page count

64 pages.

Happy New Year!

That was Easy. A Little Too Easy

All online applications have been submitted. All supplementary materials were mailed off today, except I still need to send out a few transcripts. I can only get out three at a time here (my undergrad will give you as many as like) and there's a hold on my account. I paid it today. It was thirteen cents.

I also dropped by the grad school, to make sure everything is cool. I need to contact a grad rep to attend my defense -- I got the list so I can begin begging. I actually have some time before I need to schedule my defense. You're allowed to bring food. . .I should set it up like an SCA vigil ceremony (they, in turn, are modeled on actual medieval ones) and bring period food and stuff. I make really good medieval gingerbread. Hmmmm.

Now I'm at the library. I have a book that's seriously overdue that I need to take notes from.

Then I'm going to go home and take a nap.

Page Count

Top of 60!!!!

Thank you, Alcuin!

page count

58 and a quarter. So close.

I'm hoping, on this Charlemagne Coronation Eve, Alcuin of York will inspire me.

updates

Page count: Top of 54.

PhD school: all online applications are in (all eight). Wednesday, I will send in the remaining supporting documents, then I will be finished.

Goodness, there will be quite the hole in my life come early January. Good think school starts soon!

page count

Top of 53!

OT musings

Last night, I watched A Knight's Tale. While watching it, I got to thinking about the nature or royalty, as well as their servants; the female romantic lead has a lady-in-waiting who's name is never uttered, let alone does she have any kind of personality.

From there, I started thinking being imprisoned -- Jane Grey, Elizabeth, Marie Antoinette. When I was in Hawaii, I saw the room in the palace in which Queen Liliuokalani was kept. It was rather small, and she served it with a servant.

I thought about this servant -- I do not think her name was mentioned while I was on the Palace tour (though I might have missed it). She is rather like the lady-in-waiting from the movie, then.

I wonder what that's like. You're a prisoner, but you have to be someone else's strength. Is it worse, better, the same?

page count

Top of page 51! I have written 50 full pages!

I was in bed, reading, trying to sleep when finally the last page and a half popped into my head. I think I could keep working, but it's after 4 in the morning, so it might be best to stop.

For now, I'll shoot for 60 by Monday. That would appropriate. Then I could have a carefree Charlemagne Coronation Day and William the Bastard Extravaganza.

Page Count

48.

Damn, I was really hoping to make it 50. I don't know what to write about anymore.

movie notes

I just finished watching Knight's Tale.

I watched it a few years ago, and absolutely hated it. I don't hate it quite so much now, but. . .

Here are my notes:

Sentence fragments in the opening subtitles

How is William a squire if he’s not noble?

Music by carter burwell? I love carter burwell!

Why dreadlocks? I mean, I guess it’s possible, but. . . I like his braies though

“a man can change his stars” – Wm. Very Early Modern

So if they’re peasants, who are they? They’re supposed to be squires, maybe it’s meant to be more like grooms/attendants

I get the point with the music, but I find it jarring. I think what we need is Baz Luhrman’s Knight’s Tale

Why is shirt technology always the first to go?

The boys know how to sew!

Chaucer! And he’s naked and covered in mud!

Chaucer creates the word “trudge” “To trudge: the slow weary depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in his life except the impulse to simply soldier on”

Steps on a thorn, pulls it out with his teeth, then introduces himself: [Roland asks ‘Who are you?’] “Liliments of venus. [?] Lily among the thorns. Geoffrey Chaucer’s the name, writing’s the game.”

The men are silent, unimpressed.
“Chaucer? Geoffrey Chaucer? The writer?”
“a what?”

“For a penny, I’ll scribble you anything you want, from summonses to decrees to edicts creeds, warrants, patents of nobility. I’ve even been know to jot down a poem.”

“You probably read my book?”

“No, well, that’s fine then, it was allegorical.”

[We won’t hold that against you, that’s for each man to decide on his own.]

