Day 201 and the End of the Semester

Yes, I've been abroad for 201 days. Yes, the semester is over. I finished classes on Tuesday, so I was finished with classes in my junior year of college in March (at Dickinson, classes don't end until May. Classes officially end at UEA on Friday, April 3). I handed in my final paper about the Holocaust today, but I have two more papers due May 5 and 6, respectively. Lastly, my final project for Dickinson is due June 12, which I've been working steadily on for a few weeks.

The assignment for the project is relatively open. The requirements are as follows: we need to have an experiential component (some sort of interaction with the community or British people) , a research component, and we need to write a research paper. The paper, however, is quite open to creative interpretation.

My project has evolved a few times since its conception. My original plan was to interview people who were alive during World War II (Norwich was hit quite hard during the Blitz) and then write a short piece of fiction based on their lives. The interviews would be complemented by outside research of both primary and secondary sources.

A few weeks later, my plan changed. We've been focusing on what it means to be British, so I wanted my project to have something to do with the question, "What does it mean to be British?" I decided to keep the research component, but decided to do interviews with people not only of the World War II generation, but also subsequent generations to see if I could trace changes and similarities within the past 60 years in British identity. I then decided to write short pieces of creative non-fiction (a la Hunter Thompson, Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe, but from a 3rd person perspective) about each person I interviewed, creating different chapters in a chronological study of personal perceptions of British identity. To add another dimension, I wanted to take photographic portraits of the people I interviewed to accompany the writing, to put a face to the stories.

Alas, my idea changed again, but this time less drastically. I realized that one interview was nowhere near enough time to get to know enough about a person to write non-fiction about them, so I abandoned the creative non-fiction idea but kept the chapter aspect and nixed the photographs.

The final idea: write short pieces of fiction based on the interviews and incorporate them (somehow) seamlessly into my research paper (i.e. not having two different sections: fiction and research paper).

So that's that. I've conducted two interviews, one with a 57 year-old minister whose grandfather shook hands with Hitler and 76 year-old man who drives an awesome red sports car. The interviews have been incredibly successful. I got excellent impressions about how each man perceives his own British identity and the identity of the British people as a whole. It also made me happy when the older gentleman told me he was really enjoying the interview because it was really making him think about things that he doesn't usually think about. To make someone who has been around for so long suddenly reconsider who they are and the culture they're apart of is a very good feeling.

I have another interview tonight with Tom, the first of the interviews with someone of my generation. I'll probably finish the interviews when I return from the first leg of my travels in late April.

That being said, on Monday, myself and several members of the Dickinson Humanities program will be going to see Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, probably my favorite playwright. The production stars Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. I'm INCREDIBLY excited. Then, Tuesday, my flight leaves for Milan at 2 p.m. An exciting 17 days it will be!

Those Crazy Brits

Just a taste of what I've been up to for the project I have yet to share with everyone: I interviewed a 76-year-old man today who arrived in a candy-red convertible MG, something a little like this, wearing a red baseball cap with the MG logo on the front and a long-sleeve shirt with the MG logo monogrammed onto the left breast. On Monday, I interviewed a 57-year-old man whose grandfather shook hands with Hitler.

More to come when I have less coursework to do...

POTENTIAL Schedule for Fall Semester 2009

Dickinson posted the course offerings for the Fall 2009 semester today. Here are my ideas:

Monday: 10:30 a.m. - 11:20 a.m. Introduction to Philosophy; 11:30 a.m. - 12:20 p.m. Craft of the Short Story.

Tuesday: (First half of semester) 9 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. Badminton; (Second half of semester) 10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. Rock Climbing.

Wednesday: 10:30 a.m. - 11.20 a.m. Introduction to Philosophy; 11:30 a.m. - 12:20 p.m. Craft of the Short Story; 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. English Senior Seminar.

Thursday: (First half of semester) 9 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. Badminton; (Second half of semester) 10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. Rock Climbing; 1.30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Advanced Creative Writing.

Friday: 10:30 a.m. - 11:20 a.m. Introduction to Philosophy; 11:30 a.m. - 12.20 p.m. Craft of the Short Story.

