Fred og ro

I'm back from a two day retreat, and back to this blog, after my brief fling with 30 Pages in 30 Days (which ended up being 35 pages in 22 days). The retreat was very nearly perfect. I was literally the only overnight guest at a fairly posh conference hotel high up in the woods above Oslo. Here's what the bustling dining room looked like at breakfast from my alpha position in the corner:

It was like that at every meal, except for Tuesday's lunch, when there was a group of five people who were having a meeting.

It was totally quiet up there among the trees. All I did was sit in my room and work on my book. I arrived on Monday at around 2 pm, and by the time I started packing my bags at 10 am on Wednesday I had written over 5000 words. As I was putting in my last mid-morning stretch of work today I was greeted by this rather astounding glimpse of the sun streaming through my window:

That haze down in the valley below the trees is Oslo. I think this is one of the most productive and satisfying things I've ever done. It was a shock taking the subway back down into the city center. Suddenly there was so much noise! But having said that, it was definitely good to come home to the boys, who seem to have survived just fine without me.

I think the book is going to be pretty interesting. There are still a few things that need work, but basically it is done. It's hard to believe that I actually accomplished this. The book seemed like a crazy idea when I came up with it back in August or September or whenever it was, though I did have a gut feeling I could pull it off. It was hands down the most fun I've ever had with an academic project. Having done this, I can now envision actually getting the cabin book written as well. I don't know why I got myself so worked up over that one. I just need to sit down and start working on it bit by bit like I did with this one. Is it pompous to say that I feel really proud of myself for completing the manuscript on my third scholarly book?

Now I can take some time off to relax with the family over Christmas. I don't think I would have been able to do that if I hadn't had the retreat and gotten the book out of my system...

Merry Christmas!

Jeg er ikke alene

Since this blog has basically gone dead due to my big writing project,  I thought I would gather some links to blogs of other Americans living as expats in Norway that I have come across. I'd love to hear about more of them!

http://www.whatadayinnorway.com

http://www.rhonna.net/

http://www.spellingtuesday.com/

http://lillestange.blogspot.com/

http://www.beautifullimbo.com/

http://transplantedbaker.typepad.com/

http://corinnenorway.blogspot.com/


http://littlenorwaytobig.blogspot.com/


http://eventyrhus.blogspot.com/


http://karlastories.blogspot.com/


http://tobringe.blogspot.com/


http://mygrandadventure2.blogspot.com/

They are all quite different from this blog in focus, ideology, and aesthetics. I think they're all primarily kept by women as well. Where are all the male American expat bloggers in Norway?


ETA: Aha, found one!


http://milesinnorway.blogspot.com/

Teologen

A couple of weeks ago at the Bjørnson conference I ended up sitting next to one of the big names at the banquet. I was told that in addition to his academic profile he had also published "books on theology." I decided it would be good to engage, so I tried to ask him about it but he was quite slippery, and basically avoided talking about it. I figured that was fair enough, not everyone wants to get into a big discussion about their moral philosophy at a banquet.

When he found out that I was working on a book about cabins he did what Scandinavians usually do when they hear that an American in writing about cabins in Norwegian literature, namely start listing cabins from American literature. I suppose they're trying to be helpful? I don't know how many times Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin have been suggested to me as relevant to my analysis of the role of place in the construction of Norwegian identity. It's kind of irritating and kind of sweet at the same time. Any way, the "big name" quite enthusiastically suggested to me an American novel that I haven't heard of, William Paul Young's The Shack from 2008. I took note of the recommendation, and just this morning I decided to look it up on Amazon. ARGH! It's apparently the next great thing in Evangelical Christian literature, guaranteed to revolutionize my faith in God. I could spit.

I then googled the "big name" and discovered that not only is he a literary scholar and a theologian, but he is also a right wing commentator with a newspaper column and a huge chip on his shoulder against the "liberal" or progressive bias of higher education and the general level of secularization in his home country. YUCK. He also happens to have written or edited dozens of books in my field. I'm torn as to whether I should try to read some of it (his most recent book may have some relevance, based on the title) or can I just write him off as ideologically questionable? I don't know. On principle I should give him a chance, but he has already given me the impression of being the kind of person who deals in half truths.

Fråtsing

While all my brain power is supposed to be going into the push to finish the Peer Gynt book, I'm still making at least an attempt to lead a normal life. E turned six yesterday, and I think he had a very nice day. One of the fun things about Waldorf school is that they make a really big deal of birthdays - he got to wear a regal cape and crown, and was attended by two friends. I brought cake and got to eat lunch and participate in the festivities. I totally over indulged while baking the cake - way too much cake batter, frosting, and candy decorations were consumed in the process. Not good. Tomorrow we're having a party for E here at home with about five of his friends - all boys, I'm afraid, little chauvinist that he is.

I've also been knitting, but it's such a drab color and pattern, and there is so little light for photography now in the darkest time of the year that it has seemed pointless to try to post a snapshot. I'm knitting the "Plain and Simple Pullover" (Ravelry link) and I have to confess that I have yet again frogged a sweater I knit myself that I wasn't entirely happy with in order to do so. The dark green fair isle yoke sweater I made earlier this year never quite worked out: it was too tight and the colors of the yoke ended up being too Easter candy cheerful. Of course I got lots of compliments on it, but it was just totally not my cup of tea. I was relieved to rip it all out and knit something, well, "plain and simple" out of the olive drab alpaca yarn (which appears to be holding up pretty well, by the way). I'm thinking of knitting up a quick hat out of all the short pieces of yarn left over from the yoke, maybe something like Urchin?

