrow I’ll tell you how many books I managed to finish, and what I plan on doing with my 2012. And then I’ll get back to my normal, Scroogey, unholiday self. Continue reading →
Tagged boston , grad school , life , news , nothing
Dec · 31
Since the best thing to do with my time is find more ways to spend it not doing schoolwork, I have started a second blog related to all things food, diet, and dietary restrictions. It’s pretty sparse right now, but eventually it will have recipes, book and television show reviews, photos essays, and more. It’s called A Picky Girl Tries to Eat , because it’s not exactly my fault that I’m high maintenance.
Tagged blogging , food , news
Sep · 26
I’m reading like mad. 81 books since January 1. So much for writing like mad; there’s just no time when you’re devouring so many books and magazines and journals and blogs. Reading just makes me want to read more, which then makes me want to live more and travel more, especially when I read books like The Gastronomical Me or when my parents gush about their recent trip to France and Spain. They keep making statements like, “Europe is amazing!” and “You would really fit in in Paris, Hannah” as if a) those aren’t statements that Captain Obvious would say and b) I can do anything about that currently. I have such an itch to travel, and I have no money or time to do it. So I’m already on the search for jobs that will take me abroad for short spurts, research projects that require travel, and New England and Canadian spots that are only a train away once I move to Boston. I’m thinking Quebec may be my next international destination, and I’m okay with that, as long as Ireland, France, or Cuba come soon after that. In that vein, I also created a travel page to the right.
I’m also updating this blog like mad. You’ll see a new page with all my published book reviews linked. This was an interesting project, because I realized how many of them I don’t have any recollection of at all. I’m glad I keep better track of my reading now, both in a statistical way with GoodReads, and in a more intellectual way with more annotating, journaling, and blogging. I actually don’t have a problem with reading and not remembering what you’ve read (not all the time, at least), but if that’s all you ever do, that’s a problem. So that page is new, I’ve added a gazillion blog and website links, and I actually found links to some of the work I’ve published in the past.
Speaking of publishing, you’ll also see on that page a link to the Swirl blog, where my biracial literature post was re-published. And I just got a poetry acceptance for an online literary journal. I’m going to take more frequent stabs at publication now, because I now remember what a high it is.
Finally, I’m reading the best book ever, and it’s weird, because it’s actually a textbook. But not like a biology one. The Pleasures of Children’s Literature , at least thus far, is an amazing resource on literature study of any kind, of literature teaching of any kind, and it’s really inspiring a lot of exploration and thinking. So I have a post in the works with my ideas coming out of the first few chapters of that.
Hooray for the dog days of summer, when things begin to have meaning again! Being mostly unemployed might be the best thing ever to happen to me.
Posted in news
Tagged blogging , books , happy , life , news , travel , writing
Jul · 12
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