The postcolonial class has a formidable reading list; I'm getting a start now, though I'm really have a tough time with Rushdie's Midnight's Children. Maybe I'll manage to slog through it this weekend. It's frustrating, because I feel like I should be enjoying it more. Some of the other books on the list I've read before, but so long ago that I clearly need to read them again, including Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim, E.M. Forster's A Passage to India, and James Joyce's Dubliners. I haven't read (or even heard of) many of these authors, such as: Benedict Anderson, Anzaldua, El Saadawi, Emecheta, Fanon, Haggard, Kureishi, Lamming, Said, or Paul Scott. Oh well -- I'm here to learn, aren't I? (But those are just the novels...let's not even talk about the theorists...Derrida, Clifford, Gramsci, Bhabha, Spivak, JanMohamed, Ahmad, Sharpe, Lowe, "and many others" Meep.)
I'm excited. :-) The other very exciting thing is that my copy of L'India Dell'Anima arrived today! This is the Italian anthology which has four of my poems -- and I'm a bit awed by my company. Kamala Das, Chitra Divakaruni, Meena Alexander, Sujata Bhatt...eep. I wish I could read the Italian intro where the editor talks about the various authors -- there's a paragraph about me, and my remnants of Spanish aren't really up to the task of translating. I guess I'll corner Kirstie at some point and have her do it for me. Still, it's a lovely book, and I'm just thrilled. I'm in translation! Yippee!
Hmm...I don't think I have any more exciting things. I have a very boring thing, in fact -- from 2-4 I have a benefits orientation that I have to sit through in order to get my benefits. I should have done this in September. Oh well. What cannot be avoided must be endured...at least I have Bujold to keep me company while I wait for it -- I'm re-reading Barrayar.
Oh, there *is* one more exciting thing. Tonight's the Eyada.com interview with Bob Berkowitz on LoveBytes! Stop by -- it's at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m Eastern. (I think that's right. 7 p.m. Mountain, anyway, which is what's relevant to me :-). Should be fun. I'm a bit nervous -- it's been a few years since I did any radio. But I'm sure it'll be fine...
But now I'm starving, so I will go and get excited about lunch! Talk to you later...
10:30. Well, the interview went pretty well, I think (though one of you noted that he felt that he learned more than he should have about me :-). I'm pretty frank in such things -- I try to answer any relevant question I'm asked. So if you go over to Eyada.com and listen to the archived show (I think it'll be available there from tomorrow to Monday or so), brace yourself. :-) If you don't want to hear the details of my sex life, you may not want to visit them.
I'm pretty wiped right now, but not sleepy. :-( Star Trek is playing on TV, but it's an episode I've seen before. I'm not feeling sharp enough to do anything useful...so I'm just dealing with the simpler e-mail and tasks I have on-line. Here's one of them -- a CS job posting:
Intern for Fiction
Clean Sheets needs you! We are looking for an enthusiastic, erotica-savvy intern for the Fiction department. The ideal candidate should have some background as a writer or reader of erotica, grammatical skills, and a drive to learn. Experience with a word processing program or text editor, email programs, and reading of Clean Sheets is required. Previous editing experience is a plus but not required.The intern that we select will be responsible for a wide variety of administrative and reading tasks while learning the ropes of editing. The intern will be in contact with other Clean Sheets staff, authors, and possibly other publishers - excellent written and oral communications are key. The intern is also responsible for learning and employing skills with formatting of posted stories, proofing galleys, and printing hardcopy mailings.
This, like the other positions at Clean Sheets, is a volunteer position - the rewards are the experience of editing and producing of one of the finest erotica webzines on the Internet. If you are interested in growing with this exciting group, please email fiction@cleansheets.com with the subject heading FICTION: INTERN.
We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you!
Kris Hawes, Jaie Helier, and Bill Noble
Fiction Editors, Clean Sheets
So there you are. Mmm...I'm pretty sure I should be doing/saying something else, but I can't think what. I've probably said enough for tonight...talk to you tomorrow!