The Rhine River

Deafening Silence

A recent spate of plagiarism in my class put me in a bad mood last week, and did not feel much like blogging. The problem resolved itself, thanks to the mea culpa that I offered.

I also wasted half a lecture trying to convince a few students that the Aryans (who displaced the Indus valley civilization in India) were not the Aryans (the invented Nordic master race), even though some people wanted to equate them. In exploring the issue further, I learned something interesting: the Aryans (the former) may have been indigenous nomads rather than invading pastoralists.

Good news: I have funding to stay at home, wear nothing but underwear, and watch my belly button for the whole academic year. Technically, I must finish writing my dissertation, but we'll see which wins out. I celebrating by buying some books of poetry: Sarah Lindsay's Primate Behavior, Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali's Rooms are never Finished, and Slovenian poet Tomaz Salamun's Ballad for Metka Krasovec.

In the category "Success has made a failure of our rivalry", it appears as if winning the World Series has taken the heart out of Boston fans' hatred of the Yankees. At opening day yesterday, the fans took no opportunity to taunt Yankee players, even during the ceremony awarding WS rings. On the radio, the same journalist opined that the relationship between the rival teams may have changed forever.

And I finally saw Hotel Rwanda. The movie pushed the bounds of what could be said morally about the genocide without showing the depth of violence. Moreover, I made me itch for a film based on Romeo Dallaire's experiences.

posted by Nathanael @ 11:02 AM