Things went a little better today. For one thing, I got to be a student again, as we had a guest lecturer from the University of Copenhagen, Finn Hauberg Mortensen. He talked about the Comparative History of Nordic Literary Cultures project that I'm contributing to, and then later in the day he gave a lecture on the structure and rhetorical style of Ludvig Holberg's Moralske Tanker.
What went especially well for me today was conceptualizing the book. Rather than freaking out over the fact that I'm not writing yet, I've decided that I need to write a prospectus (a chapter outline, or "disposisjon" as it's called in Norwegian) in order to integrate the new thoughts and texts that I've been thinking about. It helped just to line up the chapters, list the key concepts, cultural events, and authors that I think will define them, and play with titles for them. It's a way of clarifying and refining my ideas, at a stage where I feel I'm not yet ready to write them. It's a weird stage to be in. Usually with articles it's so short that I don't even notice it--I can just jump in and start writing since the scope is so narrow that I can't go too far wrong. With this book, however, the scope is so huge and there are so many pieces that have to be in place first, that I can't really just jump in, eager as I am to do so.
I also did a little poking about on literary figures who might fit into the Enlightenment section that I've been trying to develop: the Norwegian civil servant/conspirator Povel Juel, who wrote a poem extolling the virtues of the simple life of the Sámi and the peasant farmer; and the Danish-German writer and salon hostess Friederike Brun, who is interesting to me not because of her work but because she had a Norwegian cabin built on her estate, Sophienholm, along with a Chinese pagoda and other exotic buildings. A colleague had also suggested Claus Frimann's poem "Birkebeener-Sang," but I read it and didn't see anything that I could use directly. But clearly I need to read more of his work, since he's really into the whole peasant thing, and has a book of poetry called Almuens Sange.
KE and I are both on pins and needles this evening. E is participating in his first ever sleep-over at his preschool. I think it's great that the teachers are willing to arrange it (two of them are sleeping over with the kids in the "gresshoppe" group of seven 5-year-olds), but I'm so worried about E! He refused to pack his pacifier (which he still sleeps with every night) because he was afraid the other kids would think he was a baby. He still has accidents (most recently this morning) and I would hate for that to happen to him there. Argh! We're both sitting here with our cell phones at our sides waiting for the call to come and get him. It will be very exciting to see how it goes!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Klagemur
I'm afraid this is going to be a whingy post. I have come down with a cold, and woke up this morning with an excruciatingly painful crick in my neck on top of the headache and sore throat. What's more, I'm pretty sure poor E has gotten sick too--he was coughing during the night. All this just as KE is finally getting over his cold. Too bad.
I'm also irritated as I am after every class I teach this term. I have one student who is so domineering and rude that s/he ruins the entire class for me every time. What's worse, other (non-native speaker) students have told me they have a hard time understanding this (native speaker) person's English--so not only does the student monopolize class time in a manner that I find rude, but does so in a way that the other students can't even understand. I won't go into details, but it all just leaves me frustrated and angry.
Things are progressing really slowly with the stripy sweater for E, and I'm getting absolutely no work done. I'm sure stress over the fact that I'm not writing is the reason behind my neck pain--my tension always goes to my neck. It will take weeks for it to go away too, which is a real bummer, especially since yesterday was the first morning that the pavement was icy. I'm dreading another winter of walking on ice--I totally stiffen up, which is the worst thing you can do to maintain balance. It is the one thing I dislike most about living in Norway.
Let's see here, desperately searching for the positives this week... I feel like I'm connecting well with my colleagues, there are two interesting lectures to go to today, I made yummy macaroni and cheese on Tuesday, E loves steamed broccoli, my gray mittens are great to wear, I managed to turn in my tax form so that they'll stop taking 50% of my wages (I should have turned it in back in January!) and I set up an appointment at the eye doctor's to get a vision test that I need in order to get my Norwegian driver's license...
I re-read André Bjerke's De dødes tjern. I hadn't realized that it was set during World War II. Other than the dates, there is no indication that the action takes place during war time. Weird. I also finished reading Camilla Collett's Amtmandens Døttre. I was a bit disappointed to see that there was no further mention of setrer or hytter in part two of the book, but there is enough in part one to build a conference paper on.
I also read Henrik Anker Bjerregaard's Et Fjeldeventyr from 1825. I had never heard of it before I saw a reference to it last week. It is the first Norwegian play (i.e. play written in Dano-Norwegian after 1814 with explicitly Norwegian characters and setting) and boy is it bad! It's a musical comedy and apparently it was wildly popular right up into the twentieth century. Henrik Wergeland wrote an epilogue, Henrik Ibsen wrote a prologue, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson reworked it, and Arne Garborg translated it to nynorsk. Having read it, I find it kind of shocking that these guys found it so compelling. It is fascinating in terms of cultural history, and may even fit into my cabin project, though, so it was well worth reading.
