notredamedeparisfans:

phoebemontague:

♣ Esmeralda in the world —> Patti Russo

flawless as esmeralda, tbh.

Agreed!  There is not enough love out there for Patti’s Esmeralda.

I got all excited because I hoped that the refrain in Neil Gaiman’s story “The White Road” (“Be bold, be bold, but not too bold”) was taken from the House of Busirane in Book III of Spenser’s Faerie Queene.  Alas, it originated from the fairytale that Gaiman adapted (“Mr. Fox) and that Spenser and Shakespeare allude to in their work.

So, as anyone who reads this blog probably knows, the professor who inadvertently shaped my entire undergraduate career and changed my life by fostering my love of Renaissance literature isn’t doing so well right now.  He’s an intellectual badass who’s pretty much everyone’s favorite English professor, and one of those rare people who manages to be exceedingly brilliant without being an asshole about it.  I actually did work up the courage to e-mail him, express my sympathy, and most importantly tell him how he changed my life.  With his characteristic grace, he wrote me back that his “future has begun to look foreshortened indeed” but he’s going to travel and be awesome as long as he can and said that he was glad that I was “repeatedly, one of my excellent students.”

Moral of this story: if there’s someone who’s changed your life, you should let them know ASAP.  Don’t wait to tell them.  You never know what’s lurking around the corner, and the world needs more positivity and gratitude anyway.

lissawritingsworth:

Deck yourself out in your favorite books at this cute Etsy shop I found. storiarts has scarves, writing gloves, and even pillows with classical books on them, and you can even personalize them. I love it <3

• The Tale of Two Cities Scarf
• Les Miserables Scarf
• Pride and Prejudice Writing Gloves
• Alice in Wonderland Scarf

I MUST have a custom Faerie Queene scarf. One of these days….

nyebear:

Patrick Stewart talks movingly about domestic violence and the difficulty for women who become victims of dominant men.

Prepare for a lump in your throat.

Patrick Stewart is one of those people that you just want to be cool as shit because he seems so awesome, and here is proof positive that he is.

I’ve never officially named and shamed them, but I suppose that I might as well now.  I’ve had a long-standing interest in Tudor culture and Shakespeare’s plays (since high school), but my interest in the literature itself comes from the initial fostering and impeccable teaching of Professor Darryl Gless, as well as the skill, enthusiasm, and kindness of Professors Frank A. Domínguez and Reid Barbour.  Any facility that I might have with it comes from them.  (My manifest defects are my own.)  Dr. Gless introduced me to The Faerie Queene and Montaigne’s Esays, which I adore, and nicely elucidated many of Shakespeare’s plays for me; Dr. Domínguez introduced me to some wonderful medieval and Renaissance literature in Spain; and Dr. Barbour opened up the world of seventeenth century English literature.

Rough day.  I just found out the professor who (unbeknownst to him) made me decide to be an English major had a relapse in his illness. I considered writing him an e-mail telling him that he changed my life, etc., but I don’t know if that would be weird or not.  When I was a freshman, I had the misfortune of taking an English class with a really horrible professor.  After he left one class, one of the students stood up and said “This is the worst English class I’ve ever taken.  Please know that this professor isn’t representative of the English department in general.”  Despite his pronouncement, the bad professor scared me away from an entire year, until I ended up in this man’s Renaissance literature class to fulfill my supplemental education requirement.  Despite my love for Renaissance culture, I was super apprehensive about studying the literature and the course in general.  I ended up getting a B+ on the first paper, and after a long struggle, I swallowed my severe anxiety enough to go to his office hours to discuss it and strategize how to get avoid getting such a low grade (for me) on the next one.  He was super nice and charitable, and told me that I should participate more in class because I obviously had things to say that I wasn’t saying. I ended up becoming an English major, spending three semesters in a row in his classes, and learning SO much about Renaissance literature.  After my last class with him, I had bought both of his monographs (even then, I read scholarship for fun) and with great finesse (not) said: “By the way, I bought your books.  Would you sign them for me?”  He did, and the above inscription “For Valerie—excellent student, whatever she herself might think!” has always made me feel a little better when I’m at my most inept.  He was also one of my grad school recommenders, so I owe him a ton.  Thanks, wonderful man.

Every day, I trudge up to the sixth floor of the library for a long day of poring through books interspersed with article and EEBO searches.  I sit in a certain area of the library so that I can be close to the books in my subject matter.  Every day, an older gentleman/perhaps professor sits in a carrel close to mine and watches something without headphones/talks to himself (or whatever he’s watching) and noisily eats potato chips or something loud.  He does not seem to have a particular reason to be on this floor/in this area.  I thought he was FINALLY gone today, but he just showed up.  The first three things that he did: Make a lot noise with something that sounded like plastic wrap, open up his laptop, and start eating a noisy snack. Merde.

These are my people.