Sadly, I will have to devour the three books on the left first and rather quickly because they're potential "Contemporary German Lit" candidates for my exam and I need to decide on whether or nt I'll take them.

Still: whee! Books!


By the way, thoughts on White Collar 1x02?

The fun part about my exam is that I get to read Tolkien's essay on Beowulf. :D The essays's quite interesting, especially since it becomes plain obvious how The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit etc. weren't only influenced by Tolkien's admiration for Beowulf plot-wise, but more importantly by the general atmosphere about the poem.

Tolkien writes:

Beowulf is not an actual picture of historic Denmark or Geatland or Sweden about A.D. 500. But it is (if with certain minor defects) on a general view a self-consistent picture, a construction bearing clearly the marks of design and thought. The whole must have succeeded admirably in creating in the minds of the poet's contemporaries the illusion of surveying a past, pagan but noble and fraught with a deep significance—a past that itself had depth and reached backward into a dark antiquity of sorrow. This impression of depth is an effect and a justification of the use of episodes and allusions to old tales, mostly darker, more pagan, and desperate than the foreground.

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...I might be desperately needing your help.

I've decided to write my master's thesis on "Elements Of The Gothic In Modern Pop Culture", mostly because I attended a module on Gothic Novels and wrote a paper on Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and thought it would be terribly interesting to see how certain mechanisms still are put to use in modern literature and film (and possibly, song), how certain themes still apply, what elements never really got out of fashion. Especially since recently there seems to be a new wave of horror/fantasy themed books and films coming out.

My problem is: I know more about classic Gothic literature than I do about modern one. In fact, I may have avoided horror films and literature so far in my life, simply because I have very weak nerves ;-) But oh, I really want to write my thesis about that topic. And here's where I need help.

I have no clue which modern films and books I should pick to analyse. Well, I do have a list of possible candidates but as of now, it's kind of short:

( The Very Short List )

My question: what candidates am I missing? What books and films should I check out? What would qualify? Especially books, because I'd like to have another author besides Stephen King. Ideas? Thoughts? If you could pick a horror film or book to be compared to classic Gothic, what would it be?

Every help is muchly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

I found this quote in Northanger Abbey whilst putting footnotes on my paper:

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel,
must be intolerably stupid.”
Henry Tilney

Have a great day! :o)

For my Advanced Oral Skills class (where we practise giving presentatins) I was assigned with the subject "My ideal holiday". Now, I was thinking that I'd like to plan a trip to Canada since it's a place I'd actually love to go and haven't been yet which makes the presentation fun for me, too.

Since I only have limited time to give that presentation I was thinking that I'd narrow down the fictional travelling to British Columbia and Alberta.

I will look up sights and places worth going on Wikipedia and tourism websites, but I thought that since I have quite a few Canadians on my flist maybe you could help me out?

If I was to visit Alberta and British Columbia, where would you take me? What are must-sees? Which sights praised by tourism websites are highly overrated? Which places are never mentioned on those websites but worth checking out? How likely is it to see moose and bears if you go to Canada? :-p

I'd love it if you could help me :-) (And who knows, maybe I'll take that tour some day!)

Thank you in advance :-)

Tutor: "It's a Christian topos that there are two paths - the narrow path leads to heaven, whereas the broad way leads to hell."
My friend B.: "Broadway leads to hell?"
Me: "OMG, do the people in New York know?"



(To clarify - she *did* realise what was actually meant but decided to make the pun nonetheless :-) )

I just typed down a word from a book for my presentation - and accidentally typed it up backwards. Huh?

...how many words English borrowed from Old Norse? Anyone? I think it's a few hundred, but I'm not certain. For some reason "400" is the number that comes to my mind first but it could be more/less. Damn, why didn't I write it down back then.

*works on paper*

Oh, and Torchwood I love you. Great awesome show. Yay.

ETA: Damn you stupid Danes, behave!

I'm fairly sure some people on my flist are linguists, and I NEED your help.

I'm supposed to do a GERMAN phonetic transcription for homework using fonts for the computer. That's right, no hand-written transcription allowed. So I FINALLY got a phonetic symbols font to work but it appears some important fonts are missing - like the "schwa" and also the symbol for the German "ä" sound. Brilliant. I've tried several fonts but ...

Does anyone know a good complete font with the phonetic symbols I need to make a GERMAN transcription? Help! I'm at my wit's end and I need to hand it in tomorrow.

Thank you!

Teacher: "Who knows what Pomp And Circumstance is?"
Me: "It's a piece of music."
Teacher: "Very good. Do you know the tune?"
Me: "Yes."
Teacher: "Can you hum it? (In front of liek - 80 people?)"
Me: *blush* *hums liek first five seconds*
Teacher: "Well go on, go on!"
Me: *facepalm*

Just watching the BBC version of Casanova, when Casanoca advertises for a woman to live with him. (By the way I totally bow to David Tennant, I had no idea he could act THAT well)

The first woman he interviews and who moves into the house, that is the actress who plays the Slavine alien in Dotctor Who! Hahah! For some reason I find that reaaaaally amusing.