I'm also irritated as I am after every class I teach this term. I have one student who is so domineering and rude that s/he ruins the entire class for me every time. What's worse, other (non-native speaker) students have told me they have a hard time understanding this (native speaker) person's English--so not only does the student monopolize class time in a manner that I find rude, but does so in a way that the other students can't even understand. I won't go into details, but it all just leaves me frustrated and angry.
Things are progressing really slowly with the stripy sweater for E, and I'm getting absolutely no work done. I'm sure stress over the fact that I'm not writing is the reason behind my neck pain--my tension always goes to my neck. It will take weeks for it to go away too, which is a real bummer, especially since yesterday was the first morning that the pavement was icy. I'm dreading another winter of walking on ice--I totally stiffen up, which is the worst thing you can do to maintain balance. It is the one thing I dislike most about living in Norway.
Let's see here, desperately searching for the positives this week... I feel like I'm connecting well with my colleagues, there are two interesting lectures to go to today, I made yummy macaroni and cheese on Tuesday, E loves steamed broccoli, my gray mittens are great to wear, I managed to turn in my tax form so that they'll stop taking 50% of my wages (I should have turned it in back in January!) and I set up an appointment at the eye doctor's to get a vision test that I need in order to get my Norwegian driver's license...
I re-read André Bjerke's De dødes tjern. I hadn't realized that it was set during World War II. Other than the dates, there is no indication that the action takes place during war time. Weird. I also finished reading Camilla Collett's Amtmandens Døttre. I was a bit disappointed to see that there was no further mention of setrer or hytter in part two of the book, but there is enough in part one to build a conference paper on.
I also read Henrik Anker Bjerregaard's Et Fjeldeventyr from 1825. I had never heard of it before I saw a reference to it last week. It is the first Norwegian play (i.e. play written in Dano-Norwegian after 1814 with explicitly Norwegian characters and setting) and boy is it bad! It's a musical comedy and apparently it was wildly popular right up into the twentieth century. Henrik Wergeland wrote an epilogue, Henrik Ibsen wrote a prologue, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson reworked it, and Arne Garborg translated it to nynorsk. Having read it, I find it kind of shocking that these guys found it so compelling. It is fascinating in terms of cultural history, and may even fit into my cabin project, though, so it was well worth reading.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Overbelastet
My brain is shot. I need gentle entertainment like this generator of handwriting worksheets right now.
After the great relief it was on Wednesday to submit 1) my revision to the article on Erlend Loe's Volvo lastvagnar and 2) my two travel reimbursements from August (!) and April (!!!), the rest of my work week sort of collapsed. Thursday was an all-day administrative seminar for the Nordic literature section. I had a monstrous headache for most of the day, and contributed nothing useful to the discussion. I know that I'm being evaluated (consciously or unconsciously) every day by my colleagues, so it was frustrating and demoralizing. It didn't help that it took me two hours by bus, boat, subway, bus, and walking on a cold and rainy morning to get to the hotel that we held the seminar at.
Friday was an all-day seminar with lectures sponsored by the program in Aesthetics. I had planned to go to the whole thing, but after the first two lectures I could tell that a headache was coming on again, so I just went back to my office to work. I am really intrigued and perplexed by Aesthetics as a discipline. I find it so strange that they conceptualize an important part of the work they do as normative--that they still judge works of art in terms of some kind of criteria (that the two speakers were completely unable to articulate). I really don't see it as my job as a literary scholar to say which works are aesthetically pleasing and which aren't. I think of it as my job to talk about what is interesting in a given work, and to explain its connections to other cultural production, but not to say whether I think it's "good" or not. It is just as interesting to me to write about the crime novels of Anne Holt (which don't have very many redeeming aesthetic qualities) as it is to write about the novels of Cora Sandel (which are written in exquisitely beautiful prose).
Back at my office I got a couple of small practical things taken care of, then just stared wanly at the revised outline for my next article and ate almost an entire bag of potato chips. Not good. I could tell that what I really needed most of all was a nap, so I came home early and slept from 2:30 to 4:30. That gave me enough energy to make it through the evening without being overly cranky.
There are now two full sets of mittens with thumbs in the right place:
I'm not quite sure whether I'll do some embroidering on them or not. I ran out of yarn on the last couple of centimeters on the last thumb, but faked it by knitting with two strands of Finull in the same color. It didn't felt quite as well as the fabulous Vamsegarn, but I doubt anyone will notice.
When I felted the last two mittens I decided to throw in a tam that I had knit last winter too. I used all the short little bits of the leftover Jamieson yarn from the sweater my friend L knit. It was way too big, and since it was just made out of scrap yarn, it didn't seem like too much of a risk to felt it. The Shetland yarn also didn't felt as dramatically as the Vamsegarn, so I may just throw it in the machine again the next time I go to felt something. Here's how it looks:
What I've mostly been working on these days is the sock stripe sweater for E. Last night I finished the first arm, and this morning I knitted the neckline and started the second arm. It's cute if I do say so myself!
