One last tidbit: click to read "dive for dreams"


http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/80/3#20591780

Visuals

 

Good morning Louisville!  From the window of my hotel room...which, by the way, I could open for fresh air purposes!

 

This is the first thing I saw on entering campus, the front of Grawemeyer Hall.  I know nothing about it yet, but it's lovely.

 

This hall also boasts a (repro?) Rodin!

 

And here's one of the figures in the niches on front.

 

I'm not sure what direction this was in, or what quad I was standing on, but isn't it a pretty view?

 

I think this is a peek from the Bingham Humanities Building, where the conference was located.

 

After the conference, we all repaired to the Brown hotel for cocktails.  This place is gorgeous.  If I had the bucks, I might have stayed here instead!  Then again, I do prefer homecooking and making my own bed to room service and doormen.  Still, it's a beautiful building!

 

Scene from the lobby.

 

There were at least two of these chairs, and I really, really wanted to sit in one, but I wasn't sure if that was allowed!

So that's that!  I shove off at 5:00 AM tomorrow, and I'll be back in NJ by noon. I had a great time, but I'm eager to be back home :) 

Done!

So,  at 1:30, after some preliminary remarks from Michael Webster of Grand Valley State U, I presented my paper!  It went really well, I saw quite a few heads bobbing as I spoke (it's a good sign when academics twitch in unison).  The arrangement of papers was superb, even if I was a little bashful to go first.  The next paper, by April Fallon of Kentucky State U, concentrated on the little-explored territory of Cummings and surrealism.  Given the qualities of some of his erotic work (and other themes he employed), Surrealism is a great fit.  After that paper, came Gillian Huang-Tiller's "Armor Amoris" paper (as I've nicknamed it), which explored his use of sonnets for his erotica.  Sonnets are one of the sterotypical "formal" forms, so to see bawdy poems about strippers or prostitutes, or tender poems about lovers, strippers, or prostitutes done in that format continues to blow my mind.

The post-panel discussion was immensely fruitful, and I came away with several ideas to use in later research, including "ethical eroticism", a term I now realise I've been waiting for years to here!  I also want to investigate possibilities for queering the erotic Cummings poems.  It's always tricky to apply queer theories and lenses to writers you know were not queer, but I think the subcanon of Cummings' erotica could use some invigorating new perspectives.  And besides, the erotic truth of these poems always struck me - charges of misogyny are too simplistic when dealing with such a rich sexual consciousness.  Also, how sure are we that we're in a male speaker's head in some of these poems?  So much to consider, so much to think and write on!

It's 5 now, and I'm taking a little brain break before heading to the keynote speaker.  I may leave right after that, since I'm actually quite tired.  What a shame, I'm work out and it's only one day.  I feel like I should be at All The Panels, but after a while, one needs to decompress.  I'll go to the keynote, of course, try some last minute networking (hate that term, but whatchagonnado?) and get back to the Candlewood at a reasonable hour.  Maybe even post photos and watch cartoons before bed!  Then it's a 5:00 departure for the airport and a 6-something AM flight.  I'll be back in NJ around noon, and I think I'm going to need a long nap when I get home!!!

At the Uni!

I'm sitting in room 300 of the Bingham Humanities building at the U of Louisville.  The first block of panels just let out, and there's scholars everywhere, wandering around, eating pastries and making coffee.  I'm always interested to see how homey conference get...no august groups of tweed clad New Yorker cartoons, just people in sensible shoes, pecking away at laptops and sipping Maxwell House (which is flippin' everywhere down here...is it a KY company?)

I got here at about 9:30 this morning, after one of the nicest cab rides I've ever had.  Not the cheapest, but the cabbie was nice and wouldn't let me tip him after I told him I'm in education - our modest salaries are well known!

I also met the conference coordinator, who(m?) I have been chatting with for a while, so "props" as the kids say, to Shari Gater for being such a big help with the conference registration...lovely lady!

