The Joys of Being an English Major
Jun. 25th, 2007 04:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadydaveI am rather amused that Youtube's advertisements state "Huge stock of Robots at low prices!" Wow! Just what I needed!
Both my dad and his secretary are on vacation today, so I arrived at 7:00 AM (CURSE YOU CARPOOLING!) to find the principal's office locked. This was unfortunate, but not as unfortunate as the back hallway ALSO being locked, because that's where the toaster and microwave are, and I really wanted to eat breakfast. Eventually, Elizabeth the Main Office Secretary arrived and said she might have a key. It turned out she had one for my dad's office and the back hallway, but not for the actual rest of the principal's office. Fortunately, someone had forgotten to lock the door between the main office and the principal's office, so I was able to get into there and thus to my dad's. The principal's office remained shut until Gloria got there with her keys, which was actually kind of awesome, because I was assured of no one bothering me about cell phones or summer school or crap like that while I was eating breakfast. Since Gloria is also on vacation tomorrow, she gave me her key, so I'll be able to get in. Also, maybe I should filch my dad's, since Elizabeth might not be in tomorrow to open his office. Hmmm. He's in Michigan, it's not like he's gonna need them. I can carry around his giant key-ring and feel SUPER COOL. Especially while I stand there trying to figure out which one of the thirty I need.
Anyways, while I was pretending to be a Serious Scholar and work on my Monroe Project, I noticed an interesting phenomenomenon. enomenon. enon.
The Scene: Caerleon, June. For some reason it has snowed, but this is unremarked upon. Perceval, after failing miserably to relieve the Fisher King, has unknowingly wandered into spitting distance of King Arthur's camp, who are wandering around searching for him because King Arthur gets bored very easily. A falcon dives at a goose, wounding it, but the goose escapes. It does, however, bleed three drops onto the unseasonal snowand a Wawa springs up, fully formed. Naturally, this reminds Perceval of his girlfriend's face. He's a bit odd like that. He totally zones out, and two knights, Sagremor and Kay, come over to find what's shakin'. Because they have anger management problems, they do this by jousting with him. Perceval defeats them handily without really paying attention and goes back to contemplating his girlfriend. Gawain suggests to the King that greeting someone by trying to hit them with a really big stick is perhaps not the most enticing way to get them to accept his hospitality, and goes off to say hi. He hangs around until the snow melts and Perceval's reverie comes to an end. They introduce themselves, are overcome with fanboyish glee, and promise to become BFFs.
I was reading a new translation, and when I got to the next scene, began to snicker quite a bit -- partially because I have a dirty mind, but also because I am an English Major and we do this for kicks:
'Then they go to embrace each other and set about unlacing helmets, coifs and ventails, and they pull down the mail. So they come rejoicing on their way. Then some youths, seeing them making much of each other, run at once from a low hill where they were standing and come before the king. "Sire, sire," they exclaim, "my lord Gawain really is bringing the knight, and they're making a great fuss of each other!" [...] My lord Gawain has no wish to take his companion to court in his armour, but wants him completely disarmed. In his tent he has him stripped of his armour [...] [T]hey proceed together, hand in hand, to the king.'
-- D.D.R. "Homoerotic subtext? What?" Owen
After I stopped snickering, however, I was struck with the horror that maybe I had failed my illustrious critical forbears, and somehow missed the ho!yay the first few times I read my original copy. The answer, fortunately, was no:
'Then they went to embrace one another. They began to unlace their helmets, coifs, and ventails and to pull off the chain-mail. Afterwards they returned rejoicing to the camp. And squires who had been posted on a hill observed their mutual delight and came running to the king. "My lord, my lord!" they exclaimed. "In faith my lord Gawain is bringing the knight here, and each is delighted to be with the other." [...] And my lord Gawain did not wish to bring his companion fully armed to court, but disarmed: he had him disarmed in his own tent [...] [T]he two of them came hand in hand to the king.'
