Janice Pariat's The Nine-Chambered Heart is the sort of book that has my students in raptures and has me going... uhhh, what am I missing? It was a quick read, which does say a lot about the author's ability to engage the reader, and I also loved the premise: we see the protagonist through the points of view of nine characters she's been in sexual/romantic relationships with. (It's a really good premise for a fanfic, am I right?) Predictably, the part I liked the most was the one with the female roommate, although, alas, it's pretty much the only 'relationship' in the novel that doesn't actually turn into a relationship.

Only a few more Fandom Studies classes to go before the semester ends next week. There's SO MUCH I wanted to introduce my students to, and not enough time. At least I've got most of them hooked on Doctor Who/Torchwood (although it was my duty to warn them that the latter comes with a huge 'be prepared to have your heart torn out and stomped on' warning). Here's a (fan-made) video I posted for the class today.



One of the students has just submitted a Sam-centric Stanford-era fanfic. BRB OFF TO READ.

Today I visited another campus of the university for various things: primarily for the proposal presentation of my PhD student, which went very well. She's a joy to work with, and her area of research, food and gender, is pretty aligned to my own interests.

Another good thing that happened is that I met the director of the Centre for Research to ask permission to appoint a research assistant for my post-doctoral project. The girl who applied for the position is another delightful person, and I've known her as a student for three years; she recently graduated from our BA English Honours programme. We hit a snag along the way when a nasty colleague, who is unfortunately pretty high up on the academic food chain, told the student that she wouldn't be hired for my project because she doesn't have an MA. I was pretty pissed off (although I managed not to show it; I've learnt my lesson about being transparent about my thoughts), because... how dare you? How dare you crush a girl's hopes about doing research work, when you aren't even the one in charge of the project? I knew the Centre for Research is really happy with my work so far and was unlikely to deny my request, and yay, it came through. So much glee. It's childish, I know, but I can't wait to see the look on Nasty Colleague's face when I tell her I'm hiring the kid.

Thirdly, I had a very enjoyable meeting with a group of students from the other campus. They found out that I was offering Fandom Studies and wanted to meet me since they're doing a research project on K-pop. My fandom heart is still with LJ and you guys, but it's so gratifying to be able to share the fandom love with students and encourage them to work on stuff that they love.

Speaking of fandom things, I've got two lovely gift fics to rec. My Everywoman gift fic is a quietly lovely character study of Scully from Karen Kosseff's point of view, including awesome backstory for Karen. My spn_summergen gift fic is equally lovely, based on one of my favourite fic possibilities: Sam at the beginning of S8. Saving Him From Hell also does justice to Amelia, and I love that; I love seeing her and Sam drawn to each other because he's lost Dean and she's lost Don, and I don't need to tell you guys how much I love that parallel between them.

Re books: I recently finished Lauren Graham's Someday, Someday, Maybe, which was pretty nice, and have just started on Felicia Day's You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost). It's awesome so far: I can absolutely relate to her anecdotes about growing up in an internet-less world (the horror).

I've enjoyed the last two episodes very much. In lieu of a reaction I'm going to link to the NY Times review of the finale. It's got spoilers for everything, but here's a non-spoilery bit I happen to completely agree with:

...it does make me consider how the sense of mystery will likely begin to dissipate from “Game of Thrones,” as longtime theories are confirmed and we pivot toward the final clashes. It’s unavoidable as the story begins to contract toward its conclusion. But I’m already feeling a little melancholy about the show becoming more about big battles and resolution and less about uncovering new pieces of this captivating world.

Isn't this the problem with most shows that have crossed 3+ seasons? I didn't think any of GoT was predictable, but that's probably because I don't read GoT fic or fan speculations. As for the argument that shows ~must get predictable about certain things once the end is near: for now, I'm sticking to my belief that the ways in which stories are told are way more important than the actual plot. In other words: show, don't tell. Setting up a showdown between two major characters may be inevitable, but the way in which it happens needn't be.