E let me try it on him a few minutes ago (for about 3 seconds) and it seems like a perfect fit. Hurra!
What has been languishing is my twelfth sweater:
I haven't touched it for weeks, but I thought I should upload a picture to show that it actually does exist, and isn't too far from being finished. Once I finish the last arm and sew in the myriad ends on E's sweater, I'm going to crank out the one and a half arms that are left on this one. It will be such a relief to get the 12 sweater challenge over with!
After the great relief it was on Wednesday to submit 1) my revision to the article on Erlend Loe's Volvo lastvagnar and 2) my two travel reimbursements from August (!) and April (!!!), the rest of my work week sort of collapsed. Thursday was an all-day administrative seminar for the Nordic literature section. I had a monstrous headache for most of the day, and contributed nothing useful to the discussion. I know that I'm being evaluated (consciously or unconsciously) every day by my colleagues, so it was frustrating and demoralizing. It didn't help that it took me two hours by bus, boat, subway, bus, and walking on a cold and rainy morning to get to the hotel that we held the seminar at.
Friday was an all-day seminar with lectures sponsored by the program in Aesthetics. I had planned to go to the whole thing, but after the first two lectures I could tell that a headache was coming on again, so I just went back to my office to work. I am really intrigued and perplexed by Aesthetics as a discipline. I find it so strange that they conceptualize an important part of the work they do as normative--that they still judge works of art in terms of some kind of criteria (that the two speakers were completely unable to articulate). I really don't see it as my job as a literary scholar to say which works are aesthetically pleasing and which aren't. I think of it as my job to talk about what is interesting in a given work, and to explain its connections to other cultural production, but not to say whether I think it's "good" or not. It is just as interesting to me to write about the crime novels of Anne Holt (which don't have very many redeeming aesthetic qualities) as it is to write about the novels of Cora Sandel (which are written in exquisitely beautiful prose).
Back at my office I got a couple of small practical things taken care of, then just stared wanly at the revised outline for my next article and ate almost an entire bag of potato chips. Not good. I could tell that what I really needed most of all was a nap, so I came home early and slept from 2:30 to 4:30. That gave me enough energy to make it through the evening without being overly cranky.
There are now two full sets of mittens with thumbs in the right place:
I'm not quite sure whether I'll do some embroidering on them or not. I ran out of yarn on the last couple of centimeters on the last thumb, but faked it by knitting with two strands of Finull in the same color. It didn't felt quite as well as the fabulous Vamsegarn, but I doubt anyone will notice.When I felted the last two mittens I decided to throw in a tam that I had knit last winter too. I used all the short little bits of the leftover Jamieson yarn from the sweater my friend L knit. It was way too big, and since it was just made out of scrap yarn, it didn't seem like too much of a risk to felt it. The Shetland yarn also didn't felt as dramatically as the Vamsegarn, so I may just throw it in the machine again the next time I go to felt something. Here's how it looks:
What I've mostly been working on these days is the sock stripe sweater for E. Last night I finished the first arm, and this morning I knitted the neckline and started the second arm. It's cute if I do say so myself!
E let me try it on him a few minutes ago (for about 3 seconds) and it seems like a perfect fit. Hurra!What has been languishing is my twelfth sweater:
I haven't touched it for weeks, but I thought I should upload a picture to show that it actually does exist, and isn't too far from being finished. Once I finish the last arm and sew in the myriad ends on E's sweater, I'm going to crank out the one and a half arms that are left on this one. It will be such a relief to get the 12 sweater challenge over with!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Inspirasjon
Well I made it through the hard theory reading, or rather I read carefully and selectively enough to be able to figure out how to use the theory and still have a relaxing weekend. Today at work I tackled the part of the article dealing with the parergon first, and it was relatively fast and painless. I'm closing in on finishing the revisions, and should be ready to send them off by the end of the day on Wednesday, which was what I had scheduled for myself.
Over the weekend Aftenposten did a piece on a house here on Nesodden. I've never seen it, but it's quite close to where we live. I was so flipping impressed and inspired that I have to link to the article. A) the house was built with all recycled material, B) it is simple and classic in both exterior and interior design, C), the owners did nearly all the work themselves, and D) one of the owners is the author of a Norwegian cookbook on legumes--a book that I simply must acquire. Basically, a part of me wants to be Lena Camilla Jensen. I'm green (well, a subtle celadon) with envy.
