Month: April 2017

Class Reports: ENGL 1302, Sections 02 and 03–5 April 2017

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After treating concerns from the last class meeting and before, discussion asked after progress on the PrEss. It then returned to Sir Thomas Malory and assigned readings before adjourning in favor of a quiz.

Students are reminded of the following due dates:

  • PrEss FV (online before class begins on 12 April 2017)
  • ChEss RV (online before class begins on 24 April 2017)
  • ChEss FV (online before class begins on 5 May 2017)

Information about other assignments remains in development.

Section 02 met as scheduled, at 1000, in Weir 111. The class roster listed 14 students enrolled, unchanged since the last class meeting. Thirteen attended, verified through the quiz. Student participation was reasonably good. Three students from the class attended office hours since the previous class meeting.

Section 03 met as scheduled, at 1100, in Weir 111. The class roster listed 16 students enrolled, unchanged since the last class meeting. Thirteen attended, verified through the quiz. Student participation was good. Two students from the class attended office hours since the previous class meeting.

Points of Departure, Chapter 16

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Continued from the previous chapter, here.

𝔗he Lord Deleiere looked at the green-clad man and the mail-clad man who sat before him, pondering the refusal of the former to lay out his purposes just moments previously. The green-clad man returned the gaze coolly, his face bland and relaxed. The mail-clad man, though, grew tense at Deleiere’s regard, thinking that he might once again have to come to the defense of the man in green–and that the strange healings he had experienced either might or might not prove efficacious again. For they had been peculiar, and the one had happened when he was unaware of it, and such oddness can be fleeting, indeed.

At length, the master of the house spoke. “Would that I could accept on the face of it the word you have spoken, traveler,” said he. “But you have not named yourself to me, and you are not known to me, and I cannot say in faith that I have discharged my office if I let matters pass as they currently stand. So I must ask you again what the business is that you are about, or else to be shown some token of faith that I may trust and therefore trust in the one who bears it. Otherwise, I cannot take the risk with the lands and people of my lord, and I shall have to ask you to depart in haste, lord though you yourself might well be.”

The green-clad man stood suddenly and advanced towards the Lord Deleiere, looking him full in the face as he did. The mail-clad man rose, as well, readying himself for a fight he was sure would come–for he knew there were guardsmen about, and no guard could readily see such an advance and not act in turn. For his part, the master of the place rose and made ready to fight, as well, but he stopped suddenly, and his hand lowered slowly to his side. After a moment, his face relaxed, as well, and he quietly resumed his seat. The green-clad man returned to his own in turn, and the mail-clad man was left standing, confused at what he had just seen. But he did not stand long, only glancing around to see that no other threat sought to present itself, and, when comforted that none arose, he resumed his seat.

As he did so, the Lord Deleiere continued, although his voice was somewhat changed as he said “Of course you are welcome to stay here so long as you might like. Indeed, we hope that you will participate in the festival that we will be having that celebrates the founding of our town. It is not often that we have such guests as you with us at any time, much less on the day when we commemorate the town’s founding by royal charter. For we do, indeed, have such a charter, so that while we are governed by Sir Falias in the name of the king, we owe fealty to no lords else. But we do have requirements for being a person of the town, to be sure. A person has to be born here to parents who were born here, or else appointed to the town by the royal governor–and Sir Falias has been chary of making such appointments, for which we praise him. I think he would offer such to you, did you want such things, but I know that you do not, for you have business elsewhere, as you say.”

The green-clad man nodded. “We do, but we will stay for the festival. It is good to see people in joy together, and we would partake in it if we may. When will it be?”

“Within five days. Preparations are still underway, but the day is coming, as the priest says who keeps the calendar. The church stood when this place was a village only and beholden to a most foul lord who had usurped it unjustly. The records the priests have kept for long attest to such matters–which is another thing we have to celebrate in this town. For many places have not such memory, kept inviolate in writing, and their sense of who and what they are is changeable as the seasons. We remember because we are given words to look upon again and again, if we will, and so we remain as we have been, honored by kings and by the God who has emplaced them. And for it we are grateful in great measure.”