Wm introduces himself, Chaucer makes fun of him, Wm pulls a sword on him

Chaucer gives them a plot point – they need a patent of nobility. Chaucer asks for clothes, shoes, food, to write a horse, then says he’ll give ‘em the patents

Oh, apparently they’re in France. Funny, I’ve never heard of patents of nobility outside of this movie, but apparently they are real.

I like Burwell’s music – a mix of medieval and modern – much better than the modern stuff

Chaucer says “I have to see a man about a dog”????

Women in movies never hold their dresses right when they go up stairs

Wm rides his horse into a cathedral, which actually gives a good idea of the expanse

The bad guy’s in black.

Simon the Summoner! “I must detain you on behalf of your herald.”

Chaucer admits to a gambling problem. He’s naked again.

Peter the Pardoner

They’ll take a pound of flesh

Chaucer: “Yes, yes I lied. I’m a writer! I give the truth scope!”

Chaucer talks him up. Everyone is like “Dewd, what>” “We walk in the garden of his turbulence”

Oh noes, a woman blacksmith!

“winner of the joust in France” What does that mean? Where are they?

Yea, the girl doesn’t know the rules, so she and the audience can be educated

Chaucer as promoter . “I got their attention, you go and win their hearts”

What on earth are they sleeping on?

The woman who plays Kate the Farrier was Lavinia in Julie Taymor’s Titus. I thought she looked familiar.

“I will eviscerate you in fiction.”
“I was naked for a day. You will be naked for eternity.”

Chaucer teaches em how to dance

Roland makes Wm fancy tunic. Cool. But what is up with Wm’s pants?

Beauty beauty very important, sheesh.

What the hell is Rufus Sewell wearing? And apparently the screenwriter or costume designer is confused as to what a tunic is

Makin’ friends with the Black Prince

Wm: “Don’t you ever get tired of putting on clothes?”
Chaucer; “She’s talking about taking them off”

Why are Will and Jocelyn fighting? Stupid romantic comedy

Wait, adhemar is the count of Anjou, how could the Black Prince command him, or was Anjou an ally of England? I know they were much later, but I thought that was solidified with Margaret’s marriage to Henry VI

Chaucer help Wm write a love letter. The other boys help, too. But why did they fight in the first place?

Can the movie take a time out so everyone can put on real clothes?

Wat: “Watch out, Quasimodo”

Wait, “No Englishman will win” but they’re saying Wm is from “Gelderland” gah

Wat:”I don’t understand women.”

Chaucer: “Nor do I, but they understand us.”

Chaucer observes Jocelyn going to Wm’s tent: “Guinevere comes to Lancelot. Bed him well, m’lady. Bed him well.”

Oh good the Summoner and Pardoner are back. Why isn’t this movie over yet?

Chaucer’s naked again! His wife Philippa has shown up.

She says “They seem much more fun than those boring old pilgrims you hung out with last year.”

The royal guards look like Conquistadors.

Chaucer calms the crowd when WM’s in the stocks

Chaucer: “I ask you, what makes a man noble? Is it his lineage or his heart?”

The people say, Heart, good heart.

Oh, burn, the Black Prince is in the crowd. “Release him.” “My personal historians have discovered him to be of an ancient royal line.”

So, does the Prince have to show patents of nobility? I shouldn’t think so, but. . .

That’s a sweet sweet duster the Prince has on

Chaucer: “all human activity lies within the artist’s scope”

fun with search terms

Googled:

“knight’s tale” 322,000 First – imdb movie page 2^nd luminarium

“a knight’s tale” 385,000 first – imdb 2^nd Wikipedia

“the knight’s tale” 61,000 first -- luminarium 2nd Wikipedia

Page Count

Forty! 40 40 40 40!

Twenty more to go!

In the last twelve hours, I have written about ten pages -- pretty amazing, since I tend to go about a page an hour, and I have not been working continuously.

Now, I should add there are quite a few block quotes, but still.

In theory, I could finish by the end of the week. Holy cow!

writer's block

Ahhh, I'm stuck again. I've only written another page and a half.

