(sigh) There's something about having to write a paper that makes me incredibly prolific on this blog.
Me: Who wants to know what I'm writing about?
Everybody: Meeee!!
Me: All right, everyone, gather round. Let Mama Channy tell you all about a lovely medieval Spanish novel, Los Milagros de Nuestra Señora. Okay?
Everybody: Yay! We love medieval Spanish stories!
Me: Oh, goody. Now, there was a man born around 1196 named Gonzalo de Berceo. Can everybody say that? Gonzalo de Berceo.
Everybody: Gonzaaalooo de Berceeeooo.
Me: Very good, everyone. Mama Channy is so proud of you. Now, Gonzalo de Berceo had the novel idea of putting together a collection of stories of miracles that the Virgin Mary did. Some of them included some downright scandalous characters. There are tales of fornicating clerics, drunken monks, and even pregnant abbesses!
Everybody: Ooh! That's bad, Mama Channy.
Me: Yes, I know. But the important thing is that nobody is perfect, and according to Berceo, as long as you're faithful to the Virgin, she'll come down and help you out even if you've been naughty.
Someone from the group: The Virgin is nicer than Santa. If you're naughty, Santa puts you on his bad list and gives you nothing but coal for Christmas.
Me: Err . . . that's one way to look at it. Anyway, Mama Channy is writing about the intended audience of Berceo's tales. So she's including evidence of orality, references that would have appealed to laymen making pilgrimages, as well as references that would have appealed to church leaders without formal training or education. She's also going to provide evidence that overall, Berceo's work had didactic purposes.
Everyone: What's 'didactic'?
Me: Oh, well, it just means that it was meant to teach something.
Someone from the group: So, then, why not just say that instead of using that funny word?
Me: Oh, you sweet dears, Mama Channy is in graduate school, and no graduate student worth her salt gets by without peppering her papers with funny words. Using funny words in papers is a graduate student rite of passage. And Mama Channy has to use big words in Spanish, on top of that.
Everyone: Wooooww!
Me: (smiling) That's right.
Someone else from the group: But, Mama Channy, aren't you supposed to be writing your paper? It's due Thursday, isn't it?
Me: (nervously laughing) Well, aren't you an observant one? Ahem. Mama Channy better be getting along now.
Everyone: Awwww!
Me: Now, now. We'll have a chance to procrastinate together again soon. Don't worry. Ta ta for now, dear ones.
Everyone: Bye, Mama Channy!
3 comments:
From one procrastinator to another, I feel your pain, Chantell, BUT we do some of our best work under pressure, yes? And then, when we are all finished and have the paper, project or whatever, finished, we pledge to NEVER procrastinate again! Oh no! Not us! The next time we will be organized and prepared. We have such good intentions...every time....only to fall back into our old procrastinatin' ways. *sigh* I don't know what the answer is for us but I surely enjoy reading about your procrastinating anxieties. *grin*
If the teaching thing ever falls through, you could write screenplays for a demented Spanish children's channel. Or something.
Yes, Sis. Jewel, you're right. We procrastinators, no matter how hard we plead and pledge, always turn back to our procrastinatin' ways, bless God. Glad you're getting a kick out of my procrastination anxieties. lol. And there'll be a lot more where that came from . . . this paper is just the tip of the iceberg. I have another one to write over Thanksgiving break. We'll see how swimmingly that'll go over.
And Don, just a point of clarification, my teaching gig has been up since May. I'm doing the grad school thing full time now. My problem now is that I don't know what career I want to go into after graduation. But you've given me an idea! :-)
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