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come on to me, my winter son
Feb. 21st, 2003 03:08 pmhad a pretty cool week apart from too much walking around in the way-too-cold has made my eczema pretty bad (I think it's that, at least, whenever it's sunny I reckon heat sets it off) and my face and neck and calves are all itching the whole time: last time I had it this bad was when I's 17 and ended up gouging half my face off . . .
went out for Matt's birthday mid-week and hung around with his friends (you know you're in with the right crowd when you all get to someone's flat and three peole all immediately pull out their iBooks) one of whom told me all about the PhD he never quite finished which I's really fascinated by. As far as I think I followed it, it was basically comparing Greek drama with modern film by way of a Freudian analysis of the audience-reaction they elicited, specifically comparing the story-arcs of the Bacchae and Natural Born Killers. In brief it was all about cool, transgressive figures who audiences are induced to sympathise with in spite of their actions before the veil is torn away, their brutality starkly revealed and the audience left aghast and discomforted at their earlier sympathy. It made me really miss Classics, i've not really read anything since I left: I always felt I could never really justify doign post-grad stuff in Classics, and if I had it would have been something quite flat and grounded, I quite envy being able to make those kind of mercurial leaps that lead to the ideas and insights that really engage me. Spending the evening with them all also made me try to work out why i enjoy the company of computery people so much when I'm so technologically illiterate, altohugh I guess it's all relative: they're introducing a new computer system on my placement this week (paperless office kinda stuff) which has left all the social workers floundering helplessly but I'm actually finding it kinda easy to adapt to . . .
then yesterday (after loitering outside Euston for two hours with L.) I went on the Jack the Ripper walk with a a coup[le of friends; I'd been kinda sceptical, it was Kat's cousin whose over from Athens who had the idea and had dragged us all along, but it was actually alright. The East End's changed so much that it was hard to do too much visualising, especially since my imagination doesn't tend to work too well in that kinda way, but the information was given in a way that gave a pretty good feel for the atmosphere of things albeit one that lingered on the precise details of the mutilations with a distinct relish, although it was quite funny to see Hugh immediately go into med-student mode and try to work out all the anatomical implications. Didn't seem to put either of us off our ho-fun afterwards, though.
went out for Matt's birthday mid-week and hung around with his friends (you know you're in with the right crowd when you all get to someone's flat and three peole all immediately pull out their iBooks) one of whom told me all about the PhD he never quite finished which I's really fascinated by. As far as I think I followed it, it was basically comparing Greek drama with modern film by way of a Freudian analysis of the audience-reaction they elicited, specifically comparing the story-arcs of the Bacchae and Natural Born Killers. In brief it was all about cool, transgressive figures who audiences are induced to sympathise with in spite of their actions before the veil is torn away, their brutality starkly revealed and the audience left aghast and discomforted at their earlier sympathy. It made me really miss Classics, i've not really read anything since I left: I always felt I could never really justify doign post-grad stuff in Classics, and if I had it would have been something quite flat and grounded, I quite envy being able to make those kind of mercurial leaps that lead to the ideas and insights that really engage me. Spending the evening with them all also made me try to work out why i enjoy the company of computery people so much when I'm so technologically illiterate, altohugh I guess it's all relative: they're introducing a new computer system on my placement this week (paperless office kinda stuff) which has left all the social workers floundering helplessly but I'm actually finding it kinda easy to adapt to . . .
then yesterday (after loitering outside Euston for two hours with L.) I went on the Jack the Ripper walk with a a coup[le of friends; I'd been kinda sceptical, it was Kat's cousin whose over from Athens who had the idea and had dragged us all along, but it was actually alright. The East End's changed so much that it was hard to do too much visualising, especially since my imagination doesn't tend to work too well in that kinda way, but the information was given in a way that gave a pretty good feel for the atmosphere of things albeit one that lingered on the precise details of the mutilations with a distinct relish, although it was quite funny to see Hugh immediately go into med-student mode and try to work out all the anatomical implications. Didn't seem to put either of us off our ho-fun afterwards, though.
