A Single Layer

reading list for this week: Sir Walter Scott's Guy Mannering Hegel's Philosophy of History , exerpts Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater John Barrell's "The Infection of Thomas de Quincey: a Psychopathology of Imperialism" reading list for next week: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Judith Butler's Gender Trouble Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication Concerning the Rights of Women Matthew Lewis's The Monk Sigmund Freud's ‘The Uncanny’

There has been little in the way of an update to this meagre blog, mainly due to the fact that not much has been happening. I am reading, of course, an inordinate amount of pages from the 19th century (which should excuse any heights of language to which I here aspire), but that's about it. I hear on the wind that there's to be a bit of a movie night tonight. Even so, that's not much of a change from the usual. For those who might care, and those who don't, I am presently making myself acquainted with the Right Honourable... Sir Walter Scott. His novel Guy Mannering is my present occupation, though I hear it is not one of his most popular. It has held my interest, though, for 320 pages, and I do not think I'm stretching my faith in Scott's authorship when I say that it will probably remain agreeable still for the 200 pages I have left to go. After this, I must blitz through Thomas de Quincey's odd memorandum entitled The Confessions of an English Opium-Eate...

...Visionary power Attends upon the motions of the winds Embodies in the mystery of words; There darkness makes abode, and all the host Of shadowy things fo work their changes there As in a mansion like their proper home. Even forms and substances are circumfused By that transparent veil with light divine, And through the turnings intricate of verse Present themselves as objects recognized In flashes, and with glory scarce their own. Wordsworth, The Prelude (1805)

wide awake two hours too early from a cloud of smoke in the kitchen and, oh yes, the fire alarm. and the evacuation of the entire building. and one more of our kitchen pots scalded to bits. i will need a nap this afternoon.

Our last full day in Rome, we foolishly slept in again and had only four and a half hours in the Vatican museum. The Laocoon is Chaeli's favorite statue in the world, and there was a special exhibit for it. We also saw the famous Torso and so rounded out our education regarding Michelangelo's major influences. I was very excited also to see the Raphael rooms, and they did not disappoint. We spent at least half an hour in front of the School of Athens ruminating on the academic community, the heritage of such thinkers, and the connection between Raphael's use of colour and his drinking habits. We made a side trip on the way to the Sistine Chapel down to the rooms of Modern Religious art. We meant to just slip on through and get a general idea of what was there, but some of the art was so beautiful that we ended up spending about an hour down there. Chaeli's camera died at this point (you're not allowed to photograph the Sistine Chapel anyway), so we sketched everythi...

We were in Assisi! The view from our bedroom was amazing. It overlooked a belltower, medieval buildings, and a vast landscape of farmland and distant hills and beauty. Having slept in, we only had time to visit one church, but that was all that was necessary for amazement and satisfaction. We spent three hours in the Basilica di San Francesco, because it was simply the most utterly beautiful building of ever. The frescoes... the blue... the ceilings and walls.... After the Basilica, we found a quaint shop or two and a spot for lunch, then grabbed a bus (no strange Italian boys this time) to the train station and back to Roma!

was Christmas Day, and Chaeli and I hopped on the first train we found to Assisi. The train conductor was very friendly and charged us half price for our tickets! The Umbrian countryside is beautiful and I want to live there. It is much like California, though, and I think that if our lovely state was not so heavily populated and had a greater history of struggle and some impressive crumbling architecture, it could definitely rival Italy for beauty. The train stopped just below Assisi, which is in the hills, in a town called Santa Maria degli Angeli. We did not know that it was not Assisi, though, since the train station was called "Assisi" and there were guidebooks for Assisi in the station gift shop. It took us a while to figure this out and longer still to discover that the busses had all stopped running. I spent the evening in a coffeeshop while Chaeli used the internet cafe round the corner trying to find the hotel in which she had made reservations. We got a ride to Ass...

