Second Week of Class

It's raining in New York and I'm super caffeinated. I had two strong cups of coffee when I awoke, since I overslept and figured drinking two cups would compensate for lost time. In some sense it did--I scribbled out my first school assignment in about half an hour, cleaned, and then sat twiddling my thumbs until I realized I could leave the apartment in spite of the weather.

The internet's down, so I went in search of a coffee shop. I'm now sitting in a charming French cafe that smells of onion quiche and espresso. I even have the window seat. However I'm also on my third cup of coffee and so find myself rather out of my mind. Usually caffeine focuses me. But it also makes me more easily agitated. I made the mistake of looking at my bank account and it scared me so badly I haven't been able to focus since.

My first writing assignment outside of the novel was to imagine my reincarnation, or what I would be in the afterlife. I wrote about a character whose theology is derived mainly from sleepover parties and Woody Allen films, and for the most part considers herself a 'nihilist.' When she's confronted with the choice of what world she inhabits next she decides to be the worm on the devil's left ring finger. I wrote it, feeling inspired, and upon reviewing it thought it sounded more like an outtake from an Adam Sandler film then something suitable for intelligent professors written by an intelligent student. Oh well. We can't all be winners, all of the time.

School is going well. I workshop my novel on October 13th. This gives me over a month to revise and and add upon what I have so far. I wrote the bulk of the novel thus far in under a month. Five weeks sounds like real luxury, which means I probably won't work nearly as hard as I could.

I bought a ton of books. All of them are fiction. In the checkout line I felt like a joke. It looked like I was shopping for a personal vacation and not school. Too good to be true? Too soon to speak? Want to know my reading list?

"Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me" Javier Marias
"Room" Emma Donaghue
"Thousand Acres" Jane Smiley
"Madame Bovary" Gustave Flaubert
"Metamorphosis" Franz Kafka
Man Down"
"Pastoralia" George Saunders
"Kafka on the Shore" Haruki Murakami
"King Lear" William Shakespeare
"Disgrace" J.M. Coetzee
"Cruddy" Linda Barry
"Out Stealing Horses" Per Patterson

A bunch of articles by Charles Baxter, David Mamet, Joseph Campbell; a Chekhov play, and a sprinkling of short stories.

I've started Javier Marias' book. We're supposed to read it, critique it, and workshop it as practice. Of course it's near perfect, in its own right, and so I find this a disconcerting assignment. "This is why you don't choose good books!" the voice inside my head says, in the same intonation as that of "This is why we can't have nice things!" What's more, it's not the type of book I want to read in a week. Anyone read it? It's something to be read slowly. The pacing is slow. To read it in a week is like scarfing an e'clair. What's more, I would prefer a tostada to an eclair, metaphorically speaking. If I have to scarf my food it better be cheap and easy on the stomach. Ahhh, fail. Too much coffee talking heads gotta stop. Start over.

Ahh, school. I'm a big fan of high brow meets low brow. So i have a very love/hate relationship with academia (does a creative writing MFA count as academia? I should probably know...) I should also probably go. By now the caffeine has completely taken over, and I have little option but stop now or ramble indefinitely in failed attempts to redeem myself. More to come soon, hopefully.