So I was in the middle of making dinner (which involved setting wine on fire, don't ask), when I heard my phone ping in the "you've got an email" sort of way. I, being a curious creature, checked the email. I was less thrilled when I saw that it came from my "srs biznis" account, and figured it was spam.

It was this instead:

Dear [Bunneh],


Please accept this email as official confirmation of acceptance of your proposal for the Ninth Biennial Conference of the International Gothic Association: Monstrous Media/Spectral Subjects. We will be contacting individually those of you who submitted two proposals or who have offered non-conventional sessions very shortly.

We are delighted to report that the response to the CFP was far in excess of expectations. As a result we are anticipating the conference will be an extremely exciting event, with around 200 participants: the largest International Gothic Association conference to date. However, as a result it has taken longer than we anticipated to process the proposals, and we apologise for any inconvenience caused by this delay.

We will be posting a draft programme and registration details on the website within the next few weeks, and will alert you by email when we have done so. Please also see the website for the most up-to-date conference news. Lancaster is a campus-based university situated a couple of miles from the town, and the conference package will reflect that by being fully inclusive. When making travel arrangements, we ask you to bear in mind that we will be providing on-campus, bed-and-breakfast accommodation as part of the conference package. This will be the most convenient and cost-effective form of accommodation available; however, you will be able to opt out of this element of the registration fee should you live nearby or wish to make other plans.

We are operating a reserve list, so we would be grateful if you could respond to this email to confirm that you still intend to attend the conference. We also hope to post abstracts on the web in advance of the conference, and if you do NOT wish your abstract to be published in this way, we ask that you indicate this.

We are very excited about what looks as if it's going to be a highly memorable occasion, and we look forward to meeting you all in July!

And then there was a lot of flailing and freaking out and... I probably screwed up my port reduction BUT I WILL LEARN TO LIVE WITH IT.

Oh, my GOD, they liked it. Holy shit.

...Mortal terror is gonna set in ANY SECOND NOW, I just know it.

Is it wrong that I'm not the least bit excited about the new P&P movie?  I mean, not even a little.  I can't even pretend to get excited over it.  I just can't.  I've seen the trailers, and my reaction has been a consistent "Meh."  I'm not trying to be a snob about it, and it looked "meh" even before I found out they cut out nearly the entire Wickham subplot, which... *shakes head*  The Wickham subplot is... I don't see how you could read the book and say, "Yeah, that guy?  Has to go." 

( My thoughts on P&P, in a nutshell - a very large nutshell... )

Thus endeth the rant.

It's the simple things that amuse me.  I'm feeling inspired (probably due to the book meme) to make some literary-themed icons, using my favorite quotes from some of my favorite novels.  So far I'm thinking Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Melmoth the Wanderer, and perhaps some stuff by Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, and/or Keats.  If anyone can give suggestions/guidance on neat backgrounds/brushes that I can use to snazz up the quotations, it'd be hugely appreciated.  For most of these (P&P being the exception), I don't have any images to go along with, so I'm going to have to get creative in other ways.  (Yes, I know there are a few film versions of WH out there -- not a fan of any of them.)

Anyway.  Off to bore myself senseless  take a nap do my marketing homework.

...

Perhaps finding something to eat first.

Actually, the subject line is a lie. I do play well with others, normally. And sometimes I get a wild hair.

For anyone who knows me, even a little bit, it's no surprise that I'm a big literature geek. And one of my all-time favorite pieces is Othello. One of my all-time favorite Shakespearean characters is Iago, made evident by my icon.

Allow me to recap my history with this play. It started innocently enough with a Shakespeare Studies course, which was required for my English BA. I'd never read Othello before, and after one reading, fell instantly in love with it. No other tragedy had ensnared me so completely. I remember reading it, hoping against hope that SOMEONE would tell Othello what Iago was doing. But, as is the nature of the Shakespearean tragedy, revelation comes too late.

I also recall that this play -- just reading it, mind you -- brought tears to my eyes. Behind the cut is one of my favorite moments in the play. In fact, it was this bit that brought tears to my eyes.

( Scene V -  )

After reading it once for class, I read it a second time, slower, so I could ... I don't know... enjoy it more.

( More Othello babblings... )
I know the play pretty well, I'm not shy to admit. So when you stick me in a room full of English undergrads, I guess... I guess I have a hard time playing nicely. Because I'm finding that, for early-twentysomethings, they're pretty damned arrogant (I know, it takes arrogance to recognize it).

So... I started having a little fun with them. You know, it's entirely possible to propose ideas you don't hold any stock in, especially with Shakespeare. There are so many different interpretations, because of the lack of stage direction -- it all depends on how it's played. I didn't really believe any of what I was suggesting, but it was fun hearing them all disagree with me.

See, the general idea that I ran with came after we looked at the following monologue:

( Sibyls, virgins, and silkworms, oh my! )

My basic argument stemmed from a scene in Act I, where Brabantio accuses Othello of witchcraft ("...what spells, what charms, what conjurations...") to gain Desdemona's love. Othello denies using any aids at all -- he won her on his own. Now this, to me, suggests that Othello is denying having anything at all to do with magic. However, the description of the handkerchief clearly suggests otherwise. So either Othello was fibbing about not using magical aids, or he's fibbing ABOUT using them.

I suggested that Othello is embroidering the truth to frighten Desdemona into telling him that she gave the handkerchief away to Cassio.

The class disagreed. Shock! However, one student suggested that Othello was too honest to lie like that. At which point I asked whether or not -- if the handkerchief was in fact magic -- it was a lie of omission for him to neglect to mention the magical properties.

By this point, I was so entertained with the class' reaction that I would dare suggest Othello capable of LYING, I thought better of continuing. I have to wonder though -- was I so easily flustered and irritated when I was an undergrad?

Harrumph! Of course not! ;)