1 September 2025
I managed to finish reading Thoreau’s Walking yesterday. I quite liked it. It did feel that it was an extension of Walden. There was less description of actual walking than I had expected but Thoreau did continue his enthusiastic description of squirrels, which was something I appreciated.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve discovered that there are quite a few really helpful resources on BBC Sounds. There is an episode of Free Thinking that covers the Mill on the Floss. There are also In Our Time episodes on Dickens as well as Calvino. After listening to the one about Calvino one night (whilst trying to get to sleep), I started the read the introduction to Cosmicomics. Since it was pretty long, and I wasn’t quite sure how much of that text we would be reading, I decided to put it to one side.
My last bit of reading yesterday was the very beginning of Season of Migration to the North (Wikipedia). I didn’t get very far. I read the introduction, which really piqued my interest, and then fell asleep on the sofa. That will teach me to listen to podcasts about Calvino in the very early hours of the morning.
My objective is to try to finish (or, restart) reading the Salih text this week.
11 September 2025
I’ve not read Salih yet, but I’ve packed the text for a trip to the midlands (along with Mayhew, and a book about stand-up comedy).
From the WhatApp group chat, I was reminded that the text of the assignments were available. I had a quick look to see what they are all about, after putting all the TMA cut-off dates in my diary, so I know what is going on. (I’ve entered them with the heading ‘A335 25J’ so I can find them using my calendar search function pretty easily.
TMA 1 looks a bit like a ‘warm up’, for which I’m thankful for. We have a three set texts to choose from. Although it’s too soon to decide about which way I’m going to jump (I’m going to attend as many tutorials as I can, since I’m a swot), I think I’ve rules one of the texts out.
I really like the look of TMA 2, and I appreciate its emphasis on the identification of critical sources, and how they relate to a question. Like with TMA 1, we have to make a choice – and they all look pretty difficult, if I’m being honest. In a masochistic way, I’m ‘kind of’ looking forward to this one.
TMA 3 is all about collaboration and group work, which I know many students hate. There’s an interim cut-off date, and a period where we must work together with each other. I’ve put both of these in my diary. I’ve read through the question quickly, and it all sounds a bit involved, but I’m not going to worry. The harder bit looks to the second half, the essay.
The final TMA looks tricky, perhaps because it is quite a few months away. It’s longer than the other texts, and we’ve got to pick on two texts (and other than the Rhys text, I’m not too keen on it). It does like there’s a bit of flex in it, in the sense that one of the options permit a wider choice of texts beyond those that are suggested by the module team. This one might be interesting.
The EMA question looks suitably demanding (since the question is quite ‘searching’), and mentions some digital texts that we’ll cover towards the end of the module. I’m sure it’ll make sense when we get to it.
I tried to book in to as many tutorials as I could, but they were not yet available. I’ll keep my eye on the WhatsApp group.
My final activity today was to review Generative AI Literacy for Arts and Humanities, which is located within the Arts and Humanities subject centre area, under the Study Skills Activities subheading. There is helpful section on referencing and academic conduct. I really liked the flowchart which has a heading ‘is it safe to use ChatGPT for your task?’ From my own perspective, I’m going to avoid using any generative AI for a very simple reason: it make stuff up, and I’m going to have enough to read, and I could do without having to read computer generated nonsense.