The Conspiracy of Architecture

My apologies to those who check out this site, I haven't been updating my entries as regularly as I should. I spent the earlier part of the week scrambling to put the final touches on my Reef presentation, which was quite succesful to my surprise. Those who know me can attest to the fact that post-colonial texts are not my strong point. However, I got lucky because I picked a text that did not have the common disdain for classic texts nor make evident my shameful lack of some world history. As usual I have Viv to thank for suggesting a focus on the role of food in Romesh Gunesekera's Reef - as well as two texts from my professors (Pauline Head and Arun Mukherjee) for providing a board I could use to dive into the text. I need to extend my gratitude to Viv and her family who were the inspirational model for my idea, who have helped me understand that something as simple as 'food' can have immense meaning and importance in holding tradition together. When I finish my personal post-reflection as part of the assignment I'll post it up here so you can see what sorts of things I discussed, which I'm making seem so grand.

Now I'm starting to sound like a Grammy winner - I should thank my parents and God, too, shouldn't I?

On a completely different note, I've been trying to provide people with a glimpse in to the type of modern literature that I enjoy - as a nice break from the Literary Canon that I am wont to sing its eternal praises over modernity. Well, today's piece isn't exactly fiction, rather it's an interesting essay written by a modern Marxist New Weird authour who I've mentioned previously, named China Mieville. Even though I'm a lowly undergrad student, I feel strongly that this piece captures an idea in modern literature. If I do manage to have the courage to apply to graduate school, Mieville and the whole phenomenon of the New Weird is likely to be the focus of my study - perhaps even an idea in the works for a future course. Actually, if I were better read in 20th century "Fantasy" (e.g. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Clarke, Peake, Tolkien -- I'm sure I'm forgetting someone!) in all its major facets I'd love to teach an entire course on 20th century Fantasy - looking at the contrast between a Christian, Old English scholar like Tolkien compared with Mervyn Peake, or the New Weird's beef with the Tolkienesque idolatry in the 21st century. But a simple course like this would require a bit of background in Medieval genres, such as Romance or Monstrous texts.

Well, I've blathered enough. I hope you enjoy the article.

EXTRA NOTE: So far the only texts I know that would be able to explain things like the Medieval concept of the Grotesque (which is highly relevant to Chine Mieville's novels--the Remade characters specifically) is a book like David William's Deformed Discourse or for the tradition of (Arthurian) Romance, Geraldine Heng's Empire of Magic. Just some extra thoughts.