-- William "Ok, so there's a little subtext, deal with it" W. Kibler
While somewhat slashy, this scene lacks the blatant, gleeful challenge to just try and find a perspective from somewhere other than the gutter. I didn't even have a snarky note in the margin -- a rare occurence indeed. Intrigued, I cracked open my shiny new translation to see how yet another author treated this meeting of two guys who carry around pointy swords and enormous lances:
'With that they went and embraced each other, and began to unlace their helmets and the necks of their hauberks, opening their mail hoods; then they made their way back, rejoicing. Some boys, up on a hillock, saw them returning joyfully, and came running down to the king. "Sire! Sire!" they cried. "In faith, Sir Gawain is bringing back the knight, and they seem very pleased to see each other!" [...] Sir Gawain did not want to take his companion to court in his armour, so he had him disarmed in his tent [...] [H]e and Gawain came hand in hand to the king.'
-- Nigel "No subtext for you!" Bryant
Amazing! Hardly any subtext at all! Aside from the hand-holding, of course, which suggests three options:
-- Medieval French guys were more secure in their masculinity than Modern American guys are
-- banging practically every girl in the British Isles has elevated Sir Gawain above the petty need to prove his machosity*
-- Perceval needs help crossing streets
I figure each of these options is about as likely as the next.
Anyways, I hope you have been enlightened by this comparison of translational decisions, or at least had a good laugh at D.D.R. Owen's initials. He totally deserves it; the bastard did HIS translation ENTIRELY IN THE PRESENT TENSE. Not cool, dude.
* This is even more impressive since Sir Gawain is the only Arthurian character to canonically make out with a dude.
In conclusion: No Dad + no Maria + nothing to do except sit at a desk = watching MST3K at work! For the win.
Both my dad and his secretary are on vacation today, so I arrived at 7:00 AM (CURSE YOU CARPOOLING!) to find the principal's office locked. This was unfortunate, but not as unfortunate as the back hallway ALSO being locked, because that's where the toaster and microwave are, and I really wanted to eat breakfast. Eventually, Elizabeth the Main Office Secretary arrived and said she might have a key. It turned out she had one for my dad's office and the back hallway, but not for the actual rest of the principal's office. Fortunately, someone had forgotten to lock the door between the main office and the principal's office, so I was able to get into there and thus to my dad's. The principal's office remained shut until Gloria got there with her keys, which was actually kind of awesome, because I was assured of no one bothering me about cell phones or summer school or crap like that while I was eating breakfast. Since Gloria is also on vacation tomorrow, she gave me her key, so I'll be able to get in. Also, maybe I should filch my dad's, since Elizabeth might not be in tomorrow to open his office. Hmmm. He's in Michigan, it's not like he's gonna need them. I can carry around his giant key-ring and feel SUPER COOL. Especially while I stand there trying to figure out which one of the thirty I need.
Anyways, while I was pretending to be a Serious Scholar and work on my Monroe Project, I noticed an interesting phenomenomenon. enomenon. enon.
The Scene: Caerleon, June. For some reason it has snowed, but this is unremarked upon. Perceval, after failing miserably to relieve the Fisher King, has unknowingly wandered into spitting distance of King Arthur's camp, who are wandering around searching for him because King Arthur gets bored very easily. A falcon dives at a goose, wounding it, but the goose escapes. It does, however, bleed three drops onto the unseasonal snow
I was reading a new translation, and when I got to the next scene, began to snicker quite a bit -- partially because I have a dirty mind, but also because I am an English Major and we do this for kicks:
'Then they go to embrace each other and set about unlacing helmets, coifs and ventails, and they pull down the mail. So they come rejoicing on their way. Then some youths, seeing them making much of each other, run at once from a low hill where they were standing and come before the king. "Sire, sire," they exclaim, "my lord Gawain really is bringing the knight, and they're making a great fuss of each other!" [...] My lord Gawain has no wish to take his companion to court in his armour, but wants him completely disarmed. In his tent he has him stripped of his armour [...] [T]hey proceed together, hand in hand, to the king.'
