Author Archives: ghw

it’s sharp, eh!

Posted on by

This just in:

The Preliminary Programme for the upcoming SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing) conference in Halifax, Nova
Scotia on July 14-17, 2005 is now available for viewing at the conference
website. An exciting line-up of papers, international
panels, keynote speakers, receptions, and other events awaits registrants. The
2005 conference will be a memorable meeting where scholars from around the
world will address and debate many aspects of “Navigating Texts and Contexts.”

Four people from my institution will be there: two professors, and two current or former grad students.

lord on oral poetry

Posted on by

I came across this memorable quote from Albert Lord’s The Singer of Tales, reading for my seminar tomorrow night:

The method of language is like that of oral poetry, substitution in the framework of the grammar. Without the metrical restrictions of the verse, language substitutes one subject for another in the nominative case, keeping the same verb, or keeping the same noun, it substitutes one verb for another. In studying the patterns and systems of oral narrative verse we are in reality observing the ‘grammar’ of the poetry, a grammar superimposed, as it were, on the grammar of the language concerned. Or, to alter the image, we find a special grammar within the grammar of the language, necessitated by the versification. … The speaker of this language, once he has mastered it, does not move any more mechanically within it than we do in ordinary speech.

When we speak a language, our native language, we do not repeat words and phrases that we have memorised consciously, but the words and sentences emerge from habitual usage. This is true of the singer of tales working in his specialised grammar.

big news chez zombie

Posted on by

It would seem that somebody, not me, landed a job in a state that touches the ocean. I am not leaving my current position, but for the foreseeable future I’ll be spending a lot of time in a city hundreds of miles away from where I currently live. I’m on leave from teaching in the fall, and I’ll be commuting back for my classes in Spring 2006.

a short dramatic work for your amusement

Posted on by

On the way to school this morning, we passed the Sonic we pass every morning. This is the Sonic to which we look for lunatic inspiration. A couple of years ago they had a sign out for “Cheesy Coney & Tots,” which inspired an entire, imagined 1970s-style television cop drama. Cheesy and Coney were the two cops, always doing things their own way, just outside departmental regulations, and Tots was their informant. “You’re a loose cannon, Cheesy! I’ll have your badge for this!”

This morning there was a a sign for their “Lenten Special.”

L: “What kind of Lenten Special could they have at Sonic?”
G: “I have no idea.”
L: “Maybe people are giving up tots for Lent.”
G: “Yeah, I guess…Bring out your tots.”
L: *laughs*
G: *rolling down window, shouting in my best Monty Python voice* “Bring out your tots!…Bring out your tots!”
Construction workers building a house nearby look up with curiosity.

monday morning mp3: whiskeytown

Posted on by

“16 Days“ (mp3), from Whiskeytown‘s 1997 album Stranger’s Almanac.

MP3 files are posted for evaluation purposes only. Availability is limited: usually 24 hours. Through this site, I’m trying to share and promote good music with others, who will also hopefully continue to support these artists. Everyone is encouraged to purchase music and concert tickets for the artists you feel merit your hard earned dollars. If you hold copyright to one of these songs and would like the file removed, please let me know.