ETA: I managed to get close to a decent picture on Sunday morning, so here it is:

The color is almost impossible to photograph in the winter light.

Another confession: I have to admit that I'm counting the days until my little writing retreat. The ideas are percolating and I'm so excited about how the book is coming together. I can't wait to totally immerse myself into the project in the same totally self-indulgent way I used to back when I was a single graduate student. Every once in a while I think that kind of thing is healthy.

Grønt i desember

Hey, after my third try with this yarn, I now have a green sweater I think I'll be able to wear! Yay. Here's the reveal:

The snapshot was taken with Photo Booth on my office computer. The pullover turned out a little big, but it's very comfortable. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it, especially since it was my own design.

Utro

I admit it. I'm cheating on this blog. I've started a big push to finish my academic book project this month. I'll be posting daily updates to a new blog, 30 Pages in 30 Days. That means this more personal, crafty blog is probably going to languish for the month. Sorry! The other one is totally work related. It's basically just a place for me to gather all my working notes (bibliographical info, quotations, ideas, etc.) and update writing progress. It will be really boring for everyone on the whole planet except for me, but I happen to think it's fun and thrilling, so I'm just going to do it.

Disiplin og tukt

Brrr! It's icy cold here in Norway. You can tell that it's really cold because even the tough guys at my bus stop in the mornings have hats on. Despite the cold, and despite coming down with a sore throat, I made it through two days of the three-day Bjørnson conference this week. My own paper on Thursday went really well, though I was unexpectedly gripped by nerves, and stumbled a lot over my words in the beginning. Really, I should have know it would be well received, given the fact that I devoted way too much time to revising it.

The next day one of the nestors in the field gave a paper on the same text (Synnøve Solbakken) and he explicitly praised my paper from the previous day in his presentation. I was kind of blown away, to put it mildly. Of course he had two points to criticize, but that is actually the best thing about being engaged in that way. One of the points was something I definitely overlooked, but the other was a point of interpretation, and we had a nice little chat afterward discussing our differing interpretations of the passage (Synnøve's dream sequence in chapter six, in case anyone's interested).

Having given a good paper made it easier for me to focus on the social networking that I really need to do. I put myself out there more than I usually do, and had four or five interesting conversations with people I don't know all that well or had never met before. And to top it all off, my friend S rather unexpectedly invited me to participate in a brainstorming seminar he's arranging this week. It's quite an honor to be invited, and it will give me another chance to network with people who may be in the position to hire (or not hire) me for a permanent position in the next few years. I'm very grateful and excited!

My mom sent us a package, mostly for E's birthday, but it also contained some yarn that she picked up for five dollars at a garage sale. It's about 1100 yards of worsted weight two-ply New Zealand wool in a beautiful brown-gray color:

When she first told me about it I initially thought I would use it to make a matching scarf, hat and mittens, but now that I see how much there is, I'm thinking I need to make some kind of garment instead. This is a color I've been eyeing appreciatively in various contexts, so I'm thrilled to have some to work with. ETA: I'm thinking Cathy Payson's Placed Cable Aran would be a good choice, if only I had the Fall 2007 issue of Interweave Knits. I've put out a request on the book and magazine swap group on Ravelry...

I'm trying to be disciplined, however, and finish up the Riborama pullover. Once I finally got the second sleeve done, the body has (as anticipated) gone much faster. I'm down to the waist, and I'm just going to keep going until I run out of yarn. I've done some slight waist shaping, and I think I may continue some gentle increasing over the hips to make it kind of an a-line tunic. Here's a shot:

The color is way off. It's really hard to take good pictures these days, since the light is so low even at ten o'clock in the morning. The green is much more intense that in the photograph.

I've been participating in an academic writing group on Ravelry for the month of November. We all stated our research/writing goals for the month, and have been posting daily updates (most people petered out after about seven days, unfortunately). I've found that quite helpful, and it has certainly encouraged me to squeeze in even a tiny bit of book-related work on days when I otherwise wouldn't have done so. The potential shame of having nothing to post is a very motivating factor for me!

So even with the Bjørnson conference craziness, I did some planning for the book on Thursday, and a tiny bit of writing yesterday and this morning (about 500 words). I am now about thirty pages short of my goal of 170 pages, and most of that is spread out among the various chapters. There are a bunch small sections I want to add throughout, so it was helpful to write up a list of those missing bits. Some of them are the hard parts that I've been avoiding, others are new material that I haven't yet fully processed. I was feeling overwhelmed -- like, how do I even get started on these last thirty pages after my two week fling with my conference paper?! -- but now I'm more on track. I started this weekend with the easiest of the new sections, and even though it's not very good, at least I have written something. I have had such fun and flow with this project that it's only to be expected that it would get hard at some point.

Interior link of the week: The Swedish furniture design firm G.A.D. They have some lovely, minimalist/modernist furniture made with materials from the island of Gotland. It's very puritanical furniture, which suits my current ascetic mood.