And whenever they compliment David Tennant on his accent in England or he asks "Is my accent okay?" I crack up completely. Russel T Davies is a genius.

I ordered books and DVDs for my studies yesterday. Spent quite a fortune (or my father's fortune which I'm not proud of but right at the moment I have no money at all). I can't wait to see A Matter Of Life And Death. It's a film with David Niven from 1946 and it sounds brilliant

ETA: www.imdb.com sure is a fun place. I just found out that the actress who plays Henriette is Kate from A Knight's Tale. And she's gonna be in The Flying Scotsman, too.

...then I'd buy this wonderful Tin Whistle I found online. It comes at 90€ and I heard a sound example and almost started to sob (Tin Whistles always do that me), so beautiful. I can't express how much I love these silly little instruments, there is something in their sound that literally makes my eyes water from the beauty. I only have a very cheap Tin Whistle and I've been thinking about buying a better one for ages. No way I can afford 90€ in the near future, and then it's only a flute - but considering how insanely much I love Tn Whistles I probably should get myself a decent one one of these days *determind - more or less*

Went to the examination office today and handed in the confirmation of my tutor he's going to be my examiner. Means I officially have a date for the intermediate exam now *gulp*

Afterwards went and bought myself a couple of nice new PJ's. Yay.

I probably should start burning CDs and VCRs for Friday at some point today - which makes a wonderful transition to ( Supernatural 1x13 - Route 666 - SPOILER! )

glorfinniel weren't we suposed to be on Skype? *confused* Anyway - my father and Conny are gonna come by by andwe're going out to have dinner soon-ish - sooorry! Gee, this is just not meant to be.

Yesterday I discovered the recording of the Song Of The Women from the FilkContinental 1998 Harmony Workshop (at least I assume it's a harmony workshop) on one of my CDs (I'm always behind, I know) and I instantly fell in love with it. I listened to it for almost two hours on repeat, and I'm listening to it again this very moment. I love the tune, and the arrangement and what I can understand of the lyrics - that's where I need help.

Does anyone have the lyrics for that song? (Or knows who originally wrote it?) I couldn't find them online and I'd love to have them so much, what I can understand sounds so lovely. (And if anyone has the chords I won't turn down that offer, either :op ) Pwetty pwetty please with cherry on top?

(Also - I assume Crystal and Eva are among the women? I think I recognise their voices :o) )

Apart from that - my head is near exploding again. Stoooopid stooooopid paper.

ETA: Thank you so much nelladarren!

Gacked from beige_alert :

( Read more... )

Right. Now that's done I might actually get to work on Dreaded Middle High German Paper Of Doom. *roll eyes*

...I forgot it's Dominic Monaghan's birthday...

*ducks*

Anyway, obligatory idiots in my film class update? Now there's giggleling whenever there's a slightly old fashioned dialogue. *facepalm*

Wentto university like a good girl should today only to be looking forward to come home and continue writing...but typical me, now that I am back home I'm deadly tired. Gwah.

Anyway, I've realised one thing...I'm not a fantasy writer, at least not really. I just have a feeling my style doesn't fit in the least to tales of dragons and elves (not that I have dragons and elves in my story) and of realms long gone...I think you need a somewhat old fashioned style to really put that one off (unless you're J.K. Rowling but then again, her novels are set in our time in our world), and I a) don't have that style b) don't really want that style.

I'll keep writing that novel, for me, because it's fun but if I ever thought I might get this one published in a small publishing house one day I think I need to say goodbye to that idea. Oh well. Off I go, writing.

Oh when I went to the lecture this morning I met a girl from my old university and the first thing she said was OMG is that a Harry Potter scarf ?! ... I think she was a tad envious ;o)

P.S.: Word Count: 7,022!

I got into Introduction To Film Studies after all. So for the first time this term I've actually been lucky.

Also I finished reading The Amber Spyglass about ten minutes ago... sibylle didn't you want an in-depth discussion about the series? Oh and before I forget... CONGRATULATIONS on doing so well in your exam! Whoo!!!

rose_drop, happy happy birthday (ou bon anniversaire)!!! *GUG* Wish you all the best for teh year to come! :o)

Eek, I also forgot to wish allisona a happy birthday when I had the chance yesterday...well happy belated one then! :o)

Weirdness, weirdness. For one thing my father watched Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone when it was on the telly yesterday. Considering he isn't interested into Harry Potter the slightest, and keeps telling me he cannot for his life understand what all the hype is about I was quite amazed. I think my jaw even dropped to the ground. Also there seemed to be a secret understanding from the tv channels yesterday to make it a treet evening for all LOTR fans... first Oliver Twist with Elijah Wood was on (filmed in Dublin Castle btw, not Londion...) and then they showed A Perfect Murder with Viggo Mortensen...we likes. Actually, every evening should be like that though I don't like that version of Oliver Twist that much.

Signed up for some courses this morning, one of them being The Outsider in Contemporary Children's Literature, I so hope I get in.

Also... *waves* ... aryana_filker, lovely to finally have you here! :o)