Rowan

[tinyjenny.livejournal.com]

Hello - I am new to this community and I've loved reading the posts. One thing I feel whenever I read the Marlow books is that I cannot warm to Rowan. I admire her and I can see her many good qualities but could never imagine actually enjoying her company or feeling as though I would want to be her friend. She seems quite brusque and insensitive and judgmental, despite her evident capabilities. However, I always get the impression that I am pretty much alone in this view. Am I? Does anyone else feel anything like this? I warm more to the characters who are more obviously flawed like Ginty and Lawrie. I also like Esther very much and relate to her. But Rowan - I respect her but I cannot warm to her.

Comments

Re: Forest convention

[tabouli.livejournal.com]

I am planning to attend a children's literature colloquium in March which will have a session on Forest, though I'm not giving a paper, as I'm trying to finish a book.

Ahh, but are you attending the Antonia Forest convention in late June this year? You do know about it, don't you?

What will the Forest paper be on at the colloquium? I'm sure many a member of linguaphiles would be more than happy to get a transcript.

Oh, and good luck with the book. What's it on? I'm currently struggling to finish one as well, as you may have gathered from my LJ.

Re: Forest convention

[childeproof.livejournal.com]

Here's a link: http://www.kent.ac.uk/english/. No titles, but the speakers are good.

Yes, I had heard of the AF colloquium, but very much in the context of it having probably been booked out already (I'm a rather late discoverer of AF LJ and web resources), so hadn't really thought about attending...

I'm going to be discreet, as have minor horror of LJ identity becoming known among colleagues or undergraduates, and say I'm editing a collection of essays on a contemporary Irish novelist, and writing one on a gloomy dead modernist. I have been - and will be again - enthusiastic about both, but am currently thoroughly tired of them ...

I've only glanced at your journal enough to note with amusement various Chinese terms for bowel movements - are you an academic? I've been assuming, based on various comments, that everyone here but me is a lawyer.

Re: Forest convention

[tabouli.livejournal.com]

are you an academic?

Heaven forfend!

It depends on how you define 'academic'. I survived to the end of a PhD (in cross-cultural psychology), but the pain incurred put me off working in academia afterwards. Instead, I turned my casual, grant-has-run-out job into a career, and am now a self-employed cross-cultural consultant. I still spend quite a bit of time working at universities, though, mostly training staff about international student issues and how to manage them.