Personal Blogs

3 February 2025

I’ve been to a couple of tutorials recently.

Continuing the notion of the ‘penny drop’ from the previous post, my tutor shared a tip that stayed with me. Reflecting that in some of the other tutorials, tutors had been going on about themes and narrative structure of texts, I asked a searching question of how they related to the assessment. He gave an answer that made a lot of sense: all the literary techniques that we’ve been taught about are tools that we can draw upon to form our essays. We don’t have to use all of them, but we do need to know about them. The skill lies with making decisions about what tools to use, and when.

There’s another element to all this study: it all comes back to knowing how to express yourself, and to develop an argument (which is acceptable for the discipline). I don’t think I’m there yet, in terms of being able to do this was well as I would like, but I feel as if I’m getting better.

I have also ‘starred’ some independent study option that look interesting. These are: read book 4 of Gulliver’s Travels (which I’ve already done), read an essay the making of Gulliver's Travels, look into 21st century responses to Gulliver’s travels (which means essays and articles), and explore a couple of topics in the MLA database (whatever that is). All these options seem to follow a particular theme, which doesn’t set me up too well for TMA 4.

I’m nearly through to the end of the Turkish Embassy Letters, which I’m quite liking. I have about ten more letters to go.

Outside of the official independent study options, I’ve found the following The Reasons that Induced Dr. S. to Write a Poem Call'd the Lady's Dressing Room. This begs a whole other set of questions.

Looking towards TMA 4, out of all the remaining texts, I’m drawn to The Country Wife. The repetition within Arabian Nights annoys me, but I can appreciate why it is an interesting text.

My next steps: finish The Turkish Embassy Letters, choose three letters, search for some secondary sources, and then go through Gulliver’s Travels again to figure out connections between them all, and then write the essay. I have some ideas, but they’re very sketchy.

4 February 2025

Yesterday afternoon I tried to do a bit of searching, trying to find articles about Gulliver’s Travels and colonialism, which I take to be a significant theme (especially in the closing chapters). I didn’t get very far, but I did find a couple of articles. I found a book length biography about Swift, and a short biographic article about Lady Mary Wortley Motagu. I also found a Cambridge companion about Gulliver’s travels.

This morning, I dug in the Cambridge companion, downloading a set of chapters. My next step was to send them to my Kindle, ready for reading.

I feel as if I need to get an angle; I don’t feel as if I have one yet.

9 February 2025

I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading over the last couple of days. I almost feel as if I’ve been having a well needed relax. I’ve been reading all these secondary sources that I’ve downloaded from the library, and I’ve re-read the introduction to one of the set texts. I have two things to do before I really begin to figure out my essay: I need to read the introduction to the other text, and then begin to choose some passages to write about. If all goes to plan, I should start to iteratively figure everything out in about two days’ time.

TMA 4 is starting to be a bit of a worry. I might have a look on Drama Online to see if there are any Moliere resources that jump out at me. TMA 5 and the EMA are also worries too, but I’ll try not to worry about them.

In the middle of all this, I need to get my elbow x-rayed, but that is probably over sharing.

10 February 2025

Well, I didn’t get too much reading done whilst sat in the waiting room; I was called in for my x-ray really quickly. “Are you complaining about the lack of the wait?” the radiologist asked.

I did, however, discover that my set text of Travels contains a whole set of critical essays, which I had never seen before. There’s a couple of interesting articles. I read a short excerpt from Dampier’s travels, a bit of a commentary by Scott. 

When I got home, I continued to read a bit more, before remembering that I was leant a book called Critical Practice. I had once tried to read it a few years back, but didn’t understand a word of it. The first ten or so pages are starting to make a bit of sense. I also went to look up a definition in a Companion to English Literature. I didn’t find what I was looking for, but the page fell open on a definition of a critical approach I had just been reading.

Before returning to my day job, I returned to a question I’ve considered before: how transferrable are the ideas of criticism to software, given that they are al, in part, human artifacts that offer a representation of reality in some way or another? I can’t answer this question yet; I need to do some reading.

My final note of the morning. I’ve discovered there’s a journal called Swift Studies which is published by the Ehrenpreis Centre for Swift studies. Ehrenpreis is the name of one of Swift’s biographers. Last night, I started to read the biography by Damrosch, which was very readable. Damrosch has some interesting (and scathing) comments about Ehrenpreis.

I need to do my day job and get back to editing TM354.

11 February 2025

I’ve found a few more articles. These are about Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. I read one before going to sleep, and one before I got up.

