Introduction

I’m Dave, born in Ontarible, moved to Vancouver a week ago after 6 years in Squamish. There’s no way i could commute for 4 years on that killer mountain highway and I love my new neighbourhood, Main between 18th and 30th is amazing. My first meal was at Chick Pea, “Shnitzelonim” pic below. I managed to almost completely hide Proust’s Swann’s Way which I bought from Alan at Carson’s Books a couple of blocks away, a couple of minutes earlier. There’s nothing I like more than building a community/island of misfit toys. I’m unfailingly positive and active, which can throw people off

I had a great career with following my first degree in business, but got bored so as Monty Python says “and now for something completely different”. I had an amazing first UBC term taking courses from 6 different departments in the faculty, none in my comfort zone, including a great history professor who fired up a love of primary sources so much that the TA thought I would like this RMST course and professor. I’m intrigued to be getting even more uncomfortable as I know nothing about literature. I found a book (i’ll throw up a post might as well be a revolting romantic and test the norms) in my local thrift store that introduced me to some aspects of romanticism so hopefully that is on point.

I’m confident of completing the actual course work of reading a book a week and blogging / discussing it. I hope I can figure out how to contribute meaningfully. I’m expecting to learn a new language and culture in this course, I’m going to love the discussions, I’m going to present likely divergent views and blogs, I’m hoping to leave my classmates and professor feeling that it was a good thing that I was in their class. I have low expectations, I find that the key to success and happiness. Generally a third of the time things go well, a third they suck and a third they just happen so I just label it and move on. I expect I will learn many new concepts and even words - from today’s lecture I had to look up Modernism and Miscegenation. I’m expecting to be infected with the literature bug, I have a lot to catch up on. I expecting to meet more awesome students who might share betrayal and usurping, a mongrel anti-discipline, so that we can construct something new, opening new concepts and horizons.

The lecture mentioned to pay attention to how language works and the mechanisms of representation. We’re trying to answer the question what is common heritage between the authors but also what is distinctive about Romance studies. My favorite line was “belonging nowhere, it finds a place everywhere!” You asked us to come up with new concepts to open new horizons and I intend to do that.