Tales from the Trenches

I'm getting the feeling that this is grading weekend for many of us. I have a huge stack that I'm going through (2 courses, one set is 3-5 pagers, the other is 5-7). I'm finally getting the hang of creating writing assignments that I actually want to read, so I'm enjoying myself quite a bit here; the downside is that with enjoyable reading comes slower reading, and if I keep up this poky pace I'll be reading til doomsday.

In the midst of all of this, let me share with you one of my favorite sentences of the day:

The idea of is one that has obviously been around since the beginning of time, take Emerson's piece for example. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an essay in 1841 entitled “Self-Reliance”.

Oh my god, how I love it. Emerson as the dawn of time. Not only do I love this because I have the image of Emerson running around in a loincloth, hitting women over the head and dragging them back to his nature-lovin' cave, but also because this is not so far from some of the stuff that I've said AS A DOCTORAL CANDIDATE. In a job interview, I was once asked if I could teach Early American literature. My reply:

You mean like Melville?

I shit you not.

That's me--working with the same anorexic view of American letters as my students. Trying to teach them how to improve their writing.

Happy grading to all, and to all a good night.