Liturgy
Vacation goes on. Long enough that I can spend at least a few days not thinking about Hampshire shit. Haven't written in this in a while and remembered to, so here I am!

I was really worried about Jan Term. I was signed up for an intensive class that was three hours a day, five days a week. I signed up because it was in my Div II's area, but it was focusing on media formats, and I'm not interested in media in and of itself; I'm interested in how people use media to tell their stories. And then the professor had the great idea of shortening the class to two weeks, which would extend class time to three and a half hours a day and increase the outside-of-class workload.

So I ditched it. I'm doing an EPEC course instead: 20 Poems in 20 Days. I haven't done poetry since high school, and while I'm not going to pursue it academically (as frankly I question what real-world job skills such a pursuit would provide), it should be fun. This will also give me time to pursue summer plans. I've lined up some internships I'm interested in, specifically one with the ACLU in Seattle that I think I have a fair chance of getting, given my interest and knowledge in civil liberties. So when I'm not cranking out a poem, I can polish my resume and write cover letters. So I'm pretty satisfied about that.

Post-Jan Term is a little scarier, but I'm confident I'll survive and I'm trying not to worry about it. The big wild-card is whether I can get the previously-mentioned independent study pulled together; given how overworked Hampshire professors are, I'm guessing not, but I'm hoping! And if I can, then the question is what class I drop. My first instinct is to drop my Hampshire course (Public Diplomacy) but that would probably be a bad idea, given that then I'd have ALL narrative classes (one in literature, one in video games, and one in film) and I have previously had few to none (depending on how you count things). Plus, then I'm going to Mount Holyoke five days a week, which is kind of obnoxious, though I can either get a lot of reading or music-listening done on the bus.

As far as Georgia, not doing much. Riding around the island in cars as people do errands. Reading. Playing a few games (currently Professor Layton & The Curious Village with a bit of Hotel Dusk on the side).

I got Neal Stephenson's Anathem for Christmas, which I leapt into (having just finished Iain Bank's Inversions). Early on, I was worried and confused. Apart from its encyclopedic style (this week's themes: philosophy and mathematics), it beared little resemblance to Stephenson's other books. His novels, despite being on diverse subjects, are united by his strong and distinctive authorial voice. This voice was gone from this novel. It took me a while to figure out why: the book is theoretically penned by the main character, and so the authorial voice is his, not Stephenson's. Which is impressive; I figured that Stephenson couldn't suppress his voice if he wanted to. Apparently I was wrong. Bet Gaiman can't do it, though.

Anyway, the book was quite slow at first. With many books, there is a transition period; it takes some time to get used to the writing style, and so you have to read a certain number of pages before the book becomes "transparent" - you're in the same place in the author and so you cease to notice the writing and interface with the story directly. With Snow Crash, this took me 5-10 pages, as I was unused to his writing style then.

With Anathem, it took me maybe 80. The first 50 pages you're just trying to learn the language - literally (the book has a lengthy glossary of made-up words). After that you're trying to figure out what the hell the book is trying to do and where it's going. But things really pick up around page 90, and it starts accelerating and becomes quite readable. I read 80 pages today, which is unusual for me (given that I slow-read, particularly novels as dense as this). I hope to have the thing finished by the end of Jan Term.