My other ongoing project has been writing a paper for a conference at Columbia, which will be a several-day stop on my way back to England. The title is Victorian Philology and the Problem of “long familiar use” in the English Language. My friend and fellow Victorianist's reaction to that title was, "Oooh. I don't know what that means, but it sounds great!" I'll take that. :) It's about Richard Chenevix Trench, the focus of one of my chapters. Basically, he said that we should pay attention to the ordinary, everyday words we use. If we do, we will discover vibrant metaphors and enlightening histories in single words. In short:
As the sun can image itself alike in a tiny dewdrop or in the mighty ocean,...so the spirit of poetry can dwell in and glorify alike a word and an Iliad...On every side we are beset with poetry.
Nicely said, I think. During my first-year review, one of the reviewers rather unexpectedly asked me why I found philology interesting, personally. I had focused on selling them on its importance in Victorian culture... What I said was that I like the idea that we are all speaking compact metaphors all the time. And trust me, teachers of Old English still love to explain what you're "really" saying when you use certain parts of the vocabulary.
That's my spring break in a nutshell. For the moment, I'm playing tour guide to a Cambridge acquaintance who is visiting Stanford as a potential PhD student. A bit strange mixing my contexts, but I'm proud that my hometown and university have done their usual job of impressing with their beauty.
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