A Weekend in the Life
I read the news today, oh boy. Actually, I didn’t, as I was traveling most of the day. We just got home this evening from Beloit, Wisconsin, where it was Family Weekend at Beloit College. Our oldest is three months into his freshman year at the school, and given his relative silence since leaving home, we decided to investigate in person to see whether he was still breathing. (The answer: barely, thanks to a nasty cold virus that has had the poor boy in its grips the past two weeks, but now at least seems to be easing up).
While there, we visited the Beloit Farmers Market and loaded up our trunk with apples, cheese, bread, etc. We also visited the famous Logan Museum of Anthropology and the Wright Museum of Art on campus. The latter features a remarkable collection of plaster casts of classical Greek sculptures. They were sent by the Greek government to its pavilion at the 1893 Colombian Exposition here in Hyde Park, and Beloit College bought them up after the fair closed down. It reminded me of the Temple of Zeus at Cornell, a student coffeehouse decorated with Cornell’s own collection of plaster replicas, acquired about the same time as Beloit’s.
I’ve also managed finally to make my way into volume two of Murakami Haruki’s latest novel, 1Q84. It took forever for me to wade through the 550 pages of volume one, a sign to me at least that the work is not one of his best. I’m also currently reading Dennis Washburn’s translation of Yokomitsu Riichi’s 1929 novel, Shanghai, as well as Julia Kristeva’s Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, both for my graduate seminar.
Can it be that tomorrow is already Monday?
