Proposal Time

I've been working on this silly PhD proposal for the past few hours and I'm quite sure that my brain has exploded and will be, at any second, running out of my ear. So, best to set it aside for a little bit and take a nice relaxing blog-break.

I've found myself rather enamored with the writing of this Neil Gaiman guy of a few posts ago. Someone I know told me to check out Neverwhere; I did. Then I checked out (literally, from the Library) American Gods, Stardust and a couple of slightly disturbing (in a really cool way) Sandman collections. Again, if you like smart fantasy and you DON'T know Gaiman's stuff: pull yourself from under that rock and start reading!

Oh, I decided to show Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes in my 20th Century British Literature class. Now the film is a favourite of mine and, after last year's Casablanca debacle, I was a little hesitant about showing a personal favourite that I would have to defend against a group of jaded and superficial Ashton Kutchon fans. For some reason I chanced it and was blown away by the response. They laughed (in the right places), gasped and jumped; they even cheered at the end of the film. It was almost enough to restore my faith.


I am plagued by the fact that Leonard Cohen is starting to look like my late grandmother. I expect him to knit me some mittens.