Textbook Money Complaint #3

I just spent $436 on textbooks. And that's not counting the $50 I'll have to spend next week when the three required books that weren't in stock come in.

This time, though, I can't complain too much about the cost of textbooks; most of my books are smaller paperbacks -- 6.00-15.00 a shot. But Native American Lit has a ton of books, as does the Tolkien class.

Still, I'm excited!

(no subject)

Here's an interesting article on Ron Moore's journey in producing the new Battlestar Galactica. Bugmenot account/password: freenyt95/nytimes

An excerpt:

Moore knew the original ''Battlestar,'' and after talking to Eick, he watched Larson's original three-hour pilot again. It surprised him. Here was a deeply somber story about a civilization that had basically endured genocide, and for the first hour it was elegantly told and strangely affecting. ''They were trying,'' he told me. ''It took a hard left turn to insanity when they reached the casino planet, but they were really trying.''

Tolkien Course Description

Because some might be interested:

English 190J: Tolkien: Lord of the Rings

This course is designed to acquaint students with J.R.R. Tolkien's critical and imaginative worldviews as a Beowulf and fantasy scholar as well as the more celebrated creator of Middle-earth. The class should satisfy students' need to discuss and analyze Tolkien's works and help them understand that the "popular fantasy writer" is ultimately overshadowed by -- or, better, lives side-by-side with--the profoundly universal artist who wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings trilogy. In this latter sense, the course justifies speaking of Tolkien in the same breath with canonical Modern British writers like James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and D.H. Lawrence. His narrative and dramatic structures, image patterns, thematics, and overall concern with language often compares with theirs, particularly in connection with the ethical and existential concerns of the wasteland myth.

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The department chair described Dr. Hennelly as one of those rare people who can one moment exist in the rarefied air of classical literature, and the next moment be jumping up and down over the release of the newest "Star Wars" movie. Sounds like my kind of professor -- just as Dr. Heather is adored because one moment he's lecturing us on linguistic concepts, and the next talking about being addicted to American Idol.