Lily is Incapable of Short Posts. It's a Problem.

Happy March, everyone! It’s crazy to think that it’s already so late in the year (two weeks to midterms/spring break), but also kind of lovely. It feels like I’ve been back forever and also like the semester just started (so how can it possibly be nearly halfway over?!).  It’s been a pretty crazy couple of weeks—busy and stressful, but much better now that it’s over.

Last week was particularly hectic because I had to work on (and finish) my study abroad application, which I’ve now done. I turned it in on Tuesday, so at least that’s over with—although I still have to fill out the application for the actual program itself, instead of just the one for Macalester. I really hope I end up getting do participate in the program because it’s shockingly perfect for me. As part of applying, I had to list the classes that I’d be taking, which only made me more excited. In Florence, I would take three classes—The Medici as Patrons of the Arts; Florence Through the Eyes of the Victorians; Italian Language—and in London, two—Embodying Spaces: Contemporary English Theatre in its Historical, Architectural, Cultural, Geographic, and Moral Settings; London as Visual Text. ALL OF THESE SOUND INCREDIBLY EXCITING. And, of course, I’m dying to visit these two cities. I’ve wanted to go to London for years now, and studying Renaissance art has made Florence seem incredibly exciting. *fingers crossed*

As part of turning in my study abroad proposal, the school required a copy of my self-designed major (IDIM) plan as well. So I finally had to just finish the damn thing, and I’ve posted as the blog post immediately before this one so that everyone can read it. If any of you have thoughts, suggested alterations, comments, etc., please e-mail them to me—I want this to be as good as possible before I go meet with my professors for the last time before I ask them for recommendation letters! I’m planning to do that sometime during the next week so that I can give them plenty of time to write them. The proposal isn’t due until I start registration for junior year classes (late April), but I’d much rather turn it in significantly earlier than that, not least so that I’ll be better able to pick my classes.

Although I’d read all the information on the registrar office’s website about turning in an IDIM, some of the language of that suggested that there were particular forms that I had to fill out, so I asked about it when I went to declare my Art History major. (Which is a thing that I just recently did—I need to have declared a major in order to apply for study abroad, so my study abroad advisor suggested that I just declare either English or Art History [since those are my back-up plans anyway] in order to make things less complicated.) They gave me this crazy packet of forms, but I’ll need to e-mail or visit them to clarify some things anyway—I can’t tell exactly how they want the letters from faculty turned in.

I just turned in my first paper for Art of the West on Friday, so here’s hoping I did well on that. I’m feeling a little unsure about it because Joanna requested a visual analysis—which is a very specific type of paper based entirely on the visual components of the image—and then asked for some sort of argument regarding the image based on historical and cultural information. Which doesn’t really compute with the connotations of the original assignment. And she wanted this in four pages, which doesn’t seem like enough space for a thorough job of both a visual analysis as well as a cultural one. I mean, you could do a good job of one or the other in four pages, but both?? I’m not sure how well I did balancing the two (even though I may have possibly gone to about four and two-thirds pages) rather different demands (and, from what I could tell regarding people’s mood in class, no one else felt any more certain).

I wrote the paper on this painting:

which is entitled The Annunciation (unsurprisingly) and which was painted by Girolamo da Santacroce (who seems to be entirely unremarkable, according to the internet). The only requirements regarding our choice of painting were that it be from between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries and that it was housed in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (so that we could observe it in person). I went last week to the museum for this purpose, which was rather nice. I always like going to the MIA, even if I spend most of my time there in front of one painting. But this painting actually ended up being rather interesting, both because it has a certain complexity of style (late Renaissance, but with some of the artistic ideals of early Renaissance painting) and because of the message I eventually settled upon. My argument was that this painting focused on the redemption of women by Mary’s actions. In medieval and Renaissance theology, Mary acted as a similar savior figure for women as Jesus did for men, especially as a way of redeeming women from Eve’s actions. While there are several reasons for my belief that this painting focuses on this element of the annunciation story, the most convincing (in my opinion), is the series of ‘carvings’ to Mary’s left in the painting. Here are my (kind of crappy, sorry) close-up photos of those:

