Week of October 27th
This has been a pretty fun week in terms of reading for class, movie-watching, and Halloween! I started my week out reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula (I really need a break from these bloody and graphic horror masterpieces), but it appears that Victorian authors had a thing for the grotesque. Anyway, the book is a pretty fast read, even though it threatens the possibility of having peaceful dreams at night. I also watched Being John Malkovich for class, which was probably one of the most bizarre/fascinating movies I have ever watched. It’s supposed to be a modern-day reception of Alice and Wonderland (an equally unusual book), and it focuses on three characters who find a portal to John Malkovich’s head and then use him like a puppet. I really like the concept of each person having a portal to their head, but if I were to choose to visit anyone’s portal, it would be Tom Cruise’s. Who doesn’t want to jump on a couch with Oprah Winfrey and explain how much they love Katie Holmes? False – I would never want to do that. Although, I wouldn’t mind being praised and admired despite the fact that I’m blatantly chemically imbalanced. On another more academic note, I was inducted into the English Honor Society, Sigma Tau Delta, recently. I received an email from the English Department chair saying I would be receiving a certificate and a secret decoder ring, so I’m pretty excited about the SECRET DECODER RING (and I guess being a member of the society is cool too).
On Halloween day, I went to the Library of Congress for a class field trip, which was amazing. My Victorian’s professor took us to the old book collection, and the class got to see an original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, A Christmas Carol, and The Pencil of Nature. They even had Charles Dickens’ cane on display, which I continually touched when people weren’t looking (I’ll admit I was hoping that I could somehow inherit Dickens’ genius through his cane).
On Saturday, the whole campus celebrated Halloween on the Townhouse Greens. This is a big campus tradition where every student gets dressed up in their costume, and comes to the lawn along the upperclassmen townhouses. It was so much fun this year because I was part of the Gilligan’s Island group. I was Mr. Howell, so I borrowed a friend’s pipe and put some flour in my hair to look a little older. It was a success.
Gilligan's Island!
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