On Sunday we took E to the movies for the first time ever! It was such a fun day. We went in to Oslo to watch Knerten at the Colosseum theater. It's a spectacular building, and the movie was very fun and retro. It's an adaptation of beloved children's author Anne-Cath Vestly's books about Lillebror and his fantasy friend, Knerten (a stick). The premise is that his parents go a little crazy and give up their life in town for a ramshackle farm house in the middle of no where (my most favorite fantasy). The film also has an exceptionally high quotient of fantastic knitwear. Checkout Lillebror's sweater here:
So darned cute. I think it's inspired by Krokbragd weaving patterns (I just googled "krogbragd" and found this blog describing the technique, for those who don't didn't grow up with a tapestry weaver for a mother like me).
Oh. And on a less inspiring note, I guess I should mention that I knit two right mittens. Moreover, I felted them before I discovered the mistake. The felting turned out fabulous (I can highly recommend Vamsegarn and grønnsåpe--much better than the result from this spring using Fritidsgarn and regular laundry detergent), but I need to knit two left mittens now. Erk.
Over the weekend Aftenposten did a piece on a house here on Nesodden. I've never seen it, but it's quite close to where we live. I was so flipping impressed and inspired that I have to link to the article. A) the house was built with all recycled material, B) it is simple and classic in both exterior and interior design, C), the owners did nearly all the work themselves, and D) one of the owners is the author of a Norwegian cookbook on legumes--a book that I simply must acquire. Basically, a part of me wants to be Lena Camilla Jensen. I'm green (well, a subtle celadon) with envy.
On Sunday we took E to the movies for the first time ever! It was such a fun day. We went in to Oslo to watch Knerten at the Colosseum theater. It's a spectacular building, and the movie was very fun and retro. It's an adaptation of beloved children's author Anne-Cath Vestly's books about Lillebror and his fantasy friend, Knerten (a stick). The premise is that his parents go a little crazy and give up their life in town for a ramshackle farm house in the middle of no where (my most favorite fantasy). The film also has an exceptionally high quotient of fantastic knitwear. Checkout Lillebror's sweater here:
So darned cute. I think it's inspired by Krokbragd weaving patterns (I just googled "krogbragd" and found this blog describing the technique, for those who don't didn't grow up with a tapestry weaver for a mother like me).Oh. And on a less inspiring note, I guess I should mention that I knit two right mittens. Moreover, I felted them before I discovered the mistake. The felting turned out fabulous (I can highly recommend Vamsegarn and grønnsåpe--much better than the result from this spring using Fritidsgarn and regular laundry detergent), but I need to knit two left mittens now. Erk.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Parergon
I'm trying to do some of my most challenging intellectual work while the toilets next to my office are being renovated. It's really hard to carry on a conversation, let alone think and write when the workers are drilling and banging. Today I tried escaping to the library, but I'm spoiled and have a hard time reading when surrounded by munching, texting, and whispering undergraduates. Especially when I'm trying to read the following:
The reason I'm reading this stuff is because I'm trying to revise my article on Erlend Loe's Volvo Lastvagner for publication in Edda. The peer reviewers had really helpful comments, and I'm deep into the revisions. I've restructured the paper a lot, creating a third section that wasn't in my original NorLit conference presentation. I've decided to make much more of the "I" in the text. I hadn't read the theory stuff on this topic at the time I submitted the article, but as soon as I dived into it back in August for the Hamsun conference presentation, I knew it would be really relevant. The Derrida is in there because the peer reviewers wanted me to ground my argument more in theory, and one of them suggested Derrida's notion of the Parergon as relevant to the narrative strategy I am trying to describe in the novel. I think what Derrida is writing about is the ancillary aspects of a painting (artist's signature, frame, etc.), but I've skimmed a few pages and of course his writing is so incredibly convoluted and indirect that you totally have to know that in advance to know that that is the subject of the chapter.
So, in the spirit of the parergon (the peripheral, the ostensibly trivial and ancillary), here are a few snippets from more pleasurable aspects of my life:
Yesterday evening I went to a lecture on Selbuvotter sponsored by the Nesodden Husflidlag. It was very inspiring and fun, though horrifically corny: the speaker broke up his lecture by having the audience sing the occasional verse from a song (to the tune of "O Tannenbaum") about the Selbu mitten ("Å Selbuvott, å Selbuvott...") written by a local patriot!
As it happens, the day before I had decided to try out some felting, and had started knitting a pair of plain mittens in Rauma Vamsegarn. Here's the first one (pardon the lame shot with the camera on my office computer):
It is so dang satisfying to make something that knits up so quickly. I'm not sure about the felting part, as the mitten is a pretty good fit as it is. I'll go ahead and try over the weekend anyway. The pattern says to use grønnsåpe, that all purpose pine scented cleaner that all Norwegians use.
- Derrida, Jacques. The Truth in Painting. Trans. Geoff Bennington and Ian McLeod. Chicago: U Chicago P, 1987.
- Kjerkegaard, Stefan, Henrik Skov Nielsen and Kristin Ørjasæter, eds. Selvskreven - om litterær selvfremstilling. Århus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2006.
