My Chaucer class disgraced itself collectively today. It's sort of a weekly (sometimes biweekly) thing, but it doesn't cease to baffle and vex Kelly, Michael and me. Today, Professor Robertson brought up the postscript at the end of the Ellesmere Cook's Tale (It doesn't appear in the Hengwrt, despite the scribe being the same, which is...problematic for us tweedy bookish types), which states, "Of this tale, Chaucer maketh no more." She asked why this might be significant, and in a desperate bid to look smart and keep her from yelling at us, people started venturing the most insane, half-brained theories imaginable. Some were sound, but really, really abstract, which means nil after she's said it's not theoretical. We kill a good 5 minutes on this before I cough up, "It authenticates the tale," which was apparently the correct answer. Now I'm doomed, she will make me answer things left and right and I have only myself to blame. Though why no one else thought of it despite being English majors and having been present for a similar explanation involving the Retraction is beyond me. I probably sound arrogant, but this is infuriating. To put it simply, it's not that I'm that smart (necessarily), it's that they're that aggressively stupid.
On the bright side, Kelly and I got a chance to talk about the freakin' awesome concert we went to last night. It was Minus the Bear, The Photo Atlas (formerly just Atlas), These Arms Are Snakes, and Big Business. Basically the same show I saw at Cervantes a month ago, just swap out Big Business for Thunderbirds Are Now! Que triste, since Big Business is pretty lousy, although the drummer is quite good. Anyway, The Photo Atlas did the best show I've seen to date, These Arms Are Snakes were as weird and theatrical as ever, Big Business was...mercifully short, and Minus the Bear did what Kelly termed, "the tightest show [he'd] ever seen." Seriously, it was worth getting home at 2 with a 9:30 class. When they came out for the encore, the whole crowd went ballistic. I paused to reflect at this show that I am indeed strange-- Friday night, I went to a dignified and proper lecture series, then came home for drinks and fun times, then found myself at an indie-rock show on Monday. Truly, I am a taxidermy of cultures. And with that nice visual, I'm out.