was... Christmas Eve! and I woke up with stomach pain. The pain was so bad that I was sure it was appendicitis so I had the proprieters of the hostel drive me to the emergency room. Oh yes, and I also threw up a bit... it was very dramatic. They gave me a shot for the nausea, and it was all very difficult because not many people spoke English. Mostly I lay on a wheely-bed in the hallway all morning. They looked at my insides with one of those things that can see through your skin and the surgeons poked at me, but they all said that nothing was wrong. Not my appendix, then. After the shot for nausea, I felt much better, and the pain did not return till the next morning. And then, it only returned tamely, and I managed to walk it off and fend it off with some ibuprofen. I can only assume that it was a very bad case of indigestion. But I swear I thought something was going to burst inside me, it hurt so bad. I might not have resorted to the emergency room had I not purchased travel insura...

We went shopping, and I spent way too much money on a coat and I will be eating nothing but porridge and soup till my next loan check comes in March because of it. But the Italian fashion is really intoxicating--they design with great freedom and individuality--and I was actually practicing a great deal of restraint. I bought some gifts for various people and Chaeli bought a blue dress. We also stopped off at a gallery in the Barberini Palace. I didn't mention that the first night in Rome we stumbled into this palace and happily rambled about on its grounds (it's in the middle of the city and the gates were wide open). The gallery was not that impressive, except that it was in a way-cool building with way-cool marble stairs and ornate painted ceilings. I think someone should make a coffee table book of the floors and ceilings of Rome. They are among the more impressive aspects of the city's impressiveness. There was one painting in the gallery that was familiar (of course, ...

We were going to go back to the Vatican to look in the Museum, but we woke up later than we should have, the opening hours were very limited, and we decided to save it till after Christmas day. Instead, we went on a tour of some other churches. San Giovanni, only ten minutes south of our hostel rooms, was the first legal church built in the city. It supposedly houses the heads of the apostles Peter and Paul. Yes, the heads. There are some lovely Popes buried there and even more lovely statues of the apostles--I think we took some pictures of Peter--which are, of course, very huge. Across the street are the Holy Steps, which were apparently shipped over from Jerusalem and which Jesus walked up with his cross. The tradition goes that one can only ascend these steps on one's knees. Many people (mostly women, from what I saw, and several of them nuns) go there to climb the steps and pray, and the wood is worn with a thousand or so years worth of prayer. Not much of a sight for tourists...

We had breakfast the next morning at a cafe a few doors down from our hostel which we knew was good when we found that none of the people working there spoke English. The cappuccino was the best we had anywhere the whole week long, and we ordered our breakfast by pointing at the croissants in the pastry window. We went their every morning until we left. They were very jolly, invigorated people who laughed with each other, recognized all their customers and winked at you in knowing ways. After that, we headed to the Colosseum, which was only a ten minute walk from the hostel! When we were about to go in, we were offered a tour from a group of English speakers who looked official and had little hip-pack microphones. They seemed authentic, and they were, so we agreed. The Colosseum is very big. :) I have learned some interesting facts about it, such as... oh, what did I learn? oh yes. Only one-third of the original structure is still standing. The rest of it was pillaged by the city of Ro...

I left my flat very early in the morning, but still managed to be so late to my flight that they had given away almost all of the seats and had to put me in business class. Woe is me! I had to use real silverware and drink out of an actual ceramic cup! I wish I could always fly business class--it makes you feel like a real human being. I landed in Italy and found the train into the city. The view from the train windows looked much like Chicago or the outskirts of any major city. Apartment buildings crammed together, laundry hanging from balconies, graffiti here there and everywhere, lots of trash... but there were also Mediterranean-type palm trees (which I haven't seen in a while) and a general Santa Barbara-type feel to all the city-ness that made it quite an enjoyable train ride. The station was a fifteen minute walk from my hostel and I had printed out a detailed map from Google to help me on my way. My little wheelie suitcase bore the jutted cobblestones very well, and the Ita...