(no subject)

Today is a day almost wholly away from my desk. I have two exhibitions at attend (and to talk my students through) at the National Library. The other staff member is a trained curator, so it should be rather a cool expedition. After that, the last books I need to read of both Hayden White and Georg Lukacs (Lukacs in translation, for my language skills don't feel good today() are waiting for me, also at the National Library.

In the evening, a group of us are raising a glass to Jimmy Goodrum. I still miss him. I still want to curse that rip on the beach where he went swimming on Christmas Eve. The only thing I can do is meet with friends and remember him, and hopefully listen to some readings of his work.

Because all this involves much walking I have a normal size handbag for once, and I'm not taking my computer. Lots of paper, spare pens (for my students) and reading glasses and I shall be fine. Except that tomorrow I might turn off the alarm. Insomnia last night followed by a long day today, all with interesting breathing...

I have other news, but it can wait: I hear the call of a library.

(no subject)

It's been a day for extremes. I did my bit of editing at an unholy hour, due to insomnia, then I woke up in plenty of time to teach my 5 hours, very intensely.

My students (and the others from the program, who came just for the excursion) want to learn so very much that I found myself talking them through nearly every single item in two exhibitions. The first exhibit took us through some extraordinary history. They now know about 18th century naval promotions and why one needed maths, the sad story of Bligh (and the rather less sad story of his daring daughter), about Eddie Mabo and what sort of furniture works in a captain's cabin. We talked about palm leaf manuscripts and the Malleus Maleficarum and the history of handwriting and the difference between a life mask and a death mask. We talked about Federation and the Australian constitution. And that was about 1/20th of the first exhibition. In the second, we covered everything from the structure of Medieval manuscripts through the way scientists communicated in the 18th and 19th centuries, talked about Marie Curie and Rosa Luxembourg and spent a fair while on learning how to interpret musical scores. A member of the public hovered near us for quite a bit of the time, which I found reassuring (we must have been an interesting group).

I had a bit of a break and a chat with a friend, and then read my five books. One of the Hayden White's was good but all his writing is such hard work taht I fell out of love with him for a full hour. Georg Lukacs, on the other hand, thought so very lucidly about the issues I was looking for that my notes almost wrote themselves and I could instantly see how my argument may fit together. I doubt my share of the lucidity will last, but I love the clarity of his mind. I also love that neither scholar did anything close to what I'm actually doing - every time I discover I'm not reinventing the wheel, I feel rather relieved.

I think I'm nearly finished my library work for this dissertation. I still have piles of reading downloaded from various sources and a few more books in appropriate stacks, but I'm making solid headway.

We farewelled Jimmy at the pub and I am slightly inebriated. This is good, because I came home to discover that another friend has made his public farewell. It's pouring outside, which means the weather shares my view of such things.

I was nearly run over crossing the road on the last leg of my long day. It's dark (it's night!) and a car painted darkly didn't have its headlights on and refused to stop or swerve when they saw me (I wonder if it was stolen?). Fortunately, I can run quickly.