Day 9

Again I didn't pick up on what everyone else did.1 We're discussing Orlando. It's an interesting read. However, it opens up the "battle of the sexes" which bores me. We talk about the passage of time, reliability of the narrator, inconsistency, duality, and so on. Sometimes I can put myself in the discussion2, other times I sit out. She remembered my name today, which I count as a great success.

Unlike in 3701, the discussion is pretty well distributed. It's a smaller class, but more people want to speak up. I have not yet drawn conclusions about this.


NOTES:
1- Luckily I won't have to turn in "talking points" anymore. I'm much better at responding than initiating. I can think on my feet and make something up to go along with what someone else has said, but until I get the English major brain, coming up with topics from nothing is a pain. (Check it. A poem.)
2- I have to admit I like the 18 year old's comment about the oak tree becoming a symbol (or metaphor or metonymy?) for Orlando. Especially in conjunction with the idea that he only keeps the childhood poem entitled The Oak Tree: a poem which he then writes, rewrites and unwrites. Perhaps I can devise an intelligent comment on the idea that he is deconstructing and recreating his life culminating in his transformation into a woman. I'll get the tech people to work on it.