alekskollontai-blog

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“The Cripples” by A M Klein

The urban life has a lengthy tradition of serving as a muse for various modern artists. For some reason, cities align with a sense of genuineness and common ground between authors and readers. As we have seen in Cassidy’s guided tour, Montreal has inspired many local writers to use it as a backdrop for their narratives. Acting as a character on its own, Montreal locations inform the way we read novels or poems. As Montreal dwellers, we are able to understand the scenes being portrayed and probably have a better understanding of the artworks presented to us through our own intimate knowledge of these locations. A.M Klein’s poetry is amongst the staples of Montreal-inspired poems and always prove to be very efficient in the imagery they conjure up. I chose the poem “The Cripples” from The Rocking Chair and Other Poems collection because it focused on the Oratoire St-Joseph. One of my favourite buildings in Montreal is the Oratoire; for some reason, its austerity is a beautiful presence on the flank of the mountain and the architecture is reminiscent of some baroque Italian Catholic church. Reading the poem about the iconic stairs just reminded me how important the religious scene in Montreal’s history. For obvious reason I didn’t it was appropriate to plant myself on the top of the stairs and read the poem out loud. Out of respect for the people actually doing their penance on the Oratoire's stairs, I chose to walk on the little trails adjacent the dome. I often read there and find there is a quiet gravity to that hidden tree patch befitting reading poetry. Observing the praying faithfuls going up the stairs while reading Klein’s work proved to be just as expected: the cold beauty of the building added to the feeling of grandeur, a holy distance between the small believers and the sanctity of St.Joseph. It did influence my reading by giving an ironic tone, seeing people’s devotion and reading of their unanswered prayers, something I doubt was in Klein’s original poem. Reading poetry aloud in public does make me self-conscious and while reading aloud is important to hear the musicality of the poem, I probably won’t repeat the experience in a public without proper context (such a poetry reading night). The self-awareness stole away from the appreciation of the text but I did enjoy being on location to have the visual support to my readings. 

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Mirror, Mirror on the wall, tell me who writes best of them all

Correcting a friends literary work is not an easy task, nor is it a comfortable one. Trying to remain objective in the reading and supplying positive criticism proves to be difficult, especially when you have a personal relationship with the author. I corrected a friend’s research project on the rise of voluntary poverty in the 12th century, a subject I am completely unfamiliar with. I expected to encounter two main challenges: the first being my lack of knowledge of any given subject of my friends’ research papers and the second, my inability to provide unbiased readings and corrections of their work. As it turns out, correcting a paper wasn’t as harder as expected but I am not quite sure I provided the most pertinent suggestion either. This sort of uncertainty in my correction skills undermines the efficiency of the whole exercise as I doubt my own reading and my friend also doubts the need to apply my suggestions. It was, however, a very enlightening exercise for my own writing as I realized what were the most efficient argumentative techniques and styles. Selfishly, I took this exercise as a way to improve my own writing techniques as I came to realize what communicates best, for a third party reader, complex ideas. A conversational style seems the best format as it tries to mimic the organic way in which people organize their thoughts: a statement, followed by an explanation and definition of key concepts and ended with examples to illustrate the point make for a very convincing argumentative essay. While the argumentative essay structure is generally well known to all, some people tend to veer off into the dramatic with a writing style closer to fiction. My friend had the unfortunate tendency to do so and the history of St. Alexis’s hagiography all of a sudden felt like the epic of St. Alexis. By suggesting to change the structure to a more direct form of argument, the text became more convincing and made for a more credible illustration of St.Alexis’ impact of voluntary poverty in medieval Europe (not that I know anything about the truth of it, but at least it seemed like a more reliable source). Overall, correcting friend’s paper is both a great exercise to reflect on one’s own writing style as well sometimes being able to provide original suggestions to make for a better-structured text.

