Wee rooms and demented scribblings...

Because one person inquired as to my absence, he’s unleashed a backlog blog blab of rants—religious folks mourning old popey are advised to look away now. I have been writing on my never-ending Batman chapter and preparing for various conferences. George Lucas does talk a lot of shite*, but I always liked his quote that ‘movies are never finished, they’re just abandoned’. My chapters are like that. I have to be forced at gunpoint to leave them alone, I never think they’re any good. The above cover, of Greg Rucka’s The Hiketeia visually expresses the torment, as I look forward to finally starting the Wonder Woman chapter next week. Maybe I’ve been reading too much on fetishism (and there is a long tradition of dodgy comic covers), but the question that the cover raises for me is, is Batman smiling or grimacing?

I have also been to this amazing conference. As there was about 600 plus attending I thought it was going to be four days of running around rooms and not getting to meet anyone. Thankfully, this was not the case, and I got to meet some of the most important and talented people in my area. Far from being aloof, these academic heavy-hitters were friendly, approachable and fun, and I left the conference with renewed sense of purpose. Suddenly this staying in wee rooms surrounded by books and demented scribblings didn’t seem as lonely as once it was. It was also a great chance to talk to people from my own university away from the everyday departmental concerns and getting to know them better too. This seems like quite a lofty post, don’t worry, there’s more rants a coming…

* Like: “em err I meant the acting to be stilted because it evokes 1930s serials”, could it be George, that your scripts are humourless and make no sense?. Mitoclorians!..you forget about them in a hurry didn’t you? And why do all the Storm Troopers have to be clones of Boba Fett’s da and why doesn’t Darth Vader recognise C3PO immediately at the start of Star Wars? Oh I forgot, a wizard did it.