Professor Noob's Daily Disquisitions

It's been awhile since I've written, and many things have changed. For example (and with sincere apologies to my Turkish friend) I am no longer interested in teaching abroad - at least, not at this moment. Instead I'm entering grad school next semester, partly because my friends have been equally delayed in departing from school, partly because I'm disillusioned, but mostly because I've taken a long, long look inside myself and discovered that, not only am I very slimy, but I'm also far too ravenously curious to quit learning now. There are fairytales to decode according to Jungian archetypes, connections to be drawn between Dickens' novels and subsequent social improvements in Victorian England, and most of all, lots of Lovecraft to read. I suppose my great hope is that all this scholarship will eventually influence my writing for the better, a belief validated by my study of the great authors of the last few centuries, all of whom seem to have been voracious readers. In addition, I have been accepted to study Arabic abroad this summer, an experience that I've been looking forward to for years.

My fear, pedagogically speaking, is that with all this ahead of me I'll just "check out" of the classroom and abandon my poor students to the merciless intricacies of sonnets. However, considering the enthusiasm with which I just lectured on blank verse, and the heart-warming enthusiasm my students displayed for the subject, I no longer think that is likely. No, as always, my problem is to control my passion for literature. Why attempt to undermine such love, you ask? Ask any student who's gotten his/her head bitten off for not properly appreciating Vonnegut...