French follies, and finally sinking my teeth into Groupe Hugo.

Haha. My first French paper, a few weeks earlier in the semester, came back with an A and glowing comments about my writing style. Of course, the assignment for my first French paper involved making up a Belle Époque character and writing a one-to-two-page short story about them, and I learned most of my French from reading novels. Piece of cake. This latest assignment--the one I stayed up all night revising on Monday--was an essay, and I have read exactly zero formal academic works in French. So of course this one came back as one giant scribble of red pen, with comments to the effect that the style is as graceful as a one-legged blind baby elephant. (No, she didn't actually say that, but I had no idea you could fit the word 'maladroit' that many times onto two pages.)

Obviously this means I need to get my ass to Groupe Hugo and read some of the articles there. Dammit, you can't learn if you can't see how it's done.

[one hour later] I've read about half of this and it's utterly fascinating: all about Les Misérables as a work of history, about the changes between the 1848 draft and the final version in 1862. I can't say it's going to improve my formal writing, but god is it shiny.

French follies, and finally sinking my teeth into Groupe Hugo.

Haha. My first French paper, a few weeks earlier in the semester, came back with an A and glowing comments about my writing style. Of course, the assignment for my first French paper involved making up a Belle Époque character and writing a one-to-two-page short story about them, and I learned most of my French from reading novels. Piece of cake. This latest assignment--the one I stayed up all night revising on Monday--was an essay, and I have read exactly zero formal academic works in French. So of course this one came back as one giant scribble of red pen, with comments to the effect that the style is as graceful as a one-legged blind baby elephant. (No, she didn't actually say that, but I had no idea you could fit the word 'maladroit' that many times onto two pages.)

Obviously this means I need to get my ass to Groupe Hugo and read some of the articles there. Dammit, you can't learn if you can't see how it's done.

[one hour later] I've read about half of this and it's utterly fascinating: all about Les Misérables as a work of history, about the changes between the 1848 draft and the final version in 1862. I can't say it's going to improve my formal writing, but god is it shiny.

And now for some nerdy follies.

So inspirational was my little jaunt to Groupe Hugo that I trotted off to the library and checked out a book called Carnet de Barricades, which is full of memoirs and letters and poems and stories about the Paris barricades from 1830-1871. Near the back is a poem by Verlaine, undated and labeled "Des morts." I started thinking about it while reading that article about LM as a work of history.

( Ô Cloître Saint-Merry funèbre! sombres rues! )

And now for some nerdy follies.

So inspirational was my little jaunt to Groupe Hugo that I trotted off to the library and checked out a book called Carnet de Barricades, which is full of memoirs and letters and poems and stories about the Paris barricades from 1830-1871. Near the back is a poem by Verlaine, undated and labeled "Des morts." I started thinking about it while reading that article about LM as a work of history.

( Ô Cloître Saint-Merry funèbre! sombres rues! )