“As you should be. But for now,” and the green-clad man stood, followed by the knight and shortly by Deleiere, “we would rest, for the journey has been long so far. And then we would see what manner of place this town is, and why it has so much to celebrate these five days to come.” Deleiere nodded to the request, and it was not long before the green-clad man and the mail-clad were led to chambers in the house that were richly appointed and comfortable for so small a town.

The mail-clad man commented to that effect, and the green-clad man replied “It is a part of town life that there is wealth in it. Because the people are free, they have not the taxes to the lord and to the king to pay, so more of what they have is their own. Too, because they are free, they tend to benefit from trade, even in so small a town as this–but you will note how many people are in it and how many come through it, or did you not note the numbers of wagons of diverse types in the town as we entered? For they have come from different places, and they will to them return, but their goods and moneys may well not. And the commons, like the noble, will spend their wealth on such comforts as are available to them. It is a truth that most will do so without thought to the future, which has not seldom been to my benefit–and now to yours.”

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Class Reports: ENGL 1302, Sections 02 and 03–3 April 2017

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After treating concerns from the last class meeting and before, including PrEss RV scoring and related issues, discussion asked after progress on the PrEss. It then returned to Sir Thomas Malory and assigned readings.

Students are reminded of the following due dates:

  • PrEss FV (online before class begins on 12 April 2017)
  • ChEss RV (online before class begins on 24 April 2017)
  • ChEss FV (online before class begins on 5 May 2017)

Information about other assignments remains in development.

Section 02 met as scheduled, at 1000, in Weir 111. The class roster listed 14 students enrolled, unchanged since the last class meeting. Twelve attended, verified informally. Student participation was reasonably good. Two students from the class attended office hours since the previous class meeting.

Section 03 met as scheduled, at 1100, in Weir 111. The class roster listed 16 students enrolled, a decline of two since the last class meeting. Fifteen attended, verified informally. Student participation was somewhat restrained. One student from the class attended office hours since the previous class meeting.

Points of Departure, Chapter 15

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Continued from the previous chapter, here.

𝔗he mail-clad man followed the green-clad man into a town east of the woods. When they arrived, they found it gaily bedecked, as if for a festival. Banners in many colors hung from the many buildings, particularly from those of stone in the midst of the town–a church, a house for a nobleman of some rank, a tavern, and a pavilion that had been turned into a market. People were in the streets, and there was a joy about their movements that moved the mail-clad man to smile as he followed the green-clad man through the throng towards the noble house.

In front of the house, the two were soon greeted by a guard at its door. He hailed them, saying “Travelers, the peace of the Lord be with you! What brings you to the doors of the Lord Deleiere? For he is happy to greet visitors to the town he holds in charge, but he meets with ire those who would harm his people or their homes.”

The green-clad man nodded his head slightly. “We are but travelers, as you see, who are headed towards the town that has been called Anderitum. We trade in no wares and, although my companion is armed, it is only because there are perils on the roads. We thought but to pay our respects to the master of the lands through which we proceed–although now that we see there is revelry to be made, we would perhaps be happy to stay, if we may. For joy found un-looked-for is doubly pleasing, and we would hope to be happy with you and your folk.”

The guard made reply, saying “I know of no reason why you would not be welcome to celebrate with us, for we soon commemorate the founding of the town. If you stay, you will hear the story of it, to be sure, and many times. But you seem to be richly kept and of no mean rank, so I am sure the Lord Deleiere will be happy to speak with you. If you are travelers, you will have news, and he will be happy to hear it, I’ve no doubt. We but await word from within the home that you are to be admitted.”

The word soon came, and a groom took the horses the mail-clad man and the green-clad he followed, while a servitor took the men into the home. There, they were offered food and drink. The mail-clad man refused, for though his penance was nearly done, it was not fully accomplished as yet, but the green-clad man partook in even measure. They were also offered the chance to wash the dust of the roads from their faces and hands, and that did the mail-clad man do as well as the green-clad. And when these things were done, they were taken to the chamber where the Lord Deleiere sat, and he stood to greet them. When he did, the mail-clad man bowed and the green-clad man nodded, and the lord of the home bade them welcome and had chairs set for them before him.

