Fan Fiction: First Results

I've gone onto InfoTRAC to run a search for articles including the term "fan fiction." I've found 30 which I've forwarded to home.

Interestingly enough, a near-majority of the stories appear to concern same-sex pairings of major characters by fan-fiction writers: Xena and Gabrielle, Starsky and Hutch, Harry and Draco. Oh dear. This will make things interesting.

Fortunately, I've got a cool collection of friends I can poll.

This will be fun.

Speaking Notes: Forms of Alienation

Here they are, my in-class presentation for ENG 493 on the 27th of February:

( Read my meandering speaking notes! )

Should I act on the basis of this quiz?

Nerdslut


What's your sexual appeal?
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[SMITHS] How Soon Is Now?

I am the son
And the heir
Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and heir
Of nothing in particular

You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way ?
I am Human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does

I am the son
And the heir
Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and heir
Oh, of nothing in particular

You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way ?
I am Human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does

There's a club, if you'd like to go
You could meet somebody who really loves you
So you go, and you stand on your own
And you leave on your own
And you go home, and you cry
And you want to die

When you say it's gonna happen "now"
Well, when exactly do you mean ?
See I've already waited too long
And all my hope is gone

You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way ?
I am Human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does

Some of the problems of la francophonie

Charlemagne

The galling rise of English

Feb 27th 2003
From The Economist print edition

The European Union is becoming an English-speaking zone

FROM his desk at the European Commission's office in Warsaw, Bruno Dethomas has been gloomily monitoring the decline of his native French within the European Union. “When I left Brussels in 1995,” he remarks (in perfect English), “70% of the documents crossing my desk were written in French. Nowadays 70% are in English.” In Brussels Mr Dethomas was chief spokesman for Jacques Delors, the powerful and charismatic French head of the European Commission who stepped down in 1995. Until that year the sole working language in the commission's press room was French, but it was already clear which way the wind was blowing. “Quite often,” says Mr Dethomas, “I would give the official briefing in French, and then I would have to give a second briefing in my office in English.”

( Read more... )

[SMITHS] This Charming Man

Punctured bicycle
On a hillside desolate
Will nature make a man of me yet ?

When in this charming car
This charming man

Why pamper life's complexity
When the leather runs smooth
On the passenger seat ?

I would go out tonight
But I haven't got a stitch to wear
This man said "it's gruesome
That someone so handsome should care"

Ah ! A jumped-up pantry boy
Who never knew his place
He said "return the ring"
He knows so much about these things
He knows so much about these things

I would go out tonight
But I haven't got a stitch to wear
This man said "it's gruesome
That someone so handsome should care"
La, la-la, la-la, la-la, this charming man ...
Oh, la-la, la-la, la-la, this charming man ...

Ah ! A jumped-up pantry boy
Who never knew his place
He said "return the ring"
He knows so much about these things
He knows so much about these things
He knows so much about these things