So, I had all these plans about what would happen during this break, and some of those plans have happened, and others of them, well, they have not. I was thrown a curve-ball by a nasty cold involving (this is gross, just skip to the next paragraph if you are a delicate flower) a great deal of mucus. Gross. And inconvenient.
I am a little concerned about the way that writing has fallen by the wayside, but it’s really hard to write when you’ve got a head-cold. Because, you know, writing involves needing your head to be in the right place. (You might want to note at this point that what I’m doing – in between blowing my nose and whining – right at this very moment is writing. But this isn’t real writing, in the sense of needing to think terribly hard. It’s just one long complaint. It seems that is all I can manage with a head-cold.)
So, while I’ve not been writing, I have been doing some other things that are worthwhile. I’ve gotten the letters of reference that I owed to students done, I’ve finished two books – the David Foster Wallace biography (not terribly illuminating, but I did enjoy reading about his friendship with Jonathan Franzen) and Gone Girl (FUN FUN FUN!!!!) – and I’m nearly done rereading and annotating The Marriage Plot, which I’ll be teaching for the first time this spring.
I’ve also been doing a lot of thinking about the shape of the book, and about how the whole thing works as a complete document, as opposed to thinking just about the parts of the book, and this is work that I’ve needed to do, and frankly it’s not work that is easy to do when you don’t have a big block of unstructured time. And so I’m trying to be kind to myself about the lack of words getting written, because I can definitely write words during the academic semester, but I can’t really do the kind of deep and wandering thinking that I’ve been doing (while in an over-the-counter-drug haze) when I’m also doing teaching and all the other day-to-day commitments of the semester.
And I also need to be grateful for the fact that I am not at MLA (even though I’m jealous of everybody who is at MLA) this year, because having all this time is a direct consequence of the fact that I’m not there. And also: how much would it suck to have this cold and to do MLA at the same time? Totally.
Another thing I’ve accomplished this week is that I made tons of appointments – doctors, dentist, vet, car. By the by: it seems this is a great time of year to make such appointments, as I’ve been able to get all of these scheduled for within the next two weeks, which I feel like is wonderful. Something I really hate is making appointments. I also hate having to go to them, but it’s the making of them that is really my biggest problem.
So, the plan for today is that I’m going to try to buckle down and do a good deal of writing, work out (as I am feeling a bit better and I can at least go for a walk or something), continue to rest up and take care of my evil cold, and do some laundry and stuff around the house. Will I be able to do all of those things? We shall see. I feel hopeful, given that I did wake up at 5:30 this morning with energy and have already accomplished more today than I’ve accomplished in the past two days.
Reassigned Time 2.0 
What did you think of The Marriage Plot? I just read it this past summer, and I thought it was a fun read but ultimately a failure as a novel of its genre. (Which elite college-educated men and women in the 1980s were getting married right out of college? Exactly none.) I’m interested to hear that you’re teaching it, and would like to hear more about the role you expect it to play in your course & what you want to teach your students about & with it.
Aside from the obviously poor fit of the marriage plot in its chosen time & place, my husband, brother-in-law (Brown ’90), and I all agree that it’s a precise evocation of what college was like in the 1980s. That part of the novel was closely observed and very well done. Also: we totally don’t buy Eugenides’s denials that the Leonard character isn’t David Foster Wallace. The character is clearly based on DFW.
Hey, hope you’re feeling better. I have also had the mucus affliction.
May I ask in what context you’re teaching The Marriage Plot? I read it last spring, I think, based on your rec, and thought it a hoot.
I too hate making appointments. What’s the about. I agree with Historiann about The Marriage Plot. The details are present and memorable but it somehow fails to say anything much about the end of the world, or, at least, the end of an era.
Glad to hear you’re better. I, too, hate making appointments, so there are at least three of us. I have not read The Marriage Plot, but pace Historiann, at a large and prestigious western-state flagship in 1986, home to more Nobel prize-winners than many countries, a lot of women were planning to marry as soon as they graduated—mostly to students from the professional schools (dentistry, law) as far as I could figure out—and this caused considerable anxiety to those of us who had no serious marriage prospects (even when we wanted other things: the interaction between ambition and the traditional expectations for women is a complex and painful thing). But maybe H. really meant “elite college,” as in Vassar or Oberlin, rather than prestigious university. Probably I should shut up till I read the book.
Oh I’m right there with you sister! I feel like I’m in one of those Mucinex commercials! It’s gross and nasty over here. I’m tired of the smell of Vicks, and if I have to blow my nose one more time, I’m going to scream, but I guess I’m glad to be able to blow it at all. I hope you feel better soon! And yay to getting your appointments made! I wish I still had another week or two off though. But at least I’m able to get some reading done today.
