--Chaucer

Do I ever have stuff to catch up on.

Okay, let's go back to Wednesday. Wednesday night, to be exact, in my English 251: British Literature I survey course.

Have I mentioned how much I hate survey courses, by the way? Well, I hate survey courses. They invariably involve zipping through a pile of books so quickly that you don't have time to properly read any of them. At best, you get intrigued enough you come back to study a given work in greater depth in a later semester. At worst, it kills the work in question.

On the other hand, I ought to admit that I kind of like survey courses. There are a number of works that you really need to be familiar with as an English major, and survey courses do give you a broad enough background to understand references made in other classes.

For instance, virtually every English course I have ever been in has made at least one reference to King Lear, which I have not yet read. That play is part of my syllabus for this semester, which ought to be helpful in the future.

So survey courses are a necessary evil, I suppose.

Anyway. I had my first wake-up call on Wednesday night. I have not been putting enough effort into any of my classes this semester, with the possible exception of my art class. No, with the definite exception of my art class, now that I think of it.

In the case of Philosophy 101, this is not going to be a problem, I can assure you. In the case of my English courses, on the other hand, I'm heading for a fall, and I had better take steps to keep that from taking place.

The wake-up call in question came with the return of my mini-essay on the Parson and the Friar, on which I got a B.

I have been searching my memory, and I am almost certain that I have never gotten a B on a paper submitted to an English class before. A bunch of B+'s, yes. (One of which deserved a C, frankly, but that was on an assignment I technically didn't have to do, and, in retrospect, should have skipped. But that's neither here nor there.) And, sure, I've gotten even worse grades in assignments outside of my major. But this particular situation is a first. And it is, of course, my own fault.

Here's what the professor had to say:

These are accurate and smoothly written summaries of the characters. Unfortunately you don't do much with them in terms of addressing the treatment they get from Chaucer (author and pilgrim). Summary keeps you from tone & diction.

I enjoyed your witty translations. B

But as you readers know, I read the general prologue and wrote the essay at the last minute, in something of a rush. Which is the problem. Not so much the bit about writing the essay at the last minute; that much is par for the course. But reading the material just before the last minute... that part is just ridiculous.

Nor does it do any good to protest that I couldn't have fit everything he wanted in just 500 words. Sure, it would have been harder, but whoever said life would be easy? I could have managed it. I should have managed it. I'd better get my act together.

So far, I've handed this in twice. Out of about six times.

Admittedly, most of the omissions can be directly traced to the fact that I have this class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I also have my art class on Thursdays. So at the last minute when I'd normally be working on my critical journal, I have instead been busy trying to come up with a decent design using construction paper.

This, however, is no excuse.

[Shmuel shakes himself]

Okay, fine, maybe I'm overromanticizing the past a bit. In my first semester, I did spend much of my time in "Introduction to Media" doing crossword puzzles, but that's because it was an insanely basic course, in which the professor kept repeating the same simple concepts over and over again, using slightly different words each time, as he reiterated the same basic points time after time, altering his phrases in every instance, as he went over the same ideas yet one more time, changing the exact terms used, until I was ready to either strangle him, or go to sleep, depending upon my mood. Crosswords were a more socially acceptable option.

But, still, my standards have slipped over the years. It's not good.

Fortunately, I set my alarm for 9:30 AM.

Unfortunately, I forgot to turn the alarm on.

So at about 10:30, I realized that something was amiss, glanced at the clock, blanched, and tried to figure out whether I had a chance of getting to class in time in anything resembling a conscious state.

By the time class was halfway over, I came to the conclusion that I didn't, and went back to sleep for a bit.

I did make it in time for art, though...

Sigh.