The top is the creation of Eve, the second is the temptation, and the last is the expulsion from the garden. What is interesting about these, though, is that they all focus on Eve as the main character. For the top image, this is unsurprising (although one might expect God to be a more prominent figure), but what is surprising is that there is no corresponding image of the creation of Adam (as there is in the Sistine Chapel, for instance). In the second image, Eve again seems more prominent because of the cast shadow darkening Adam’s figure, and in the last, she is probably the figure in the forefront and center of the panel. Although it is not entirely clear which of them is which, the middle figure covers its chest and the other (to the back and right) does not appear to have breasts. When I first looked at the image, it seemed like a pretty regular representation of the annunciation, but all of these details made it way more exciting. There were a great deal more things about this painting that I would have liked to write about or research, especially the left side of the painting, which is generally confusing. Given the disguised (or not-so-disguised) symbolism rampant throughout the rest of the painting, it seems extremely likely that there is some meaning to the ‘painting’ on the wall behind Gabriel and to the mysterious ‘statue’ above it:

I have no idea what’s going on with him, especially since I could not for the life of me read what was on the banner/sash/thingy he’s carrying. Seriously, you could write a freaking thesis on this painting—there is so much weird stuff going on in it. Anyway, as confusing as Joanna’s instructions were, I really enjoyed doing this ‘close reading’ of this crazy Renaissance painting. (Also—FLYING BABIES. It’s a thing.)

This class has otherwise been pretty great. We’ve moved on to high Renaissance art (huzzah!) and Mannerism. My general theory of art and literature (and one reason for wanting to study it in my academic career) is that the more you know, the more you love. When I learn about the cultural context or techniques or details of an artwork, I can usually learn to love even the things that aren’t immediately fascinating—you can appreciate them for their complexity and skill. This has been true for me with some of the high Renaissance artworks that are far over-shown. Leonardo’s Mona Lisa or Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam, for example, have become refrigerator-magnet-ubiquitous to the point where it’s hard to appreciate them. But studying them as revolutionary for their time gives me an entirely new respect for them.

My other classes have continued in much the way they began. Professor Warde continues to be fascinating and charming and frequently hilarious (although sometimes I’m not sure his hilarity is exactly intentional­). We had our first test (an in-class essay) last Wednesday on Mary Barton, which I got an A on (yay!). Then we read Darwin’s autobiography (which was fascinating) and now we’re going to read Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” for Monday. The most interesting part of Darwin was probably his very frank discussion of his religious beliefs/fears/doubts and the most HILARIOUS part is a young Darwin’s musings on whether or not to marry. They’re not actually part of the autobiography, but Darwin’s granddaughter put them in the appendix to her edition. Darwin debates with himself in the most absurd way I’ve ever seen—simultaneously scientific and childish, emotional and emotionless. My favorite part is when he says that, if he marries, he’ll have “less money for books &c”. I admit, it’s a convincing reason not to marry! (Here’s a link to the whole thing: http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwins-notes-on-marriage.) When we were discussing this, Professor Warde brought up a supposed statistic saying that 80% of married people have met the person they’re going to marry by the time they’re twenty-one (at which point everyone in my class quietly [or not-so-quietly] panicked). One student asked him if this was true for him and, after a moment of thought, he said that it was, adding, “Which is amazing, because I went to an all-boys school and I didn’t marry a guy. What are the odds?” This is the kind of Wardeian earnestness that is so fantastic when applied to the literature we’re reading.  

British Youth Subcultures hasn’t been moving as quickly because two weeks ago everyone was kind of mmphy and having trouble being articulate in discussions and this week Dr. J was home sick with the flu. On Tuesday we watched a movie instead of having class—this crazy glam rock fantasy story. We’ve been focused primarily on glam rock lately—David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Susie Quatro, etc.—and although I’m never going to be a fan of Bowie’s music, his performances are fascinating. Studying glam rock has also given me a better way to talk about why I can respect Lady Gaga as a performer and businesswoman without particularly wanting to listen to her music. She’s kind of a perfect manifestation of a new wave of glam rock.

