Rae: Arthur C. Clarke died...

...at age 90. I am not a huge sci-fi fan...I pick my titles pretty carefully in that genre, but one of the most fun books and some of the best shorts I have read were written by him. I picked up some of his essays/speeches at a used book store not too long ago. I guess I will have to take a look at them now.

Lulu: great analysis of the Plath poem. I hated picking them apart in classes. How does a poem mean? I'm like you though in that I know when I have found one that speaks to me. I feel the same way you do about Plath. I went through a stage before I was married where I was really into all that social justice for women stuff...Tillie Olsen (I still like her)...Sylvia Plath...Virginia Woolf...genital mutilation in Africa...a room of my own...Carolyn Heilbrun and androgyny...it's all still swilling around in my brain but thank goodness I have calmed down a bit. Things like that can just make you crazy and so emotional. So many other causes are worth our time. And as I age, the gospel tends to put things into perspective too...this time period/life isn't all there is to God's glorious plan! My little soapbox.

I recently had an English professor say my writing was pretentious...and I was writing like I usually do and was speaking from the heart. I submitted the same paper to Prof Don Norton who wrote on it that it was quite perfect (as far as usage goes) and that it was rare to find a student who could write as well as I did. So...which am I? Pretentious or a fine writer? I think I must be somewhere in between. As Popeye might say "I yam what/who I yam." Haha.

Happy reading!