[alekskollontai-blog]

Playing with Fire: Theo Fleury at the Centaur Theatre

I am not a hockey fan. My Canadian citizenship must surely be in danger of being revoked for such a statement. I have no knowledge of the sport and for the neophyte that I am, it looks like a ballet of goons on skates, ramming each other with their carcasses. Being tricked into attending the Playing With Fire play forced me to show a little interest in the history of a sport I never really engaged with. While the drama focuses mostly on Theorien Fleury’s tragic biography, it did heavily really on the audience’s assumed knowledge of hockey trivia. I expected to be bored out of my mind and to work really hard to find something to appreciate: the acting skills or perhaps the mastery of the staging. I was however pleasantly surprised by Shaun Smyth’s performance, driving a one-man play by monologuing for 2 hours straight. The intensity of his channelling of Theorien Fleury made for a very entertaining play, even if the source material relied on rather dramatic events. While it was grounded in “hockey facts” that sometimes made the narrative obscure for amateurs like myself, the raw tragedy and rage of Fleury’s life connected with all of the audience. A hybrid between a play and a one-man show, Fleury as a character addresses the audience directly in order to explain why and how he became what he is. The emotional retelling of his life makes for a relatable character, subverting the usual goon-douchebag archetype of hockey players. While Fleury’s life is by no means an example of an enlightened, “woke” social justice warrior, it does contextualize the reason for his eccentricities. By glimpsing into the traumatic childhood the man had, it humanizes the party animal persona and generates a new found admiration for his accomplishments. The play goes on to demonstrate the versatility of theatre, adapting a biography from book to stage, sports life to drama and so on. Not only was the story quite different in its tone from the usual play but the format also made for an unorthodox visual spectacle with a single actor “skating” throughout the show on a vinyl “ice rink”.

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Studying in Three Acts

Act I: Meditation

I think we all have heard this suggestion at some point in our lives: as an anxious person, the first self-help tip given is always “do some meditation”. But as all anxious people out there know, the worst place to be in order to calm down is probably alone in your head. Assailing thoughts from everywhere from “what will I dine upon tonight?” to “Jesus did I leave the oven on this morning?!” crowd your headspace and the overall effect is a sense of failure at both gaining inner peace and optimizing the use of your time. The word meditation sounds like a good idea but going into the exercise, you expect to just close your eyes and waist yet another 15-20 minutes stressing about both the things you aren’t doing and the meditation you are ruining. However, guided meditation can be helpful in balancing the anxiety of “doing nothing” and the beneficial gains of relaxation. I did find that being led into meditation made for a more efficient pause in my day. The task feels more defined as you concentrate on following the guidelines instead of being left alone with your head. It makes meditation less of a work and rather just a surrender which is ultimately the most relaxing portion of the exercise. By letting go, I could appreciate the moment of quiet and rest, using my breath as a mantra blocking away all other concerns. Coming out of the meditation I felt very rested as if I had taken a little nap, with the same limb-numbness one experiences lying down for a while. After the initial 5-6 minutes waking up-haze, I was much more energetic and alert and felt like I could go on with my day. The pause was beneficial in making it until the end of the day more productively.

Act II: Branch out

Finding the right place to study or work isn’t a simple task. It has to be comfortable enough but not too distracting, filled with droning but unbothering noise, lively but serious...study-spots should provide just enough action to keep awake and boring enough to make your study more “inviting” than anything around. Haven’t we all postponed a study session just to turn our attention to folding laundry? Rock bottom of semester motivation, when vacuuming is more attractive than your 6-page paper due tomorrow, fleeing from home to a “serious student”-vibed location can be crucial. I am usually of the sit-on-the-sofa-at-home breed of student, but I get hit with the midterm blues and when that happens I like to move out of the house to study outside. I find the university library too stuffy and usually get distracted in cafés so I opted this time around to work at the BANQ.  My inner monologue always gets working by the sheer quantity of books available and their nice wood work tables, all equipped with the archetypal green capped, cobra-necked, library lamp; inspired by all the scholarly tone of the set, I always expect to get more work done. I was bitterly disappointed to once again contemplate the fact I can never get anything done unless I’m working comfortably in sweatpants. People’s movements, the self-consciousness of working on a computer and trying not to bother your neighbour, squarely seated on a chair, none of it helps in my pursuit of a calming setting to concentrate on the task at hand. The only benefit I got from it was the forced 4-5 hours with slow internet connexion, forcing me to read my novel and only use a word document tab to write my essay, as any supplementary internet tabs would probably crash. Overall, the work gets done regardless of my geographical location but my living room remains the champion spot for productive work as it allows me to move around, twitch, read and think aloud and has an abundant supply of fresh coffee at no cost. Working alone at home and reading my essays to my cat allows me to feel more confident in the writings I produce and usually end up making more sense as it is the result of a continuous line of thought. The soft purring of Mr.Kitty surely participates as well, on some zootherapeutic level, to the success of my living room as an ideal study spot. Nicely tried BANQ!