- Man, Paul de. "Autobiography as De-facement." Modern Language Notes 94.5 (1979): 919-930
The reason I'm reading this stuff is because I'm trying to revise my article on Erlend Loe's Volvo Lastvagner for publication in Edda. The peer reviewers had really helpful comments, and I'm deep into the revisions. I've restructured the paper a lot, creating a third section that wasn't in my original NorLit conference presentation. I've decided to make much more of the "I" in the text. I hadn't read the theory stuff on this topic at the time I submitted the article, but as soon as I dived into it back in August for the Hamsun conference presentation, I knew it would be really relevant. The Derrida is in there because the peer reviewers wanted me to ground my argument more in theory, and one of them suggested Derrida's notion of the Parergon as relevant to the narrative strategy I am trying to describe in the novel. I think what Derrida is writing about is the ancillary aspects of a painting (artist's signature, frame, etc.), but I've skimmed a few pages and of course his writing is so incredibly convoluted and indirect that you totally have to know that in advance to know that that is the subject of the chapter.
So, in the spirit of the parergon (the peripheral, the ostensibly trivial and ancillary), here are a few snippets from more pleasurable aspects of my life:
Yesterday evening I went to a lecture on Selbuvotter sponsored by the Nesodden Husflidlag. It was very inspiring and fun, though horrifically corny: the speaker broke up his lecture by having the audience sing the occasional verse from a song (to the tune of "O Tannenbaum") about the Selbu mitten ("Å Selbuvott, å Selbuvott...") written by a local patriot!
As it happens, the day before I had decided to try out some felting, and had started knitting a pair of plain mittens in Rauma Vamsegarn. Here's the first one (pardon the lame shot with the camera on my office computer):
It is so dang satisfying to make something that knits up so quickly. I'm not sure about the felting part, as the mitten is a pretty good fit as it is. I'll go ahead and try over the weekend anyway. The pattern says to use grønnsåpe, that all purpose pine scented cleaner that all Norwegians use.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Sukkersøtt
I think I'm in a sugar coma. Seldom have I had a less productive day. The only things I accomplished was to finish reading Knut Nærum's De dødes båt (very entertaining murder mystery containing multiple cabins) and skim through Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's Synnøve Solbakken looking for the seter scenes. KE and I bought a bag of Twist chocolates while grocery shopping this morning, and downed the whole thing after lunch. NOT good!
Things have calmed down quite a bit with E. Here he is in full swing, playing "knight":
On Sunday we had KE's sister and nephew over in the evening. E loved having the visit. I baked one of my all-time favorite recipes, an apple cake using honey and kefir milk:
I first came across the recipe in a ladies' magazine back when I lived in Norway in the early 1990s. I used to make it all the time the two years I lived here, but haven't attempted it since. It was fun to dredge it up again--it's an incredibly easy recipe, and both tasty and relatively healthy, for a cake.
Though you can't tell it from the picture below, I've been progressing steadily on the sock sweater. I have split for the armholes, finished the back, and am halfway done with the front.
Uh, I think stripes are a recurring theme in E's wardrobe.
Random thoughts on the cabin book: originally I planned on the period 1814-2005 (with two sections, one on the nation-building period and one on the welfare state), but the more I think about it, the more reasons I see to start even earlier, with the Enlightenment period. During a brief conversation with the expert in early modern literature in my department, I learned that the cabin shows up all over the place in the didactic moral poetry of the period (not the literature I turn to first when looking for something to read). The farmer in his cabin is apparently one of the most prevalent and potent symbols in the Norwegian enlightenment. Plus I've already discovered lots of material on the seter (mountain dairy) that relates really closely to the cabins of the nation building period.
It would be great to have three sections to the book (Enlightenment, Nation-Building, Welfare State) for formal reasons. For tactical reasons it would be fantastic to have 1/3 of my book covering the early modern period: that is one of three specializations my department will be asking for in their next literature hire. And for personal reasons, I'm actually really starting to like the period, based on the little bit of work I've been doing on the 18th century writer Edvard Storm over the past month. I've been reading so much material in Gothic type that I'm actually starting to get the hang of it, and my speed is increasing significantly. It's so incredibly cool to be able to breeze through a couple of pages of an 18th century book in Gothic type!
Latest music discovery: Lily Allen. I was intrigued by her song "Fuck You" (the contrast between the sugary sweet melody and voice and the really vicious lyrics) but didn't quite know what to make of it until I discovered that it's an anti-Bush song. Rock on! (ETA: whoops, I may have been overly enthusiastic. Just discovered Dan Bull's open letter to Lily Allen thanks to Jilltxt.) I guess I should also fess up to the fact that my sordid Eurotrash past leads me to totally dig Lady Gaga too. There's something about her deadpan delivery and shamelessly (but self-ironic) commercial sound that I can't resist. No accounting for taste, right? To balance it out, KE's intense passion for Wilco is starting to rub off on me. We've been listening to their first album, A.M., in the car and I love it. It has so many echoes of the Byrds. And of course Eels is still probably my favorite current artist.
