Oops!

I got so lost on campus today that I had to call a friend from high school who goes to IU in order to figure out where I was and how to get to where I had meant to go. That never happened at DePauw. Or at Aberdeen. Why now? Craziness.

The small happinesses of a future librarians

Yesterday I got my first ever ILL (inter-library loan) book from the Library of Congress. I had a Library of Congress seal in it and everything. And you know something belongs to the Library of Congress when they stipulate that sure, you can borrow this, but you can't take it out of your own library. It was lovely.

It was a pretty awesome book, too, on the Gardens at Versailles. Which are very lovely themselves.

It's not eavesdropping if they're talking loudly

I overheard this remark while leaving the public library this evening:

"I wasn't expecting so many girls to have rocks on their fingers, when I came here!"

Evidently it is not only for female students to remark upon how many of their male classmates are either married or engaged. Good to know.

On the last day of class

Two things:

1. In my class this evening, the professor asked if we had any questions about our take-home finals, which are due Thursday. I was the only student to ask any questions, and I asked three. Are you not supposed to ask questions about exams in grad school? Or am I the only one who's actually looked at the exam and so could ask questions at all? I really don't know.
2. SLIS does their course evaluations via Scantron. When we pulled the Scantron sheets out of the evals envelope, a wave of panic spread over me. I hadn't seen a fill-in-the-bubble sheet since high school. The panic resulting from first seeing the Scantron suggests that perhaps I was a bit stressed out about things like tests and grades in high school. On the plus side, I seem to have mellowed out since then.

Austen Hero Order of the Day

In the style of my entry dated 22 June 2009, and in the order of my current preference (with #6 being blah and #1 being ooh la la):

6. Mr. Edmund Bertram (Mansfield Park)

5. Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy (Pride and Prejudice)

4. Mr. Edward Ferrars (Sense and Sensibility)

3. Mr. Henry Tilney (Northanger Abbey)

2. Mr. George Knightly (Emma)

1. Captain Frederick Wentworth (Persuasion)

On the positives of owning up

I just finished reading a book that (surprise surprise!) is focused on a woman who really likes Jane Austen. Like most chick lit based on or around Austen, this woman has the distinct feeling that Austen has ruined her love life with such characters as Edmund Bertram and Mr. Darcy.

Now, first of all: Edmund Bertram? That nitwit? Has this author even read any other of the Austen novels? For that matter, has she read any at all? Or just watched the movies? Because, and maybe it's just me, but I would never ever ever put Edmund Bertram on any sort of pedestal even remotely associated with romantic perfection. Ever.

Second of all (which does indicate that perhaps the author is an Austen-movies-only kind of girl): Mr. Darcy is not her main character's pinnacle of romantic hero. Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy holds that honor.

Now, I will agree as much as the next person that Colin First as Mr. Darcy is fantastic. Spot on. Smoldering in an "I-have-an-attitude-despite-this-frilly-neck-cloth" sort of way. And that's not even considering the (superfluous) Darcy-in-water scene (even the BBC isn't perfect?). Add that into the mix and wowza. But the thing is, that's not Darcy. Sure, I'm of the camp that Elizabeth may be a far more faulted character than her true love Darcy. But I also believe that, regardless of his affections for Elizabeth, Darcy would still treat everyone else pretty much like crap. I mean, come on, he's not even particularly polite to Caroline Bingley, and he's around her all the time. What makes any self-respecting female think that he'd treat her any differently? That he'd deign to remove his attention from Elizabeth for even a second in order to address her?

However, and maybe this has more to do with my favorite Austen hero not being Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, I have a bit of a problem with this main character's (let's just say it) obsession. Unfounded and misplaced, it may be. But still, it is hers, how she feels. And she is wholeheartedly ashamed of it.

Like to the point of hiding her Pride and Prejudice dvd set in a houseplant so that no one will find out about it.

So, let's see... is this book telling me that I should be ashamed by my Austen-philia, even though I really and truly love Jane Austen? Because I'm not ashamed, no way Jose. Nor will I be induced to think I should be ashamed. The only thing that I get out of this specific incarnation of Austen chick lit is that people should, above all else, stay true to themselves. And perhaps people wouldn't be so screwed up if they'd read and not just trust things to movies.

Oh, and maybe they shouldn't think that highly of Mr. Bertram, either.

A note on lotus flowers...

...they can fall apart overnight.

Literally.