AGTO Day Seven: The End

We had the rest of Saturday free, until the farewell dinner in the evening. I did all my Oxford shopping (so many t-shirts with "Oxford University" in some form or the other to buy), and then went over to St. Mary's. I climb the tower (127 steps) to get a lovely aerial view of Oxford. I would suggest, if you ever decided to climb the tower at St. Mary's, that you not do it right after you've done all your Oxford shopping. The tower stairway is very skinny. Actually, I ended up climbing onto a lip by a window so people coming down could get buy. There is no passing possible on the stairs. Here are some overlooking Oxford pictures:

AGTO Day Seven: The Final Seminar

Saturday was the last meeting of my Literature and the Fantastic seminar. The week went really fast. And on this, the last day, we talked about some more modern fantasy books, beginning, of course, with Twilight. And as I expected, people had a lot of things to say about Twilight. Not everyone had read them, but everyone had heard of them. We did some discussion on the passivity of the main female character, and also why the books are so popular.

AGTO Day Six: All the Other Stuff

Friday was a very exciting day indeed, because Friday, instead of having our usual afternoon speaker, we went to the Bodleian Library. I was incredibly excited about this. My department head had gone last summer, and said it was amazing. And it sure was. My group also had a fabulous guide, Marie, who told us all kinds of fabulous stories. The picture to the left is what it looks like from the outside. Well, that's one of the buildings. It looks like a castle, right?

AGTO Day Six: The Seminar

Friday was the Harry Potter day, but we actually spent almost an hour discussing an extra reading Maria had given us. It's called "The Problem of Susan," and it's from a short story collection by Neil Gaiman. Maria wasn't sure what the book was called, and neither am I. If you do, let me know. So this was a really weird story. Very sexual, and it's not totally clear what's going on and, more importantly, why. Personally, I'd read it, thought, "Huh, that was weird," and moved on. Some people were really stuck on it though, and it was quite the interesting discussion trying to figure out what on Earth was going on in the story, and whose dreams were who, and what was the whole Mary Poppins thing about? I can't really talk much about it in a way that will make sense unless you've read the weirdness, so if you have, or do, let me know and let's talk. Because man, that was weird. What was he trying to say about C. S. Lewis?

AGTO Day Five: Everything Else

Thursday was another day with three speakers, so it was quite busy. Thursday was also the first day it rained. We had no rain during the day all week. I guess Oxford felt like it needed to make up for that. It started raining a little bit as I walked back from Pitt Rivers, but I had a rain jacket and it wasn't that bad, so I went out. I was halfway down the block before it started pouring, and then, thundering, which I'm told does not happen very often here. I was huddling under a hedge with several other people, who seemed to think it would let up in a minute, as that's what the weather usually does, but it didn't. When there was a huge thunderclap right over my head, I made a run for it back to the college to hang up my clothes to dry and wait for it to stop. Which of course it did, but by then it was time for the first speaker.

AGTO Day Five: The Seminar

Today (it's Thursday, I'm actually managing to write about something on the day it happened) Philip Pullman was the topic of discussion. Now, I am a big fan of Philip Pullman. I like the His Dark Materials series a lot. I read it at a time when I was getting board with fantasy. Fantasy is very formulaic, it's essentially the hero's journey. Unlikely hero, quest, blah blah blah. And I was feeling like I hadn't read any really original fantasy in a while. And then there was Philip Pullman with this fabulously original series and I loved it.

AGTO Day Four: All the Other Stuff

Wednesday was a packed day, we had three lectures instead of two. The first one was with former Poet Laureate of Britain, Sir Andrew Motion. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1999, and it's usually a position that last the person's life, which is why it's usually given when the person is older. They're moving away from that now, and having terms like the U.S. Sir Andrew said he would do it for ten years, because he felt that anything he could do could be done in ten years, and if he hadn't done it by then he probably wasn't going to.

AGTO Day Four: The Seminar

Wednesday was the C. S. Lewis focused day. Since we were going out to The Kilns, we only had about an hour for discussion, which was a shame since we'd had some really interesting reading the night before. If you have the time, I would suggest reading "Prisoner of Narnia," by Adam Gopnik from The New Yorker. It was really interesting. I didn't know very much about Lewis' early life, and the article talked about that as well as his writing. We also read Lewis' "Of This and Other Worlds."

AFTO Day Three: Everything Else

After the Tolkien-filled morning I got lunch next door to The Eagle and Child because it was way too hot in there to eat. Also, the weather continues to be lovely. Sunny and in the low 70s and only raining late in the evening. Thanks Oxford.

The first lecture for the day was called "A Pilgrim in Search of Learning" and was given by G. H. L. Le May, a historian. He was delightful. He was like your great-uncle who've you've taken out to lunch and say, "Tell me about the old days," and then he talks for three hours. I would totally take Mr. Le May to lunch. He talked about his personal experience at Oxford. He came to Oxford from South Africa, and before he came he liked every subject with the exception of history. He was in the process of getting a law degree from a university in South Africa, when he met a history professor who made him completely rethink history.

