sludge_utopia epitome of incomprehensibility ...is a book I'm reading whose name reminds me of an embarrassing time last spring. I had what was most likely a yeast infection - which involves private parts, so easy embarrassment fodder: I was afraid to admit it to my mother, thinking perhaps it was a side effect of sexual contact, of germs getting in the wrong place, like how many UTIs start. But I told David, and Mr. Sanskrit-Poop-Joke-Maker cheerfully told me of symptoms besides itchiness: vaginal discharge with a consistency of "sludge" or "cottage cheese." "Gross! No! Stop it!" said I. (Mine got oddly watery, which I found disturbing enough.) Anyway, just when I summoned up the mental fortitude to call the doctor, the infection went away on its own. But I started reading a book called Sludge Utopia at that time, and he had to go and point out the "sludge" connection. The book's narrator isn't shy about talking about her body or sex, at least in the text, which reads like a series of journal entries. One of the main themes seems to be her struggling to connect her academic reading/writing with her personal life: how do they intersect? How can someone balance the personal and professional? (and maybe, why are women scrutinized more than men in this regard? though this can definitely apply to men too) I found the format tiring for a while and put it away, but now I'm back. The_Professor was more narratively narrative, so I'm ready for a more episodic, fragmentary read. And despite the narrator reading academic stuff (I think she's doing a Master's degree?) what she puts down on the page isn't hard to follow or long-sentencey. My typical sentence is far longer, I think. Anyway, I like this, when I'm in the mood for it - it's quite quotable. 220526 ... e_o_i "Does theory excite me because it feels a bit incomplete, begging for my own supplement? I know I like to feel confused. I like it when the writer obscures something: I respond to this. I like when I feel the author has access to something that will be hidden from me until I've worked" (8). Oh, and the character IS in undergrad because she says it on the next page. 220526 ... e_o_i Sometimes I feel like arguing at the narrator - not because she's mean or stupid or anything, but because we have radically different experiences of life, even if we did similar English-littish stuff. Aaaaaaaand my responses can be a bit goofy. Start of the second chapter: "On the evenings I enjoy most, I wish I could masturbate without porn, which I find tacky and ugly" (23). My mind: "What's stopping you? You're a writer! Invent characters and imagine them fucking!!" But then: "Wait, she does more academic writing than creative. So maybe she just doesn't think of that." (On a seriouser note, relating_to_books is nice, but when characters just aren't like you...isn't that more interesting sometimes?) 220526 ... e_o_i ...And finding points of difference is a sort of relating, isn't it? As long as it isn't "othering," or whatever the academics say these days. 220526 what's it to you? who go blather from