Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Mona Lisa


School:

There comes a time, every term, when I have this sense of waiting anxiously for the final papers to arrive while simultaneously dreading the many P’s I have to assign for plagiarized papers, the many redundancies I read, and the pure loss of focus that is common in most papers. However, almost every term, there are a few papers that make the time spent on the other 30-40 papers worth my while. This year was no exception. Some students still surprise me by their ability to interrogate theoretical articles and work them within the folds of their literary analyses. So gratitude goes here to those few students who have made the long task of correcting papers quite enjoyable. The highlights this year were those papers on J.K. Rowling, Paulo Coelho, and Tsitsi Dangarembga.

Mysteries:

All doubts about the identity of the Mona Lisa have been eliminated by a discovery by Dr. Armin Schlechter.” And once its mystery has been solved, its greatness is no wonder lessened. Why is it that we always need to find answers to problems only to discover that answering them takes all the magic out of life? Mysteries should remain mysteries. Otherwise, life would just be too dull.

And more mysteries:

Newspapers announced that Saturday exams are postponed till Tuesday. Since faculty members haven’t received any official word, I called to inquire, only to be informed that the director is in a meeting with the deans now (11 am today) to decide on it. We must be really technologically advanced when the newspaper, printed the night before, can predict the outcome of a meeting that was still ongoing during the day :)

10 comments:

Amethyst said...

I want to read the Paulo Coelho paper;(

I still find the Mona Lisa great. Did you know that she doesn't have eyebrows because it was the trend back in her days?

White Wings said...

i doubt that the mystery of the Mona Lisa will ever be resolved...new theories will always emerge about her identity and the skirt of her gaze :)
the play was amazing, i am going again tomorrow and dragging your brother...be there :)

Kaileena said...

"Why is it that we always need to find answers to problems only to discover that answering them takes all the magic out of life? Mysteries should remain mysteries. Otherwise, life would just be too dull."

So true

I love your blog! So glad I came across it! Your layout is the best layout I've seen so far!

Ms Loala said...

They started including Paulo Coelho? i'm impressed. I love that writer.

Hanan said...

amethyst. I might post it in my website as soon as I get the author's permission.

white wings. You're right. Loved the play.

kaileena. First time here? Welcome and thank you. Come again.

ms loala. Students include all kinds of literature. I agree with you. Some can be really impressive.

Hussain said...

actually the eyebrows disappeared because she was getting a 'facial'; they were cleaning the painting.

Coehlo is horrible, i see no reason why you should post a paper about his work on your website. His work, to quote you, has "many redundancies" and is "too dull" and "There comes a time" .. ma yenfa3 i quote that?

and we newspaper people rock/suck 8-)

Alia said...

Mona Lisa who?
Venus is way more prettier :)

Alia said...

Oh ,, & it wasn't the good papers that made u enjoyed your time.. it was the tons of chocolate bars laying on the table

Hanan said...

Hussain. I never said Coehlo's horrible. I just don't like excessive publicity. And his books are everywhere and often chosen for book clubs.
I'm liking 11 Minutes so far.

Alia. Bottocelli. Da Vinci. Those damn Florentines. they're all good.

Nymphadora said...

Lookin forward to reading the papers :) and i don't like Coelho that much, i too think that there is a lot of over publicity involved.

and i think that Mona Lisa is not that pretty at all. 7adha jamda :P