Chirality @ Clarion

Brief note: mainly posting this so as not to lose the link or have to hunt for it: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2001 was awarded for work in chirality, which is something that looks like it will be an important science bitlet in the story I’m writing now. The link above is a really good explanation of what the hell chirality is. Working like mad, hoping to finish this at midweek and, barring objections, submit it for crit on a day when fewer submissions are currently scheduled. If it’s okay with our very cool new instructor, Maureen McHugh, who …

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Clarion, Day 6

I’m about a week into Clarion; the first week of instruction, which was with Paul Park, has finished but it’s only Saturday so the first week isn’t over. Paul has this excellent ability to cut to the heart of the matter of things, or, perhaps, more importantly, to get us to look at the heart of the matter of things. Socratic method — questions, spinning out of implications, changing direction and starting again with more questions, until we seem to have reached somewhere. And storytime: I will really miss hearing him reading stories. The man should be reading audiobooks. So …

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Probably the Last Post for a While

I am jetlagged, but not as badly as I could have been, and I am here. Got a room, got a futon mattress for the floor, got a desk and chair. HAven’t unpacked. Will think about it after breakfast. Got wireless internet, which is how I am connecting now. Got lots of bread. TONS of bread. Met almost everyone, which is cool — interesting mix of people. There’s a scary frog. Not scary — more disturbing. Must go get breakfast. No more blogging for a while. Best, all…

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Clarion Blog Hiatus

I’m not planning on blogging regularly here while I’m at the Clarion workshop, though intermittent posts might make their way here on the backs of digital pigeons. But basically, for the next six weeks, I’ll be writing other things. And that also means if you email me, I may not reply for a while. Even a few weeks. But I will probably read my mail regularly, so if something’s urgent, of course I’ll reply! I hope all my readers have a good summer and subscribe to my RSS feeds so they won’t have to check back — they’ll know when …

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The Terrible Trio

Meetings with the three students who participated in the mini-outburst in class the other night were mixed. One student was very reasonable, asked me to reconsider the grade on a paper she’d submitted a long time before, and said that she felt the emotional hysterics of the evening before were out of line. The second student, once she saw that the main reason her grade had tanked, and that a higher grade on her final paper wouldn’t make a difference, acquiesced quickly and left. The third student, however, decided to make things as uncomfortable as she could. She questioned my …

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