Edinburgh, Reading and the Beginning of a New Semester

[Post published 1/14/09]

After returning from a five day trip to Scotland with Emma, I have been thrown - no, gently shovel-passed - back into the world of English academics. Monday was our first day of classes, but the one class that I had was canceled so that we could pick up necessary books and begin reading. I'm taking three classes this semester at UEA, as opposed to two last semester. More on that later.

Edinburgh is a gorgeous city. It's ancient castle sits atop a hill in the middle of the city, overlooking the surrounding expanse of developed land. The city is made up of two main sections, the Old Town and the New Town. The Old Town is mostly medieval (I believe) and the New Town, interestingly, was mostly constructed in the 1700s, thus by American standards...there is nothing new in Edinburgh. The New Town is laid out much like modern cities today are - with streets that create grids when looked at from a birds-eye view. The Old Town has the small, winding cobblestone streets that I have become so fond of here in both the United Kingdom and the European continent. 

Our first day there, Emma and I took a three-hour walking tour of the city. It was a good tour, providing us with a brief history of the city of Edinburgh. We saw St. Gile's Cathedral (which isn't actually a cathedral as it doesn't have a bishop), the Writer's Museum, the school that inspired Hogwarts in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, and also the small café where she began writing the books that made her wealthier than the Queen and many other small gems the city had to offer. Our tour guide also told us several stories related to the different sights we saw to accompany their histories. After the tour we visited the Writer's Museum, which highlights the lives and careers of Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott. We climbed Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano that provides a gorgeous view of the entire city. We spent five hours exploring Edinburgh Castle and the exhibitions within its walls, most of which pertained to Edinburgh's military history. We visited Hollyrood Palace, where the Queen stays when she visits Scotland in the summer. We spent a tremendous amount of time walking up and down what's known as the Royal Mile, a mile-long street with the castle at one end and Hollyrood Palace and Scottish Parliament at the other. 

Me in front of Hollyrood Palace

Edinburgh Castle

This was not Emma's first time in Edinburgh. The first time she had gone with another friend of ours who is studying in Norwich with us named Julieta. Julieta knew of a program called Couch Surfers which is a community of people who allow travelers to stay in their apartments or houses for free. Emma and I stayed with the man, a forty-something year old part-time tour guide named George who she and Julieta had stayed with the first time they were there. George was an incredibly nice guy, and very willing to suggest places to go and things to see while we were there. He even made dinner for us one night (we did the dishes)! 

I'm very happy to have been able to spend a few days in Scotland, and we lucked out with the weather, as the first two full days we were there it was relatively mild and sunny. We got some rain and cold our second two days there, but overall I was pleased that I wasn't freezing and soaked the whole time. 

Here are my pictures from the week:

Edinburgh 1

Edinburgh 2

Edinburgh 3

As Emma had a paper to work on while we were in Scotland, I brought a book that I started reading at home, The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem, which I highly recommend. Unfortunately, I finished that book the night we arrived in Scotland, so the next day I bought The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Human Stain by Philip Roth. I had read The Great Gatsby in 10th grade, but didn't remember much of it, so I decided to reread it. Like his short stories, I loved it and gobbled it up. Then I started The Human Stain. This novel was not as slow and difficult to get through as Roth's American Pastoral was, but it was just as captivating and just as tragic. Again I experienced the same feeling I had while reading American Pastoral. I felt so strongly for the characters involved that it felt as if they were close friends of mine, and again it was because of Roth's incredible ability to delve into the depths of the histories and personalities of his characters. 

My contemporary writing professor last semester, Dr. Stephen Benson, called to my attention the fact that Roth didn't gain much recognition until later in life (he was 65 when he received the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral in 1998). Reading his novels, I can't help but feel - for better or for worse - that it is not Roth's narrators that are telling the stories, but Roth himself. Paragraph after paragraph is filled with what appear to me to be Roth's thoughts on humans, love, life, death and anything else you can imagine. It seems to me that his novels are outpourings of meticulous and relentless meditations on issues that humans deal with throughout their lives. They say, "This is what I think. I've had 60 years to experience everything I write about and think about it until I go numb, and now I know how I feel about it. And I want you to know what I think." There's no arrogance about it, only honesty - honesty that at times can be quite brutal. I highly suggest - no, I demand that anyone with an interest in literature and a good book read either The Human Stain or American Pastoral. 

I finished The Human Stain today (Wednesday, January 14th), and I think it is safe to say that I have not read this much this consistently for my own enjoyment since I was eight- or nine-years-old and reading the Hardy Boys series (of which I probably read about 50 books). 

On another note, I've had one class thus far, and it was yesterday. My schedule this semester is as follows:

Monday: Literature and Visual Culture at the Fin de Siecle; 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Tuesday: Poetry in Dark Times: Holderlin, Rilke, Celan; 2 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Thursday: The Holocaust; Lecture, 1 p.m. - 2 p.m.; Seminar, 2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.; Extra lecture (to view movies, or other course-related activities) 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.

As I mentioned earlier, my class on Monday was canceled, but I had Poetry in Dark Times yesterday, and it was a fantastic class. As the poets in the title of the class all wrote in German, we will be dealing with the issues that arise because of differing translations. We close read (analyzed text using only the text, and not going outside of it to do research or thinking too much about context) several translations of a poem by Holderlin, and it was fascinating and sparked my excitement for the course. 

Tomorrow, the Dickinson Humanities group will take a trip to London and stay the night to hear the US Ambassador to the UK give a talk called "Reflections on the US-UK Relationship," hear a talk called "Britain's Place in the World" by Martin Williamson at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and CEO of Barclays Bank Thomas Kalaris give a talk at the Barclays Headquarters called "The British Finance Industry, Global Markets, and the Credit Crunch." While I do have to miss class to attend this trip, I think it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (maybe...) to hear these three men speak on important issues facing the UK and the US today. We will return to Norwich Friday evening. 

I have a paper due for my Dickinson class, Humanities 310, next Wednesday, and a proposal for a final project due the following Monday, which I will reveal to the virtual world when my plan becomes solidified. As I said, we've been gently shovel-passed back into the academic world. I'm looking into doing some traveling in the next few weeks, and will keep everyone updated on that as well.

I hope all is well with everyone at home, in Africa, Canada, Mexico, wherever! Until next time!

-ZMG