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HILTON HEAD ISLAND - …And for the American Dana Hill it’s straight As for the summer semester.

So, this is it: tomorrow is the last day of Summer B, 2008.  I don’t really know how to feel about it, since my senses have been numbed so thoroughly by all the reading and writing I’ve been doing over the last six weeks, and especially the last three.

Tonight I finished the last of my papers, a review of A Land Remembered, the 1984 historical novel by Patrick Smith which describes Florida through three generations of a family.  In a nutshell: the MacIveys arrive in northern Florida just before the Civil War; they struggle to survive in a difficult and unforgiving land; their son does better–as a cattle rancher–when he grows up; his son does better still as a land developer.  But by then it’s 1968, and hardly any of the Florida that his grandfather would have known still exists.  Along the way all of the various issues of Florida history are woven into the narrative.  The purpose of the paper was to explain how, if at all, a historical novel helped expand my understanding of Florida, or how my understanding of Florida history helped me better appreciate the novel.

I did my best to explain all that, but I now have other novels on my mind, since I am already looking ahead to the Fall semester.  I’ll be taking Professor McCrea’s Eighteenth Century Novel course, and we’ll have to read:

• Aphra Behn, Oroonoko, The Rover, and Other Works
• Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
• Samuel Richardson, Clarissa
• Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews
• Henry Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling
• Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
• Frances Burney, Evelina
• Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story

As I may have written here before, just this semester I read Fanny Burney’s Evelina, so I have a leg up there.  Meanwhile, this afternoon I stopped by my favorite independent bookstore–Goering’s on 1st Avenue–and picked up a few of the above titles to get a head start during my two week break before Fall classes begin.  As luck would have it, they had A Simple Story, Oroonoko and Robinson Crusoe on sale for half off, so I saved a bundle there.  But I couldn’t resist purchasing George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner; and Henry James’ Turn of the Screw.  Irony of ironies: being an English major has reawakened my appreciation for narrative fiction!  I have therefore resolved that I will build myself a great library of classic poetry and prose, concentrating primarily on the great pre-twentieth century writers.  The good news is that this material can be had cheap.

Already on my “to buy” list are a number Samuel Johnson’s writings.  The more I read of Johnson the more I am convinced he was the smartest man who ever lived.  He said about Alexander Pope: “New things are made familiar, and familiar things made new”.  I’d say the same about Johnson.  After all, he wrote “He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty”.  As true today as when it was written.  So, as I type, en route is Boswell’s Life of Johnson, which I expect to contain endless wonders.  James Boswell spent decades following Johnson, documenting his life to prepare for the biography. I don’t know what it would be like to have someone around you day and night, but I don’t think it would be especially enjoyable, and I guess it went both ways for Johnson.  Boswell quotes him as saying, “Sir, you have two topics, yourself and me.  I am sick of both”.  How can you not love this man?  I will next purchase as an extensive an edition of his Dictionary as I can find, plus Rasselas and his Lives of the Poets.

I know that in this day and age, when Google is digitizing great literature and placing it online for free, it hardly makes sense to some people to pay good money for books.  But I like lying in bed with a book in my hands.  It’s much more comfortable than having a laptop on my crotch, which is how I am now seated.  And a book is easily portable, and it doesn’t strain my eyes, and I can put a little marker between the pages and pick up right where I left off, and it doesn’t use any electricity.  And Project Gutenberg, for all it’s brilliance, doesn’t have the helpful introductions and extensive footnotes that these Penguin Classics and Oxford editions include.

Yes, I am very excited about my new library project.

UPDATE: I found Joseph Andrews at Goering’s this afternoon, so, just three to go and I’ll have my whole reading list.

With only two days left in the semester, Professor McCrea spent the last lecture day in my Age of Johnson class to wrap up.  Then he asked the seniors graduating Saturday to raise their hands.  He congratulated them, then proceeded to tell a story about his college days, and a professor of his who, on the last day excused him from taking the final exam.  Dr. McCrea then said, “all graduating seniors are excused from the final”.  There was an audible gasp and rejoicing among the seniors.  Alas, I am not one of them, so tonight I am studying.  Still, I have loved every minute of the course, and look forward to taking Professor McCrea’s Eighteenth Century Novel course in the fall.

I can scarcely believe that it is the first of August, the swelteringest month of all the year.

Naturally, August 1 affords me a sense of relief, since it means that I have but one week left of Summer B at the University.  In retrospect, three classes was a big mistake.  I’ll do well–straight As, maybe–but it has come at a high cost: neglect of friends, chores, television, hobbies, etc.  I would say that the eye of the storm has just passed, though, since I have already turned in two of the four big papers I have due before next Friday.  The last two, however, may be the worst two, since for one of them–Age of Johnson–I haven’t the slightest idea what to write about.

The end of the semester also coincides with the start of the 2008 Summer Olympics, which I have looked forward to with great anticipation.  I love track and field, diving, men’s gymnastics, women’s beach volleyball, and, for some reason, rhythmic gymnastics, with the ribbon and the ball.  Each successive Olympic games, too, I am more and more amazed at the improved television technology.  In Athens they debuted a freeze-frame effect during the diving competition, where you could see the athlete’s entire dive in still pictures; it was fantastic.  This will also be the first Olympics I watch in HDTV, though just barely, since the TV here has ruined my life, with its pronounced white line across the top third of the screen, above which every shape is distorted beyond recognition.  Alas, this line falls precisely at eye-level for most human faces on screen.  It actually makes watching television an unpleasant experience.

I don’t recall if I mentioned it before, but I briefly saw Sandi last weekend when she came to town for the afternoon.  School work prevented me from spending any degree of quality time with her, and since most of the little time we were together was spent consuming Satchel’s Pizza, I felt like I didn’t really get to catch up with her as I’d have liked.  She and Jeff went to Prince Edward Island this summer–making stops in New York City on the way there and back.  This is the first summer in several years that I haven’t been able to make it down to see them in Miami, which is sadder now, since they bought a house within the last several months and it has a swimming pool!  In any case, what I don’t understand is why I didn’t bother to get a picture of Sandi, Kathleen and Steve when we had lunch together last Saturday.  I took a picture of Kathleen’s pizza, and the menu, but not my friends.  My constant reading and writing has me off my game.

Last, but not least, the flowers in the garden are all blooming–at least the ones that haven’t been eaten by caterpillars–which is beautiful.

Wooooo!  Wooooooooooo!  Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!  Woooo!