ITM readers will be interested to know that Eileen Joy and I were, for the first time in recorded history (indeed, for the first time since the world began) in the same room together. We met just before the BABEL panel (below). I refused to shake Eileen's hand, telling her that it would force me to acknowledge that she is real. She declared that I was silly and grabbed my hand anyway.
The world did not end when the two of us touched. And now I acknowledge publicly: Eileen Joy does in fact exist in an embodied state.
Attendance at the panel was good (about 20 interested audience members, including at least one blogger who used to be anonymous to me). Lively discussion, too.
The "Wild Spaces in Romance" session in the afternoon (draft of my paper here) was the best time I've ever had a conference panel: the papers were all very good, and the questions were provocative. All in all it has been a very good conference, reminding me of how much fun it is to be a medievalist.
My excitement yesterday came when a Roman centurion marched his charges, shouting their marching rythym in Latin, at full pelt past my window. (Yes I live in a kind of time-warp minus kalamazooites). The soldiers, of both sexes, were all on the small side, wearing bright blue base-ball caps and marching in pairs holding hands. So I looked out my window from the twelfth century to the 21st and immediately thought of you (or more accurately your son).
ReplyDeleteN50 thanks for that -- it made my day!
ReplyDeleteHey all, just a quick note that peter ramus at waagnfnp has a great tribute to the Heaney Beowulf translation and audiobook ripe for commenting.
ReplyDelete