Tuesday, January 30, 2007

"Always Now" Assigned Reading

Your cultured appreciation of beauty, œconomy and simplicity compells you to read all the poems in the second volume of Miss Avison's collected works Always Now: but, alas, exigency of lecture has countervailing compulsion to intensive reading. Accordingly, here follows a list of select pages upon which you might fruitfully concentrate your time and attention.
Pp. 17-40, 43-7, 50-53, 58, 65-7, 70-1, 79, 89, 92, 146-7, 153-4, 161-2, 164-5, 170-8, 185, 194, 258-9.
Update: spelling error corrected.
Update2: clarified pp 17-40, 153-4, and 164-5. (Hat-tip, "Melissa" in the comments.)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

you made a grammar mistake
"...upon which you might fruitful concentrate your time and attention."
fruitful should be fruitfully

Anonymous said...

Hey Professor Ogden,

Quick question: Is it really true that "new woman" refers to someone more sexually liberated? Because I'm reading Dracula for another English course, and the main female role, Mina Harker, mentions being a "new woman", but she is not painted as sexually "free of restraint" in Dracula, as "new women" were described in class, infact Van Helsing said she was quite smart, and academically driven (though in a sort of insulting way, her having a "man's mind"). Maybe you can shed some light on this? Because I would consider her a "Blue Stocking" by your definitions, but she was still called a "new woman". Also, did being a "New Woman" have negative connotations? I thought maybe they would as how it was presented in class?

Thanks for taking the time to read the post, and if there are any corrections to be made, please correct me.

PS: I was late in lecture today (9:35) I make no excuse for it other than the lineup at Production was long and I left early from home. I think no matter what, the fact that students who come in silently to find their seat should be welcomed, not heckled. They chose to come to class at all, which is better than what some others can say. Why do they get teased, whilst the others who dont even come to class don't? The worst they get is a bad mark, but the people who are trying in your class to come just get shot down. Maybe next time that person who was late 15 minutes will sacrifice their mark and not come to class just so they won't get singled out. I dear hope that should not happen, otherwise, what's the point of an education at Simon Fraser University?

Dr. Stephen Ogden said...

Thanks for the spelling correction (does misspelling euqal bad grammer?) I get a lot of those on the blog because (a.) I don't believe in automated spelling checkers, and (b.) blog posts are comfortable & manually checking spelling is an unbloggy drag!

Dr. Stephen Ogden said...

Dear Ms. Euler:
Great comment: thanks! Please keep 'em coming.

"Better late than never, but better never late." I know from long experience that in the real world, late arrival has real consequence, so a cheery mention from an amiable & well-meaning Prof, here in an institution designed to prepare one for real life, has to be a good thing.

And I like what you say very much: missing entirely, on the other hand, has real consequence even here in university -- in your own perceptive term "you get a bad mark!"

Regards New Woman versus Blue Stocking, I'll add a blog post with more detail. First, though, what was it specifically that made it appear that the New Woman was being presented depreciatingly?

My thanks again: as I say, keep up the helpful comments.

Dr. Stephen Ogden said...

Dear Ms. Euler:
Regarding Stoker's Dracula, the text itself labels Mina Harker explicitly as being not a New Woman (e.g. ch.8 "I believe we should have shocked the 'New Woman' with our appetites. Men are more tolerant, bless them!"
The reader's interpretation of her status vis-à-vis proto-feminism, of course, can always contest the direct reading.

More on this in a main post.
Best

M said...

When you say pp. 40, do you mean all of the poem "On?".. or just focus our attention on that one page..? Same for page 153 and 165

Dr. Stephen Ogden said...

Dear Melissa: thanks for the request for clarification -- I've made the adjustment on the post.
Much appreciated.