The title of tonight's entry comes from John Fletcher's poem "Melancholy," once again culled from the peerless Bartleby.com (an invaluable resource for any scholar). The full excerpt from which I took the line is as follows:
There's naught in this life sweet,
If man were wise to see't
But only melancholy,
O sweetest Melancholy!
Melancholy (as in the humour, but more on that later) has been an area of especial interest to me lately, as evidenced by my latest poem ("Melancholy Rising," a couple entries down — read it today!) and recent reading material (Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy, an exhaustive treatise on the humour and its myriad aspects). The more I read about the interconnectedness of the mediaeval universe, of the relationships between zodiacal signs, planetary influences, and the four humours1, the more that it all makes a certain amount of sense to me. As I delve into the particulars of the humours, I find myself increasingly identifying with the melancholic personality (which, astrologically speaking, is what I should be): those ruled by black bile are artistic, scholarly, despondent insomniacs who stay up nights agonising over unrequited love — sound like anyone we know? So, naturally, I have become consumed with learning more about myself through the eyes of mediaeval scholars, and my Magic in Literature class is helping quite nicely in that regard.
Speaking of classes, they are going swimmingly. I'm only taking three courses (12 units) this quarter, but that allows me to focus more on them individually. For various reasons, I have decided to resign from my post (pun fully intended2) at the campus newspaper, mainly because I no longer enjoy the work — I had never done it for the money (oh, yes, I absolutely cherished my $20/month), or even the experience, but rather just because I genuinely take pleasure from editing. But, sadly, my penchant for wielding a red pen just wasn't enough to outweigh the inconveniences that came with the position. Instead, I am now an editor (and co-chair of the Proofreading Committee) for Pomona Valley Review, Cal Poly's literary magazine (hence the Professional Editing class). And, naturellement, I'm still tutoring English at the University Writing Center. My schedule is below, for anyone even remotely interested (and, mainly, those who aren't):
Monday/Wednesday:
0800-1230: Tutoring
1300-1405: Magic in Literature
1600-1750: Professional Editing
Tuesday/Thursday:
0800-0950: Chaucer
1130-1700: Tutoring (only Tuesday)
Friday:
1300-1405: Magic in Literature
Well, that's about all that's new, really. I should be ringing off anyway, as I need to do some homework for Chaucer (I love The Canterbury Tales — Middle English r0xx0r |\/|y 50xx0r5 [yes, I'm proficient in 733tspeak as well]) before having dinner and a show (Big Fish—huzzah!) with a good friend of mine. Until next we meet, I bid you farewell. Au revoir, tout le monde!
And, just for fun, another list of the books currently on my desk:
Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (translated into Japanese by Yoshiko Kamei)
Alchemy & Mysticism: The Hermetic Museum, Alexander Roob
The Mother Tongue: English And How It Got That Way, Bill Bryson
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by Marie Borroff
Ben Jonson's Plays and Masques
Macbeth, William Shakespeare
The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Sixteenth Century, The Early Seventeenth Century
The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
Roget's International Thesaurus
Complete Tales & Poems, Edgar Allan Poe
The Anatomy of Melancholy, Robert Burton
Dracula, Bram Stoker
Timeline, Michael Crichton
Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
Dubliners, James Joyce
[Exit Orpheum.]
1. The four humours, as known in the Middle Ages, are four liquids found in the human body, the proportions and dominance of which supposedly determine someone's temperament or "humour" (which, incidentally, is where we get the phrase "good sense of humour"). Each liquid is associated with an organ of the body, a season, an element, and a temperament, among other things: an abundance of blood (spring, air, liver) made one sanguine, or jovial, lively, generous; phlegm (winter, water, brain/lungs) made one phlegmatic, or cool, reserved, lethargic; yellow bile, or choler (summer, fire, gall bladder), made one choleric, or fiery, violent, reckless; lastly, black bile (autumn, earth, spleen) made one melancholic, or depressed, introverted, pessimistic. [Back]