Things have calmed down quite a bit with E. Here he is in full swing, playing "knight":
On Sunday we had KE's sister and nephew over in the evening. E loved having the visit. I baked one of my all-time favorite recipes, an apple cake using honey and kefir milk:
I first came across the recipe in a ladies' magazine back when I lived in Norway in the early 1990s. I used to make it all the time the two years I lived here, but haven't attempted it since. It was fun to dredge it up again--it's an incredibly easy recipe, and both tasty and relatively healthy, for a cake.Though you can't tell it from the picture below, I've been progressing steadily on the sock sweater. I have split for the armholes, finished the back, and am halfway done with the front.
Uh, I think stripes are a recurring theme in E's wardrobe.Random thoughts on the cabin book: originally I planned on the period 1814-2005 (with two sections, one on the nation-building period and one on the welfare state), but the more I think about it, the more reasons I see to start even earlier, with the Enlightenment period. During a brief conversation with the expert in early modern literature in my department, I learned that the cabin shows up all over the place in the didactic moral poetry of the period (not the literature I turn to first when looking for something to read). The farmer in his cabin is apparently one of the most prevalent and potent symbols in the Norwegian enlightenment. Plus I've already discovered lots of material on the seter (mountain dairy) that relates really closely to the cabins of the nation building period.
It would be great to have three sections to the book (Enlightenment, Nation-Building, Welfare State) for formal reasons. For tactical reasons it would be fantastic to have 1/3 of my book covering the early modern period: that is one of three specializations my department will be asking for in their next literature hire. And for personal reasons, I'm actually really starting to like the period, based on the little bit of work I've been doing on the 18th century writer Edvard Storm over the past month. I've been reading so much material in Gothic type that I'm actually starting to get the hang of it, and my speed is increasing significantly. It's so incredibly cool to be able to breeze through a couple of pages of an 18th century book in Gothic type!
Latest music discovery: Lily Allen. I was intrigued by her song "Fuck You" (the contrast between the sugary sweet melody and voice and the really vicious lyrics) but didn't quite know what to make of it until I discovered that it's an anti-Bush song. Rock on! (ETA: whoops, I may have been overly enthusiastic. Just discovered Dan Bull's open letter to Lily Allen thanks to Jilltxt.) I guess I should also fess up to the fact that my sordid Eurotrash past leads me to totally dig Lady Gaga too. There's something about her deadpan delivery and shamelessly (but self-ironic) commercial sound that I can't resist. No accounting for taste, right? To balance it out, KE's intense passion for Wilco is starting to rub off on me. We've been listening to their first album, A.M., in the car and I love it. It has so many echoes of the Byrds. And of course Eels is still probably my favorite current artist.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Lørdagsk(a)os
What is this, you say? Why an entirely new and unplanned project. The other day E came home from preschool wearing a hand-knit sweater that wasn't his own. Apparently he had gotten cold, so the teachers put it on him. Imagine how horrible that made me feel. The one he wore home was obviously knitted out of sock yarn, and a good weight for indoors. I immediately dropped the linen tunic and dug out my sock yarn. This is what I have come up with: 200 stitches in the round with 2.5mm needles. I'll split at the armholes and probably knit the arms shoulder down. Not sure about the neck yet.Saturday is always pizza night in our house. It used to be that I made them all myself, but then KE started getting interested. I still make the dough, but he has otherwise taken full responsibility for his own weekly pizza. As you can see here:
Most of the time E isn't interested, but this week he was, so he got his own mini pizza. I absolutely love the way he spread his toppings:
What's up with all the mushrooms jammed together? Meanwhile, my own pizza is exactly the same as it always is. The only change in my standard ingredients in the past five years has been the addition of mushrooms. Otherwise it's tomato sauce, spinach, cheese, onions, and black olives. I know lots of people will think that sounds gross, but I totally dig it, week after week:
The day was a long one. We started with watching the sons of some friends playing soccer at a local tournament, then went to the mall to get slippers and boots. Unfortunately, E is still rather randomly hitting me. It's so weird. Today he went into his room to hide under the covers and yelled for me to come find him. I thought he was playing hide-and-seek. When I lifted up the duvet he smacked me full force in the middle of my face and was furious with me because I hadn't done exactly what he wanted (whatever that was). It bent my glasses.It really upset me, partly because I got so angry that I had to leave the room, partly because it just hurt so much. I wasn't spanked as a child, and no one has ever hit me. I don't know how to react to what my brain processes as a violent attack, even though it's my own young son doing it. I'm sure I'm not 'supposed' to blog about this kind of thing. Everyone's children in the blogosphere are always perfectly behaved, heartbreakingly creative, exceptionally smart, and artfully dressed at all times. Mine's all that too, but there's no denying that something's going on in our relationship that needs to be worked out. I wonder at times if it's because I'm the one who works away from home, that somehow he's punishing me for being less present in his life.
