Other than the parking ticket, our few hours in Chicago were good. We saw Laura and Balthasar Gracián and two good friends from graduate school, including Other Medievalist Mary. BG demonstrated in dress and demeanor why he receives all the good, titillating gifts from his students. Star of Siam was so-so: the appetizers (including spring rolls, vegetable egg rolls, and gyoza) were good, and I liked my sautéed vegetables, but K said her pad thai was bland. Thanks to Laura for the wine and chocolates—the Jack Daniels truffle is tasty!
Even though we tried to find places that were somewhat out of the conference circuit, the massive amount of anxiety that MLA collects into a single place was still oppressive. At dinner, the tables surrounding us were full of young professional-looking people with furrowed brows; moreover, we heard snippets of horror stories, such as of people walking out of interviews because their mouths went dry. What matters, however, is that at least one interview went well; fingers crossed, others did, too.
Admittedly, it was a bit of a strange conjunction of friends from different parts of our lives. In particular, OMM can be a handful on any occasion. But on the whole I mostly wished we could’ve stayed longer and talked more.
by greg—Dec 31, 06:49 PM
tru, tru, sorry i had to dash to dinner with people who might possibly write my tenure review. more on that disappointing dinner later.
by Balthasar Gracián—Dec 31, 08:31 PM
Yes, I would have been delighted to hang out for longer, although after last night’s pathetic attempt to stay up for midnight (managed, but just barely), my coherence level may have plummeted significantly.
by Laura—Jan 1, 12:24 PM
I should add, it was great to finally meet the librarian of the Great Plains… and OMM and the more quiet MB.
What was so disappointing about the meal was that originally it was going to be 2 new bucks and 2 new does (1 whom I know and like, the other who I think would be nice to know, but thinks she’s much too important for the likes of me) and a whole bunch of seasoned colonialists, whom I need to know for tenure review. I mean some really big names. Well, unbeknown to me, a whole buncha colonial posers signed up at the MLA, a full 3 weeks late. So, by the time I got there, I was stuck at the end of a table with 2 people just finishing their disses… not that this is bad… but it’s certainly not why I dropped 33 dollars on the event. One was really nice, but much more interested in writing children’s books. The other was a “cultural studies” corporeality enthusiast… who, though being in a lit program is doing work on the dis/course of bo/dy in 17th and 18th cen/tury Pe/ruvian divo/rce proceedings. Not that it’s not interesting… but, she doesn’t have the training of a historian to do this, there’s not a historian on her committee, and she strung amazingly long words together in a dizzying display of language’s ability to turn anything into an adjective.
So, there went my hopes! However, one of the persons whom I cite in my recently published papers saw me there and thanked me citing him and complemented the essay…
by Balthasar Gracián—Jan 1, 12:54 PM
Really wish I could have been there, but my long lost sister was in town right at that moment. Even without that, it would have been hard to make it there, though.
I’ll write up a monster post on my own goings on this holiday season in the next week or so.
by JH—Jan 1, 01:08 PM
Hoser! Sisters are forever; who knows how long you’ll have us? You would’ve had fun, too.
by greg—Jan 1, 03:27 PM