When the two had seated themselves, Deleiere asked them whence they had come and what they had seen, for he was eager to hear of the world outside his town and its lands, as his duties to his own lord–Sir Falias, who had fought well in years past but could ride no more for an arrow wound through his knee–constrained him thereto. The green-clad man readily assented, and he spun out the tale of their travels together, relaying much of what had happened since the battle between kings from which he had saved the mail-clad man. He said that he had done so, salving such wounds as the knight had there suffered and leading him eastward from the battle. He spoke of the Lady Maelis and their calling upon her, as well as of the town before and the stop in the woods. He said also that the knight had fought valiantly under the trees to defend him, although he said nothing of the wounds that had been taken and mysteriously healed, and he spoke of merchants and other travelers on the roads they had followed, carrying news of the new king.

To all this, the lord replied “News had reached us that a new king had taken the throne with approval of the Church and thus of God on high. Sir Falias no doubt sent a missive with his congratulations to the new king and his oath of fealty renewed to the Crown–and if he is so sworn, then those who are sworn to his service are so sworn, as well. Yet it seems to me that if you are so mighty a healer as to redeem the wounds a man suffered in so grave and hard a battle as I have heard that between the two kings must have been, my own lord Sir Falias will want to see you. The wound through his knee pains him greatly each day, and he sorrows that he cannot ride for the hurt of it. Indeed, walking is a torment to him, though he still forces himself to stride about his home and much of his holdings. But if it were the case that you could do him service of healing, I am certain he would hold himself in your debt and greatly, and the favor of a lord is no small thing.”

The green-clad man said in reply “I will consider your words, for it is as you say, that the favor of a lord is no small thing. But no healing is certain that mortal hands can render. And there are other concerns I have of which I may not speak, save to say that they take me to Anderitum and the knight here with me. They will not work to the harm of your lord or you, but they are not matters I may set aside for any cause.”

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Another Office Piece

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I have several times written about the spaces I have occupied in my years of teaching. Most of them–“Sample Profile: Morrill 411,” “Sample Descriptive Essay: Filling Weir 209,” “Sample Illustrative Definition Essay: Official Averages,” and “Sample Comparison/Contrast Essay: Officially Better”–have been on one blog or another that I have maintained in support of my teaching and other activities. That one of them was published in a major journal–“Where Writes Me”–is something of a coup. Throughout them all, though, there is a concern with the space where I do my work, and not only my work as a classroom instructor. The work I do as an academic researcher, as a scholar of the humanities, also takes place in my assigned office spaces, shaping them and reflecting them. Where I work, then, is of some importance to me. With my relocation to yet another office space, then, it makes sense that I would write about the new space, taking an opportunity to reflect yet again on how where I work influences the work I do–and how the work I do influences where I work.

The space I currently occupy at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas, is AC Schreiner 207, a room in one of the older buildings on campus previously occupied by a member of the part-time history faculty. Early on in its history, the building was a dormitory, and the room, measuring a bit more than 9 feet by 13 with a smallish closet, shows that history. Reaching it requires entering the one door to the building–and there really is only one–climbing a flight of stairs, and walking all the way down a narrow hallway with creaky floors; my office is on the left. It is a corner office, with windows on two sides; I typically take advantage of the natural light I am afforded by the roughly northern and western facings of those windows, keeping the overhead fluorescent light off.

For the most part, it is a plain office, with neutral walls and grayish trim. The carpet is commercial grade in a red and brown mix common to the building–although I have an area rug left behind by a previous occupant. Several file cabinets were also left behind; two of them are used to form a table, while another stands more or less empty in the corner, propping up a cork board I probably ought to hang. Plain wheeled chairs, a small desk, a computer, and a tall bookcase that is not as full as I would really like it to be flesh out the furnishings, and a few additional stacks of books and journals more or less complete the decor.

Beside one window, though, there is a hummingbird painted on the wall, its rich hues contrasting sharply with the plain paint surrounding it. I have often wondered why it is there, who painted it and why. It seems in an odd place to have been a dorm-dweller’s decoration, and what I know of my immediate predecessor in this space does not suggest that it was his work, either. Too, it seems to be flying away from the window; the easy understanding of it as an emblem of escape is thwarted thereby, and I am not sure what to make of the image. I do not often look at it, though; the computer where I do my office work faces me away from that wall.

