(no subject)

[prairiedaun]

The coffee shop downstairs does lattes. They're not that great, but still pretty good and much cheaper than going down to Starbucks, so. This is the start of the long trek into addiction.

First year English students remain pretty stupid. Talking about how JFK's presidency was referred to as Camelot is pretty irrelevant when discussing Tennyson's 'The Lady of Shalott' (unless others here would like to argue for it.)

Middle Enlgish Dialects project remains difficult. Was in the library from 8 AM to 9: 20 wading through the Middle English Linguistics Dialect Atlas of Sheer Terror (I forget the actual name.)

Comments

[thegiantkiller.livejournal.com]

Considering "The Lady of Shalott" predates the Kennedy dynasty by many decades, I'd say the point's pretty damn irrelevent.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_jibberish_/]

But, perhaps the poem can reflect the Kennedy dynasty despite its being written well before they were born. So, allow me to stretch my academic powers of BS...

The Kennedys do seem to be "cursed" with unfortunate, tragic, early deaths, like the Lady of Shalott.

She lived a life watching shadows of real life, unable to really live. The Kennedys seem to have lived like that -- always in the public eye, maybe never able to do what they wanted to do.

Camelot had a dark side: The Lady of Shalott was trapped in a tower and cursed. Kennedy's Camelot was full of political conspiracy, possible affairs, and other dark, hidden secrets.

So, in conclusion, yes, the first year was absolutely correct in bringing up Kennedy's Camelot when discussing Tennyson.

[prairiedaun.livejournal.com]

Heh. You're going to be a good teacher, Jen, able to come up with reasons for the crazyass answers students give.

No, the Camelot thing came up in this girl's presentation that went kind of like this "So Tennyson, who was friends with Lord Bryan, wrote this poem about the Lady of Sharlot who lived near Camelot. Camelot was also the name given to JFK's time in office."

Note that Lord Bryan? Is Lord Byron.