October 1, 1998.

A part I really didn't want to cut out of my Pilgrim's Progress essay, but did anyway:

But by far the most pervasive application of the idea of family is one in which the idea is turned into a metaphor for Christian brotherhood. Bunyan makes many complicated allegorical arguments for the supremacy of spiritual orientation over worldly orientation, and the most important first step is to separate these two spheres. Included in the realm of the carnal is the distinction of gender, which Bunyan dissolves in the meeting with Shame. Faithful recounts Shame's conviction that "it was a pitiful, low, sneaking business for a man to mind religion; he said that a tender conscience was an unmanly thing" (65). Shame's distinction between feminine & masculine values is rejected by Faithful, which destroys any barrier between the "natural" feelings of the sexes. By breaking down gender, Bunyan attacks a mode of thinking based solely on carnal matters, and reduces carnal temptations as well by removing the friction between gender.

Yes, this is what your little girl is doing when she isn't answering your email. Would you give me an A?

A poem I wrote yesterday:

I wander

in & out of addiction
welcoming & rejecting without discernable pattern

like a coat that has passed it's prime
or a love that is just entering into it.

I'm tired of sleeping in & missing stuff. Time to get a sleeping schedule, I think. Missed my once-a-week seminar this morning to finish this essay, which I should've done last night, but I ate too much red meat with Palaver & decided to sleep in to cure my sore throat. What more do I need to know about "The Rape of the Lock" anyway? I ask you...