all words will lose their meaning

[freckles_and_doubt]

Two random inscriptions made me happy on the way home from campus today. One was a Daily Voice billboard which simply read "MUGABE IS A LOSER". Why, yes. Yes, he is. One has to wonder why it's taken so long for the media to notice. The other was on the back of the car in front of me. Apparently it was a deliriously absurd model called an "telstargle". Mature reflection suggests that there's a missing space in there at a critical juncture, but the momentary amusement was worth it. More serious things should have "argle" in their names.

In other news, I badly need distraction on account of how I'm supervising a Masters student's dissertation on vampires in literature, including Twilight. I am thus halfway through a re-read of the series, which would be driving me to drink if my Warfarin levels allowed it. Gods, they're badly written. I'd forgotten how badly written, and how horribly immature their characters. It's not insignificant that the major literary intertexts are Wuthering Heights and Romeo and Juliet. The former is about unbridled adolescent obsession with an undertone of violence, the latter about really bad and obsessive romantic decisions made under the influence of adolescent lust and persecution complex. Sounds about right. However, aargh. The things I do for teaching.

Comments

[veratiny.livejournal.com]

My current love interest is a very pale boy, 10 years younger than me with more noticeable than average eye teeth...could I be embarking on a vampire lust story? I better re-read twilight so a) you know another suffers simultaneously to you and b) for a how-don't on immortal dating ;-)

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Twilight is not about vampire lust. Twilight is about vampire abstinence. Read Sookie Stackhouse instead. Mmmm, Eric.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Gods, they're badly written. I'd forgotten how badly written,

http://reasoningwithvampires.tumblr.com/

Do go to the beginning and come forward.

You're welcome.

(P.S. My favourite tag in that Tumblr: "Sentences are not minivans."

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Aargh. That's a wonderful site, I have read three screen's worth and then deliberately closed the window, on the grounds that I could fall into it all night, snickering.