Tempered Fragility

I had a really awesome time at class today, despite the weather that kept my entire face numb every time I stepped outside. I met up with James at the station – he’s in two or three of my classes – and we spoke about the short story classes. I was surprised by his view of it; I think he’s the only person in the class who would be happy for the classes to go on unchanged.

Most people seem to want more substance and less random talking. Ania is very quick to ramble, and although I find her charming – and often hilarious – the classes would be much improved if we focused on the mechanics of short story writing occasionally. I’m still hopeful about that happening this semester, and Ania certainly seems to be warming up to the idea.

In Editing, later on, Ian gave a presentation about j t leroy. I hadn’t heard much about the whole fiasco, but I do plan on doing some research later on. There has been much discussion about ‘editing scandals’ in class, and I’m always interested in hearing how people have reacted. Generally, most people feel that misrepresenting a book is terrible, and that authors who do it should be punished.

Expect a long, ranty post on this in the future. Gosh, I love the word* ‘ranty’.

After Ian’s speech, Melanie handed us about a ton of paper. I’m fairly certain that RMIT’s editing classes destroy entire forests each lesson. I have more notes from that class than from all my other classes combined. This semester, we’re looking at actual editing, rather than the grammar behind it. We learn the editing marks, different house styles, and we start marking up actual text.

It sounds dreadfully dull to most people, but I am SO excited.

I mentioned yesterday, briefly, that Thursday’s class didn’t happen. I’m still not sure why, since (once again) RMIT isn’t allowing me to send e-mails to staff members. Last semester, I couldn’t contact Arthur due to a faulty e-mail address, and none of Melanie’s mail was going through. Now, it seems that David’s e-mail isn’t functioning correctly. Anyway.

A cancelled class isn’t that big a deal, I know. However, David has never been late for a class, let alone just not shown up. That is exactly what happened on Thursday. We – about six or seven class members – waited for an hour, and he never showed. Claire, the course coordinator, had no idea where he was. She advised us to go home, but we waited for another twenty minutes before giving up.

Needless to say, we were worried. That’s why we sat outside in the fading light and bitter wind for over an hour, waiting. I’m even more worried now, since I haven’t received an e-mail from David or RMIT, telling us why Thursday’s class never happened. All I’ve learned from his personal site is that he left for Sydney on Wednesday, some time. Why would he leave for Sydney the day before class?

Curious, no? I might e-mail Claire and enquire about the issue.

* I am well aware that ranty is not, in fact, a word. It should be.

Tags: pwe, reading, writing

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