Monday, October 5, 2009
familien min...
Just got E off to bed, and I'm feeling a little traumatized. Unfortunately, he's been in a long stretch of acting out, and it comes to a head in him hitting me pretty hard. It's so distressing. I have never been hit by anyone in my life, so the fact that my own son is doing it is hard to process. We would be less concerned if he showed remorse, but he doesn't. In so many other ways he's really perceptive and sensitive, so I just don't get this. I'm really hoping it will pass, and of course totally paranoid that it's some kind of red flag for a major personality disorder.
This morning I got an email from my Dad containing two snapshots that a college friend of his took. Apparently the guy recently scanned them and sort of randomly sent them to my dad. They're amazing:
That's my dad standing on the steps with the dorky hat and beard. My mom is (rather obviously) the woman sitting on the steps. In this next picture she's the brunette:
Apparently my dad sent these to her too, and she could barely recognize herself. She said it was only because the woman looked like me that she knew it must be her. She figures these were in their last year of college, sometime in 1964-65. She can tell by the hat, since it is "pre-stetson" and pre "the hat he got from my dad"...whatever those were.
Finished the front on the linen tunic, sewed the shoulder seams, and knitted up the neck edging. Now all I need is two sleeves and seaming and I'm done with number 12. This evening, however, I'm going to climb into bed early to read a murder mystery, André Bjerke's Døde menn går i land from 1947. It's background reading for the cabin book, really!
This morning I got an email from my Dad containing two snapshots that a college friend of his took. Apparently the guy recently scanned them and sort of randomly sent them to my dad. They're amazing:
That's my dad standing on the steps with the dorky hat and beard. My mom is (rather obviously) the woman sitting on the steps. In this next picture she's the brunette:
Apparently my dad sent these to her too, and she could barely recognize herself. She said it was only because the woman looked like me that she knew it must be her. She figures these were in their last year of college, sometime in 1964-65. She can tell by the hat, since it is "pre-stetson" and pre "the hat he got from my dad"...whatever those were.Finished the front on the linen tunic, sewed the shoulder seams, and knitted up the neck edging. Now all I need is two sleeves and seaming and I'm done with number 12. This evening, however, I'm going to climb into bed early to read a murder mystery, André Bjerke's Døde menn går i land from 1947. It's background reading for the cabin book, really!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Rødt
There are not many things that I hate, but I have to admit that I actively hate the color red. It makes me anxious. I find it visually jarring. It drowns out other colors. I don't like the way it is overloaded with symbolic meaning (love, sports cars, lipstick, a red dress, the devil...). There are some orange-reds and blue-reds that I really like, but the closer you get to true primary red on the color wheel, the more I cringe.
So of course my heart sunk a little when KE picked out the colors for his ski socks. On the one hand, I'm delighted to make them and up for the challenge, but on the other hand I dread weeks of carrying around not just any red yarn, but knallrødt, in-your-face cherry red yarn. I finished the first sock rather quickly, but had to put the second one into time out, due to red overload. I got it out again for the harrytur and then, in a marathon of knitting yesterday, I finished the whole thing up. I am so pleased with myself for actually finishing two ski socks that are each over 90 cm (about a yard) long in a color that I despise. And they actually look kind of cute, at least when hanging over the wood stove to dry:
I also spent some time yesterday swatching that yarn I bought in Sweden. I thought it might work to make one of Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Pi" shawls from The Knitter's Almanac. Here's one strand (rather worse for the wear from untangling it) on 4mm needles:
It's a fun pattern, but I think the yarn is just way too thin for it. I'm thinking about doubling it and trying again. I realized that part of the appeal of the yarn in the store was the way the colors were blended together in the skein, and I'm hoping that knitting two strands together might recreate that effect.
I'm going to let it sit for a while and concentrate on finishing sweater number 12 instead. But after an incredibly rainy day yesterday the sun is out today, so we'll probably try to take advantage of that and spend some time outside. I'm just waiting for the real fall weather to descend upon us, so any day with sun seems like a gift this late in the year.