Act III: Move It

I am one of those “bulimic” writers: I’ll sit, reading around, for days prior to an assignment, gathering unconsciously material for an argumentary yet unformed, until I find a question or problematic aspect worthy of an essay. Once I am enlightened with my thesis, I get writing for a straight 4-5 hours or more. My papers take “organic” pauses along the arc of the thoughts put to the paper: if a line of thought takes 2 hours to write, I will not, and probably cannot, stop for a break. I have great difficulty taking scheduled breaks, working for 30 minutes and then pausing, for I find such timed frames end up breaking my inspiration and the work has to be started again. However, trying to change my work routine, I tried to at least divide my last midterm papers in parts, each of which was interrupted by a quick 5k run. My neighbourhood has the chance of being adjacent to a nice patch of forest with a large deer population and pleasant walk trails, so I always have the choice between a 5 or 10-kilometer circuit. I have been told by many that working out in between studying sessions can be beneficial as you have the runner’s endorphins kicking in well after the end of the little escapade,  fueling the afternoon’s writing until the work is done. I have always had reserves towards the idea as I know my lazy tendencies to simply never return to the working table once I leave it, tendencies only worsened by the fatigue of physical exercise. Nonetheless, I tried it out to see if it would prove to be as effective as it is portrayed. It didn’t pan out exactly as I thought it would nor did it work as people usually describe it: the beneficial effects came around much later in the evening. An early afternoon run tired me immediately after, but energized me for a new writing session about 4 hours later...and then I couldn’t get to sleep. It is as if the run kick-started my circadian rhythm to begin a new cycle and I had enough energy to keep on working until late at night, feeling fresh and focused on my texts. On days where I am homebound, not attending school and not having to work outside, I think the integration of a quick run could be profitable in order to make a more productive day. By increasing my hours of activity, I got more work done in one day then 2 days of only sit-and-write sessions. Very pleased with the unexpected effects of physical exercise to separate work sessions, I will most assuredly make it a habit in the future!

[alekskollontai-blog]

When I grow up I wanna be...

I have been looking into my professional future for quite some time now and the perspectives are varied but quite nebulous for humanities students. By that I mean that most people interviewed have a generally similar answer about being “there at the right place at the right time with an interesting resumé”. Now how is one supposed to have an interesting resumé and the right connexions, you might ask? Most of the time, University is the field where your network begins to build up. Not only are there opportunities to work (paid or unpaid) in your field of studies through the various student organizations, Chairs and/or internships but you get to benefit from the knowledge of professors and other personnel. In my case, the ultimate goal would be to finally land a job as a professor in college or university, a task that requires at least a masters level and ideally a doctorate degree. All professors agree on this: the doctorate is the key to positions as a teacher in a professor in university faculties. Unsurprisingly though, it is no longer sufficient to simply be a Ph.D. to impress future employers. Nowadays, publications, participation in research and production of literary material prior to hiring is a definite advantage. The field is difficult to navigate due to the unclear requirements for the job and the few positions available but university professors constantly suggest to quickly get involved at the masters level in colloquiums, work as teaching assistants as early as possible and look out for research assistant positions in order to build a name for oneself. Other tips, coming from graduate students this time, suggest that if personal research papers are sufficiently pertinent one should try to get them published in peer-reviewed journals. The general idea indicates that professional success depends on higher education and a bundle of publications, writings, and involvement in academic activities. Extra-curricular activities are highly encouraged as well: the traditional university professor must demonstrate in-depth knowledge of his field of specialty but boasting of parallel skills in pedagogy and psychology of learning is a remarkable advantage. Complementary graduate programs such as «Teaching at the post-secondary level» offer internships in school-environment as well as formal theoretical material on the art of teaching. In sum, remaining in the academic community for as long as possible and taking every opportunity to teach, assist, research, write and publish seem the best actions to take in order to hopefully attain a professor position.

[alekskollontai-blog]

To do or not to do Literature?

