Comments on: Penelopiad

By: michelle

michelle — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 20:31:28 +0000

Hmm. I’m intrigued enough to check it out. Thanks.

By: michelle

michelle — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 20:33:16 +0000

PS you’re never going to believe this: my local library system (a main library with eleven branches) has it only on cassette and disc.

By: Zh.

Zh. — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 20:58:24 +0000

I may have to read it someday. There are no references to Susannah Moodie, are there? I am still scared by my Intro to Can Lit courses, which is probably the profs’ faults and not Can Lit’s. I’ve been told that Alias Grace is pretty good but that first quote from Susannah Moodie makes my feel faint and I close the book and walk away.

Anywho, even if you met Atwood, she would probably ignore you. My friend lives down the street from her and she is very kind to his dog but acts as though he who holds the other end of the leash isn’t present.

By: Zh.

Zh. — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 21:00:36 +0000

I must say that I wish I could spell. Scarred. I was scarred by Intro to Can Lit.

By: cindy

cindy — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 00:30:05 +0000

I also hated Oryx and Crake, but I liked Alias Grace.

By: wolfa

wolfa — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 03:33:19 +0000

Oh, I think you should try to read it, Michelle. I’d also suggest her book(s) of short stories. You do a lot of driving — why not listen to it on the commute?

Zh., why were you so scarred? (I prefer scared anyways. Ack! Atwood! Ondaatje! Cohen! Run away fast!)

I keep planning to try Alias Grace again, she wrote it in a run of books I liked.

By: michelle

michelle — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 23:07:42 +0000

Hey, that’s true, I am driving a lot right now, and my new (old) van has a CD player. I’ve always had difficulty comprehending things read aloud — must follow along visually to absorb. But maybe I’ll give it a whirl.

By: Zh.

Zh. — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 16:40:12 +0000

Intro to Can Lit II was one of those classes during which I watched the professor and started a list that I still keep adding to: “What Not to Do when I Am a Professor.” Number 1 at the top of that list was: Do not teach an intro course and expect my 200+ freshmen to already know the entire history of Canadian literature. No 2? Do not ever teach Dionne Brand unless I’m being held at gunpoint.

I also sucked (and now suck a bit less) at general theme-based discussions. “What’s this about?” Ummm…I don’t know but the use of narrative voice was really interesting. And all we did in Can Lit II was discuss things like isolation, distance, Dieppe, exile, immigration, outsiders, otherness, blah blah blah.

It just sucked. And it was my worst grade as an undergrad by like a gazillion.

By: H

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 09:17:56 +0000

I met Atwood at a reading. I thanked her as I stood outside the door waiting for my classmates. It was one of the most akward moments of my life. She is a very very strange and talented woman and I would most definatly not want to be her neighbour.