I Refuse To Have A Title (my refusal leads to my capitulation and the society wins yet again) and Other Things

Dear Saturday,

I am writing a paper. Well, two papers but the other doesn’t know it is being written right now so we shall give it a surprise later on – we’ll surprise it into existence! Muahaha. Though I’m not certain why I’m using the royal “we” since I’m the only one who’ll be working on it. -_-

I tend to go a bit crazy during these difficult times when I have to use my head to do much more than cross the road. I have been reading about my research topic for a while now. I have been in the minds of these eminent scholars who are all much more intelligent than me (I wouldn’t be reading their works otherwise, hur) so I sort of have a handle on what my paper is going to do and what it wants to do and well, the words are there in my head. They are just crammed together and there are thesauruses involved and some dictionaries because sometimes I think I know a word but I don’t! Plus it’s academic writing so I need to be careful of the tone and it’s just so darned painful.

Why am I doing grad school when I dislike writing papers this much? We will not mention the T-word. That will appear in August. Anyway, so there has been a lot of:

These are ALL representative of my state of mind during this period. So I will be around sporadically and if you follow me on Twitter, you will see abrupt flashes of activity from me before I simply disappear and an ominous silence appears. I am a bit melodramatic, okay a lot. But I will persist and emerge the true victor of this particular hunger games. There may or may not be some crazy posts in store for you, dear Reader, but you enjoy it, admit it! My mind is a murky place with swashbuckling pirates and Legolas (because he has to live somewhere) and Richard Armitage( because it’s my head and I choose who lives there). But as I was saying, I will persevere and emerge victorious from these gloomy times of severe mental and physical distress.

The Girl Who Dreamed Only Geese: And Other Tales of the Far North – Howard Norman, Leo and Diane Dillon

Hardcover, 164 pages
Published September 1st 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Source: Library

Synopsis:
Based on decades of research and extended collaboration with Inuit storytellers, award-winning author Howard Norman’s masterful retellings of ten Inuit tales invite readers on a unique story–journey from Siberia and Alaska to the Canadian Arctic and Greenland. Dramatic illustrations inspired by stonecut art of the Inuit people capture the beauty and mystery of these stories as they carry us–sometimes laughing, sometimes crying–from village to village over taiga, tundra, snow plains, and the iceberg-filled sea.

Review:

I have never read any of the myths and legends of the Inuit people before so this was a wonderful discovery for me. What is also beautiful about this book apart from the stories contained within it, is the artwork that is truly spectacular. The stories themselves are gems, giving glimpses of a culture that is rich in folklore and mythology. My particular favourite was one where a seagull turns into human and has to contend with her gull uncles who want to take her back from her husband. Another favourite has giants and normal people existing in harmony and yet another gives a different perspective on Noah and his ark. All stories portray the relationship the people have with nature and vice versa. Some lessons are learned the hard way and others are not learned at all. The stories are not overtly morally driven but all of them give an invaluable glimpse at human nature and the weaknesses in this nature. I also noticed that women are represented as equals in the stories and though their roles are always domestic, they do not seem oppressed in any way. All in all, I enjoyed this book. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning about different cultures through the stories they tell and the tales they hold dear.