Quick update
October 15, 2004
So this is just a quick update to let y'all know I'm fine. I looked back at that last entry. Did I really say I wanted to kill myself? Hmm. I *SO* don't want to kill myself.
Anyway, aside from the fact that I haven't actually started writing yet, the exam is fine. Actually, it's great. The questions are not as difficult as I thought they would be, yet they are so much more interesting and relevant than I thought they would be too. I'll probably want to talk more about it after I'm done, but for now I am happy to say that I am rediscovering why I fell in love with this stuff in the first place. The experience is so...bittersweat.
Anyway, I really shouldn't hang out here too long. I just wanted to take a little break, and also share a bit from what I have decided is the best study on narrative EVER. If you ever have a free afternoon and decide you want to do some fun, critical reading (it does exist!) then pick up Scholes & Kellogg's, The Nature of Narrative. These guys are snarky, anectodal, and ultimately very informative.
A sample:
"The evolution of forms within the narrative tradition is a process analagous in some ways to biological evolution. Man, considering himself the end of an evolutionary process, naturally sees evolution as a struggle toward perfection.[HA!] The dinosaur, could he speak, might have another opinion. Similarly, a contemporary novelist can see himself as the culmination of an ameliorative evolution; but Homer, could he speak, might disagree."
Heh.
Ok, I'm gonna run. To all (one?) (hi yibba!) of my Muslim readers who are fasting, Ramadan Karim. I hope that your first day of Ramadan goes as smoothly as mine did, and brings you many blessings.