There will be some photos posted later tonight when I get back to the hotel.  It's a little too chilly to run around campus taking snapshots, but I did score one or two nice ones of the Rodin reproduction outside one of the buildings. 

In about 40 minutes, the next block of conferences will begin, and I plan on attending the "McCarthy and Modernity" panel. Not only am I interested in that period of literature and history, it's a good warm-up for my panel at 1:30, titled "Sex and Death": Re-reading Modernism, E. E. Cummings, and the Erotic", organized by Dr Gillian Huang-Tiller of the E. E. Cummings society. I really look forward to meeting Dr. Huang-Tiller, since my involvement with this conference originally stems from her responding so kindly to a cold-call email I sent about Cummings' erotica.  If memory serves, she's the one that invited me to submit my paper, so it's her fault my Jersey accent will be ringing thru the halls of Louisville U :)

The campus itself, from what I've seen, is like a mix of RU-New Brunswick (very pretty old buildings) and my own dear RU-Newark (concrete blocks).  This must really be something in the spring, but unfortunately, the chill and the high winds make excursions less attractive. 

I'm going to do a bit of shopping at the book tables pretty soon.  Hopefully there's a tasty student discount (I still count as such!) since academic publications tend to become expensive rather fast. 

After that, I'll post some notes on the McCarthy panel as it unfolds, and then high-tail it to the free grad student lunch at 1:00.  Free.  Lunch.  Oh yes, I'm there!

At 1:30 sharp, I'll be with Dr Huang-Tiller & co., and I get to present first.  I went over my paper again this morning, and I have it to about 15 minutes, 17 at the outside.  Perfect, perfect, perfect - we're given 20 minutes, and I'd much rather go under than be "that panelist" and go over.  There's also a small powerpoint I have to coordinate with my talk.  I have misgivings about the necessity of powerpoint, but I find it keeps people's attention, as it's large and shiny.  Large and shiny sell, folks.

After my own panel, I'm torn between a few others, so I'll roll some dice and find out how I'll be spending my afternoon.  With any luck, there's a local dinner or something, and I'll make some acquaintances to nosh with.  If not, it's back to the adorable efficiency in my hotel room to make some soup and noodles. 

That's not as lonely as it sounds, really, because I have discovered something wonderful about the hotel: food is cheap.  Seriously - 50 cents for a can of soup , another half dollar for a pack of noodles, 75 cents for a can of soda....holy crap!  There's a little store-thing in the hotel that runs on the honor system.  You go in, get what you need, write down what you bought, and its charged to your bill.  Normally, that would be an opportunity for the hotel to put on really wild markups, but this one has things at rather low rates.   Yes folks, this gets me excited - saving money and not having to rely on fast food!

Anyway, it's 10:21, so I'm going to go shop and make my way to the panel now.

Terra Firma!

Finally got into Louisville in one piece!  The first leg of the trip wasn't so bad, but I missed my connection in NC, so I got to KY about 2 hours later than I anticipated.  At that point, I said to myself that I was not even going to attempt the conference.  "Liz," I said, "you are going to get to that hotel room, take your shoes off, have dinner, and watch TV".  And I heartily agreed with myself - Right now I'm in that room, watching Cartoon Network, and eating soup. 

While I appreciate the helpfulness of the airport worker in getting me on the plane, I still felt like a zombie when we touched down.  I will say this, though, Louisville is pretty at night!  The lights were like a glitter explosion!

Fun hilights so far:

-One of the top 5 best burgers I've had in my life at the Newark mini-Ruby Tuesdays.  Yeah, I know, a chain making a decadent burg?  Turkey/avocado, some kind of really tasty roll (not bun, darlings, but *roll*), fresh lettuce and tomatoes with TASTE!  And rice pilaf as a side.  This gives Old Man Rafferty's a run for its burger money :)

-A big, beautiful, burning, honey-amber sun setting over the Carolina airport.  I wish I could have snapped a photo. 

