What one book would you save from a burning fire, and why?
The original Beowulf manuscript. The book changed my life and opened up my head and vastly improved my writing . I cried when I got to see it for the first time in the British Library. Studying medieval literature taught me so much, especially the absurdity of obsessing about “originality”: every story has been told before, every story. But no one can tell my version of a story except me.
Read the rest over at the Broad blog as well as many other terrific writers' interviews or listen to the Broad podcast.
Somehow the week before classes is far more hectic and crazy than the week they actually begin. I shouldn't complain: I'm only teaching one course this semester. I have course releases so I can do some writing this semester (as close as I can get to a sabbatical because I jumped the line for tenure--that's me, always in a rush). At the moment, however, I'm overwhelmed by administrative tasks and other duties. More's the pity. You know how much I love rules and regulations.
3 comments:
You are the perfect combination of classic and hip--and usually at the same time.
Aw, you're so kind!
Can't top that. How often did you find yourself dropping Gothic structures into the older German? Something I couldn't help doing with modern Italian and Spanish.
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