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alt_sinistraJust a reminder that I’ll be up on the tower from six to half-eight or so for those doing their observations of the Draconids. The weather looks a little iffy, but I think we should have a brief run of clear skies in there. Tomorrow, I'll be up for my usual seven to nine office hours.
7ths years: just a reminder that your final project proposals are due on Thursday. Tonight or tomorrow would be a good time for last questions.
1st years: I’ve had several questions about your essays. Don’t worry: these early assignments are designed to give you a feel for my expectations, and give me a sense of where to focus our attention. We’ll be talking further in class about both, and you’ll get detailed notes as well.
7ths years: just a reminder that your final project proposals are due on Thursday. Tonight or tomorrow would be a good time for last questions.
1st years: I’ve had several questions about your essays. Don’t worry: these early assignments are designed to give you a feel for my expectations, and give me a sense of where to focus our attention. We’ll be talking further in class about both, and you’ll get detailed notes as well.
Private message to Antosha
Date: 2012-10-07 09:12 pm (UTC)(Taking the more certain form of address for the message for the moment: the journals are mysterious that way. Also, yes, still a little nervous about what others will think there.)
You doing all right today? Sorry not to make it to lunch, but - well. I slept in, and then we had Harry up for tea and conversation for a good bit of the afternoon. (Mostly Quidditch, which I am cheerfully obliging about.) But if you need something, do ask, and I’m glad to help.
As above, will be up on the tower for a while, but otherwise expect to be in Raz’s rooms, settling in with a few of the books you lent me. I’m only a few pages into the theory and already have questions. To start, I’d no real idea there were so many different theories on what makes binding charms - and blood ones, in particular - work as they do. Aren’t we back to that discussion of intention and forcing the universe to your will and wild magics again, somehow? (And yes, after seeing it yesterday, I would be most interested in learning more about that warding.)
And I am not forgetting my promise to get the actual data I mentioned to you - I just need to draft it properly into a form that will make sense to someone outside the family, which, well. Not happening today, as I’d rather be down with Raz while I can, and it’d be easier to spread out my notes in my office. There are, in fact, things that distract me from research.
Also have something I think I want to loan you sooner than later - a mystery novel, but I’d need to explain why and the background.
Yours, buried in books
Auri
Re: Private message to Antosha
Date: 2012-10-07 09:49 pm (UTC)Doing well enough, though every muscle in my body is reminding me I am not as young as I used to be. I did not make it to lunch, either; I am lazing about. (And building quite the nest of books in bed with me, fact-checking the lecture for the theoretical classes this week -- we are covering how wizarding thought on the Arts changed in reaction to Christian influence, from the First Council of Nicaea to the Protestant schism, and that's quite a lot of material to shove into a single hour. If only I could rely on Binns to convey the essentials ... ah, but that's a rant for another evening.)
How is Raz feeling? He said a few things earlier in message that made me fret a bit; save your care-taking for that direction, really. I don't need much more than some extra sleep and some heat and gentle stretching.
There is no rush on the data; we are both well swamped with intellectual hares to flush from cover. As for the variety of mechanisms on binding magics -- fascinating, is it not? No one is entirely certain how half the subtleties work; there have been dozens of contradicting interpretations advanced throughout the years, and though half of them have been disproven, the other half are still quite plausible. I like to think those are one of the categories of magic that tap into an older, deeper magic, one more numinous than the settled and tamed forms we practise more regularly. Would be happy to discuss at future date. (And, yes, teach you about the warding as well -- impressive, isn't it? Much of my mother's magic reads so to Western eyes. And is responsible for my touch of mysticism, one supposes, as the line between 'prayer' and 'magic' is much more blurred.)
My love to Razzer, and thanks once again to you both for your help in making my point,
T
Re: Private message to Antosha
Date: 2012-10-07 10:25 pm (UTC)There's nothing like lazing in bed with books, is there? (Though - are you the sort of person who does lecture notes? I'd love to skim them. What I know about that era of history could fit into a small pamphlet. Or, I suppose, more excuse for you to send me away with bags of books. Not a complaint, in the least.)