-the lady at the front desk laughing at my lame joke about travel difficulties, "I almost had to ride in here on a broomstick!"  yuk-yuk.  I appreciate the courtesy...makes me feel a little more human.

So yes, tonight I unwind, and limber up my presenting muscles.  Students, if you're reading, this *totally* involves a stunningly choreographed martial arts training scene.  See, see how exciting teachers' lives are?

Good night, all, I should have some fun tales to tell tomorrow!

In case any students wander in here...

This conference is about many topics, but I'm presenting in one little "corner" of it, called a panel.  This panel is about the poet E. E. Cummings (that's him on the right there --->)

I'm going to be reading some of my research to a roomful of other teachers, researchers, and professors.  There's a couple of other people with me on that panel, and all our papers are related.  We'll go to other people's panels, there's events (dinners!) and maybe a little  sightseeing if we're lucky.

Below are some links to short biographies of Cummings, and a couple of his poems, if you've never heard of him, or want a refresher.  You'll notice the poems look weird - they're supposed to :)  He got very creative with poetry, and pushed the boundaries of how a poem can look on a page.  But often his poems were actually in strict, traditional forms, like sonnets (like Shakespeare did), even though they were pretty wild-looking.

Poets.org - Bio and some poems

"i carry your heart with me"



Many of his poems centered on love, romance, and sex (which I'll be discussing).  He also liked the nightlife, so there's a lot about shows, dancers, plays, and clubs.  There's a serious side to this guy, though.  He served in WWI, there's also a significant amount of his poetry that deals with the experience of being in the armed forces.  He was a POW for a while, and wrote about his experience in The Enormous Room.  His poems that focus on the military and wartime are often pretty critical of peoples' attitudes towards war.  Here's an example of one of these poems, which I'll be talking about a little this Friday:

"my sweet old etcetera 
aunt lucy during the recent 

war could and what 
is more did tell you just 
what everybody was fighting 

for, 

my sister 

isabel created hundreds 

(and 

hundreds) of socks not to 

mention shirts fleaproof earwarmers 

etcetera wristers etcetera, my 
mother hoped that 

i would die etcetera 

bravely of course my father used 

to become hoarse talking about how it was 

a privilege and if only he 

could meanwhile my 

self etcetera lay quietly 
in the deep mud et 

cetera 

(dreaming, 

et 

cetera, of 
Your smile 
eyes knees and of your Etcetera)"

The poem's speaker is writing a letter back home while he's at war.  Notice how he lists "socks" and "wristers" - the speaker got socks, gloves, and other items from his family back home.  People with relatives serving in WWI would often send care packages to the soldiers much like they do today.  It's likely Cummings himself received things from his family when he was stationed in Europe.  The next thing to look at is "bravely of course my father used to become hoarse talking about how it was/ a privilege" right after the speaker talks about dying in battle.  The next image right after that is the speaker sitting in the "deep mud" (WWI saw a lot of trench warfare - google it!) dreaming about his girlfriend.  Cummings gives us an image  of a family safe back home becoming overly emotional about the possibility that the speaker (and others like him) may die in battle - he's critiquing patriotism and glamorizing war.  This is contrasted with the less-glamorous reality of being in the service, sitting in the mud, scared and bored by turns, wanting some intimate company. 

In one poem, Cummings makes a commentary on military life, patriotism, and human desires - as you can see there's a lot going on under the surface of this odd-looking poem!

Stay tuned for updates and photos!!

Just get me thru the week...

It's Sunday, and I'll be flying out Thursday.  I'm all prepared paperwise (not really, since I have to read it over a billion and one times and consider how I'll trip up!) and I'll be doing pre-packing laundry so I have things to wear in Kentucky.  Everything's booked, it's just gotta happen now.  How does anything do anything else the week before a conference?  One should get a special exemption to fret and fuss for at least three days previous.