AGTO Day Three: The Seminar

Don't you wish you were here too? Look at it! It's like out of a...well, fantasy book. The mixture of new and old. Amazing. Anyway. Today we started off discussing Tolkien's "On Fairy Stories." We didn't read the whole thing, just excerpts. Some people had very strong reactions to it, thinking he sounded like a pompous elitist. I wouldn't go that far, but Tolkien certainly had very particular ideas on what fantasy was.

AGTO Day Two: All the Other Stuff

The seminar was great, but that was just the beginning of the day. We're scheduled pretty heavily, and there's hardly any free time at all. We get some time for lunch, and then it's right into the speakers. The first was Tony Benn, a politician and a self declared socialist. His topic was "The US and UK: A Special Relationship." Mr. Benn said that it isn't really a special relationship to the US, but the UK thinks of it as special. He talked about the issues of the world being split up into the haves and the have nots, and how it's important for politicians to seek justice. A "special" relationship, he was careful to point out, does not mean always agreeing with each other, which is what's been happening lately. He was not a fan of Tony Blair, and didn't like that Blair went along with everything Bush did. He was very interesting. Sometimes got a little off topic, and didn't always answer questions directly, but the man is 86, so I think we can be understanding.

Then we had tea, of course, because it was 4:00 and that's what one does at 4:00. Immediately following tea was another speaker. Professor Valentine Cunningham was to give a talk on the Oxford system. I have to be honest, I completely zoned out during this one. It had the potential to be really interesting, but it was all over the place. Really rambley. And he did not have the excuse of being 86.

Then there was another three course dinner. Eating a three course meal is exhausting. Dinner was followed by what was being called "Circuit Training." It was a bunch of different games that we rotated around and competed at by team. It was kind of cheesy, and a lot of people skipped out to wander around Oxford, which I understand, we have so little free time. But those of us that went had a lot of fun and got to know each other better as we competed at Twister and anagrams and charades and giant Connect Four among other things.

Then we went to the pub. Because, much like 4:00 tea, that's what one does. Again, I didn't stay out to long as I was pretty tired, but then we I got back, I couldn't fall sleep for hours. I guess I'm not quite adjusted to Oxford time yet.

AGTO Day Two: The Seminar

On Monday, after a hearty English breakfast, the seminars began. Literature and the Fantastic is being lead by Maria Cecire, a Rhodes Scholar whose doctorate is in connecting classic texts to children's fantasy literature. The seminar will be mostly discussion based, starting with Tolkien and Lewis, then moving to Pullman and then to more contemporary authors like J.K. Rowling and yes, there will be talk of Twilight.

Maria gave us a packet of the facsimile of the original Lewis Carroll manuscript (just the first few pages) which was then called Alice's Adventures Under Ground. It is written in his own hand with his own illustrations. We talked about things that struck us, and how Alice's voice is mature for child, which makes sense since Victorian children were expected to be little adults, but she still acts like a child, not thinking, just dashing ahead. We looked at how Lewis Carroll was playing with words, physics, and twisting everyday school lesson for the amusement of the Liddells, who he was telling the story for.

Arianna Goes to Oxford Day One

So. The Mansfield College Internet is not a fan of the computer I have. At first it wouldn't connect at all, now it connects some of the time. So I'm probably not going to be able to post at frequently as I was planning. But I'll do what I can! Things seems to be in order at the moment, so here we go!

So I had this whole plan that seemed like such a good idea at the time. My night flight, sleeping on the plane, getting into Heathrow in the morning ready to go. It all fell apart when the sleeping on the plane did not go well. Not well at all. I don't even really have a good sense of how much I was able to sleep. But it was not much. When I got into London at 9:00 in the morning I was exhausted with a whole day in front of me before the chance of sweet, sweet sleep.

Arianna Goes to Oxford: The Departure

So I'm sitting in the airport, at the gate. It took me less than thirty minutes to get through check-in, so now I'm just hanging out. Soonish I will be in the glorious UK! Yay! I have an overnight flight, so I'll be getting in the morning London time. Hopefully I'll be able to sleep on the plane. Then I'll catch a bus to Oxford. Stay tuned for exciting updates about fantasy literature!

Arianna Goes to Oxford

Very exciting news! In a little over a week I will be jetting off for Oxford (the one in England, not the one in Mississippi) to take part in a fantasy literature teaching seminar. And yes, I think it will be a fabulous as it sounds. The seminar is through Oxbridge Academic, and seminars take place in Oxford, Cambridge, Paris and Barcelona. Thanks to a fellowship from Oxbridge, and professional development support from my school and the independent school association, CLA, I am able to take part in this fabulous opportunity.