After a day of too much internet-surfing (this, despite having a husband across the table studiously translating Latin), I finally settled into some real work–and now I’m really wound up over it. If you have never read some of Virginia Woolf’s short stories, you should. It’s intriguing, sometimes weird, always carefully done, and fascinating, even to one who is generally not (shh, don’t tell) a big short story fan.
Biographical note: V. Woolf was haunted by reviews that proclaimed her a brilliant short story writer . . . but that weren’t nearly as confident that her style worked for novels, which is where the glory is for most writers, including Woolf. I’m working on the novels, but wanted to see the connections between her short-story style and the style of her novels. My dissertation (so far) is on how she makes a novel-length work hang together, despite writing that looks more appropriate for short stories. There, my dissertation in a nutshell. Now I just have to write it.
Feeling loopy.
Erin
P.S. I promise I didn’t kill Sydney off. He’s actually alive, well (well, overworked, but well outside of that), but just happens to be pretty quiet on the blog recently. Let me know if you’d like me to send you an email letting you know when he makes his reprise.
Alan Schmierer