Why do I study literature? Why study literature at large? I think on a large scale, literature is a reflexion of ourselves as humans. Literature is the ultimate empathic exercise as to understand and experience the lives of others. Hopefully, it allows us to become better people. Unlike other fields of humanities, literature has a chance of being the unadulterated voice of past and present human experience ; it is a pure plunge in the subjective vision of one’s world and while it does make literature unreliable (not objective), it also challenges the reader’s fundamental values and point of view by forcing a specific window of experience on him. Because it evades the objective, regulated “scientific” discourse history or sociology would have, literature produces a plurality of voices on a same subject and offers a more flexible medium to accommodate a personal representation of the world. It also offers the possibility to challenge cultural or social structures, a dialectic power between minorities and the dominant culture that no other field of science can. Personally, the spiritual/social quality of literature is what draws me to it. The power of the “Word” as a performance, word-make-life or word-creation is particularly interesting and that one shapes his thinking through language. In a professional perspective, becoming a professor of literature (for that would be my ultimate goal) is more of an excuse to open dialogue with students about the realities of their world. To quote one of my university piano professors, “teaching is an opportunity to challenge the student on the subject of life itself”; while I’m not as spiritually enlightened as him, I do believe that through literature one can spark an individual revolution, to change the heart and mind of one student every single time one gives a lecture. Social changes are secured through education, not law, not physical power but truly, a change of perspective and conceptualization of any given ideology. The variety of experiences offered through literature and the opportunity of empathic exercise through the multiple narratives obliges a reflexive exercise and the perennity of all these pockets of human, subjective experience is a comforting thought; literature needs to exist in order to remind the world of its own humanity.

[alekskollontai-blog]

Tulip Fever- The Good, the Bad and the Boring...

Tulip fever is a historical romance written by Deborah Moggach set in a 17th century Holland. Now I must confess, I am extremely prejudiced against historical romances: I loath them. They always come across as cheap, both in imagery and language. Unless the author is a keen historian, characters are always constructed in this strange mixture of modern speech and psyche while being bound to old fashion and formulaic customs and mores. It creates flat and unidimensional characters, boring the reader to death by their predictable behaviors and sheepish  manners. I was not happily surprised by Tulip Fever: it came off exactly as any other historical romance. Because of that, I did not have great expectations for the movie, save for my hopeful expectation of a redeeming grace through the visual spectacle sets and costumes could offer. Period dramas always capitalize on the opulence of the costumes they create, offering a glazed and curated version of the “past”. Tulip fever centering on a bourgeois household, I presumed the dresses would be extravagant, as would the general decor. Flowers and beautiful clothes, what could go wrong? The book also attempts at creating a very romantic and rakish charm in Jan Van Loos both through his physical person and lifestyle (he’s a painter, very moody bad boy indeed), forcing him on the public as the magnetic pole of the narrative’s erotic/sensual core. He is the fallen angel pushing everyone around him to sin. Even if the writing style made him a diluted version of a Don Juan, I expected Jan Van Loos-on-screen to be the dark and magnetic person he’s supposed to be.

While the movie did match my imagination costume wise, it disappointed in the actors selected for the roles. The clothing and decor are absolutely gorgeous, satins and velvet and lace so specific to the 17th century fashion: the sheer quantity of cloth participates in the stuff, almost oppressive atmosphere Tulip Fever wants to convey. The Sandvoort household is a walking dichotomy of morals, mixing a barren decor with rich materials: the little furniture does respect the puritanical humility Calvinism proposes, and so do the somber clothing. However, the textures of said furniture and clothes are a sensual invitation: the softness of silk, the suggestive holes in the intricate lace necklines, the fullness of velvet and the richness of leather all suggest an underlying, hidden desire to be touched and possessed. In that aspect, the movie does a better job than the book in conveying a barely controlled sensual drive: an image is worth a thousand words and the book, unfortunately, does not offer a thousand words to infuse inanimate objects with  voluptuousness. The movie is filmed as a Dutch school painting: mundane objects ordered in a scene, dark and grave, but touched by spots of light and a touch of color. The play on light and shadows to highlight the opposition in Sophia’s character brings an interesting “visual narrative” ongoing in the movie and brings out the richness of the few colorful moments as small moments of joy.

