Revision, a Culinary Metaphor

It's exam time. Yaaaaaaay!

... I'm just kidding, it's not that bad. That may possibly just be a perk of doing a literature-based course; relatively few exams, and those we have don't seem half so scary after the soul-shredding torment of our summative essays. At least the exam doesn't require six different citations to prove you didn't write the essay on as many drunks as its subject wrote his poems.

Speaking of exams, though, I've never been fond of revision. Lordie knows the last three years of school did not earn my eternal gratitude for swallowing up my holidays and my sanity both.

But those dark days are long behind me, and I have since discovered a benefit to revision.

See, I love reading. So far as I know, so do you - I'd be rather confused as to why you're here if you didn't, given this blog's usual subject matter. Good thing then that my degree consists mostly of reading, then? Ehhh, not so much. See, when you have to read half a hundredweight of poems, half a book of poetry, and then a heaping spoonful of bloated critical commentary every week, you don't get a lot of time to enjoy what you read. Even if you do find you love all of that week's subject matter to death - rare, but possible - the speed at which you are required to devour, digest, regurgitate, and hurriedly reconstruct it for your seminars (and, later, for those aforementioned horrible essays), is a little too rushed and clinical to amount an experience as pleasurable as an ordinary reading pace, where one has time to savour each bite.

In short, reading for seminars and essays is like bolting down your half-cooked breakfast as you make the insane sprint for the bus stop in the pouring rain with your trousers on backwards.

Reading for revision, however, is more like being invited onto Masterchef. Yeah, it's a longer process, and you'll be sick to the back teeth of lime airs and flambéd Mongolian mongoose membrane by the time you're done - but it gives you time to appreciate all the beautiful flavours. And, most of all, it reminds you how good food can be in the first place.

Here, sadly, is where my culinary analogy breaks down slightly - much like the Finalists who still don't know their Foucault from their Fine. But in all sincerity, if you want to be reminded why you enjoy reading, and why the reading you've been given has been picked out over a soupy minestrone sea of competitors, there's nothing like revision to do the trick.

Revision demands a measured pace, close consideration of the work and themes, active engagement with the text, cross-reference between what you've been taught and questions you continue to ask yourself throughout the year. You realise how deep a work is, how much time and work and manic energy went into making it and, most importantly of all, how much you love it. Give it a few hours, and you'll have about sixty different quotes you want to tattoo all over your body, and sixty more around which to base gigantic academic tomes to rival those of Dryden and Milton.

Dark clouds, they say, come with silver linings. Turns out, so do English Lit exams.

~ Charley R

Dark Wings, Dark Words

In the east, a grey sun rises. Sightings of ghosts and worse come in from every quarter, and in the night the smallfolk bolt their doors in fear. Even the guard dogs bark little as the silent threats come down out of the high places, hungering for prey. 

The shadows are rising. 

Cold, pale eyes watch from every corner. 

No one is safe.

My friends, these are black tidings indeed. My home, my future, and all I love lies under threat from this faceless menace. I feel the fear of my people pressing in around me, while my own terror lies coiled like a serpent, threatening to swallow me whole the moment I lower my guard. We know not from whence this threat came, or why it has chosen us for its prey. The day's shadows seem to grow darker about our heels with every step, and some swear their dreams are haunted by terrible screams from unknown voices.

What hope we have is dim as a flickering candle in the middle of a midnight sea. Even those scarce old enough to lift a blade are being called forth to muster beneath our tattered banners. We know not when, but we feel our foe drawing closer with the closing of every day.

This may be the last you hear of me, my brave friends. Though I arm myself with bow and sword and spear, I fear it will be of no use. 

I will call to you when I can, but in times like these, none can be sure which day will be our last.

Keep your watch fires burning for me.

The nights grow colder.

The winds cry higher.

The dark comes closer.

Brace yourselves.

Exams are coming.

A Poem from Beneath the Post-It Notes ...

I'm not even a week into my exams yet, and I'm already writing poetry about them.

Has anyone seen my medication?

Exam

Pencil, paper,
Calculator,
Doubts a’lurking,
Teacher smirking,
Outside raining,
Brain is aching,
Fingers cramping,
Doors a’slamming,
Throat is thirsting
Bladder bursting,
Time a’snailing
Thoughts a’wailing
Hands are burning
Mind a’churning,
Panic building,
Answers milling,
Time is up now,
Students,
Stop!

Wednesday Randomness

I don't think I have ever felt quite so happy for a long time. Here I am, in the middle of my GCSE mocks ... and I have no exams today! That means I might actually have a chance to do some proper revision! (and perhaps get my NaNovel up to 50k, or at least a bit closer ... come on, you can't expect me to concentrate all day!)

Oh, and on that note, thanks to some mad "Write Or Die - ing" last night, my novel is now passed 46k! I'm on the home straight! Whoo!
I've even managed to get into "Phase Two" of the plot ... and there's going to be a surprise twist at the end, which I hope future readers will like *wink*

This will sound really cliche and silly, but I think I might actually try and get it published. After extensive editing of course, it's a load of twisted evil mumbo jumbo right now - but I think it might actually work. It's a fairly original idea and (thanks to advance warning from Del) is a lot less like a rip-off Shade's Children than I feared it might be. It's also a lot darker and freakier than I thought it would be, but I blame the characters for that one (as I do for everything).
But that's a long way off now, and at the moment I have more important things to focus on. Such as setting the causes of the First World War to a catchy jingle in preparation for my second exam on Friday ... anyone know any words that rhyme with "Belgium"?

- Spook