On Sunday I finished E's stripy sock sweater, and he has been wearing it ever since. I decided to go with ribbing at the bottom of the body and sleeves to match the neckline and to counteract the flipping action I was getting with the hem. It was pretty easy to remove the hem (just started unraveling down from the stripe above it) and knit down from the edge.
Rather than doing the logical thing and picking up the linen tunic to finish off (a sleeve and a half to go) or the short sleeved cardigan in Silke Tweed that I started earlier in the summer, I irrationally cast on for something new. I'm using the same Silke Tweed yarn, but in a different, more wearable pattern. It's a simple pullover knitted in purl two, knit one TBL ribbing. I like the look of the way it's knitting up, though I worry the silk content in the yarn may make it end up being overly baggy. I may add a little waist shaping, and will definitely make it longer than the pattern. It's another Drops pattern, by the way: Drops 54-10.
I can't take any knitting pictures yet because it's getting so dark here in Norway. There's not enough light before or after I go to work, so they'll have to wait until the weekend.
We had a great day on Sunday. I drove in to Oslo to buy a used chair that I found on the internet (picture to come). It's funny how much adding the chair to our sitting area tied the room together. It is upholstered in a kind of dove gray wool that is a little discolored (unfortunately), but blends perfectly with the rest of our stuff. It's a Vatne nr. 108 chair designed by a guy named Fredrik Kayser. Then on Monday KE massively cleaned the whole house! It was amazing what a difference it made. E was ecstatic when he came home--he loved how clean it was. Who knew that a four-year-old noticed such things. I was pretty darned ecstatic too!
My sister-in-law had us over for dinner on Sunday, which was really relaxing and fun. She's great. She got me inspired to start planning Thanksgiving dinner. Now I've committed (with some trepidation) to making it for her and some friends of ours on the last Saturday in November. Should be fun, actually--I'll use exactly the same menu I always use: roasted turkey, stuffing (bread based with chanterelle mushrooms, almonds, and pork sausage), gravy, mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce from scratch (with orange peel), whole wheat rolls (from scratch), and a pumpkin pie (from scratch). I'll bake the pie and rolls the day before, and prepare the stuffing. KE will do the cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and probably the gravy too. That leaves just the beans, sweet potatoes and turkey to mess with on the day itself. The problem is oven space--we have two stoves but only one oven that really works, and it only has one rack.
Yesterday I felt like a participant on Survivor at work, minus the voting people out. In my work group of 12 colleagues I am becoming more and more aware of the alliances that lie under the surface. I had one strong alliance coming in, and am now trying to build additional alliances with other people in the group. Yesterday I made two moves that I think will help strengthen my position with two other people. I've never been so aware of the strategy involved in the process of establishing oneself in a new work environment. Looking back at my previous job, I can see that I did absolutely nothing to build alliances there, which is probably why I felt so isolated. Here I've been much more proactive already. I don't mean to imply that all I care about is getting people to support me personally. Each of the "moves" I made yesterday involved taking action on things that I really believe in--one helping a colleague out with a small but important task, the other initiating a curriculum planning session. But I would be dishonest if I didn't say that I am constantly thinking of what I can do to improve my chances of getting a permanent position here.
Follow up on that disruptive student: I received an email last night in which the student thanked me for assigning the novel that they're reading for today's class. The student was really enjoying it. Not sure that quite makes up for all the poopy comments the student makes, but it does help a little.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Framskritt
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!
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!
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.
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