Dear Blog,<\/p>\n
I\u2019m in bed with my second cold of the semester, but since I am also on STRIKE (http:\/\/www.ucu.org.uk\/index.cfm?articleid=581<\/a>) I have decided to write a blog post that isn\u2019t about work (well, not directly at least).<\/p>\n Some time ago now, early in November, I went to a Close Up event in Manchester, where the DJ Dave Haslem interviewed novelist Jeffrey Eugenides. It was a wonderful event. I loved Middlesex<\/em> and Eugenides\u2019s new novel The Marriage Plot<\/em> is calling out from my shelf to be read (it will have to wait until the Christmas holidays unfortunately). It sounded excellent from the reading that Eugenides gave at the event, with particular interest for English folk. Part of the plot involves a character\u2019s struggle with the ideas in Roland Barthes\u2019s A Lover\u2019s Discourse<\/em> in her University semiotics class.<\/p>\n A friend recently alerted me to a number of Frankenstein<\/em>-related projects mentioned in a summer edition of Empire<\/em> film magazine, which show that the ideas of the novel at least are still alive in the popular imagination. There is speculation that the SF director Shawn Levy may be planning something and if so, according to Empire<\/em>, this film would join at least five other projects in various stages of planning! These include \u2018Universal\u2019s long-planned Guillermo del Toro pic [\u2026], Stuart Beattie\u2019s I, Frankenstein<\/em><\/strong>, Peter Ackroyd adaptation The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein<\/em><\/strong> at Ghost House Pictures, Summit\u2019s This Dark Endeavour<\/em><\/strong> [and] Tim Burton’s animated Frankenweenie<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 (http:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/news\/story.asp?NID=31870<\/a>). The range of interest is brilliant I think.<\/p>\n I read today that there\u2019s a new exhibition in Paris, curated by ex-footballer Lillian Thuram, called Human Zoo: The Invention of the Savage<\/em>, which looks at the global phenomenon (only ended in 1958!) of displaying human \u2018exhibits\u2019, including the story of the famous nineteenth-century Saartjie Baartman, a Khoikoi woman from South Africa, who was displayed as the \u2018Hottentot Venus: http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2011\/nov\/29\/huam-zoo-paris-exhibition<\/a>. The idea of this now is abhorrent; Thuram is adamant that these \u2018freak shows\u2019 explain the fear of \u2018the other\u2019 that continues to persist today.<\/p>\n To end with, I do hope that you are all supporting the strike action. It\u2019s for a very important cause: public sector pensions are being dismantled before our very eyes.<\/p>\n Best,<\/p>\n Sharon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Blog, I\u2019m in bed with my second cold of the semester, but since I am also on STRIKE (http:\/\/www.ucu.org.uk\/index.cfm?articleid=581) I have decided to write a blog post that isn\u2019t about work (well, not directly at least). Some time ago … Continue reading