Transition to learning mode

With two weeks of school behind me, I have a decent sense of what it's going to take to do well, organize my life, and succeed in my studies. I don't doubt my abilities, but learning to study effectively again (or really, for the first time), is a challenge. Time management is key, but so is training my brain to accept and process new information so quickly. I'm actually grateful that I have German every day, because I have no choice but to stay with it (and I'm equally glad that I only have Anthrodullogy once a week).

Literary Criticism is turning out to be the interesting course of the semester. The instructor is brilliant, quirky, maddening, strange, interesting, motivating, and terrifying. And that's while she's taking attendance. The coursework is intense, at least for me—though Blogmuse wrote dismissively, "The class the prof mentions would follow this one (theory) is what I thought you were signed up for. Your class is just basic lit and comp."—and with a reaction paper (single-spaced, full page) due almost every class period, it's a lot of work.

We got our first papers returned to us this past Thursday. Prof K began the class period by telling us that most of us had bombed the papers and would have to rewrite: she's cheery that way. So we sweated our way through the next ninety minutes of lecture and discussion, waiting for her to hand back our failures.

The assignment was to write 200-word plot summaries of two short stories. Sounds easy, right? Yeah, try it. My first attempt, a summary of Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," came in at 286 words. Trying to pare that down to 200 words proved a really gratifying lesson in the economy of language (then why do you drone on so much here, Scott?), replacing phrases with modifiers that still conveyed plot and meaning. I got down to 215 words (with the invaluable help of BossofMe and Blogmuse) and hoped for the best.

Actually, the best happened. Prof K wrote "well done" on my Chopin paper, had a couple minor comments on the Hemingway summary, and gave me 9 out of 10 points for the assignment. One down, 15 to go.

If you haven't read "The Story of an Hour," do, because it's great. But if you don't have the time to read the two-page story, evidently my summary is a decent substitute. It follows (stop now if you don't want to be soiled by academia):

In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin offers just that: an hour
of a life. The hour—and the life—is Mrs. Mallard’s, and begins with her sister
Josephine trying as gently as possible to tell her that Mr. Mallard—Brently—is
dead, killed in a railroad accident. Josephine cushions the news not out of
pity, but because of Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition. In fact, when Brently’s
friend Richards learns of the disaster his inclination is to rush to Mrs.
Mallard, to “forestall any less careful, less tender friend” in sharing the news
with her.

Mrs. Mallard weeps immediately, then retreats to her bedroom.
She sits, aware of life beyond her window, waiting for something, unnamed, to
come to her. When she relaxes, it does: the realization her husband’s death has
freed her. She does not deny the grief still to come, or her love for Brently;
rather, she relishes the possibility of a long life lived only for
herself.

At Josephine’s insistence, Louise Mallard leaves her bedroom and the two
meet Richards downstairs. At that moment, the front door opens, and Brently
Mallard appears, safe, unaware even that an accident has occurred. Despite
Richards’ attempt to shield her from certain shock, Louise sees her husband
alive. Her heart gives out, and she dies.