Following on from the topic of Swift Studies, I was asked the question: 'is that about Taylor Swift?' Then I asked myself the question: how about writing an essay that compares Jonathan Swift and Taylor Swift? Turns out there's no such thing as an original thought, and someone has done it before: Jonathan and Taylor: The Two Swifts.

It's pretty good! It gets into a lot of detail about Gulliver's Travels, and I really like its structure. I don’t agree with its final conclusion, but it’s important to bear in mind that it is satire. I think both Swifts would have approved.

14 February 2025

I had a good old go at writing my TMA 3 yesterday. Although unnerving, I did find it a whole lot easier to write than the one about Hamlet. I think this was down to spending more time thinking about the essay structure. When I sat down to write, I had much more of an idea where I was going, although I felt as if I did more planning when I prepared the last TMA.

This morning, I did a quick edit, and submitted it. This means I’ve now got back a bit more time to work on my TMA 4, although what time I do have is going to be spent on editing module materials and also marking TMAs. I’m relieved it has gone in.

A few years ago, I was lent a short book that had the title Critical Practice. This, apparently, links to the ideas of post-structuralism.  Anyway, I’ve had a go to read Critical Practice, and I barely understand a word of it. There were, however, bits that I did grasp, which in turn, has helped me to realise the significance of the EMA question. I think this is progress. I guess this all reflects a slight change in my thinking.

I’m really curious about what result I’m going to get for my TMA 3.

16 February 2025

I’m continuing to listen to an audiobook of Persuasion. At times, I’m completely lost. I have a sneaking suspicion that everyone is going to get married.

I’ve just had a quick look at the independent study options again. For TMA 4, we have to do two of them.

I’ve made my choices. I’m going to read up about Aphra Behn; there’s a bunch of papers I will probably be able to download and send to my Kindle. I’ll also do the option about travel writing, which remains a persistent interest.

I did consider comparing the notion of dystopias in Swift to a novel called Neuromancer, but then I decided to be sensible.

22 February 2025

Over the last few days, I’ve been listening to a couple of podcasts from BBC Sounds: an episode of In Our Time, which was all about Aphra Behn, and a similar podcast called Arts and Ideas. The In Our Time episode featured Behn’s biographer, Janet Todd.

I’ve started the read the first section of Todd’s biograph, and it appears to be a lovely read. She begin by writing about the context that Behn was born into. I’m looking forward to reading more when I have the chance.

My tutor says that it’s okay to draw on one of Behn’s plays for the TMA 4 question. Just before heading out, I’ve managed to download a copy of The Rover from Project Guttenberg, and have transferred it to my Kindle. The text has nice, but quite densely written summary, which I’m going to read carefully before diving into the text.

Becoming a literature geek, I’ve also discovered that she is buried in Westminster Abby, which I don’t think I’ve ever been to before (or, at least, I can’t remember going). I have recently discovered something else. A bronze statue of Behn is due to be unveiled in Canterbury over the next couple of days.

In addition to all this, there’s two papers about her that I need to get read. 

Book 3 has already started. I need to get going. I also need to get my head around Wycherley again.

23 February 2025

I’ve managed to read through The Rover whilst listening to an Audible audiobook production, which left me being very confused. I was using the Project Guttenberg version of the text. It sounded like bit had been moved about (or sections added), and other bits changed. I wasn’t sure whether this was a due to a difference in the version that I was reading, or whether he Audible production had been edited to make it work better as an audio only production.

I did a bit of research. I went looking for the complete works in the OU library, hoping to download a version to my Kindle. I found Janet Todd’s edited works, but I could only download individual pages. Forced to eyeball things off the screen, a small sample suggests that Todd’s edit and the Guttenberg edits are pretty similar (all I saw were some differences in some of the spelling).

I’ve also noticed that an OU colleague, who has edited one our blocks, has written a couple of papers about Behn. I’ll try to look these up.

25 February 2025

I had a good listen to a production of The Country Wife whilst on a long drive. I recognised quite a bit of the play from a video version that I saw a few months ago. There are, however, bits of it that I don’t quite understand what is going on. I need to have another look at the text. I get a bit lost approximately half-way in.

I also need to have a good listen to The Rover too, since I’m in a similar position. I follow it up to a point, but then I get lost at the darker, more shocking sections. I also remain a bit baffled about the versions. I read something on a famous online encyclopaedia that bits of Killigrew’s earlier version has found its way into modern performances. I need to give the play another listen.

I do need to complete another independent study activity. I think I’ll have a read of the travel writing papers that I’ve downloaded. Maybe I’ll have a go this weekend to start TMA 4.