Ok, about The Marriage Plot. I think that it’s genius, and far from a failure (I honestly think it’s probably one of the best books of the past 10 years, in terms of what it accomplishes narratively). Here’s the thing: The novel is an *attack* on the marriage plot as perhaps the dominant convention of the novel – particularly the 19th century novel, but not even many 20th century authors do away with it altogether. Also: I would argue that what we’re seeing in 21st century fiction is not, in fact, “realism” even if it looks like realism, and there is a critical interrogation of the ability for narrative – even narrative that is accessible and seemingly “realistic” – to capture experience directly. (This is also a huge question in Middlesex, so I think it makes sense that the question continues into TMP.)
And this gets to the second point: is Eugenides disingenuous when he says that Leonard “isn’t” DFW? I honestly don’t think so. Because here’s the thing: the only way that we can think that Leonard “is” DFW is if we believe that the defining feature of DFW’s character – and of Leonard’s character – is bipolar disorder (in both cases I would resist that assertion) – and if we believe that all dudes with bipolar disorder who wear bandanas with ponytails and shorts “are” DFW. Further: in order to believe that, we would have to believe that nothing transformative happens between experiential inspiration (so, say, meeting somebody like DFW) and creating a character in literature. I would say that the overarching *problem* that concerns The Marriage Plot is the danger in using texts (for Madeleine, novels and literary theory, for Leonard, science, for Mitchell, religious texts and traditions) as a guide to living one’s own life. Each of these characters ultimately fails to find a map for living in the stuff that they read. Further (I think) the novel indicates that reading or writing (and this is where Eugenides’ critique of realism comes in) with “identification” as the goal is lazy and ultimately does great harm to the potential for literature to make meaning and particularly to make *new kinds of meaning* and to explore *new kinds of characters and relationships*.
I’m teaching the class in a sophomore gen ed class that I don’t want to say a *whole* lot about because it’s brand new and because I am crossing my fingers that I’m going to get a grant related to it and I don’t want to jinx that. Suffice it to say that the class explores a theme that is central to TMP, and other texts in the course include plays (such as Othello), poetry (such as Pope’s Eloisa to Abelard and sonnets), and other novels (such as Zadie Smith’s On Beauty). I am super stoked to teach it, even though it promises to kick not only my ass but also my students’ asses.
Sounds like an interesting novel. Is it a quick read?
And gladde you are feeling better! Did your boyfriend come over with chicken soup?
CPP – I do think it’s a quick read, and I would be interested to see what you think about it. And while my boyfriend offered, I really was able to handle my mucas on my own 🙂 (That said, it was nice that he asked if there was anything I needed.)
Ok. Reading it on my iPad now.
I’m a third of the way through, and the book is very entertaining so far!
I have to admit I cheered when Leonard starting dropping his lithium dose, although it was obviously not going to work out well in the longer term.
Oh, shit. I wish Madeleine hadn’t married Leonard.
Well, I was very glad that Leonard manned up and decided to deal with his issues on his own, rather than make Madeleine his caretaker forever.
I though it was a very entertaining novel, and the characters were very interesting. Madeleine’s parents were fucken hilarious.
Oh, Alton and Phyllida! Fucken hilarious, indeed! I’m glad you liked it, CPP, and I enjoyed your running commentary. And for what it’s worth, I think that the point of the whole novel is distilled in Mitchell’s “proposal” at the end, and also in Madeleine’s “yes,” which, of course, we know what famous novel ends with a female character M who was married to a husband L affirming “yes” – which is an AWESOME fuck you to that most important of 20th-century novels 🙂
Wut?
I had great plans but first had a cold and then a major, but major parental geriatric crisis. I am pleased to report that my estranged brother, who also lives over 2K miles from them and 1K from me, stepped up to the plate and so did the MD and a social worker, so things are much better now and arguably reorganized for the future, but I have been quite worried about neither really playing nor really working and the effects this could have (has had in the past). But oddly today, my mind cleared and kicked into gear !!! So happy new year and here’s to a good semester!
Dr. Crazy–thanks for your explanation. Your way of understanding the novel is very different and I think way smarter than mine! How differently we read b/c of our different disciplines. (But also, I think my read of it was narcissistic in many ways because I was in college in the 1980s, and couldn’t help but compare the experiences of the main characters to mine.)
Love your point about the failure of texts as a guide to life. Very smart. But I still think that it’s manipulative for Eugenides to deny that the Leonard character wasn’t inspired in many ways by DFW. I abs. get your point that Leonard is a character playing a particular role in a text, but he could also be that if Eugenides acknowledged that of course novelists draw on their own experiences & observations about people in their own lives.
Finally, I would like to hear how your students respond to the novel & your analysis. I wonder if they will identify with it & the characters as college students (for the most part), or if it might as well have been set in the 1880s instead of the 1980s, so distant does it seem from their experiences.
(Also, tell me what they think about the technology described in the book and the characters’ interaction with it: Madeline stays in one night to await a telephone call from Leonard! She brings a typewriter to school! These phenomena are unimaginable now. Like I said, maybe more like the 1880s for college students today.)
Like I said, maybe more like the 1880s for college students today.
Way to make me feel fucken olde! And I didn’t even bring a typewriter: I brought an Apple II.