I've been on my degree course now for six weeks (including reading week). I feel that I have have been exposed to many interesting pieces of literature and ideas. One particular thing stands out for me at the moment; the novel, Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson.
When I first received my copy of the novel I was quite daunted by the reports I had heard from some of my fellow students. One of my friends claimed that Winterson must have been under the influence of LSD when she wrote it. I decided to see for myself. Expecting nothing but confusion I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw as an adult fantasy that played with many "conventional" concepts such as time, morality and even sexuality.
I found one of the protagonists, Dog Woman, particularly interesting. Gigantically proportioned she reminds me of a cross between Rubeus Hagrid from the Harry Potter stories and a female bear. She could be brutal at times, thinking nothing of killing men using nothing but her bare hands, but her relationship with her addopted son, Jordan, could at times be extremely touching.
I feel that because of its unconventional characters and events Sexing the Cherry helped reinforce my belief that people's differences make the world a much more colourful place.
I've almost finished Sexing the Cherry now, which if I'm to be honest is making me feel a little sad as I am really enjoying it. I think I'd probably want to read some more of Jeanette Winterson's work in the future as I have found this particular novel quite refreshing. I'm going to read Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse next. I only hope I get as much out of that as I have Sexing the Cherry.

I've been reflecting on my course this morning. There's a lot of reading. I really don't mind this at all as I enjoy what I'm learning, but I do find certain things suffer because of the time I have to use. Perhaps suffer is the wrong word. I tend not to do things around the house as much. The hedge in the back garden is in desperate need of cutting but I continually put it off so I can read instead. This is a great excuse. I hate gardening. I have to admit that, sometimes, I find it therapeutic, but at the moment I find I can't be bothered anyway. I've also heard that birds benefit from overgrown foliage so I can perfectly justify my hedge's neglect in more than one way.
Back to the course. I really enjoy the lectures and seminars, even the taxing ones like Form and Meaning. It's a funny subject, Form and Meaning. It makes perfect sense by the end of the session, and in many cases I don't find it particularly hard, but I tend to think the answers to some of the questions we are asked are going to be more tricky than they actually are. This makes for a taxing Tuesday morning, although enjoyable. I particularly liked the week two's theme on genre. I think as the weeks progress I'll get into the swing of this subject a little more.

Starting a Reflective Blog for My Uni Course

Blogging never really appealed to me in the past. This is partly to do with the fact that the character, Viv Hope, from the soap, Emmerdale, did one during some pointless story line or other so I sort of associated blogging with her. I'm now doing a degree in English at High Melton College and one of the module's from the program requires me to do a blog, so that's why I'm doing this now. All the students on my course have to reflect, using the gift of blog, on the work that we do on the course, so I suppose I'll be doing this for the next three years. I have absolutely no idea what to expect from blogging, I've never really known what it's supposed to be for, but I'm pretty sure I'll find out. Who knows, maybe I'll become addicted to it and end up a fully blown blogger.