Today feels like a good day for bits and pieces.
An update on the Lit MOOC post from last week. Kathleen and I have begun the T.S. Eliot self-paced course and it is really wonderful. We are having stimulating email discussions as we go. We have made it through all the introductory stuff and this week launch into the poetry with “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock.” If anyone is interested in joining us you still have time to catch up!
Also on the MOOC front, I signed up for the historical fiction course, Plagues, Witches, and War that begins October 15th and so did Cirtnecce. There is still plenty of time for others to sign up too. Instead of using the class discussion forum we plan on email or twitter discussion, haven’t settled yet. Even if you are a little tempted, sign up, you don’t have to read everything and it will be fun!
I should not laugh, but two men in a grocery store in Russia got into an argument over Immanuel Kant and one of them shot the other! The gun was loaded with rubber bullets and the victim went to the hospital but his injuries are not life threatening.
You have probably heard the news that the Man Booker will be open to US authors in 2014. I can understand the reasoning but I sort of wish they had not decided to do that. I like the Booker because it brings to my attention authors that are not from the United States. I hope it doesn’t end up ruining the whole award.
The Harry Potter Myers-Briggs personality chart (via Tor). Why does Draco Malfoy have to be an INTJ? Draco does not strike me as an introvert. Where do I go to lodge a complaint? I feel like INTJs everywhere will acquire a bad reputation for being devious. We are already misunderstood, we don’t need Draco Malfoy to make it worse.
From the fine folks at Melville House, what to do if you ever find yourself agreeing with Jonathan Franzen. It includes forgive yourself and ask forgiveness of others. Heh.
Finally, my spam filter has been clogging up fast lately. It gets so full every day that I have given up checking it for the stray valid comment that may have been mistakenly banished there. So my apologies if you have made a comment recently or going forward that gets sent to spam and never gets rescued.
As a fellow INTJ, I’ll join your protest. He needs his posse too much to be an INTJ. Now the question is, which HP character to choose instead? I propose Hermione, because I don’t think she’s a P.
Another one of these things I saw years ago suggested that Hannibal Lector was an INTJ, but at least that list balanced it out by saying Clarice Starling was one too.
LikeLike
Enjoy your courses! The historical novel is such an interesting set of genres – there was a time when the Booker prize seemed to be mainly comprised of various types of historical fiction! I guess with the huge success of the Hilary Mantel novels the genre is stronger than ever. Not a huge fan of literary prizes (a necessary evil etc,etc), I don’t think US authors in the shortlist will do the prize any harm,
LikeLike
Ian, thanks! The historical novel does cross genres while also being a genre itself, interesting. It does seem to have had a resurgence since Hilary Mantel. I do like a good historical novel so I can’t say that I mind. I don’t get worked up over literary prizes but I do like them for their calling my attention to books I had not heard of before. And yes, I realize there are lots of worthy books that don’t make the prize lists too which is one of the problems with prizes to begin with. But it is someplace to start. Maybe US authors will end up getting totally shut out. Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?
LikeLike
Teresa, it’s a tough one. What about Charlie Weasley, the one who works with dragons? And I hate to suggest it but Tom Riddle/Voldemort might fit. Oh yes, I’ve seen the one that suggested Hannibal Lector was an INTJ. Why does it always have to be wicked masterminds and serial killers? Should we worry? 😉
LikeLike
I signed up to the T.S. Eliot course the day you posted about it but haven’t gotten through the first lecture yet. (After all, based on the “quiz” you posted, the poet within me is T.S. Eliot! That was fun.) I have a bit of catching up to do, but I did go ahead and read “Prufrock” once again. I think I had to read it in high school or college but never did again. I found it difficult, so the lectures should be enlightening.
LikeLike
Grad, do you want to join me and Kathleen in discussion? Is so, send me an email. Strandberg is a really good teacher I think. You will definitely enjoy the lectures.
LikeLike
Another INTJ spitting feathers about the Draco Malfoy issue. On the topic of MOOCs the British platform, FutureLearn has announced its first courses today and I am bitterly disappointed in the selection. There is nothing in the literature field, nor anything about music or art and this despite the vast number of people surveyed saying that they wanted Humanities courses. I’m also disappointed in the lack of information given about the courses. You would have thought they would have at least looked at the other offerings in the field and seen what was required. So, I may join you on the historical fiction course. I’ll have to see what time I have.
LikeLike
Alex, Too bad about the course offerings at FutureLearn. I looked them up after you mentioned them before and was hopeful they might have some good humanities classes but they didn’t have the listing up yet when I was there. Hopefully as time goes on they will add humanities classes especially given the large number of requests for them. Would love to have you in the historical fiction course. I think that are three other people who have also signed up for it. We might have a nice little discussion group!
LikeLike
I’ve just signed up to the historical fiction course – it seems a lot more reading than the 2-3 hours per week. And since I have also enrolled for one of the new Future Learn courses just to see what the quality is like, I might be pushing myself yet again
LikeLike
BookerTalk, Yay! I think the time they give is only for the excerpts that are assigned rather than the entire book otherwise I don’t see how it would make sense. I think closer to the time the course starts we can all firm up how we want to discuss as a group or whether we want to. What FutureLearn course did you sign up for?
LikeLike
I got too enthused and ended up enrolling for two courses. One is on branding and the other on psychology
LikeLike
Ha! It is easy to get carried away. I hope the classes turn out to be good!
LikeLike
You’ll have to report back on how your online courses go. They are so tempting, but I had better now add another thing to my already full plate! I thought the Booker thing was interesting–not sure what I think, but I sort of didn’t mind either that it was soley a British/Biritsh Commonwealth thing.
LikeLike
Danielle, So far the TS Eliot course is going well. The lecturer is great. The Coursera class will be completely different though since it isn’t self-paced but it should still be fun. I will be sure to report back!
LikeLike
I think I agree with you about the Booker prize. At first I wasn’t sure, but then I realized that I regularly learn about new-to-me books from the Booker long lists, and that I might be less likely to do so in the future. That’s too bad!
LikeLike
Rebecca, at least there will still be the Orange Prize which I think is no longer the Orange but something else? Of course, maybe it will turn out that the Americans get shut out. Wouldn’t that be something?
LikeLike