So of course my heart sunk a little when KE picked out the colors for his ski socks. On the one hand, I'm delighted to make them and up for the challenge, but on the other hand I dread weeks of carrying around not just any red yarn, but knallrødt, in-your-face cherry red yarn. I finished the first sock rather quickly, but had to put the second one into time out, due to red overload. I got it out again for the harrytur and then, in a marathon of knitting yesterday, I finished the whole thing up. I am so pleased with myself for actually finishing two ski socks that are each over 90 cm (about a yard) long in a color that I despise. And they actually look kind of cute, at least when hanging over the wood stove to dry:
I also spent some time yesterday swatching that yarn I bought in Sweden. I thought it might work to make one of Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Pi" shawls from The Knitter's Almanac. Here's one strand (rather worse for the wear from untangling it) on 4mm needles:
It's a fun pattern, but I think the yarn is just way too thin for it. I'm thinking about doubling it and trying again. I realized that part of the appeal of the yarn in the store was the way the colors were blended together in the skein, and I'm hoping that knitting two strands together might recreate that effect.I'm going to let it sit for a while and concentrate on finishing sweater number 12 instead. But after an incredibly rainy day yesterday the sun is out today, so we'll probably try to take advantage of that and spend some time outside. I'm just waiting for the real fall weather to descend upon us, so any day with sun seems like a gift this late in the year.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Harrytur
We had to get the car serviced and replace the muffler, so we decided to get it done in Sweden, where prices are a little lower. We also just wanted to get out and see something different before winter sets in. We drove three hours to Karlstad, where we walked around and shopped while the car was being serviced. We stayed the night at a hotel, and then took a leisurely drive back home today. E was cranky and whiny pretty much the whole time. The trip was kind of a test to see how he would do, and unfortunately the verdict wasn't good.
We thought Karlstad was a very nice little town, but not much of a tourist destination (no fault of Karlstad! It's just one of those places that's probably nicer to live in than to visit... much like Nesodden). None of the local attractions seemed worth the effort to track down. The riverfront is lovely, and there are lots of great old houses and buildings. It kind of reminded me of Turku in Finland. Karlstad did have one nice yarn shop in the center of town, Stick&Sy. I found myself irresistibly drawn to some yarn from Öland. I think it must be all the autumn colors that are out now that made me buy it. I haven't really got a clear idea of what I'm going to do with 300 grams of single ply variegated lace weight yarn (!!!), but I'll figure something out eventually.
Notice that it's nicely wound into balls? I finally broke down and bought a skein winder, after all these years. I was cheap though, and didn't buy an umbrella swift to go with it. Boy was that a mistake. I have never come across a yarn that tangles as much as this one. I still have one big clump of yarn to untangle after the ordeal that was the winding of these three balls!
Oddly, we had more fun in the much smaller town of Årjäng, which is an hour closer to Norway along the E18. Here are E and KE in front of the local tourist office:
What is that thing looming in the background, you ask? Why, the Årjäng Troll, of course:
Built in the 1970s and still going strong as a kid-magnet. Also along the route home we pulled off the E18, lured by a sign that said "Vikingcenter." What we found was an interpretive center that was closed for the season and what appeared to be a pseudo-viking market place for kids. Oddly there seemed to be a class field trip in progress with the kids learning CPR. The site was lovely, though, and the little viking boat on the misty lake was pretty darned evocative of...something at least:
Love the anachronistic touch of the life preserver. Did the vikings have those? There was one mound on the site that could easily be a real grave mound. There was a sign on it that said "Kung Sorgs grav," though. We weren't quite willing to believe that there really was a "King Sorrow" buried there.
We thought Karlstad was a very nice little town, but not much of a tourist destination (no fault of Karlstad! It's just one of those places that's probably nicer to live in than to visit... much like Nesodden). None of the local attractions seemed worth the effort to track down. The riverfront is lovely, and there are lots of great old houses and buildings. It kind of reminded me of Turku in Finland. Karlstad did have one nice yarn shop in the center of town, Stick&Sy. I found myself irresistibly drawn to some yarn from Öland. I think it must be all the autumn colors that are out now that made me buy it. I haven't really got a clear idea of what I'm going to do with 300 grams of single ply variegated lace weight yarn (!!!), but I'll figure something out eventually.
Notice that it's nicely wound into balls? I finally broke down and bought a skein winder, after all these years. I was cheap though, and didn't buy an umbrella swift to go with it. Boy was that a mistake. I have never come across a yarn that tangles as much as this one. I still have one big clump of yarn to untangle after the ordeal that was the winding of these three balls!Oddly, we had more fun in the much smaller town of Årjäng, which is an hour closer to Norway along the E18. Here are E and KE in front of the local tourist office:
What is that thing looming in the background, you ask? Why, the Årjäng Troll, of course:
Built in the 1970s and still going strong as a kid-magnet. Also along the route home we pulled off the E18, lured by a sign that said "Vikingcenter." What we found was an interpretive center that was closed for the season and what appeared to be a pseudo-viking market place for kids. Oddly there seemed to be a class field trip in progress with the kids learning CPR. The site was lovely, though, and the little viking boat on the misty lake was pretty darned evocative of...something at least:
Love the anachronistic touch of the life preserver. Did the vikings have those? There was one mound on the site that could easily be a real grave mound. There was a sign on it that said "Kung Sorgs grav," though. We weren't quite willing to believe that there really was a "King Sorrow" buried there.
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