The trouble is that the last thing I've written is about the vagina. I feel a bit odd about that, since this is an academic paper and all. A Master's thesis and all.

slut

According to the OED, "slut" and "slutty" goes back to the fifteenth century. It originally meant "dirty" -- so, a house could be slutty. "Slutty" as applied to a woman (a la Brinkman below) was added to the OED in 2004, and their first example is from the 1970s. "Slut" for a loose woman does date back to the second half of the fifteenth century; surely "slutty" was used before 1970 if that's the case.

History is interesting, yes. But even reading the word in the OED makes me uncomfortable. So many connotations.

The Rap Canterbury Tales

Brinkman, Baba. The Rap Canterbury Tales. Vancouver, B.C.: Talonbooks, 2006.

You can hear them here: http://babasword.com/index/audio.html

This has been -- sorry! -- interesting. On the one hand, it seems ludicrous. Rap? Canterbury Tales? Rap Canterbury Tales?

But Brinkman makes a lot of good points. One could (and he does) trace the roots of rap back to Chaucer's poetry. Chaucer was meant to be recited. Rap has usurped poetry in that regard. In that way, I think what he is doing works. Now, unfortunately, to my eyes, his versions tend to be a little heavy-handed. But still, I think it's better than many of the translations I have seen. Binkman doesn't try to hide anything.

More to the point, if my project is to look at Chaucer in pop culture, I applaud anyone or anything that brings people to Chaucer. (I think.)

Still, I am left at a pop culture nexus that leaves me somewhat uncomfortable. If it's due to tropes commonly used in rap, I can't say.

Brinkman describes my beloved alisoun in this way:

195: Alisoun’s cheeks are “painted up slutty pink” She has a “naughty stink”

The "naughty stink" -- okay, a little weird, but I can see the connections.

The "slutty pink" line, however, really bothers me. I'm trying to put my finger on why. I don't like the word "slut" itself. I hate the binary it presents -- men who sleep around are fine, women who do are not, etc etc.

It's very distasteful to me. To me, alisoun is not a slut. Perhaps this is a difference in interpretation? One could say she fits the standard definition of slut; one could find that in the text. Maybe if I believes that about her, that modern word would bother me less?

It just seems so biased. So final. This is who she is. The end. With the original text, there are options. With *any* original text, not just Chaucer. Perhaps that's the trouble of interpretation and translations. We translate her into who we want her to be -- for me, a woman who does the best with what she has. For Brinkman/rap, she is a slut (a ho?).

I'm also wondering if there's a double entendre. Is "slutty pink" meant to specifically evoke the vagina and thus a layered comment on her sexuality? Given Chaucer's use of the word "queynte," an image suggesting vagina would not be out of place. I can't decide how I feel about that, either. My poor feminist head, my poor feminist heart. They are at odds. It's an apt description. But it's so ugly. Should I hide from that, embrace it? am I seeing things that aren't there? (It's just a word, as my students would say.)

What modern equivalent is there for alisoun? Does she exist in the modern (Western) world? Yes, there are young women that marry old men, yes there are women that cheat on their husbands. But there is a much greater element of choice. Just as I think it's wrong to ascribe feminist or anti-feminist motives to non-twenty and twenty-first century authors, I think it is wrong to apply this modern word to alisoun. If she is a slut, she did not choose it. Can she even be a slut?

I shall be thinking about this for awhile yet.

Oh, that's my least favorite subject

Now, I suspect lots of people from all walks of life get this, but I only have my only biases to rely on:

I just got back from vacationing in Hawaii. I shared my shuttle to the Honolulu airport with a family, on their way to another island. The mom, a very nice lady, asked me about what I do. I explained my work (heh) and then concluded by saying I would like to get a PhD in history.

She replied, "Oh, history, my worst subject. That's my least favorite subject."

Why? Why do people say that? What am I supposed to take from that? To work harder as an educator? To switch to another field?

I'm sorry my greatest love is your greatest hate. There's a Romeo and Juliet story in here somewhere.

back

Back to work.