Things I should probably mention here at some point

[truepenny]

1. My publishers have chosen a new title for the fourth book: Corambis. Please adjust your television sets accordingly.

2. Still waiting for my edit letter on same. This is making me tense and grouchy, so if I seem a little off, it's not you. Also, there was insomnia last night, which never makes anything better.

3. Approximately three hours after I turned in Corambis on August first, I got a call from my erstwhile department, wanting to know if I was interested in teaching an upper level course in seventeenth century literature this semester. (I.e., junior and senior English majors, and it's an elective course.) Yes, they said enticingly, you can teach anything you want.

I said yes.

(The quick rundown on the course reading, for them as are geeky enough to be interested: Lady Mary Wroth; John Donne (with quick side trips into Herbert and Vaughan); Ben Jonson and the Cavaliers (mostly Lovelace and Herrick); country house poems (Jonson, Aemilia Lanyer, Andrew Marvell, and I'm throwing in Denham's "Cooper's Hill" because it isn't a country house poem, but I'm thinking it'll be an interesting counterpoint); Hamlet; Volpone; The Atheist's Tragedy (yes, there is a logical connection there); The Revengers Tragedy; The White Devil; 'Tis Pity She's A Whore; The Changeling; and we finish out the semester with The Pilgrim's Progress.)

I'm actually kind of deeply geeked to get to do this.

Comments

[gauroth.livejournal.com]

Awesome!

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Have a play poster for Volpone (http://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/Catalogues/Works/tabid/57/frmView/Detail/itemID/60266/SID/70887/Default.aspx?SkinSrc=%5BL%5D%5Cskins%5Cprint%5Cprintfriendly) to celebrate.

Insomnia never helps anything, except perhaps improving your chances of escape if the house catches fire in the night, and that's why they sell smoke detectors.

Perhaps this geeking is a sign you've recovered from your dissertation, because you can look forward to a good wallow in this kind of thing, instead of stressing over whatever you may need to do to get Corambis ready for its primetime appearance, with clothes clean and pressed, hair combed and so on.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Corambis is OK, but I liked Summerdown. Oh well. It does match the others better. I suppose.

[heresluck]

Corambis, huh? Hmm. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but I've been thinking of Book IV as Summerdown for... not nearly as long as you have, so I'll shut up now. *g*

Also, I wave pom-poms of enthusiasm in your general direction re: the lit course. Three cheers for getting paid to make other people read stuff we like! Whee!

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Not Paradise Lost. :)

I should have totally taken my 17th century literature over there.

Yay!

[(Anonymous)]

I know it tends to stress you out, but I LOVE the thought of you teaching. It restores my faith in the universe, somehow, you and the impressionable young minds. Please remember that I think you're awesome. I can't wait to hear more about the class!

the grrly grrl

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

That would be because I hate John Milton with the passion of a thousand fiery suns.

(Also because they will already have had PL, but I wouldn't have taught it anyway. Because I would rather gouge my own eyeballs out with a spoon.)

[gwynnega]

That course looks great! (And I am geeky enough to be interested in seeing the syllabus...)

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

After this summer and the course which was really "Everything You Need to Know to Read PL" I have a grudging respect for him. Dude knew his craft.

However, that doesn't mean I should read it ever again.

[sleary.livejournal.com]

I'm still sort of croggled that a publisher willing to put out books titled Mélusine, The Virtu (yeah, I know they changed that one), and The Mirador balked at the one title out of the bunch that was a compound of two normal English words.

*headshake*

And I'm printing out that reading list, because my English department was such crap that we did read the same stuff over and over again every year. Which is why I've done Hamlet three times, but never MacBeth. Le sigh.

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

Mmm, if it weren't for the postcolonialism this year, I'd love to be doing that course. It's like mine, but with added plays.

[elaine-brennan.livejournal.com]

Urania or Pamphilia ?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Pamphilia.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

Yes, they said enticingly, you can teach anything you want.


Better than offering you crack!!! Sounds like you are going to be having fun, and the students, too.

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

How exciting! I deeply loved my 17th century lit course in college.

[rogueprairiedog.livejournal.com]

Sweet! You may have to get rid of that phrase you use about your doctorate, though--"Don't worry, I'm not using it," or something of the ilk, if memory serves.

Congrats!

[kepherie.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! If you teach as well as you write, your students are in for a treat (which I'm sure they are):)

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Damn. I'd take that class.

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

My professor last year for 16th c was actually a 17th C expert who admits to also hating Milton, and teaching as little of him as possible -- which often means feeling obligated to include it in any course covering the century, because usually, the students *won't* have done it before by choice.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

hello. I figured I should be polite and comment to say I friended you because I'm a random but very huge fan of your books. Also, I'm geeked out over your course reading selections as well.

So, er, good luck! *goes back into lurking*

Hmm...

[(Anonymous)]

...and I'd been wondering, "Why Summerdown?" a similar reason: The first three have non-English titles, but the fourth didn't fit that pattern. (But I didn't know The Virtu's title had changed* when I was thinking that....)

Anyway, I LOVE the books and don't care what they're called, as long as I can buy and read them. ;-) But I'm curious about this sort of thing (why a title's chosen, why it's changed, etc.).

* Er, what was The Virtu's original title?

Re: Hmm...

[sleary.livejournal.com]

Kekropia.

Re: Hmm...

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks! I like the title The Virtu, but Kekropia would've been great, too.