Seminar and the City

A three hour seminar called "Transational Culture" on Monday morning may not spontaneously sound like a hoot, and I must admit I did not cherish great expectations about its entertainment value. However, I am already pretty much converted to the transnational, and am in the process of becoming a Bruce Robbins acolyte (BR being the professor leading the seminar). The combination of an open, relaxed atmosphere, a geographically, culturally and academically very diverse but clearly motivated class group of about twenty people, and substantial food for thought certainly makes for a Monday morning unlike any other.

The only potential drawback to this course is the ridiculously over-priced three hundred page reader (double-sided), and the three books (the biggest one a 700-page monster) that will need to be processed by yours truly in the course of the next few weeks.

The potential plus side is that the general atmosphere is very friendly, and that everyone will chat with anyone. Lubricated with a civilised reception, the general thrust of the opening banquet thus revolved around (in my case) casual chat about the Weimar republic and the breakdown of language, English football hooligans in contemporary literature, Edward Said and the origins of language, and squash. (See? I'm not really a nerd!) Thank God these people are not averse to spending some post-banquet time in a pub in Ithaca.

Which brings me to the exciting narrative of my search for Ithaca. I walked downtown along Cascadilla Creek, which is superbly pretty, in search for some sort of urban life. Painful was the realization that those two blocks generously named "Ithaca Commons" really do constitute the heart and soul of this would-be town. Considering that Cornell is located on the top of a bloody big hill, the stroll downtown (quite literally, in this case) and back is not exactly rewarding. I do understand the town's name, now: Odysseus wouldn't be able to find this one either.


Off to hear what Dominic LaCapra has to say about "Witnessing, Trauma, and the Sublime" now - toodle-pip.