rambling and thoughts about the teaching of writing

I'm doing jobshadowing work at the University of Michigan, tagging along with a family friend who workds in the School of Education with a focus on English. She's one of the directors of the Michigan chapter of the National Writing Project, an attempt to change the way that teachers think about writing and the various ways that it can be taught.

It's incredibly fascinating to talk about writing in high school and academically and creatively, especially because one of my foci as a student is to blur the line that I drew in high school between poetry and stories and expository or academic writing. I was taught that these are different things, but then I read Virginia Woolf, and she told me differently.

Today I met with the curator of the University library special collections, and my god. the sheer sexiness of the books that this guy can get his hands on is staggering. There were some very pretty bits of papyrus covered with Greek text that go a squeak out of me (it's funny how much I like Greek now that I don't have to do any for class). I love the physicality of books; for me, the tangible books is a huge part of reading. I remeber the first time I read books, remember what the edition was like, how old it was, what the text felt like and the scent of the pages. Because of this, I can visualize the children's section of my hometown library almost perfectly. I read so many of those books, spent so much time sitting with them that I know their places and their heft, the feeling of their embossed titles and deckle edging. I would love to end up working with old texts.

Also, am rereading "Middlesex" again, which is one of the most beautiful books ever written. Everyone go read it right now.