As to Raz. Last night, the thrill of the thing carried him - us - through. Today, well. He's been quietly not admitting to a headache coming on, but I'll be down again in a few hours to check and be handy. (Also, frankly, I'd rather not sleep alone tonight.)
You are, frankly, a more amiable target for my care-taking than he is, and I know full well nagging at him won't help. Nor will hovering, fretting, fussing, or asking him to be forthcoming. We manage - and truly, this isn't as bad as it might be, from external observation, before you worry. He's being sensible about it. And we did have a quiet but pleasant afternoon before that, so that's good. (Though, clearly, I should buy into a part share of that bakery: I fully expect to be placing a regular order now.)
I'm finding the arguments about the theories almost as fascinating as the theories themselves. Part of me just wants to read more, and the other part wants to cross-reference who's relying on whom, and who's agreeing with what, and who's using which theories to support their theories. It's all rather glorious condensed knowledge, isn't it?
I do think you're on to something - well, you usually are - with the more numinous magic. You do hear the stories, from time to time, of people whose bindings affect them in unexpected ways, both good and bad. And I admit, without the examples of my family in front of me, I'd be more nervous about that.
Auri
Re: Private message to Antosha
Date: 2012-10-07 11:10 pm (UTC)My lecture notes thus far have been a collection of disorganised scribbles, with mysterious and cryptic notes-to-self in the margins, but I have been meaning to be more diligent; in developing the broad outlines of the theoretical class's trajectory it has occurred to me there are the seeds of an excellent reference text in there. (As though I need more projects!) At very least I will deliver you the lecture whenever you'd like; with you I can no doubt move faster than I can with the little darlings. And, yes, my library is yours. (Though it may take you longer to learn my organisational methods than it will take you to read the books; my filing system is, as I believe I mentioned, idiosyncratic.)
And yes, the ways and ways in which bindings (of all sorts, not just marriage-bonds) can spill over and influence one have never failed to fascinate me. I do not mean to elbow into your research project, mind you, but would love the chance to contribute. The more I think about it, the more I think I have a few other texts on hand that might contain useful information -- there is something nagging at me that I cannot place my finger on, but when I've a spare afternoon I will toss the library and see if I can find it.
Meanwhile, for the headaches -- has he (or you) tried massaging the spot just behind the ears where skull meets neck? And how are you, dearest?
Yours,
T
Re: Private message to Antosha
Date: 2012-10-07 11:35 pm (UTC)Well, you needed something to occupy your summer, surely? (Actually, so will I, I suppose, given that it will no longer be filled with YPL work. I'm entirely not sure what to do with myself, and my current project will only carry me so far. This, however, is why one goes to one's guild meetings and looks interested at upcoming project proposals. Though on the other hand, I don't want to be away that long pleasant as the country Guild Hall is.)
More seriously, I'd love to hear the lecture. It's rather a gap in my own sense of history: I'm good through the Greeks and Romans, and later Egypt - well Alexandria at its height, mostly - but then there's rather a gap until about the 1200s. And you needn't ask twice if I'm interested in your books: I will soak up all of your system I can.
I'm meeting with Poppy - and maybe Irma - on Wednesday, and I'll see about finessing some further conversation. At the very least, I'd love to consult with you separately: they are both very good at their fields (and Irma is very much a generalist when it comes to scope of knowledge, if not practice.) But more eyes are more useful, really.
As to Raz - that would involve him admitting when he has a headache, which is usually the difficult part. (A good half the time, he ducks me seeing him at all, in the hopes I won't spot it. Not that that's not fairly easy with our schedules as they are, much of the week.) But if he's still awake when I come back down (I make it about even odds he won't be), I'll see what he thinks about a backrub.
Me? Well.
Poppy asked. And I had no idea what to tell her. Well enough. I woke up, about three in the morning, and was awake until near dawn. (This is what I can tell, when I've the right projection overhead.) Not bad, not nightmares or anything. Just thinking.
