The Buzz

The big topic this week for literary scholars appears to be the perenial question of our purpose in life. Two separate articles seem to highlight a market shift--yes, I said "market shift" in a piece of writing about literary scholarship; you wanna make something of it?--from the lit to the comp side of the house, a shift reinforced by the job list.

In WaPo, Valerie Strauss reports on revamped core curricula and the forces driving the academy to shift focus to writing skills ("Balancing Academic Tradition and Skills Employers Demand"). In The Nation, William Deresiewicz looks at the profession of literature over the last 20 years, presenting a sort of State of the Union piece for literary study after Graff's Professing Literature's debut 20 years ago. ("Professing Literature in 2008").

What does it mean to shift our focus to writing and composition? Will the professorate disintegrate, relegating more and more lit PhD's to the academic underclass* of adjunct professing? Will tenure lines shift into rhet/comp spots, with the understanding that the teaching load will require teaching the first-year course? Will WAC/WID programs become the standard, moving comp out of English departments completely and drawing faculty from across the university?

As I type it all, I keep thinking of the 80's show Soap. Lots of questions at the end of the episode. When will we get any answers?

*Yes, I said "underclass" because, frankly, that's what it is. If we took a core sample from the geology of any large R1 English department's faculty we would find adjuncts toiling at the very bottom, below the graduate teaching assistants who generally at least have the guarantee of support for a specified time during their education.

By Way of Introduction

I am in my late 30's, recently doctored, and catching a ride on the Tenure Track at an LAC. I love to teach. I love to read. When I'm really honest with myself, I acknowledge that I even love to write. I'm trying to read the books I purchased after graduation. My shelves are filled with books I want to read, books I purchased with every intent to read, but never got around to.

I watch too much television.

I eat too much chocolate. And Alouette Garlic & Herb cheese spread. And drink too much coffee. I'll let you fill in the rest.

I enjoy crafting. I keep a blog about it and no, I won't tell you where it is. What crafts? Mostly the ones that require needles: quilting, knitting, spinning (to make yarn to ply with needles), crocheting, embroidery. I like making things and I really like making things that I don't have to think about too much. Crafting relaxes me.

Academically, I daydream about writing tools, South Park, reading, poetry, Yeats, Doctor Who, writing, markup, the Internet, plagiarism, discourse communities, Project Runway, Isocrates, gaming, religion, Auden, Law & Order, Eliot, and Blake. I write about some of these things, I talk about others, and the remainder linger, waiting their turn.

I do not like the outdoors. They're pretty to look at, and I certainly don't mind being in nature, as long as nature leaves me alone. I'm not a fisher, hiker, biker, walker, runner, camper, or any other -er involving intense contact with the outside world. I recognize that I need to incorporate some physical activity if I plan to maintain my chocolate/cheese/coffee habit (see above); I'm vacillating between belly dancing and treadmill torture.

Enough for now, I think. Someday I'll let you in on my politics.

Opening Principles

I begin this blog with a sense of hope and a feeling of incredible freedom. While I'm not advertising who I am, I really haven't done a lot to hide it; anyone who really wants to "out" me could likely do it with ease. I rely on the general respect of my fellow netizens to maintain my anonymity.

I make no promises about how much I will write, no guarantees about the content or quality, and no overtures toward following through on the title of my blog. I chose the name "Speak Lightning" because I relate to the following segment of Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage:

Could I embody and unbosom now
That which is most within me, -- could I wreak
My thoughts upon expression, and thus throw
Soul, heart, mind, passions, feelings, strong or weak,
All that I would have sought, and all I seek,
Bear, know, feel, and yet breathe -- into one word,
And that one word were Lightning, I would speak;
But as it is, I live and die unheard,
With a most voiceless thought, sheathing it as a sword. (III.xcvii)

If I find that word, you'll be the first to know.

First Post

Hello world!