Who I am and what I am doing. I am an assistant professor of English at a small university in Connecticut. I usually teach a few writing courses and a few American literature courses, but, as the college changes, I am teaching less writing and more literature, with a broader scope of authors–I now teach anything from Homer to Hemingway. More important to this blog, though, is my obsessive reading habit, most clearly illustrated by my need to have a novel near me at almost all times. I plan to write a lot about my reading here, but don’t expect book reports or reviews. Instead, I’ll probably use my reading as a point to launch into some sort of digressive species of essay.
I might also end up boring you with tales of my cycling exploits. I entered my first bike race in May 1987, but I only raced sporadically until four years ago when I got serious about it. To make things more interesting and exciting, I will probably crash from time to time, and tales of pain and woe will fill these pages.
I am also that most horrible subspecies of English professor: Academicus novelist. That is, I am writing a novel, and like many writers, I like to write about my experience writing. Expect a few (thousand) words on writing from me.
On pseudonymity. I am making an important distinction between pseduonymity and anonymity. The latter is, I think, completely hiding yourself, while the former is more akin to wearing a mask. This blog will be my masquerade, where you might be able to figure out who I am by the flash of my eyes from behind the domino or the shape of my shoulders beneath the cape. I do not care if people know who I am, but I do not want to broadcast my name. It’s a fine distinction, I realize, but it is what works for me. For the purposes of this blog, I am the Hobgoblin, sort of like a superhero blogger. I just need to get the right costume now.
The discussion. I hope that readers will feel that this blog is a conversation where they can jump in, take an idea, play with it, maybe write about it on their own blogs, and see it get bounced around the ‘net. I love to get comments, so please drop in and say something, but this is my page, my home, so be polite. If it looks like you’re just trying to pick a fight, I will delete you–or more correctly, I will delete your comment, since my Hobgoblin superpowers do not yet reach that far. If you want to contact me off-site, you can reach me at hobgoblin [dot] minds [at] yahoo [dot] com.
Hello, Professor. I guess you stumbled on to our Nature Writing class blog the other day, and you left a comment on my reading of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Thanks for your praise. I’m kind of surprised by it because even though I have studied most forms of literary criticism, until I took this particular class, I had never even heard of ecocriticism. So this paper was my very first attempt. In all honesty, I had no idea what I was doing, and was just praying for it to turn out right. That makes your comment all the more astounding! Thanks again!
🙂
The email address didn’t work 😦
Hello, Professor. I guess you stumbled on to our Nature Writing class blog the other day, and you left a comment on my reading of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Thanks for your praise. I’m kind of surprised by it because even though I have studied most forms of literary criticism, until I took this particular class, I had never even heard of ecocriticism. So this paper was my very first attempt. In all honesty, I had no idea what I was doing, and was just praying for it to turn out right. That makes your comment all the more astounding! Thanks again!
+1
Love the title – and appreciate your determination to avoid ‘a foolish consistency’!