The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

I showed one of my poems to Airek, one of my fellow TA’s. It was part of my book of poetry project and was sort of by a character that was kind of very angry and very sexual, but the poem went well, and he thought so too! But he said it reminded him of another poet, and he was going to show it to me. Shockingly (which I say not because I don’t trust him or something, but because I know that I would forget that book for weeks if I offered to let someone borrow it), he remembered to bring it within a day or two, and handed it to me to read. I’m not through it yet, even though it’s a little book of poetry. Maybe I’ll write it up when I’m done. But reading it so far has just been a kind of weird experience.

Airek is apparently a note-taker. There are notes of his scribbled all over every page of this book, and honestly, it’s pretty damn neat. It’s cool to be able to see all kinds of ideas for interpretations in the margins and such. I can read a poem, and I have a whole different reading of it right there on the page, and I can sit there and go “no, I don’t really think he’s got it” or “Yeah, totally” or “I didn’t even notice that.” It’s just amazingly interesting, and so far it’s really made the experience of reading the thing so much more entertaining.

I don’t know. I could never take notes like that. I’d feel like I was messing up the book. Hell, I can’t even bend the covers of paperback books without being frustrated. So I’m not about to write all over a book of mine. (and at the same time, I am probably not going to own enough books of poetry that I’d want to do that to anyway, heh.) But it’s just kind of neat to have that guided tour. Like he really wants me to get what he saw in it. It reminds me of a personal essay I read once (I can’t remember details, sorry) about how a person wanted the old, beat-up rental textbooks because then they could see the history of all the people who had taken the class and scribbled notes, and it made them feel like they were a part of something, or that they were peering into a hidden past. It’s kind of like that here, and I can’t say I’ve ever really felt it. When my textbooks have scribbles, it’s normally just a random thing or two highlighted. Airek was really copious with his note-taking. There isn’t a page without multiple things on it. I’m really feeling it.
And now I shared that feeling.
Yeah.