Kurt Vonnegut's self-portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

“I keep losing and regaining my equilibrium, which is the basic plot of all popular fiction. I am myself a work of fiction.” -Kurt Vonnegut

As an old English ed major, I found this film delightful. It stars Owen Wilson as a writer who is in modern day Paris on a vacation. He is in love with the idea of the expatriates who became known as the Lost Generation of the 1920s. One evening, at the stroke of midnight, he suddenly finds himself in the company of all of his literary and artistic heroes (Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and wife Zelda, Gertrude Stein (played by Kathy Bates!), Picasso, Cole Porter, and many others). He becomes somewhat addicted to this nightly historical journey. Through the course of the movie he learns a few things about himself (as you might expect) and it ends satisfactorily. It’s a romantic comedy, but it’s not the typical rom-com fare we tend to see nowadays. I highly recommend it, especially if you are a reader.

Movie: Midnight in Paris (2011 – Directed by Woody Allen)

CC license: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicknich4/434251591/

“In solitude we give passionate attention to our lives, to our memories, to the details around us.” -Virginia Woolf

Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West by Dorothy Wickenden is a book about the author’s grandmother, also named Dorothy, and her best friend Rosamond. These two women, educated at Smith, from well-to-do families in Auburn, New York, decided to go against the grain and answer the call for two teachers in the rural outpost of Elkhead, Colorado. The book focuses on both women’s lives with particular attention to that 1916-17 school year. It’s a fascinating look at what life was like then, not only for these two young women, but also as a snapshot of America in the early 20th century. When they set off on their adventure, there were still Civil War veterans around, the US had yet to engage in either of the two world wars, and women did not yet have the vote.

Here is the accompanying video/slide show from the publisher’s website with voice-over from the author.

cc photo from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/golo_undertow/3590904689/sizes/s/in/photostream/

I have a colleague who has been battling metastatic cancer for quite some time. It has been growing exponentially worse and she is back in the hospital again. It sounds like a similar path to what my dad dealt with (cancer–surgery, the array of various treatments over the years, metastasizing to the bones, and now to the lungs). My colleague is a very private person and I don’t know her very well, but her situation has been a constant reminder for me that the daily frustrations of work are really nothing when compared to her ordeal. I felt like I learned that to a great degree during my dad’s experience, but this is serving to be yet another lesson.

First, the library is currently undergoing a monumental book-shifting process in order to create enough space for an additional row of seating and computers on the top floor of the building. This involves weeding the collection and then moving every book on that floor to its new location. Now that the classes I teach are finished, I have given those few hours over to help my colleagues with this project. I always find it interesting to see, book by book, what is in the collection. Today was actually quite enjoyable as I was in the poetry section. It made me think about the many books I’ve read in that genre and my own college work as an English education major plying the stacks at KU’s Watson Library.

The other thing I stumbled across today is that The Atlantic has its special commemorative issue out now marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Here is a quick description of the issue from The Atlantic‘s website. It definitely looks like it will be well worth the read.