In some respects, my current office suffers against what I had before. The classes I teach are in the building where my older office was. As such, I have a bit longer a trip to get to my classroom than I used to–and it takes me outside, which can be good when the weather is good, but is far less so when the weather is not. Too, although there were fewer people with whom to associate in the older office, I had made progress in reaching out to them, and that progress has been undone by the relocation. Also, although I have swapped out the chairs that were initially in the office for others, even those I currently have are not as nice to sit in as what I had before, and since I spend a fair bit of time in my office chairs, their comfort is an important concern. More, because the office is in an older building, there are issues of accessibility associated with it, and since one of the things an academic office needs to do is facilitate interaction with students, the restricted accessibility is something of an issue.

At the same time, my current office offers some advantages over that I held previously. It is in the same building as the department in which I teach, putting me closer to colleagues and promoting collegiality–much to my pleasure. Too, the light is better, as is the climate control. And the space is larger, allowing freer motion and connoting more importance. I feel better in it than I did in Weir 209, despite the problems that associate with the current space; I feel more like a “real” academic than I did before.

But that brings me back to a point I have addressed before: the idea of space forming academic identity. There are senses in which I am less “real” an academic than I was in New York. There, I had a full-time job, and I was secure enough in my position (although erroneously, in the event) that I felt comfortable putting things on the walls and shelves that served to identify me as an academic–degrees and awards, membership certificates and the like. While I certainly interrogated them for their validity, questioning whether they showed me as confident or in need of comfort, the fact that they were there and that I was able to externalize some of my interiority carries some meaning, makes some difference. Such is not the case in my current space. I have less out and in the open now than I did then, in no small part because I am contingent faculty and I know I am such. I dare not let so much of myself out here as I have in other places, in part because I do not relish the thought of packing much up to leave (although I have still acquired more stuff for the office since I have taken the present space).

More of my reluctance to open into the current space, however, is that I would like not to be so badly hurt again. Being contingent as I am means that I am subject to non-renewal on an all-too-frequent basis. I know it is something in which I am not alone, and I am not claiming that I am somehow especially downtrodden. But I am saying that I am vulnerable already, and the exposure of self that comes in inhabiting a space more fully–showing more of me by what is on the walls and shelves–makes me more vulnerable. It displays what I value–and therefore where I am tender and can be harmed at a touch. It is not something I want to have happen again, as it has happened to me more than once before.

I have to wonder how my reluctance to open myself into the space I currently occupy has affected the work I do. I have to wonder if my remaining somewhat closed off in putting myself into the office has left me somewhat closed off from the wellspring of ideas with which I work. Or perhaps it has instead closed me off from the sources of power upon which I draw to do the work–which may sound like melodramatic claptrap or mumbo-jumbo, but I have attested that I draw comfort from having my things around me, reminding me that I have done and so suggesting that I can and will do again. I have to wonder, then, if I am further constrained into contingency, since a space that either prompts or reflects a reluctance to move into the work keeps me from doing the work that I would need to do to secure a continuing faculty position–if anything that I can do can do so.

Works Cited

Class Report: ENGL 227.61205, 1 April 2017

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After addressing questions from and concerns about the previous class meeting, discussion addressed issues of electronic media and concerns of negative messaging. Time was given to addressing group work, as well.

A note was made about an upcoming scheduling difference. The 15 April 2017 class meeting will be conducted remotely. Students were emailed a link to the appropriate online location.

Students are reminded of the following assignments’ due dates:

  • Week 5 Discussion (online before 0059 on 2 April 2017)
  • Negative/Bad News Message (individual submissions online before 0059 on 2 April 2017)
  • Week 6 Discussion (online before 0059 on 9 April 2017)
  • Course Project Draft (one submission from each group online before 0059 on 9 April 2017)

The class met as scheduled, at 0900 in Rm. 106 of the DeVry San Antonio campus. The class roster listed 11 students enrolled, unchanged since the last class meeting. Of them, seven attended, verified informally. Student participation was good. One student attended office hours.