-- D.D.R. "Homoerotic subtext? What?" Owen
After I stopped snickering, however, I was struck with the horror that maybe I had failed my illustrious critical forbears, and somehow missed the ho!yay the first few times I read my original copy. The answer, fortunately, was no:
'Then they went to embrace one another. They began to unlace their helmets, coifs, and ventails and to pull off the chain-mail. Afterwards they returned rejoicing to the camp. And squires who had been posted on a hill observed their mutual delight and came running to the king. "My lord, my lord!" they exclaimed. "In faith my lord Gawain is bringing the knight here, and each is delighted to be with the other." [...] And my lord Gawain did not wish to bring his companion fully armed to court, but disarmed: he had him disarmed in his own tent [...] [T]he two of them came hand in hand to the king.'
-- William "Ok, so there's a little subtext, deal with it" W. Kibler
While somewhat slashy, this scene lacks the blatant, gleeful challenge to just try and find a perspective from somewhere other than the gutter. I didn't even have a snarky note in the margin -- a rare occurence indeed. Intrigued, I cracked open my shiny new translation to see how yet another author treated this meeting of two guys who carry around pointy swords and enormous lances:
'With that they went and embraced each other, and began to unlace their helmets and the necks of their hauberks, opening their mail hoods; then they made their way back, rejoicing. Some boys, up on a hillock, saw them returning joyfully, and came running down to the king. "Sire! Sire!" they cried. "In faith, Sir Gawain is bringing back the knight, and they seem very pleased to see each other!" [...] Sir Gawain did not want to take his companion to court in his armour, so he had him disarmed in his tent [...] [H]e and Gawain came hand in hand to the king.'
-- Nigel "No subtext for you!" Bryant
Amazing! Hardly any subtext at all! Aside from the hand-holding, of course, which suggests three options:
-- Medieval French guys were more secure in their masculinity than Modern American guys are
-- banging practically every girl in the British Isles has elevated Sir Gawain above the petty need to prove his machosity*
-- Perceval needs help crossing streets
I figure each of these options is about as likely as the next.
Anyways, I hope you have been enlightened by this comparison of translational decisions, or at least had a good laugh at D.D.R. Owen's initials. He totally deserves it; the bastard did HIS translation ENTIRELY IN THE PRESENT TENSE. Not cool, dude.
* This is even more impressive since Sir Gawain is the only Arthurian character to canonically make out with a dude.
In conclusion: No Dad + no Maria + nothing to do except sit at a desk = watching MST3K at work! For the win.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 03:38 pm (UTC)But it's alright, I love you anyway. You are a very good little English-major-type person, and I am amused that you read Arthurian literature with slash goggles. I am so proud.
In other news, Ten/Martha/Jack = hottest Team TARDIS eva!!! Discuss.
Why isn't it tomorrow yet?
no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 05:08 pm (UTC)Ten/Martha/Jack do indeed = hottest Team TARDIS eva!!! This is because they are all full of complementary awesome. Because with Nine/Rose/Jack, the balance was a little skewed, because the Doctor definitely preferred Rose over Jack, and vice versa for Rose, so poor Jack was like the third wheel. An AWESOME third wheel, but a third wheel nonetheless. Or maybe he was more like a kickstand, where they would roll along fine without him, except when they were stopped and there was nothing to lean against. Whereas the 10th Doctor prefers Rose to both Jack AND Martha, so now they are both the back wheels on a tricyle! Which is pining after a unicycle? I might have to work on this metaphor.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 10:51 pm (UTC)HAHAHAHAHA!
Team TARDIS analyzed as wheeled vehicles! Maybe Rose made a noise like a hoop and rolled away?
I'm thinking about leaving early-ish tomorrow so I can see the finale with you. What are your feelings on this?
no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 11:09 pm (UTC)I'm thinking about leaving early-ish tomorrow so I can see the finale with you. What are your feelings on this?
I like this plan! I'll be at Mallory's, so you shouldn't leave too early-ish, but I will totally meet you at home. Yay finale! Text me when you leave New York.