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Quantum poets
Jun. 22nd, 2011 03:15 pmThis morning wasn't very quantum (all these weeks in and we're still doing background - Quantum Physics for Poets is very solid on background), but we got to talk about toasters and blackbody radiation and electromagnetic radiation. One of my poets wants to measure and describe the spectra of love, which is something I'll leave to the physicists.
Our cultural background topics (I let my class pick their own topics today) were the history of the Holy Grail (or the stories thereof, including, of course how Chretien's continuators and the prose adaptations changed things - someone looked up my explanation and sounded surprised "She's right" he said - "She's always right" said another student, which isn't true, but fitted the mood of the day) and the difference between Pygmalion the Greek legend and Pygmalion the GBS play.
Sure as roads lead to Rome, the Holy Grail explanation led to an explanation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's writing techniques as applied to Merlin's prophecies compared with Delphic oracles and Nostradamus' prophecies. Everyone waxed prophetic and wrote in all three forms. One of my students turned out of have an amazing knack for writing prose prophecies in the style of Geoffrey of Monmouth. My favourite prophecy was that I would fall in love while I was overseas and that I would never return (in the style of Nostradamus). I pointed out that visa regulations did not work in my favour in this regard.
We also reviewed reviews again and had umpteen squillion words of the day. We had Woden and its relationship to Odin and Wutan and Wednesday, and we defined phonetics and discussed why the phonetic alphabet is so very handy. We talked about knights and laughs and shifts in English and how spelling often shows the word's origin. I was persuaded to say Sir Gawain and the Greene Knight, twice. Apparently Middle English has Monty Python beat for cuteness.
The class started early and ended late. Despite the fact that we did so much stuff that they were obviously enjoying, I was surrounded by glum faces. Not even quantum physics combined with acutely bad puns could make my students happy. One student made me two cups of her own special blend of chai. It's nice to know I will be missed, but I kept wanting to make things better. I did what I could. I gave them extra homework and also the first three episodes of Zorro's Fighting Legion, so that their review films all have trailers.
No more classwork until August.
Our cultural background topics (I let my class pick their own topics today) were the history of the Holy Grail (or the stories thereof, including, of course how Chretien's continuators and the prose adaptations changed things - someone looked up my explanation and sounded surprised "She's right" he said - "She's always right" said another student, which isn't true, but fitted the mood of the day) and the difference between Pygmalion the Greek legend and Pygmalion the GBS play.
Sure as roads lead to Rome, the Holy Grail explanation led to an explanation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's writing techniques as applied to Merlin's prophecies compared with Delphic oracles and Nostradamus' prophecies. Everyone waxed prophetic and wrote in all three forms. One of my students turned out of have an amazing knack for writing prose prophecies in the style of Geoffrey of Monmouth. My favourite prophecy was that I would fall in love while I was overseas and that I would never return (in the style of Nostradamus). I pointed out that visa regulations did not work in my favour in this regard.
We also reviewed reviews again and had umpteen squillion words of the day. We had Woden and its relationship to Odin and Wutan and Wednesday, and we defined phonetics and discussed why the phonetic alphabet is so very handy. We talked about knights and laughs and shifts in English and how spelling often shows the word's origin. I was persuaded to say Sir Gawain and the Greene Knight, twice. Apparently Middle English has Monty Python beat for cuteness.
The class started early and ended late. Despite the fact that we did so much stuff that they were obviously enjoying, I was surrounded by glum faces. Not even quantum physics combined with acutely bad puns could make my students happy. One student made me two cups of her own special blend of chai. It's nice to know I will be missed, but I kept wanting to make things better. I did what I could. I gave them extra homework and also the first three episodes of Zorro's Fighting Legion, so that their review films all have trailers.
No more classwork until August.