dirae - Profile (original) (raw)
on 19 January 2003 (#862009)
"I consider myself a perpetual English major, but I still get into bar fights." -Ted Leo
The Long-Winded Prose: I am a 31 year old wife and mother prone to fits of misanthropic humanism on par with Margot Channing from All About Eve. I also love the films Harold and Maude and Chinatown. Also, during a subsequent reading of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces several coincidences between the book and the rest of my life arose. Strangely enough, such facts say so much without really saying anything.
At times posting is sporadic at best because I am either too busy to be bothered posting anything or I simply took a vacation from my online identity for awhile. So be it.
I once thought I had found an ounce of fame after having been published in a briefly significant magazine catering to those types who would spend their last three dollars on literature instead of food or shelter. Now, as the folly of youth falters, I’ve immersed myself in academia--teaching College Composition, Comparative Literature, Philosophy and Humanities courses to a very small group of students in an equally small Southern town. Unlike those who feel prolific in the poverty often associated with the arts, I think teaching provides a perfect cushion. Where else can I sit around for hours analyzing the use of the color green as a symbol for Limbo in post-Romantic literature and consider it working, much less get a monthly check for it?
The gambit is clear; I wish to dive into the wreck of modern culture with a wry élan... that is--food, music, literature, film & other finds.
Like most everyone, I have a website, though not much of one.
You can also read a couple of my short stories on the web:
Liars Prosper
Waterlogged
Still Warm From Some Other Breakdowns
Years ago, when I was a poet of youthful folly, Tom Fallon of the now defunct Apples & Oranges; Oranges & Apples lit-web-mag published much of my early poetics. I also studied with the awe-inspiring Dr. Mark Facknitz (and his lovely wife, Susan). This blog may not show it, but Dr. Facknitz taught me how to research and how to write a paper without the meticulous literary bullshit most Lit. majors gadabout. Because of him, I am the type of teacher (and thinker) I am. (Do a Google search on this man and see how often his literary theories have been absorbed into the likes of eNotes and Sparknotes... He's a god among literary theorists, and--now it seems-- a god among the Everyman.)
“It's hard to get along with people. As much as you try to like them and accept them as individuals, it becomes difficult because they keep getting out of line and wasting your time.” - Henry Rollins
Therefore, if you don't waste my time or get out of line, things will be copacetic...
And, just to keep things in perspective: “Twelve million Americans (8 percent of Internet users) have blogs and 57 million (39 percent of Internet users) read the damn things. The main subject of 37 percent of blogs are a given blogger’s “life and experiences.” Fifty-two percent of bloggers are seeking to ‘express’ themselves ‘creatively’.” (Via Wonkette)
a confederacy of dunces, aesthetics, afterlife, americana, analysis, angelo badalamenti, anomalies, arcane words, art, asylums, autosalvage, aveo, being a wastrel, being fickle, belinda carlise, berlioz, blossom dearie, bob dylan, brian jones, buddy holly, charlie parker, chet baker, chisel, cinema, cinematography, circus/carnival history, cleaners from venus, cooking, crime, cult hero, death, death cab for cutie, decadent foods/drinks, dinosaur jr., dion dimucci, disasters, dolly parton, dory previn, doubters club, entertainment, frauds, freak shows, funeral customs, grifters, guided by voices, harry houdini, historical drug usage, historical preservation, hokum, humanities, husker dü, ivan, jimmy rogers, jimmy scott, joey dee/the starliters, john coltrane, john kennedy toole, john sebastian, johnny horton, joy division, kelly hogan, kirby st. romain, linguistics, literature, loathing the word "pedagogy", matt pond pa, men who can spell, mental health, miles davis, minutemen, misfortune, modest mouse, morrissey, museum crawling, music, neko case, new order, nina simone, not being goth, old-time, parapsychology, partaking in decadent foods/drinks, period absinthe, photography, pink floyd, politics, pop culture, pseudo-science, psychology, r.e.m, rare book collecting, red house painters, russian prison tattoos, sal mineo, sea wolf, snake doctors, social sciences, spade cooley, sufjan stevens, sugar, sun kil moon, surrealism, syd barrett, tarkio, ted leo, the arcade fire, the beach boys, the bobby fuller four, the british walkers, the cocteau twins, the corn sisters, the cure, the decemberists, the harper lee syndrome, the judybats, the minutemen, the mountain goats, the pixies, the rolling stones, the smiths, the streets, the teen idles, ugly casanova, undertaking, urban ruins, urban/rural exploration, vaudeville, visqueen, wilco, xtc, young issac brock