Weekly Roundup Feb 22
I’m sick with COVID for the second time, and so my planned conference attendance had to be canceled, and I am still feeling very unwell, so not up to a full-length newsletter, I’m afraid. We’ve also had a winter storm every week for the past three weeks, closing campus and necessitating Zoom class. I’m grateful for the option to stay safe at home and still teach, but it’s giving me some bad early-pandemic flashbacks, and the bad weather triggers chronic pain flares. I love winter, but I am eagerly anticipating Spring.
So here’s just a few things I’ve been interested in lately.
"Hope is the correct response to consciousness,” said John Green in a recent YouTube video, and I love that so much. He also said, in the same video, “I used to think that art had to be great to be worthwhile. Now I only think it has to be to be worthwhile.”
Wow. I could not come up with a better credo for myself. I was such a snob during my early grad school days as are so many young people as they try to rigidly define things for themselves. There’s nothing wrong with having preferences and tastes, but I’m referring to actually elitism. Some people stay pretty snobby their whole lives, but I’m grateful to have mellowed so much with age, because I was missing out on so much great art by being such a snob in my ignorance.
Speaking of John Green, I have his latest novel Turtles All the Way Down on loan from the library on audiobook (love the Libby app that makes this possible!) and quite enjoying it. I went through a big John Green phase one summer during grad school where I listened to all of his books on a drive from Utah to Iowa and back.
I also finished reading the graphic novel adaptation of Kindred by Octavia Butler. The graphic novel is by Damien Duffy and illustrated by John Jennings, and it’s stunning. I liked it much better than the TV adaptation, which changed too many things for my liking, but which I also watched recently.
Also finally reading Koshersoul by Michael Twitty, which has been on my shelf for awhile, but getting the audiobook from Libby made me finally get into it. When I’m ill, I can’t focus on reading very well, so audiobooks have been a lifesaver.
Finally, I’ve been watching the British game show Taskmaster, most of which is available on YouTube, and it is the perfect low stakes show. My favorite series so far is 11. It has been nice to have on as I doze in and out, without having to pay too much attention.
Stay warm, stay well.