Shakespeare continues to be rather boring, but we have our first paper due Tuesday, so at least I’ll have to work hard for that class for a weekend or so. We read Othello for this week and we’re starting Macbeth soon. I think I’m still going to write my paper about Richard III and prophecy, but I’ll give you an update about that next time I write (WHICH WILL BE ON THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING BREAK—WHAT).

Otherwise, I’ve been keeping myself busy with reading a few books for fun and (of course) getting obsessed with a new television show. I swear, it’s like eighteen years without television set me up to get really excited about it now. I BLAME YOU, PARENTS. Also I just really love fan culture. My newest show is Battlestar Galactica (damn it, Clara!). Last semester, there was a point when this show came up in the midst of our C18 discussions on personhood and this one girl and my professor got into this really excited conversation about the show. I’ve been curious about it since that, and then Clara said that it was really good, and then I started watching AND NOW EVERYTHING IS PAINFUL. At least having new characters to cry over has helped console me for the tragic demise of one of my old favorite shows. I used to (how tragic it is to use the past tense!) love this sitcom called Community that was this loving, hilarious parody of all things television/fandom/nerd. It never crossed the line into obvious satire, was constantly surprising (and occasionally moving—I actually cried during one episode), and made fun of the conventions of every genre ever while simultaneously celebrating them. Now, though, the showrunner/head-writer was forced out and it’s now a sort of bemused-but-snarky pastiche of nerd culture. *sob*

The books I’ve been reading are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (okay, so not a book, but still), this charming, sparsely-written, YA prose-poem of a novel called Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, and this annoyingly melodramatic (and strangely highly-acclaimed) YA sci-fi series called The Mortal Instruments that I’m only sticking with because there’s this one secondary character that I really love and I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO HIM.

Today I had a breakfast teatime with friends (with a chocolate babka roll from Breasmith—YUM). My lovely friends from Doty 4 and I sat around and chatted about our lives, the things that are stressing us out, tea, and the relative sexiness of geology as a profession. These people are hilarious and lovely and the best (non-family) support system that I could ask for and hanging out with them makes everything better. I only wish we were able to do this kind of gathering more often.

I finished off the day with a DELICOIUS cheese shop sandwich and half of an absurdly large brownie from Breadsmith.

Yes, the brownie half  IS as big as half of the sandwich. No, that is not a trick of the photography.

In a few minutes, Charmaine and I are going to head off to the gym for our continued exercise-buddy-ness and hopefully a rousing post-work-out game of ping-pong.

Though I know the weather is perhaps a silly way to end, I just have to say that—to my great delight—the temperatures are warming up and the clouds are receding. Best of all, the other morning I woke up and realized that, for the first time in a while, I could hear birdsong. SPRING MUST BE COMING!!! Prepare yourself for an influx of tulip pictures.

It’s possible that I will fail to write in two weeks because I’ll be travelling all morning, but I promise to make the attempt. If not, I’ll write at the end of spring break.

Love you all!

P.S. When I sat down to write my blog, I thought, “What on earth am I going to talk about?? Nothing ever happens to me.” Then I wrote four pages. Oops…


UPDATE: Charmaine and I did get to play ping-pong for a while after our exercise, which was lovely and also absurd. Neither of us, it turns out, are particularly good at ping-pong, although by the end we had drastically improved. There was much hilarity, some Matrix-esque dodging, an accidental attack of some poor girl sitting near the table, and a creation of a new art form: ping-pong arabesques.

And, for the doubters, a picture of Kofi Annan's signature:

Charmaine pointed out that if we pronounced Kofi like coffee....it's KOFI TABLE! Thank you, roommate-selection gods, for pairing me with a roommate who is not only extremely kind and intelligent, a fan of poetry and Singing in the Rain, and an excellent friend, but also A FAN OF BAD PUNS.