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Michaelmas is nearly halfway through. The trees are reluctant to shed their leaves. Though the temperature rises and falls the hours of daylight announce the deepening of autumn. On Saturday, on the river, I waited for my stroke and watched the geese, ducks, swans, gulls, the riverboats and their winsome crews. I saw Christ Church in the distance.

I have forgotten what I want this blog to be. As I become integrated into life here it’s more difficult to step aside, to romanticize and tie up. British customs have stopped seeming British and just seem expected. The blog was originally meant for book reviews, but I’m not reading enough books, at least the sort that I was practicing for. I have, however, just finished Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 trilogy. I suppose I’ll try to coalesce my thoughts on this in the next two or three days while writing on Chaucer (again) and taking tentative steps towards Milton. And I can’t help feeling that writing one’s opinions on dead authors is fraught with danger. You can’t hope to say anything new, only to add to the pile, another piece of paper in the huge repository of dead books and torn pages and loose broadsheets and there is an apocalyptic furnace.

This last paragraph is full of nots and can’ts. And this confessional tone is irksome. Perhaps this is just autumn melancholia.

Comments

Erin said…
Or Autumn euphoria. Miss you, friend.
October 31, 2011 at 7:20 PM
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