Bad Lieutenant

I hate it.

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jimson

Some of the soldiers sent thither to quell the rebellion of Bacon (1676); and some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows [grimaces] at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll.

In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves- though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not very cleanly; for they would have wallowed in their own excrements, if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after 11 days returned themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed. – Robert Beverly, The History and Present State of Virginia, 1705

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Grillet :(

..

Fantasies of places that I can’t be entry number 2, possibly.

I’m a fan of Robbe-Grillet but I also am not. I’ve been trying to see some of his films, but they’re utterly unattainable by hook or by crook over here.

Robbe-Grillet is a novelist, a theorist, a quasi-member of the Academie Francaise, but for my purposes a weirdo film director, who directed several quasi-softcore lower budget intellectual films, some of which feature noted actor Klaus Kinski. Unfortunately, not many of them were released for American audiences, so he remains largely unknown. Very frustrating, especially since he has reputation for utilizing experimental and transgressive themes in his written and cinematic work.

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Hot Scott News
Current mood: Scotty

Scott Goff is my 1. Okay?

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Sometimes I do really miss the Bay Area

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link

Actionist link.

performane paper

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Your Korean Teaching Update
Current mood: hungry

Dear friends and readers,

It's been cold in Seoul recently. Not as bad as some days in December, but there are patches of ice on the ground in the morning and more often than not Scott and I have eschewed leaving the house for potentially fun activities in order to keep our toes and other body parts warm. Stick in the mud. Wet blanket, etc. But I hate the cold. And the constant scurrying from one heated place to another that accompanies living in places with actual winters. Boo-hoo!

Recent teaching challenges: I told my fifth graders that they should disregard the article about Pocahontas we were reading aloud. I interrupted the reading once my brain had lifted itself for its usual at work fog: "Laura, stop for a second. Kids, this article is non-sense. Racist sexist colonial junk written by European settlers four hundred years ago. Do you know what that means?"

Umm... rephrase. "Pocahontas was a real person, but she didn't write any of the material about her life. Do you understand? A lot of white settlers wrote about her. Have you heard of settlers? People, the English really wanted to take the land from the people that lived there, okay? Now let's read about Blackbeard?"

Yeah, so I guess I've become that teacher.

Other related anecdotes: "How to Korean kids Anne Frank when they've never heard of Nazis or WWII", "Ethnic stereotypes in The Cricket in Times Square", "Teacher, why is Jim (Huck Finn) so hard to understand?", "Teacher teacher, we hate 1984 and Animal Farm" ad infinitum.

Incidentally, I have to ask my students if they understand me about every 2 minutes because they all have a different vocabulary level. However, most of them have a very good level of fluency in English and have lived abroad or been in a homestay program.

Scott and I share the same office. Which is quite convenient, as it allows us to share anecdotes about our insane students, and for us to complain about what ever it is that we complain about.

In every class I teacher them parts of a novel, composition, and we read articles from a reader. I try not to be the fun killing teacher, but I frequently put the squeeze on them to do their homework. I've also told the second and third graders that they're not allowed to talk about killing and guns. Most of them talk about poop and puke now, which, though annoying, is a preferable substitute.

Some of the children are sleepy in class. Many of them complain about feeling sick all the time. Initially I was concerned but realized that most of the time their complaints were attempts at classwork evasion. However, in Korea parents don't seem to have same strict bedtime hour enforcement standard as the US. Some of my students regularly don't get to bed until after midnight, which I don't think is very healthy for the little ones, but oh well.

I like my students, even the naughty ones.

End Part One

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