Three of these classes I need to graduate on time: The Craft of the Short Story, Advanced Creative Writing and the Senior Seminar. I believe I will have no problem getting into Craft and Adv. C.W. because there aren't that many Creative Writing Fiction minors at Dickinson (I don't think). The Senior Seminar is one of four that are offered. The one I want is called "Sexuality & Modernism" with Professor Wendy Moffat. The other seminars are "Critical Terms for Literary Study" with Professor David Ball, "Naipaul and Rushdie" with Professor Robert Ness and "Reading Race in Post-WWII Britain" with Professor Victoria Sams. Course request period is March 30 - April 1. I'm excited - classes for senior year! Unbelievable...

Paul Celan

You were my death:

you I could hold

when all fell away from me.

from Fadensonnen, 1968

Paul Celan Selected Poems, Translated and Introduced by Michael Hamburger (Penguin, 1996)

Brief Academic Update

As we are already past the halfway point in the semester (our 7th week out of 12) I have begun working on my coursework for this semester (essays). On Monday, March 2, I have an essay due for my Holocaust class. I'm attempting to answer the question, "Did Germans kill Jews because they wanted to?" I also have an essay due on Thursday, March 6 for my Poetry in Dark Times class. I've yet to decide what I'm writing about for that paper.

For my Holocaust paper, I have three books to consult (so far): The Origins of the Final Solution, The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy 1939-1942, by Christopher R. Browning (Arrow, 2004), Hitler's Willing Executioners, Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel J. Goldhagen (Vintage, 1997) and Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution by Ian Kershaw (Yale University Press, 2008). 

It has been fascinating, overwhelming and heartbreaking reading about the holocaust, and I will elaborate on why and what I've learned thus far when I have some more time. For now, though, I'm off to continue doing research and to continue outlining my essay. 

-ZMG

A Brief London Visit...

I have returned from a fascinating 24 hours in London. Yesterday, 22 of the 25 of our group departed for an optional trip to London to meet with three members of the US Embassy and talk about the "Special Relationship" between the United States and the United Kingdom, and then proceeded to an exclusive speech at the Chatham House, Royal Institute for International Affairs to given by US ambassador to the UK Robert Tuttle entitled, "Reflections on the US-UK Relationship." Today, Friday, we met with Martin Williamson of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) for a conversation titled "Britain's Place in the World," and finally to Barclay's Wealth, a division of Barclay's bank to meet with the CEO of Barclays Wealth and a few of his staff members for a conversation entitled "The British Finance Industry, Global Markets, and the Credit Crunch." 

I found the conversation at the US Embassy with Mr. Philip Breeden to be incredibly gripping. We discussed how the US is portrayed to the UK through the media and through American students (like myself) studying here in the UK. One of the staff members we spoke to stressed how useful time in the Peace Corps is as he joined after college. He said the Peace Corps, and traveling, as well, is really the way to be the true ambassadors to other countries. Only through real people can people in other countries get a true feel for what Americans are like. The media gives people in other countries a very skewed view of who we are. For example, after seeing a documentary about Philadelphia, all of Dwight's flatmates (Dwight is from Philly) thought that all Philadelphians were gun-toting maniacs. Dwight had to assure them that this was not true. 

We also discussed the relationship between the US and UK governments and the fact that both countries have been allies for a long time. While there are disagreements on certain issues - the war in Iraq, Guantánamo Bay, climate change and how to deal with it - since both countries' values and interests have always been similar, they have been willing to work together often. 

Mr. Tuttle spent most of his time defending President Bush and attempting to draw focus to the more positive things Bush accomplished throughout his two terms in office. Of cures, this is his job - to support the president. It was simply a privilege to be able to sit at the Chatham House and listen to the ambassador speak, and I believe that was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I'm so grateful that Professor Rudalevige was able to beg (as he put it) to get it set up.

Mr. Williamson at the FCO spoke about the UK's foreign policy and more about its values and interests and about their relationship with the EU. 

At Barclays Wealth, the two young employees did a wonderful job explaining what led to the current financial crisis, the cycle that keeps the recession going, and what can be done (and what is being done) to slow the recession and help the world's economy recover. For someone like myself who has trouble wrapping his mind around economics, they broke it down into terms and ideas I could understand, so that I now feel like I have a better understanding of what's currently happening with our economy.

Apologies for the brevity of this entry, but I'm a little tired and delirious. For more information about any of this entry, feel free to contact me!

-ZMG

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