A.
Re: Private message to Antosha
Date: 2012-10-08 12:16 am (UTC)I note that was not, precisely, an answer. Any particular sort of thought, or just the sort that occupies one at three in the morning? (You needn't answer if it's the sort of thing that needs a bit more thinking upon before maturing, of course. Or if it's best held private.)
As for the rest -- I am at your disposal. And yes, I suppose I do need something to occupy my summer -- though I had assumed Our Lord would have some task to occupy me. We shall see!
And Mr Marvolo has messaged me asking about our tactics, so I shall go be professorial.
Yours,
T
Re: Private message to Antosha
Date: 2012-10-08 12:47 am (UTC)Fixed stars. I... No, better to talk through it a bit.
Let me frame it this way. Imagine a hypothetical trashy romance novel, if you will. Certain known character types. Dashing - and skillful -
hergentleman, somewhat battered from previous wars. A woman past the first bloom of springtime youth, apparently cut from the 'clever and bookish' heroine mold. Various secondary characters: siblings and friends and that cast of faces designed to allow the author to share some necessary piece of plot.He and she fall - through chances of fate and choice - into each other's spheres. There are the usual challenges, the ups and downs. Some do not think her worthy of him. Some think he has not settled from the rakish behaviour of his past. It changes friendships, some, for both of them.
And then, one day, there is a duel. (I suppose this must be one of those Napoleonic era romances. Surely not medieval.) She watches. And she is taken, all of a sudden, with a sense of this gentleman that is both a surprise and not a surprise. Seeing him in a new light, as it were, that fierceness and sureness and what is hiding beneath the surface.
Something far older, far more primal - well, that is the nature of good romance novels, even the trashy ones. To play with the layers of human interaction and reveal and obscure them in turn. To illuminate desire and choice and action, all at once.
It is not a bad thing, this discovery. And it is not even unexpected by our heroine - well, she reads romance novels, and she knows enough of the reality that seeds them. (For she truly is no young and inexperienced maiden.) But it is a thing to think about, when one finds oneself the morning after the climax of the novel, more sure than ever that the happily ever after is, in fact, a well-rounded goal.
There. Is that explanatory enough without being too indelicate and personal? As I said. Thinking. Though now I think I might have a way to talk about it with Poppy on Wednesday, so thank you. (And on the whole, I would rather find I am living in a romance novel than in most other genres. So I suppose there's that.)
A, thoughtful.
Re: Private message to Antosha
Date: 2012-10-08 03:16 am (UTC)There; have now provided Mr Marvolo with perhaps more detail than he was expecting in answer to his entirely perceptive and insightful question, tidied up a few more loose ends of correspondence, and am once more at your disposal.
On my mind, as I prepare my lecture on history that must, by its very nature, touch some on what the people of the time believed, and motivated by the central theological question of the age: the first line of the Gospel according to John, as we have received it handed down to us: ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος. Rendered most often in English since the days of King John's translators as "in the beginning was the Word", but the word used in Greek for 'Word' is, to my ear, best rendered not as 'word' but as Story, in Platonic form. After all, what is history but understanding the stories each group of people have told themselves? A little bit of narrative awareness can go quite a long way in one's life. To be human is to be a storytelling animal, searching for meaning and pattern amongst a sea of interconnected events. The question of individual stories is subsumed in the nature of Story, and we are left to try to find meaning in the pages of our lives.
As we are speaking hypothetically and literarily, I suppose the questions we readers (those of us who are so drawn to stories) must ask include whether our heroine is much surprised by her revelations, and whether her realisations are supported by the text. And if they are -- which I believe them to be -- then the nature of Story must dictate they were there all along, and she was simply not conscious of the hallmarks and harbingers she was seeing.
Does that help you, in your deconstruction of the text? It is an ancient enough story, and one that has been told thousands of times before -- but of course, each iteration has the capacity to be young again, and new.