The movie however fails dramatically with its casting crew: while all actors are very skilled, and no one can doubt Christoph Waltz’s acting chops, the crew betrays the novel’s spirit in most of their characters. Cornelius is supposed to be old and somewhat repulsive in his aging body (yellowed beard, sagging and small frame, acrid breath, etc), almost pathetic in his pompous manners and hanging to his “youth” like a drowning man. Christoph Waltz is far from a repulsive, pathetic old man, and on the contrary looks like sturdy middle age merchant. He even manages to put a slightly sinister joy in his character, suggesting an unstable personality. He’s far from the imagined darkness Sophia lends him, but Waltz still suggests more danger in his interpretation of Sandvoort than the book ever portrays. Alicia Vikander was given the least likeable character and manages, sadly, to perform in that exact fashion: through no fault of her own, she plays an excellent boring and whiny china-doll, a stereotypical “period-drama-lady” caught up in her hysteria. Her dramatic staring is tedious to watch, just as much as Sophia’s flat inner monologue are boring to read. Where the movie fails cruelly is in its portrayal of Jan Van Loos: Dane DeHaan has none of the desired smoldering sex-appeal Moggach sells in her book. While the silent “eye seduction” must be a hard thing to translate on screen, Tulip Fever the movie offers 0 sexual tension between Vikander and DeHaan: the “electrifying stolen touches” and “doe eyed smittens”  between Sophia and Jan, which should explain to the audience how and why Sophia suddenly turns up at Van Loos’ studio, risking her whole life, are completely absent from the movie. Maria’s and Willem’s romance on the opposite is much more relatable and their naughty interactions stir up more feelings. Holly Grainger’s Maria, though physically completely different from the book description, respect the rambunctious and girlish essence the young maid should have. Her lover, played by Jack O’Connell who also offers a beautified version of the otherwise described as “lumpy-potatoe faced” Willem, does infuse a level of passion in the young couple: a passion that unfortunately overshadows that of the Sophia-Jan pairing.

Just like the book, the movie makes it hard to believe the historical setting: the backdrop tulip craze is murkily presented through some compressed brothel-stock-tavern scenes, failing to actually explain or ground the story in a historically correct setting. As an adaptation, the movie cuts short on the multiple secondary sets (other than the Sandvoort house or Van Loos’ studio) as to not further confuse the audience. It unfortunately still comes across as superfluous scenes, forcibly weaved into the general story as to offer some degree of exposition. It applies the same rule to the secondary characters, compiling all personalities into some meta-character such as the Abbess or Dr.Sorgh: the effect results in an expedited parallel narrative not clearly useful to the story. Overall, the movie falls flat in every aspects save for its costume production and, much like the book, lacks consistency. Considering the source material, it isn’t a surprise the movie should fail as miserably. The general problem I found with both the book and, consequently, the movie, is that it does nothing to support  the suspension of disbelief: the plot holes are too great, the characters too ahistorical for a period drama and so stereotypical, the story is predictable regardless of its telenovelas-like twists and overall, break the mood. While the material could have given a very erotic book, playing on the repressive calvinist morals versus the obsessive sexual desires, the guilty pleasures of the lovers and the decadence of the sets (both literary and cinematic), it falls in between, aspiring to a historical accuracy without the proper research and also aspiring to the overtly “Harlequin steamy, sexy” modern interpretation of period romances, without truly committing to either of them. An unfortunate disappointment in both the reading and the watching of Tulip Fever and its adaptation.

[alekskollontai-blog]

Scavenger Hunt

Well this is my first writing on Tumblr: though it may be an obligatory writing on the university library, I still relish the opportunity to explore the tumblr medium!

So we as a class had to go and explore the university’ humanities library...not exactly the discovery of the century, I’ve been basically living there for the past 3 years doing research and whatnot, but still, a planned scavenger hunt might reveal a few hidden parts of the place I still hadn’t explore. I’d never had the need to rent out electronic or audio-visual material, I expected to have the opportunity to finally figure out where to to find the appropriate department for such rentals.

I was happy to find out that one of our challenges was indeed  to “rent out” a computer, which allowed me to finally see where I could borrow computers should I need to in the future. Same goes for the discovery of the location of the selection of dvds and blu-rays the library possesses (they are quite hidden on the second floor, not exactly the most obvious spot). While  the library resources are mostly really well identified and quite accessible, I did glimpse a new part of the book sanctuary I had not previously seen: the rare books collection. On the fourth floor lies all the most precious volumes the university possesses: one of which dates back to the 17th century!! It is all wrapped up in a very high tech looking glass vitrine and a bunch of serious looking librarians, but I’m sure they would allow curious undergraduates to manipulate the precious items.

Overall the scavenger hunt was a lot of fun and productive as we all got out with our very own BIC card for inter-university library rentals and a nice tour of all the library resources, books and otherwise. And if there is anything we haven’t seen, first floor helpdesk is only a few steps away!