Philosophically,
T
Re: Private message to Antosha
Date: 2012-10-08 04:12 am (UTC)Goodness. That... Yes. (And before you ask, Raz has been asleep some time, I have been curled up on his couch reading your books, and I am going to go join him once I finish this. You should find your rest as well, if you have not already: this is certainly no crisis, and can keep. Promise. Do please, tell me if I ever presume too much on your time or energy.)
Is this not why working in the original tongue is so powerful? That one loses - well, in my set of symbols and metaphors, I talk about how we lose sight of the cosmos, if we look only at a piece of it, through a lens.
And I mean that very much in the original Greek sense of the word: I've a lengthy lecture of my own on that topic. That our universe is a vast complicated toy - a thing of sheer delight - we can examine, a model of order and connection that meet and dance in all manner of amazing ways. That it lives and breathes and changes, and is not static and locked and stagnant. Look only at the pieces, and nothing makes sense. Ahem. I will stop now, or I'll be here all night.
That question of meaning, too. I am beginning to come to a theory of weddings as stories people tell about their lives, and the expectations of stories that other people want to see from one. (Ask me again in, oh, six months to the day, and I expect it will be a far better developed thesis.)
Back to our hypothetical novel, I think. You are quite right that each iteration has the chance to be new again. But the deconstruction I am struggling with - heroine watches masterful gentleman and her love and interest is expanded - is a struggle not for what is revealed about him, but what it reveals to the heroine about herself. (Apparently, Our Author has been setting up the denouement adequately and placing hints of what will come sufficiently through the text. All hail The Sensible Author.)
In short, our heroine is surprised that she - having been the bookish and clever type - was quite as moved by the display of prowess as she was. Not upset in the slightest, mind you. Pleased. Delighted. Reassured, even, in some ways. But with rather a sense of .. oh, back to my thesis about stories and weddings. People want to make one into symbols that suit their own stories, and this one is rather a cliche.
And so our heroine finds herself remarkably contented - for yes, delighted and pleased, and the gentleman is very fine indeed. But also a tad discombobulated. It will settle eventually, I am sure, but it - back to our conversation about the point at which one can or cannot avoid thinking about things - raises new thoughts that cannot readily be ignored. Pieces of one's own cosmos to which insufficient study has been given.
Though this conversation has helped rather a lot, so thank you. Your willing companion in philosophy,
A.
Private message to Poppy and Pomona
Date: 2012-10-07 09:26 pm (UTC)We had a couple of brief bobbles while it was going on - but nothing that seemed like it needed much more than a few deep breaths and some reassurance or I’d have written earlier. And some conversation after, up in my office, but much the same.
Poppy: tea, sometime this week? Monday or Wednesday, between three and supper? I don’t know if Irma’s had time to dig through her archives yet, but talking with both of you about that is also on my list of things to schedule. Tosha’s lent me some fascinating reading - related - though I’ve only dipped my toe in so far.
Re: Private message to Poppy and Pomona
Date: 2012-10-07 09:49 pm (UTC)Unless. I can't tell from your message, but it almost seems as if something might have gone amiss? I'm certainly available to lend an ear if that would help. No need to wait until Wednesday, particularly if that's to be with Irma, as well.
Re: Private message to Poppy and Pomona
Date: 2012-10-07 10:05 pm (UTC)Wednesday's fine. Can you ask if Irma's free? If she's not, time with you would be lovely. Always is.
Re: Private message to Poppy and Pomona
Date: 2012-10-07 10:59 pm (UTC)Be well, dear.
Private message to Harry Marvolo
Date: 2012-10-07 09:40 pm (UTC)I enjoyed this afternoon. Definitely up for doing that again, with or without Draco, if you like.
(And tell me sometime which of the pastries you liked most? For future occasions.)
Re: Private message to Harry Marvolo
Date: 2012-10-07 11:02 pm (UTC)And yeah, the pumpkin ones were definitely good. And the cinnamon ones too.
Re: Private message to Harry Marvolo
Date: 2012-10-07 11:10 pm (UTC)Don't worry, please.